Caster's GP of Cross - Warwick, RI - 10th

In case you haven't seen the resultsyet from Sunday's race, I was 10th. Not too bad, but in my mind, not that great either. I had a pretty slow start but then a had great second and third lap closing gaps and bridging groups until I was probably only 10 seconds off the front group and maybe 5 seconds back of the chase group. I could actually see the front of the race on certain parts of the course and I thought I was going to have a much better race at that point. I was making really good progress of getting across to group #2 and was feeling pretty good still but every time that we came out on the open road section the group would pull away leaving me to pull myself into the wind. Then I'd make up time in the technical parts of the course and get close enough that they'd be exiting a corner as I entered it, they were so close but I just didn't have the extra burst to close the gap. I think they started attacking each other about that time and the gap really opened up on me and I was sadly left by myself so I rolled around in 10th hoping nobody would come up from behind and take away my single UCI point that I'd get for 10th.

The course was awesome, I think it was my favorite of all of them so far. Two really hard sandy run sections and a barrier dismount, tons of icy snowy corners, and not that many open straight- aways made the course exactly to my likings. I just didn't have the horsepower when it came down to it.
After the race my legs told me they had quit and gone home for the season, I'm hoping I can talk them into coming back for Nationals but I'm not sure what they have decided yet.

Today was clean the bike day. As you can see above I took home half the sand on the beach so a trip to the power wash was in store. I really hate the black brake pad buildup that coats the rims and wheel during a wet race, it's really annoying to clean plus it means my brake pads are shot again and I need to reload with new ones. At least I got most of the drivetrain cleaned before my fingers froze so now I have two clean bikes again!