Chris and I got to Thiensville a little earlier than expected. This actually afforded us a little longer warm-up, which is always nice to get the body ready to rock. After our warm-up, we swapped bottles and headed over to the start line. This is when I learned that I did not need to actually bring my own wheels because SRAM Neutral Support had us totally covered (I love those guys!). Lesson learned: Do not need to bring my own spare wheels! Sweet!
Unfortunately, this discovery cut into our pre-race time to ride the course. By the time we finished pre-riding the course, we were on the last line of the almost 80 Cat 4/5 riders. With this being a rather technical course, I knew it would be a challenge to climb back up (never want to stay in yo-yo land). It took a few laps, but I found a good rhythm to move up on the course. Granted, I have no desire to start near the back again. I'd rather be near the front relaxing and have the ability to challenge for something. It is also a safer place to be with all of the twitchy Cat 4/5s. We had at least 5 crashes yesterday: three behind me somewhere, one next to me and one a few riders in front of me. Unfortunately, the one in front of me was on the 2nd to last lap and forced me to go off road to stay up right. The worst part was that I was in the top 20 riders in the field and the crash took me completely out of it. I clawed back on the final lap to finish 44th with the field. Considering how sketchy the field was and that I haven't raced in a month, I was moderately happy with the results. This result may have taken me out of contention for the overall, so I am modifying my goal to chase stage wins more. I was really hoping for a top 10-20 today to help my cause for the overall.
Today, we have Grafton. Feeling pretty good and ready to rock some worlds later! Also, we have Hank joining us to mix things up today!
Happy Racing!
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