CX Worlds: The Finals

Woke up nervous but confident. Had breakfast, packed up and headed to the course for the 9a pre-ride. It was 20 deg and the course was frozen solid. The ruts were vicious. I had never experienced anything like this before. If a rut caught your tire you were completely at the mercy of the rut. After a couple laps I found that you really needed to float the front wheel and do your best to go diagonally across the ruts. After 4 laps I was feeling pretty good about my chances of minimizing my mistakes but knew that under race conditions it was not going to be a matter of "if" I would hit the deck, but "how many times". This, of course, was assuming conditions wouldn't change over the next 4 hours. As the day went on the temps climbed into the high 20's and by 11:00 the sun was out and it was in the low 30's. The ruts stayed frozen solid but now there was a shimmering layer of grease on the surface. I watched the start of the 50+ race and there were 4 or 5 crashes affecting at least 20 racers in the first section of ruts when they came off the pavement. It was carnage. This was bad. At noon they opened the course for inspection and I took a lap before my race. With the slight layer of grease on top of the ruts the course was much more difficult for me than it was in the morning. Mentally I was staying confident and was ready to bury myself for the next 45 minutes.  We staged and a couple guys missed their callup which allowed me to grab a 3rd row spot. They called "30 seconds" and my mind was calm. I had laser focus. Whistle blew and I nailed it, but nothing really opened up and I hit the turf mid-pack. The first section of ruts was a mess and bikes were getting tossed all over the place as we fought for a clean line. You were very much at the mercy of the rider in front of you, hoping he wouldn't go down or hook a stake since most of the rideable lines were right at the tape. I got through the first tough section on two wheels but was stuck behind a couple guys that were really struggling with the terrain and I lost a lot of time because passing lanes were few. I eventually got by and started to chase the group ahead of me. We hit a section with a single rideable line and I got held up again. The guy directly in front of me t-boned a stake and I barely got around him without going down. The next guy caught a rut that sent him through the tape and I managed to get around him without going down. Then I was alone and drilling it trying to continue to move up. I came around a corner, caught a rut, and went down hard. Got up and kept chasing. The top guys were gone and I was going to be fighting to get top 25. The course was nasty and it was definitely the most technical conditions I've ever faced. There was a flyover that shot you down a ramp straight into a hard right-hander that was completely rutted out. I rode the corner clean earlier in the morning every time, but now with the added slickness I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. In the 3rd lap I rode right into the fence and took what seemed like forever getting myself and the bike untangled from the fence and stake that I wrapped the bars around. By the time I was at 2 to go there was so much shit in my drivetrain and pedals that I was carrying a good 15 lbs of extra weight and it was becoming almost impossible to get clipped in following dismounts. Next time by the pits I grabbed my pit bike and it felt like a rocket. There were a couple guys with me prior to the pit stop but I was able to ride away from them with a clean bike. But it was too late for me to pull anybody else back in. I came across the line 23rd. My buddy Geoff had a phenomenal start and held on for 18th. New England represented well with Alec Petro getting 11th and Mark Gunsalus in 15th. I was hoping for a top 20, but my goal coming in was a top 25. I was ranked 28th in a very strong field with many of the top cx racers in the country so I am psyched that I came in ahead of my ranking. They called it "worlds" but  it was mostly Americans. We had the Belgian champ, a racer from Canada and one from UK, but the rest were Americans. Regardless, I'm 23rd in the World! Haha. It's been a long season. The experience of racing and trying to stay sharp into January was something I am glad I did, but am in no hurry to do again. I came a long way this year and it was, by far, my most successful season ever. I have room to improve and I will sit down with my coach and come up with a plan for next year. But for now I will rest, eat burritos and ice cream for a week, and probably won't even shave my legs. Actually, after listening to Geoff's music for 4 days I think I may have stopped growing hair on my legs anyways.