Thrilla Cross #4 - 2nd place in the Series

I finished up the Thrilla Cyclocross series without a bang. After doing so well in the 3^rd race, I was pumped and ready for repeating that performance; but a small mechanical difficultly made that a bit difficult, not to mention some very talented cyclists…. About 3 minutes into the first lap, my handle bars started to slip, and slip, and slip – before I knew it, my handle bars, brakes, shifters, etc were dangerously close to my front wheel; making riding, cornering, braking, and keeping up with the lead pack difficult.

As I went around to complete my first lap I yelled at Ben, who was yelling at me to get moving, that I needed my bike tool, it was in my backpack, could get he get it for me… I tried to hold on; I didn’t want to stop and fit the bars – that would waste too much time so I kept riding like that, trying so hard to keep up – finally after about lap 5, I had to stop, my back was hurting and the bars where now almost parallel to the head tube. I stopped, grabbed the tool and went to work, my hands were shaking and I was trying to talk to Ben, but the words won’t come out….. I don’t know how long I stood there, but soon I was back on the bike, in a much better position, now I had to work my tail off to get back up the in the race.

The race was short this week, only 30minutes because the days are getting so short. I pushed as hard as I could for the remainder of the race, but never really got up to where I wanted to be. I finished 4^th I think; but only behind Steph by abut 30 seconds and I got in the last lap which was one of my goals.

I finished 2^nd in the series which doesn’t really mean much, except that I did all the races and was competitive, not too bad for my first cross season.

Next year, perhaps I will actually win a 6 pack at one of the races!! Watch out Steph!