S.C.X. #6/Sprinker

Wow, what can one say about the racing yesterday.

Stop #6 of the Seattle cyclo-cross Series took place at Sprinker Park in Spanaway. The course consisted of two long pavement sections, a sand pit section and lots of fast grass with bumpy sharp rocks laid throughout the course hidden in gravel and dirt. Last year I suffered 2 flats during the race, and this year I was chosing my tires and pressures carefully. After pre-riding the course with my team and trying a couple different wheel/tire options, I opted to ride Grifo 32mm tubulars with 35psi in the rear and 32psi in the front. This proved to be a good choice! We had a team meeting before our race as we warmed up and came up with a good strategy/plan to take to the start line.
We lined up for the start in perfect conditions; drizzling rain and about 50 degrees with the ground wet. At the start, I got the hole shot off the tarmac and started to string things out. I was feeling good as we progressed through the course and riders began to pull through. Within the first lap, Bicycle Centers/Collision 1 had 3 riders in the top 10 to include T.M.T., myself, and Oppenheimer. Todd went away to the front and I got in a group of three that included Doug "The Grave Digger" Graver, and Matt Lynch. Phil was just behind us and always in view through the turns riding defensively and refusing to pull anyone up to us. What a guy!
My group was working good together and were taking turns doing the work. As we were going through the sand pit, Lynch had a bobble, and The Grave Digger plowed right into him, in turn, I hit Graver's rear wheel and went over the bars flipping in mid air. We quickly got up and remounted. My right lever was twisted in, and with only 20 meters to the pit, I should have gotten a new bike. My thought was that if I took the extra 5 seconds to pit, I could lose contact with the two, so I elected to stay on my "A" bike. While on the paved tarmac at about 20mph, I was able to reposition my lever back to its normal position and the bike was still running flawlessly. I had a made a good decision. Two laps later, I attacked Graver and Lynch. When I looked back, I hade a 20 meter gap, so I pinned it with another hard effort and didn't look back. With 3 laps to go, I caught up to our Team Leader, Todd Morse Tucker(TMT). Knowing that I had put in a big effort to bridge up, TMT took the reigns and pulled me along so I could recover. What a teammate. As we were picking off lapped riders things were going well and we were riding in 3rd and 4th positions. On the last lap, TMT went down just in front of me on a slippery turn. I was able to avoid the crash, and heard him say to go, and he would ride defensive for me. Again, what a team! I pushed hard on the last lap to keep out of reach of a hard charging Kelsey coming from behind. I crossed the line in 3rd Place with teammate TMT coming in 4th. What a race, and everything worked for us just as planned. We had 3 riders in the top 10, Oppenheimer getting the next spot, and we were very happy with our results and even more our teamwork. Super thanks to our pit crew; Dave, Micah, and Dave for doing an outstanding job for us today.
Not only a great race with another good result, but I got to celebrate my birthday with my teammates and enjoy a big carrot cake Kristi had brought.
Congrats also to Holden who got another 4th place today and caught one kid just before the finish. Kristi snagged another tough win. She wasn't feeling herself today, and just dangled out in front of the chasers to snag her 6th SCX win of the season out of 6 series races. Nicely done.
The season is 2/3's over and everything is coming together at the perfect time for me. I'm climbing in the standings, and feeling faster and faster every race. The only thing I'm missing is a Win! You can bet, that I've put this on my short list of goals for the season. I'm going to continue to work hard, and turn up my training another notch as it comes down to the wire. With a team like Bicycle Centers/Collision 1, I have everything I need.

Thanks for reading.