Provincials

Munchin out on some apple pie right now, gettin the glycogen stores back up for possibly another performance tomorow at the same place.

So a pretty solid race finally, I'm happy with it, it could have gone a little better when we got there though but whatever that's the way she goes. The morning was a little rushed as usual but I got to casa De Cal in good time and we hit up Starbucks for a massive coffee before heading to Kelso. Got there and noticed that the course had more than a bit of climbing but the turns looked nice and flowy. Watched Perry crush the Junior field, it was too easy for him so I tried to throw him off his game, might have worked a little.

The pre-ride was pretty good, 2 or 3 laps and some cruising around before going to the start line. Second row wasn't so great for the start but things got pretty sorted out by the end of the lap, I was sitting in around 16th through the first lap and moving up pretty good. I kept it pretty steady the entire time, gaps were closing slowly but surely and I just kept the pace high when I came by someone and rode away. I ended up closing in on Hughes and we were together for a half lap or so, he passed me going over the barriers and I watched him ride away. Stafford had a mechanical so there were only 3 espoirs left in front of me, I closed the gap on Preston and Marco Li and went by them. I couldn't shake Preston then he passed me and opened a small gap again. I had to close it when De Cal started calling me names for slowing down only because of some lower back pains, I had no choice but to suck it up.

I had a good boost with 3 to go and passed Preston and Kyle Douglas on one of the climbs shortly after the run-up and rode the rest of the race with Marco Li. I thought I had the podium spot locked but when I saw Stafford flying a few turns back I knew it would take one hell of an effort to hold him off. I picked up the pace but he still caught me no problem, I rode with him for a bit but couldn't hold the pace and he was gone. I put in a good dig at the end because I was feeling pretty good, too bad there was no one to sprint with.

I'm about 85% sure I'll be racing tomorow, I have yet to do a cross race in the mud so that should be a fun time. I was going to pass on it because of school work but I was convinced to get on that tonight to free up some time tomorow for some cyclocross fun.

Huge thanks to De Cal for the drive and even though the authorita did not let him participate he was still super pumped and motivating me when I was starting to fade, I'm going to hire someone to heckle me while I'm racing, but no pay because I'm pretty darn broke.