Gun Club CX- Cinci

What ended up being a good race and my best OVCX Elite result to date, started as a frustrating mess.
The Gun Club CX has traditionally been a good race for me. It's a "mountain bikey" course, and though I don't consider myself a MTBer anymore, I do have MTB background and can handle the bike fairly well (as evident in the pic below!)

I pre rode 4-5 laps and felt pretty good/felt pretty good about the course (pic below looks like a big smile at the camera, it's a suffer/concentration face really).

I was in the front row starting and they didn't have the usual "slots" painted on the ground, so it was kind of everyman for himself lining up. A Jr. racer who decided to do the elite race as his second race of the day poached his way onto the grid next to me. There wasn't really room for one more, but he put himself there anyway. I immediately got a bad feeling. The gun went off and sure enough the "kid" plows right into me causing a chain reaction to my left and a pile up ensued. To compensate for his left hand scurry he swerved right and cause another pile up on his right. I stayed upright, but had to unclip both feet and was behind right from "go."
----soapbox time-----
There are a few Jr's in particular (I wont' say names) that enter the elite races when they are, in my opinion, not ready for it. They may have the speed, but are out of there league. Not that I'm some superstar, but I've raced bikes for many many years and worked my way up. The one I'm talking about is one and there's another that has crashed into my teammate Josh in EVERY race he has entered as a elite. Weak. I don't know if their parents are making them race up (and multiple times/day) or what, but I have always said/thought that speed is only 1 small component of high level racing, especially CX where so much is required.
------off soapbox-------
So anywho, I got my shit together and started chasing like a mad man to get in contact w/ the group ahead. Little did I know the group ahead was the lead group. I was able to get on terms w/ said group and hung w/ the leaders (running in 5-6th place) for 2+ laps. That's pretty big for me. Eventually attacks occurred and things started to settle in.

I rode a good solid race and came in 9th, my best OVCX e-lite finish! It was a great day weather wise and I threw together a good race that I'm proud of.
In other (related) news, I accidentally got a new CX bike. I was planning on revamping my stable for 2011 season and the bike I planned to get wasn't to be available until Feb. 'No big deal' I thought 'I don't need it until Sept next year anyway.' Well my rep (Giant, of course) called me and said there were some in and do I want to go ahead and take it now? I said sure, I might-as-well. Sometimes ETA's keep getting pushed back and pushed back until a model just becomes not available, so I figured I'm better to get it now and know I have it then to wait and maybe not get it at all. So now I have a new "A" bike and my awesome orange Giant, which has been so good to me, will get a makeover and serve as my "B" bike. Pretty exciting, getting new bikes always is. Pics, etc. to come.
No racing for me this weekend and I'm kind of good w/ that. It's Lindsay's birthday this weekend and I could use a break.
(pics from Ohio's Jeffrey Jakucyk)

Was this post waaaay long? Sorry.