Campton Cross

Today I figured I would try to do 2 races in one day and see how that goes. Looking at the results sheet I see that a lot of people do it. How hard could it be?

This will be the first time I am racing in the master category and the 1/2 category this year so I'll have a chance to race against different people.

1) Master's Race. This was the first race of the day and the course was very slippery from the morning dew. I crashed three times and lost a little skin, but my bike was fine. My goal was to start out slowly and build to a hard pace by the end of the race while saving something in tank for the afternoon race. My competitiveness got the best of me and I was quite spent by the end of the race with just a 9th place finish to show for it. The masters guys may be old, but they're still quite fast.

2) Cat 1/2 Race. I was in trouble from the beginning. I didn't have the gas in the tank to power the open sections and was dropped quickly. Welcome to the elite race. My legs were dead and I probably would have quit then, but my parents came to watch this race. I rode tempo and eventually caught one guy who also looked pretty tired from doing the earlier race. Half way through the race I had trouble dismounting coming into a downhill, high speed barrier. I barely clipped out before the barrier, but I couldn't get the footing to jump over and ran straight into the barrier and somehow landed on top of my bicycle. I was right by the pit, and I could have swapped bikes, but I was hurting pretty bad and figured it would be better to call it a day and recover.

My friend Kelsall said I took a chunk out of the barrier. I'm lucky I didn't break any bones and that I only did minimal damage to my bike.

I learned today that if I am going to race the 1/2's, I will have to focus all my energy on that. 2 races is too much for me at this point in the season. I give much respect to all those who do 2 races. Your endurance is impressive.