sunday was the first installment of cyclocross pain, the clev cross series race #1.
the course is somewhat flat with a few hills, typical twisty turnys and off chambers, a sand pit for fun, a small set of triple barriers at hella speed, three turns you really gotta think about and then into the short finish. it is a thinkers course as you got to be on it physically and mentally all the time.
i got there early, debating on tire selection but already having the setup on that i would run for the course. seemed like i'm always hitting stuff at speed so i went with about 32'ish in the front and about 38'ish in the back.
race started, i made the main pack but it slowly started fading away as matt from lake effect was putting in a hella solo attack from a group that included shawn, gerrry, mike, angry andy, and tony. i slipped back to no mans land.
the main group got the gap, but i held onto my pace trying not to think about the numbers game as i rode by myself. i could see some guys were sitting on and hoped that some would eventually peel off and i could leap frog across. i tried to make up ground on the techy stuff that i knew they couldn't be riding as fast as a solo rider on.
it paid off, just as they were backing off, i put out an all out effort across the paved section on the backside and made the bridge just as a few riders popped off. now it was down to five with two to go.
my plan was to make an attack through the triple barriers, but shawn jumped hard and i put down all i had to stay with the group, another effort by steve from pa put me in the hurt locker.
out of the barriers on the last lap, they gapped me. i would roll in 5th place - great day for putting in a long week.
sologoat out
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