Cross Crusade P.I.R.: I Got My Legs Back!

Sometimes it's just faster to run
(photo courtesy of Dave Roth)

Last Cross Crusade of the year and I pull the second-to-last number callup.  Not necessarily how I wanted to round out this year.  Before my race a teammate asked me if I was going to win.  Ha, not really a chance of that, but heck, I'll go out there and see how many people I can pass.  Have fun and pass people, that's all I was looking for today.

I raced this course two years ago at the USGP and it has always been one of my favorite courses.  Today was my chance to revisit that awesome course.


73 people on the start line.  1 of them was behind me.  This felt like PIR-Heron Lakes a few weeks ago.  Only this time I wasn't going flat.  And I didn't.

Knowing I would have over 70 people on the course in front of me my warmup was a little limited.  After the first lap settled down I went to work.  I rode my strengths, made myself wide in the sections I was weak and just had fun.  This course was the perfect mix of mud, pavement, elevation and turns.  I'm typically not a huge fan of technical courses but for some reason this course was perfect for me.

My laps weren't consistent but somehow it worked out.  I managed to ride myself into a group I'd never been able to break into.  It was kind of bittersweet because I'll always wonder what I could have done with a descent call up but then again I'm still happy I was able to ride myself into that group.

I finished the day 22nd, my best Cross Crusade result to date.  Everything managed to come together today and I'm just glad my legs still had at least one more good race in them.  Now let's just see if I pull it off in Bend again next month.

A huge thanks to everyone who came out and cheered today.  It makes a huge difference when I'm out there.  A special thanks to those who cheer for me that I haven't had a chance to meet yet.  I met a few of you today and hope to meet the rest of you in the future.