Close...

We put on the 2nd Fox Hollow 'cross race last Saturday, and I came close. In cyclo-cross, no less. There may only have been 9 guys, but I will take it.

Starting from the back of the pack, per usual, I found myself riding by everybody on the first climb of the course, which is good, because that means that when I laid out the hilly upper section the night before, I sure made it fit my strengths. Up, down, turn, up, down, turn, up,... .

Soon enough it was two of us on the front, with a couple more chasers just a few seconds back. I passed the Veloshop guy I was with, put a gap down, he closed it slowly through some corners, then I dialed it back. Stayed in front, we got caught by a Half Fast Velo who had been right there all along. A second Veloshop started to come up so I started punching it on the climbs, and could get a little gap, but not enough. Last lap, still on the front of the 3 man group, I kicked it on the bell and dropped the Veloshop at last. Half Fast glued to the wheel. Last two climbs, I could get a tiny gap and he threw it all down during the corners. Wheel to wheel. See the finish below and here. Over the barrier shoulder to shoulder, we knocked each other twice. Close.




The bike went up in the stand last night to fix the loose left crank which was discovered as I cleaned it after the race, which turned into hours of struggling and cursing, while discovering that the BB was indeed totally screwed, with the little inner bearing race on the left side firmly pressed over and onto the body of the crank spindle, impeding the removal of the crank from said bottom bracket, and thereby from the bike itself, while the BB was still threaded into the frame... I eventually managed to knock the crank just far enough out to get the bottom bracket tool over the mangled wreck and remove the whole shebang from the frame. The BB eventually came off the crank, as well. Now I have no bottom bracket.

Bummer.