Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Stony Curse Continues


2006 -- Stony XC Marathon, Flat tire and severe cramps
2007 -- Stony XC Marathon, Crash (in which I still have a numb spot in my leg) severe cramps
2008 -- Stony XC Marathon, Flat is 4 miles
2008 -- Stony TT, Flat at the start line before the whistle
2009 --

I was feeling like a million bucks! And when we got to the line, the top 3 guys in the class had either moved up to Elite or did not race. So this left the rest of us bottom feeders with something to shoot for. But this is the Expert class and it is not easy no matter who shows up. And the usually suspect that beat each other up week after week were all there. Brad, Adam, Greg, Jason, Derick. So there was sure to be some fire works. At the start 2 guys launched off the front and were gone. The leader stayed away for the win, the second guy blew himself up. As for Brad, Adam, Greg and myself, we were locked wheel to wheel and Greg was setting a blistering pace. Our first lap was 33 mins and some change. This was up there with the top lap times of all the expert classes. Then at the end of the 2nd lap, my rear tire was getting squishy. OH NO! Not now. I decided that it may just be a slow leak and decided to drop out of the top 5 group and hit it with CO2. It was firm again and I took off. 5 mins later the quick link in my chain popped off. I could not believe it. I jumped off to see if the chain just fell off and quickly found it was apart. I then noticed that my slow leak turned into a complete flat. So that was it. My top 5 dreams for the day were shattered, and so was my morale. I walked out of the woods and took a DNF. I finished 8th out of 22 that qualified for the series overall. So I guess that's not too bad in my first year of expert. If I did not have the bike issues, I seriously felt I could have contended for a top 3 in the race, and 5th overall for the series. Oh well, that is racing. But man am I feeling strong. With CX just a few weeks away, I am really feeling ready to mix it up in the B-class.

There was still some good of the day. Nolan completed his 3 USAC XC race with a 4th place! This was enough to give him the podium for 3rd place overall in the series for Beginner men 10 and under. He rode great. Climbed several hills he had previously never made it up, and push as hard as he could the whole time. Way to go bud.

Finally notes and congrats

Brian Crook -- congrats 3rd overall in expert 30-39 in his first year as expert!
Tom and Shawn -- 1st and 2nd in the Sport men 35-39. See you boys next year.
Brad, Adam, Greg. You guys killed it Sunday! Brad way to grab 5th even with a broken pedal.

1 comment:

Paynful said...

Thanks!!

Try not to beat up on me too bad in the B's this year!!