A Tale of Two Races

It was the best of races, it was the worst of races. Not really, they were both pretty good, but that's a good title and a good opening line. And yes, one race was better than the other.

This weekend was the Indy double-header, stops #12 and 13, of the OVCX series. Saturday was a new Indy venue and the course hosted by Speedway Wheelmen, Southeastway Park. After pre-riding the course, I liked it a lot. It was full of turns, but set up really wide, so it had tons of good flow. It was mostly flat, except for one "wall" of run up hill that was a total bastard. Anywho, my two main rivals in the series were not at this race, but I never discount anyone w/ two wheels under them, so I felt confident, but knew I had to watch for others. I had a not-so-great start (missed my pedal and floundered w/ it for what seemed like forever) and left the start straight 3-4th wheel. I quickly got to the front, and had two in tow. So the three of us shortly became two, which after 2 or so laps became one: me. I stayed off solo for the rest of the race and rolled in for my first OVCX win!
There was no podium presentation here, but a few people snapped pics of me at the line. It was nice to finally get one.
Pic below is from Saturday, just somewhere on the course.
And here is a link to a really cool photo of the barrier/run up.

Sunday went well, but not as well. Sunday was the Brookside CX, which is a "classic" Indy course; it's been used for many, many years. it was set up a little but different this year, all positive in my opinion. Brookiside also served as the Indiana State Championships, a title I held a few years ago and wanted to regain. It wasn't to happen this day though. The course starts on a long road climb, so going into the tape there were a lot more people in the mix than usual. It took about 3/4 of a lap for me to get away form the field, catch Josh Johnson, on of the main rivals for the year, and start the racing between him and I. Once we got clear, we traded off the lead and rode a very good, very fair race (no one doing all the work, not pulling through, etc.) So with one lap to go it was going to be either he or I. I had my attack 100% planned out. One problem though: he had his planned too and his was to occur before mine. He caught me completely by surprise, by I was not willing to let it go. I chased hard and pulled him back w/in ~3-5seconds, but that's all you need to win. My hat's off to him, he was smarter and faster today (for my ego's sake, he did NOT race yesterday and I did, so he was fresher than I, but still, he killed it).
He took top podium spot and In State4 title. I got silver. The dorky looking kid in third has been racing 4's, but moved up for this race. The race was between JJ and I, but this kid came in third behind us, not bad.
Sorry about linking to these pics, but they're un-stealable, but worth checking out:
Click here for a lesson in poor barrier technique (note: I hit it at a bad angle and w/ traffic, lots of people were falling on this barrier)(click here for Josh's lesson is sweet barrier technique)
Approaching the same barrier solo, I hit it cleaner.

Fred Rose took a strong 2nd in his race, but was the 1st IN finisher, winning the In State title for his Cat. Props.
Also, Mike Sherer rode to a good 2nd in the Elites (also 1st IN), and this is only his second race back after 6weeks off from a clavicle.
Thanksgiving week! Remember to be thankful for all you have...like turkey, stuffing, cranberries, corn, rolls, noodles, green beans, pies, etc. Seriously.