6th Annual W.E. Stedman GP of Cross

Full results (Murat's DFL!)
Yours truly decided this morning that he wanted to compete in a cross race- that is.. my annual "let me remind myself how bad I suck at cross" event. Truthfully though, I was excited about today's race in the Elite 35+.. I arrived alone, kind of late.. Registered at about 9:30, leaving 30 minutes to ride my bike back to my car, attach my number (which I did with my skinsuit ON- don't ask how) take a wizz, warm up, practice some dismounts in the field (something I haven't done since the '06 Canton Cup) and line up to race for a 10:00 am start. Regrettably, my so-called "useless" rear frog leg brake lever broke before the start, meaning that in order to have any rear braking power at all, I needed to have my left hand in the drops at all times. This was a real buzz kill because my lack of off road and cyclocross experience means that my lower back is extremely sensitive to such abuse.. Man alive did my lower back throb towards the end.. Being the last to register positioned me at the back of the field at the start.. and I didn't do so terrible in the first lap- I actually had 10-20 people behind me until a certain point. But the hesitance and shit braking in the hairpins cost me a lot and it wasn't long before I relegated myself to being the guy who was "just there for the training". Just before being lapped by Jonny Bold, I took a bad fall in the turn which most resembled a corkscrew.. Almost knocked the wind out of me, and it did mess up my brakes even more. I got up immediately and by the time I "finished" about six guys total lapped me.. In the spirit of "finish what you start", I proceeded to do another lap (at a soft pace) just to be able to say that I did as may laps as everyone else. Great to see GeWilli in action.. I had a lot of fun, saw Larry King, Chris Dale, Jim Peters and others in the sideleines shouting words of encouragement at me. Very cool. I don't know if I'll race tomorrow.. I guess if the mood strikes, I'd like to try, but my training program requires me to do four hours on the fixed gear tomorrow. (Three hours were required today, but I raced instead). Nice day, nice venue and course, and good training for the whole body. My right ankle is killing me, still weak and tender from a sprain I had over a year ago. Next up: Preliminary MILLWORK ONE team kit designs! I need help choosing one color theme over the other. Let me know what you think.