I Was A Singlespeeder Before It Was Cool

Round three of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Cyclocross series was today and at a different venue this time. Steele Creek Park in Bristol, Tennessee and another Dwayne Letterman designed course greeted all that showed up for a beautiful day for a race (actually it was hot by the time I raced, too hot!). I missed the Masters race because I had to work so I only did the singlespeed race. It was all for the best since I didn't feel so good in the first place.
Did I mention it was Scary Cross too? Yeah just race in a costume and you get 25 points plus everyone around gets cheap entertainment for the day. I brought out a toned down version of the costume I wore at the Hill Of Truth the week before:

I don't see what the big deal is. Some pay thousands of dollars for boobs like this, I only paid $17.99.

Uh, yeah. Well I rode around to warm up and scope out the course. It was going to be a tough one with lotsa climbing and very little place to recover. After the Pro 1/2 race, it was time to lime up. Dang, the singlespeed class was the biggest one of the day (with exception maybe, of the CX4s). There was about 25 lined up, a good third of them came out of the Pro 1/2 and CX3 race. This was going to hurt.

I was in the third row and when the word go came, nothing happened for a moment. I got around the ones in front of me and sprinted like a madman. I made it into decent position by the second turn and tried to keep my pace high. I managed to do ok for the first lap but then began to drift backwards. I don't know what happened. I just faded. I wasn't feeling good. It was frustrating but I have learned to deal with it and use days like today to make me better.

I ended up 18th. Even though my race sucked, I still had fun and it was good to just get out and put the hammer down for awhile.