Race Day #4 - CU Short Track Mountain Bike

Short race, short post. Pretty easy formula. Every Wednesday there's a short track mountain bike race in Boulder. And by short, I mean it only lasts 20 minutes. What it lacks in time it makes up for in pain. Brant talked me into going up so we left, got registered, and pre-rode the course a handful of times, which proved to be invaluable.

We raced Class C and for 5:40 on a Wednesday night, there were 30 guys that showed up and made it a good crowd. My hole shots typically suck. Or at least they did during cyclocross season and I'm working on improving that (and my handling abilities). Something worked. I wasn't in the lead, but I was in about 10th from the start. Not too many places to pass made it frustrating at times so you had to make each chance count. After two laps I got in a good rhythm and had picked off a few people. Coming into the last lap I wasn't sure what position I was in and tried to pass a guy but was denied. So instead of going harder, I went smarter. It's an odd occurrence, yes, but I do have my moments. I slowed on an upcoming corner that swung us out wide, and it allowed me to cut through closer and get in front. I bridged to the group of three I saw ahead and rode with them. Once I looked around I realized..........holy shit, this was the lead group! I tried everything I could to pass but have to give credit to the guys that were riding since they were simply stronger. With the finish line in sight I rolled through in fourth place and was very happy with that result. Hopefully it's a good indicator for things to come for CX season. And since I got something like 75 points for the series, it also means I should probably go try and get some more on the next few Wednesdays if I can.

Okay, so I lied. Maybe it wasn't that short of a post.