One thing about cycling for us mere mortals is that it keeps you humble. At least it should keep you humble. If you have acquired the big head, you are a fool. Even the best of the best lose as much as they win.
This fall, I have been reasonably satisfied with my 'cross season. Satisfied, but not gloating over my typical 10-14 place in the B race. Even if I had foolishly gotten the big head, this Sunday would have brought be down to earth.
Because Sunday was the State Championship, our typical A, B, C races were out the window and we and we had to race our CX category. When online registration opened way back when I must have had a little bit of the big head and decided to race the 3's instead of the Masters. It turns out that many people who usually raced the A race happen to be categorized as a 3 in cross.
The whistle blew for our race and I quickly drifted to last place. I so wish I could regularly get a good start instead of having to make a charge through the field. Nonetheless, that's where I found myself. There was no passing these guys, though. I was able to put Mike behind me after a half lap. Slowly, I reeled in Fuhrmann and passed him but he jumped on my wheel and caught his breath before he slowly pulled away from me in the last lap and a half.
There was a Mesa rider that I passed in the last few hundred meters to make my performance looked only mildly awful. I'm not sure whether he just completely blew up or had some bike issues. He offered no resistance to my passing. The bike seemed okay, though.
In summary, I learned that I am a long way from being in the A races and will keep eating my humble pie.
Today, I head out to KC with Jay to race at CX Nationals on Thursday and Saturday and watch the rest of the weekend. Wisely, I am sticking with racing against the old guys. This weekend is just for fun and provides no pressure. I just want to go and do as well as I can in some big fields.
This fall, I have been reasonably satisfied with my 'cross season. Satisfied, but not gloating over my typical 10-14 place in the B race. Even if I had foolishly gotten the big head, this Sunday would have brought be down to earth.
Because Sunday was the State Championship, our typical A, B, C races were out the window and we and we had to race our CX category. When online registration opened way back when I must have had a little bit of the big head and decided to race the 3's instead of the Masters. It turns out that many people who usually raced the A race happen to be categorized as a 3 in cross.
The whistle blew for our race and I quickly drifted to last place. I so wish I could regularly get a good start instead of having to make a charge through the field. Nonetheless, that's where I found myself. There was no passing these guys, though. I was able to put Mike behind me after a half lap. Slowly, I reeled in Fuhrmann and passed him but he jumped on my wheel and caught his breath before he slowly pulled away from me in the last lap and a half.
There was a Mesa rider that I passed in the last few hundred meters to make my performance looked only mildly awful. I'm not sure whether he just completely blew up or had some bike issues. He offered no resistance to my passing. The bike seemed okay, though.
In summary, I learned that I am a long way from being in the A races and will keep eating my humble pie.
Today, I head out to KC with Jay to race at CX Nationals on Thursday and Saturday and watch the rest of the weekend. Wisely, I am sticking with racing against the old guys. This weekend is just for fun and provides no pressure. I just want to go and do as well as I can in some big fields.
2 Comments:
Jim
i found out there are some big guns in the masters too - and lining up in back would be a good thing unless you can get out of the way fast. have fun at nats, wish i could bite off four days in KC but i cant
rudy
Keep hitting it and don't sell yourself short. You're a strong rider and give most of us more than we can handle. Have fun in KC and race it hard because winter provides a long recovery time.
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