I Won...

...a bike at the Woodstock Cyclocross Race!! A sweet 26" Roadmaster full suspension mountain bike!! I will admit the bike doesn't meet the needs of my bike snobbery, but I am happy to know that the purchase of the raffle tickets went to the Leukemia Society, and teammate Mike Seguin will be donating the bike to the toy drive put together at his fire house. Oh yeah, and I finished 2nd in the race which was my best result ever in a cross race, and was oh so painfully close to a win.

The Course
The course was in a beautiful park with tons of rolling terrain, and was definitely the longest course of the year. Jason Meshberg and his crew put together a course that had some great ups and downs, offcamber sections, and some leg burning climbs. This was all on top of a course that was really bumpy, and portions of the course had me holding on for dear life, praying that my hands didn't slip off the bars.

The Race
Race started off fast. Jeff Wat of Vitamin Water-Trek went out fast stringing out the group as we headed to the fast wooded downhill. Up the climb and a separation was already made of 7 or 8 riders. Jason Knauff of Vitamin Water-Trek was now putting on the pressure at the front opening a slight gap. As the lap progressed I moved up into 2nd position behind Jason, with Scott Arrigoni moving up to third. Over the next couple of laps a second separation occurred. This time whittling the group down to 4. Devon Haskell came out of nowhere to join our group. Based on the photos I saw she really closed ground to make her way up to our group. I have to say she is looking really strong heading into Nationals. Over the next lap or so we cruised along in our small group, increasing our lead over the chasers. At some point we lost Devon, and the group was down to 3 heading into the last 3 laps. I was yo yoing a bit at this time, but dug deep to catch Jason and Scott on the first climb of the lap. As we headed into the wooded downhill Scott was able to scoot around a lapped rider, with Jason picking the wrong side for the pass. Jason had to slow and I was able to take the inside line, but not before Scott had a slight gap. This proved to be the decisive moment in the race, as Jason appeared to be the strongest rider in the group, and I was sure he would come back to me, eventually leadng me back up to Scott. Unfortunately what I didn't know was that Jason had a flat and would not be coming up to save the day. So for the next 2.5 laps I tried to chase down Scott. His gap was really never more than 20 yards, but I just couldn't close it. I would get closer on the straightaways, and he would open it up in the technical sections. I knew I had to catch Scott before the section that traversed the sled hill, but never made contact, eventually rolling in for a hard earned 2nd place.

Once again I have to give props to my coach Brian Conant. He has taken me from a midpack Cat. 3 to a rider competing for wins. So if you are looking for a coach to help you with any cycling discipline he is a great option and can be reached at bconant at msn dot com