Bartlett CX

33rd at Bartlett out of 50 starters. Eh.

I had an awesome start and spent the first lap in the top 15, then started sliding backward. The course was deceptively hard due to the recent rains that made the grassy/muddy sections just tacky. Most flat courses I can roll in my 46, maybe downshift to the 39 for a climb. Here, I was in my 39 from the start and all too often found myself riding in the 39x23 or 39x25 on a flat section.

By the third lap, I was in a group with teammate Al Thom, Flatlandia's Ted Burger and Martin from the Pony Shop. We were pacing each other pretty good, but at the penultimate lap, Ted and Martin surged past me in the back whirlpool section and I couldn't bridge up. On the final lap, behind me about 10 seconds back, Jason Alvarado was coming up and I couldn't pull away to get any safe distance on him. Since we couldn't get the guys in front and because there was no one behind us, we were playing some cat-and-mouse to the finish line. He gapped me on the run-up about 200 yards before the finish and I had to chase back on.

My race came down to a sprint finish and Jason finished just two feet ahead. While I'm not entirely happy with 33rd, I worked hard for it. These CCC fields are getting fast and faster, which is awesome. Lots of superstrong dudes from road and MTB are coming over and it's making these races just really competitive. It's humbling for sure and I know where I need to make up the difference.

Me being the optimistic sort, I had registered to do the 1/2/3. After the 3 race, I decided that I'd had enough of racing so I took myself out. I want to do the double, but on a day that I don't completely tear myself up in the earlier race.

After I ate some cookies, Sean and I tried to find some decent roads to ride to get some extra miles in. We just went and did an out and back because everything else was too busy with traffic or didn't have shoulders. I guess suburbs riding is hit and miss.