Erik's Spring Cup

First race of the 2007 mtb campaign. Cold, cloudy day, with temps struggling to get into the 50's. Not my kind of weather. I got a good warm up only to learn that the start had been moved back 30 minutes. So, I warmed up some more. When I got the starting area there were already about 10 rows of riders in front of me. I was able to move up to about 3rd row back at the gun, and made my way through the field in the prologue to about 15th. This course is pretty flat, so there aren't many places to drop someone and even fewer places to pass as it's all singletrack. I was able to make my way around a group of 3 riders in one of the prairie sections, and worked hard to keep reeling in riders. Once we hit the prologue section I was able to pass a few more riders and settled in for Lap 2. I was able to hold my position and by now was with 2 other riders, pushing the pace. I started to fade about halfway through the lap, but only got passed once. I did my best to keep on the wheel of the guy in front of me (who I had been on for the last half of the lap). Once we cleared the singletrack I was able to drop the guys behind me and tried to get around the guy in front of me. We had a full-on sprint for the line, where he got me by 3/4 of a bike. I got 9th in my age group (54 in our field), which I'm happy with on this course in cold weather. I got 13th overall out of 155 racers in Sport. Not too bad. Looking forward to a warmer race with some climbs.
Photos by SkinnySki.com