Friday Night Cross

Fall is a great time for all things on wheels - mountain biking, tours, cyclo-cross, duathlons and motocross. This week 3 events were on the schedule. Friday night was the Buffalo Bill Cross race, Saturday would be my 11th Annual Rapture in Misery and Sunday the Sedalia Duathlon.

Big news hit the mountain bike community by surprise last week. The 6h/12hr mountain bike event Rapture in Misery was being canceled. Why I raced RIM. Still unsure why. I believe they would have had a great turn out despite other events being held on the same weekend. Event had been permitted with USA Cycling, trails were trim as a Brazilian Wax, volunteers were in place and most importantly the MTB community was ready for the 11th Annual R.I.M. I know I was just like I had been the preceding 10 years. I do know that it is very hard to stop promoting an event that has been going on for many years, especially if you put your heart and sole into it. It was hard for me to stop promoting cyclocross, but I did finally. I am sure Doug had his reasons just like I did and I support him on his decision.

On to the Buffalo Bill Cross race report. Damian Almanza and I had planned to team-up at RIM again like we have before with great success, but now "Mr. Leavenworth" could focus on Friday's cross race and not save anything. My new name for Damian is Mr Leavenworth. Why? He always seems to win in the downtown. At the final Doing Time in Leavenworth Criterium several years ago Damian won his first criterium race and last night he again won taking 1st place in the Master's 35+ division.

I headed out from work early yesterday and picked up David Wathen. We discussed our progress with our training and were ready for a good training event. Neither of us are in any kind of cross specific shape, but we wanted to support Brendan and Damian if we could. Damian did not need any help from us as he used some great late season form to take a convincing win running away from the field.

For me I got in a good workout and had fun. I rode around mid-pack and event put in a little charge after a very slow start and had my eyes on a podium if I could have kept the effort going. The back part of the course had a down hill that was off camber and had some gofer holes hidden away. I kept thinking about last years crash at Manions on that hilly course and just could not ride with any pace. I took it way to easy which allowed everyone to get a big gap on me on the first lap. My shoulder is feeling really good right now and I am just not going to take any chances.