Saturday I went and raced in Livermore. I raced in the B's because I didn't feel like getting up early enough to get there for the C race. at least 50% of the course took place inside of a small town rodeo arena. We had to ride through the chutes and through some pretty technical muddy sections out in the middle. They took us up the back side of the stairs for the bleachers which was pretty cool. There was a barrier in front of the stairs which I thought was stupid because you were going to have to get off for the stairs anyway. I didn't understand why they forced the dismount 10 feet in front of the stairs.
The field size was a lot smaller than the other races as I discovered the Super Prestige series is really well attended. They races all of the B's together. that included the 18-34 Bs, 35+ Bs and 45+Bs. It seemed like we had about 40-50 guys at the start line. Come to find out this also included all of the 35+ and 45+ As also. The field size really only matters at the start since it's important to sprint as fast you can to the first corner so that you don't have to try and pass people later. After the first lap it inevitably strings itself out with myself somewhere in the middle. This field was deceiving though because I could never tell who I was racing against in the Bs. I knew I wasn't in contact with the leaders anymore but I thought I was at least in the top 15 or so from where we started. And, I may have been, it's really hard to tell. On the results sheet I discovered there was actually only 11 Bs and I finished 9th out of those. I'm not really sure how to "race" when you don't know who you're racing against on the course. What I discovered was that everybody I passed were all in the 35+ or 45+ category so it didn't matter that I passed them.
I had a decent race. A few times my brain decided not to function properly and I did a few stupid things. There was a set of double barriers close to the start finish line that I convinced myself were lower than usual and that I could bunny hop them. On the third lap a guy cut me off in the corner before the barriers and since I was already trying to decide whether I should bunny hop them or not all the momentum I lost from getting on the brakes made me decide not to try but I also seemed to forget I was still going to have to get off the bike anyway. I literally just came to a stop at the barrier and shook my head in frustration. The very next lap I came around by myself and decided I was going to bunny hop them. I tried to carry as much speed through the corner as I could. It was all wood chips so it was sort of hard but I thought I did it. As I approached the barrier I committed, bunny hopped, heard the crash of my front tire on the barrier and felt my junk land on the top tube as the bike and me went down in a giant blaze of glory. Since these barriers were so close to the finish line people were gathered. The crash must have been pretty ugly because instead of cheering, which normally happens when crash at cross races, everybody just stared at me. I was pretty tangled up in the bike so I gave the crowd a thumbs up and then untied myself. One of the ladies thanked me for being ok. And I said, "you're welcome."
I'm still convinced I could bunny hop those barriers. I didn't try it on the next lap because I passed a guy going into the section that I had been using as a rabbit the entire lap. I wanted to make sure I actually beat him instead of letting him walk past me as I lay on the ground.
But, no injuries. Just a slightly sore neck which didn't set in until yesterday afternoon so I'm not totally convinced it's from crashing.
Cross racing is still fun. And I'm still not very good at it!
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