Ouch

Well, I'd heard the Badger Prairie race described as "wide open," "Grassy," and "fast."

It was wide open and grassy, sure enough. And it was quick enough to be hair raising on the descents. The bike handling was much better today, though I took one super tight (decreasing radius) turn and ended up about 6 feet into the "Tall Grass." I was totally stuck in it for about 20 seconds while 3 dudes went by me.

They'd have gotten by me anyway today.

"Hilly" or "lots of climbing" would have been some other good choices for descriptive phrases about the race.

No worries. We race whatever. It was just harder than I was expecting. I think I'm a tad overgeared with the inner ring at 40teeth. 34 or 36 would probably be more appropriate. I'm having to stand and grunt out sections each week in the 40:25. I'll have to see if I can dig a 110BCD 36 tooth ring up somewhere before next week.

The first lap hurt pretty good. I lined up front row but struggled to find my pedal (surprise) and filed into the climb at about 12th. I picked off 6-8 people. 6-8 people picked me off. So it goes.

I saw Ron Knaflic go by me at one point. I thought to myself, "He's the guy to follow. 2nd place at every race so far. Go with him."

He was better than me, plain and simple. He lost me pretty quick and finished 2nd today.

Another top 10 guy came by me. "Stick with him. He's always in the top 5-10."

Nope. Hung with him for awhile but he lost me up one of the climbs. He finished 5th.

Then it was just the usual. Pass. Get passed. Pass again. Hope it'll end soon. I got passed by a few people I thought sure I could keep up with. But I couldn't.

When I started the final lap I was with a group 3-4. I don't remember if I lost them or if they lost me. I really can't recall what happened exactly except for the running.

I remember running up a hill section over some barriers and I kept running while the other dudes remounted on the incline. I got passed by a guy in a white jersey going into the final half of the lap and I latched onto him. We caught a guy on CX'ed out 29er MTB who had passed me sometime in the 3rd lap. The three of us hung out together for a little and I just resolved to not let them drop me.

The guy on the MTB was fading. The guy in the white jersey threw down an attack with maybe 1/4 lap to go. I knew that I could ride with him on the hill but that he'd beat me if we got to any twisty stuff. Fortunately, i also knew that we had no more twisty stuff and that after the climb, we took a quick turn onto the pavement for maybe 400m to the finish line. So I just hung onto his wheel through some rollers and then up a big climb. As soon as we hit the pave, I threw it in the big ring while on his wheel. He jumped hard but I stayed on him. I sent the cassette down to about the 12 or 13, got in the drops, pretended it was a criterium, and I jumped him as hard as I could.

Self assessment: I am not the best bike handler. I was overgeared for the climbs. And I wasn't strong enough for a top ten.

But I blew some dude's doors off in a sprint for 13th/~55.

At least that felt good. Last week, 14th. I think I'll give it another go tomorrow. I got the tubulars mounted and I want to try them out.