Seconds

Or it might be 2nds. Both actually. The last couple weeks I have been riding fairly well yet I haven't managed a win. We'll start with two weeks ago at state road championships. After racing 3 times over Memorial weekend I seemed to recover really well for the road championships. This race has played out the same for about the last 5 years and this year wasn't much different. 3 guys got away right away and everyone let it go. IScorp had a rider in it so we were happy. The race wasn't too animated until about 6 laps in when another group of 5 went away. IScorp also had a rider in this break but I wasn't that comfortable with 8 up the road with only 2 riders. Neither of the lead groups were really gaining time after 60 miles of racing so with 2 laps to go what was left of the field chased down the leading group of 8. We just so happened to catch them at the base of the steep climb up through the start and before they even knew they were caught I had attacked them. Jordan Cullen came across to me and we had the winning move before anyone could even respond. Jordan ended up attacking me on the backside of the course and I cramped pretty bad and couldn't close down a 10ft gap. Then it was 20ft, 50ft, I just couldn't pedal hard. I ended up chasing him the last 2 miles to the finish for 2nd place. I was impressed with Jordan, a bit discouraged in myself for making the race and then not closing it, that shouldn't happen.

A week later WORS #3 in Wausau. I think everyone has seen the results from that. I've got my hand in the air and Matter gets the victory. I haven't really felt like talking about this one at all. It felt to me like one of my most dominant races in recent memory yet I didn't walk away with the win and I was pretty mad at myself. I finally got my bike together Friday night before the race. A quick warmup on it Saturday and off to the races Sunday. 5th time on a mtn bike this year, counting the two previous races. I had amazing legs, it felt like I had a throttle I could twist as much as I wanted. That doesn't happen often. It didn't matter much though with the open course and rough single track my hardtail was no match for the full suspensions. IT seemed like no matter how big a gap or how hard I tried I was caught in every section of singletrack by the full suspensions. The new, freshcut singletrack was the worst and I couldn't even pedal. With all the trails in Wausau, I couldn't figure out why we were riding on almost unridable, brand new trail - it wasn't even cool to ride. I tried everything I could to blow the race apart but the front group would either chase me down or close gaps in the singletrack and I just could not crack those guys. It was really frustrating and by the 4th lap I just made sure to lead into the singletrack, then I would shut it down and completely recover where no one could pass, then twist the throttle when we came out. It was somewhat effective in keeping those guys in check on the singletrack, but not very effective in staying away.
So, it came down to a sprint and I was pretty confident in that. The only problem was that I forgot Shimano only sent a me a 28/40 crank and when we were going 30mph for the sprint I was completely spun out in the 40/11 and couldn't stand up to sprint. I should have started the sprint a lot later, but with a group of 3 I didn't want phillips to jump first and then have to try and get around him later, so I kept the lead and spun out my gears. I never saw Brian next to me, he must have been in my blinds spot so when we went into the finish shoot I thought I had it. It wasn't until after the line that I saw him come by but I was still pretty sure I had it. Apparently not. Oh well.
I think my form is good and I'm hoping it continues at Subaru Cup for a good ride there. I'd like to try and beat last years result and hopefully with a better call up that might be possible.