USAC Stony Creek CX, October 7th, 2007

Stony Creek! UGH! I'm not sure what was worse on Sunday, the heat or running through the sand? Well... the heat was worse without doubt. It was just crazy Africa hot & humid, not cyclocross weather in the least.

I actually started the day off feeling pretty good, especially considering I was still a little jet lagged after arriving home from Amsterdam on Saturday night. I intentionally started from the back of the pack in the Masters 45+ category, with the plan of easing into the pace of the race. By the middle of lap 1, I began my job of picking off riders as the race progressed. By the middle of the next lap, I had moved up to 2nd... but I was way behind the turbo charged Mark Wolowiec, he was just flying and went onto win. Unfortunately my 2nd place wasn't to last too long... by the 3rd lap my radiator was seriously overheating and if I had any hope of finishing I would have to ease up on the excelerator. It was all bad from that point on, first Keith Riege zoomed by me and then on the next lap... Joe Brown motored right on by as well. After that I was in total survival mode, just hoping that my slowing pace would hold onto 4th. Lucky for me I did hang onto 4th, but I was looking over my shoulder all the way to the finish line. In the end the good news was I held onto 4th place by a minute & 12 seconds, but the bad news was I was down 2 minutes & 40 seconds to the winner Mr. Wolowiec. It was a really tough race under quite horrific heat, and I was pretty happy to salvage 4th after it was all said & done. Hopefully... next race I won't be complaining about the freezing cold temps, torrential rains and knee deep mud... let's hope not!

Next race - USAC Lower Huron CX on Sunday October, 21st.