Travel, support & sick... racin' yet again

This past weekend of racing became a toss up when the choice hadn’t been up to awhile ago. I’d just gotten back from 20 plus hours of driving this week back & forth to Indianapolis and another 12 hours in the car to Sheboygan & back for the WORS finale wasn’t looking too appealing to me, let alone Kate & the kids. Kate, God bless her, she is super supportive and a big reason why I’ve been able to race to the degree I have – however I think better of testing the limits of that support. So if she said, “There’s a race in Marquette instead and it's 4 less hours in the car than Sheboygan…..” that’s not a bad direction to head then.

The second part of that is on Friday I came down with what I thought was a headcold in the late afternoon and had been feeling pretty crummy since – and I’ve never had much for luck racing when I’m under the weather. The shorter cross race, even if it was more intense, made more sense than a 2hr mtb race.

Hence on a beautiful October Sunday morning we took the 3hr excursion over to Marquette to take in UPCross #3. Curious as to what the 3rd installment of the UPCross series would bring. I’ve come to expect – to not have any expectations on who’s going to be there or not be there. You go, you race hard and let the chips fall where they may.

Held at a park with baseball fields, wooded trails & a bmx race track it was the perfect site for a cross race. For those of you familiar with the Ore to Shore MTB races, this cross race shares some of the single track at the very tail end of that race. (I don’t know if I should say the memories it brought back were good or bad…)

The “A” race appeared again to be 20 deep in racers, faces I was now starting to get more familiar with and more easily having conversations with. At the start, a hairpin turn put Jesse Bell in the front with Joe Graci & two others with whom I’m currently unfortunately drawing a blank, but I think Dave Grant was another. I got in line in 5th position, further back than I would have liked but not too far back where any break away would hopefully be out of reach. Sitting in, I liked the pace and was content there. I did jump up to 3rd before entering the woods & some singletrack just to make sure if any mishaps happened I would minimize my odds of getting stuck behind it. Jesse pulled real good through the first lap & soon it was just he & I mid way through the 2nd lap. At that point I went to the front not intended to go any faster but to just hold a steady sustainable pace. Jesse held with me but on the third lap some gaps started to happen, not sure if he had a mishap or what. But Jesse hasn't exactly been riding much & not up to the potential he's capable of.

With that happening I figured if I’d be riding out solo for most of the day it was best to build a cushion, so I pushed it up a slight knotch and more of a gap started to occur. About half way through the race it was close to a minute and I felt for lack of a better term “safe”. Jesse had faded back even more & Paul Belknap & Tim Kostner had taken his place. Even though I like to charge hard throughout an entire race giving it my all, I must admit it was nice this time around given the fact I was feeling alittle sick and didn’t want to press my luck & risk getting more sick. If I could back off and still hold on I was more than happy with that.

Fortunately, Tim & Paul didn’t coordinate riding efforts and I was able to ride conservatively after the midway point of the race. A place with intersecting barriers I could clearly do a time check each lap and the gap held or slightly grew. My wife later told me she would have liked a more exciting, closer race however this was one time I was in total disagreement. It felt good to not have to knock myself out the entire race. I came in about minute & half over Tim & Paul wasn’t that far behind him. Paul usually puts on some good speed in the later laps but said it just didn’t quite come around for him that day.

Again got to meet some more of the UPCross regulars, thanks again guys for being so welcoming and nice. Keep up the great stuff you have going on. It’s been a lot fun last few weekends.

Not sure what will transpire for the remainder of the season. I’m just about “traveled out”, and plenty of fall projects waiting around the house & trails here to attend to. Many thanks to all the competitors, race directors & volunteers who put untold hours of work and/or training into the great sport that cycling. If time & circumstances allow you check out these races in the future. I certainly enjoyed them this year....

-Rhinelander Rasta Rally
-Cable Off Road Classic
-Chequamegon 100
-Afton Alps
-ChainDrive
-WORS Cup
-Miners Revenge
-Ashland Mudrutters
-Washburn Brownstone Days
-Firehouse 50 events
-Ore to Shore… oh, wait I would have if I’d not been half dead with the flu
-Calumet Great Deer Chase
-Seeley Pre-Fat
-Copper Harbor Fat Tire Festival
-Chequamegon 40 (Fat Tire Festival)
-UPCross.
More…… we’ll see