Buena Vista Cross

We drove up to Buena Vista today to do the Cross By the River. It was a tough drive and I think Breeze and I were both a little stiff from our Interlocken experience. I know I already wrote about Interlocken, but I gotta say again, hardest race ever.

The drive up was beautiful. The trees and the mountains are always inspiring, but we needed it today. We got up there and it was a clear, sunny day, but the wind was howling. Shake the car howling which made a couple of sections of the course very, very tough.

The course started with a 100 yard sprint and then a dead right through the start finish to the first run up. I was on the inside and was a little pinched, but I followed Webber up the rocks on the right of the run up and came out in a great place. I got in line on the head wind section across the top and felt great. Unfortunately on the next loose right and then up the hill, I lost it wide and brought the group behind to a stop. Apologies to Boups, Ward, et al.

It was then across the top some more and onto the road before a screaming fast downhill right where I bobbled again. As the English say, I had lost my bottle. the course continued down to the river before a very loose S curve to bring you along the river. Again I was squirrley. I think I was just a little keyed up.

Now along by the river to the stairs. I will tell you I channeled Krughoff and ran those suckers "like it was my job", all day. I made up some ground as we punched up two loose soft hills and then onto the gravel road up to the barriers and then across to the sand to the start/finish. Great course, fast and challenging.

Not sure what I was doing, but I was a wreck going on the first lap. I am sure I was the guy that my peers were looking at saying "stay away from that Gomer." I got it together though and by the 2nd or 3rd lap we were in sight of Ward and Boups again. However, the wind played a roll on this day and no one, including me wanted to do all the work. With a couple laps to go, I did kick and ditched some guys and rolled up on Doug Johnson and Ariel Brown. Ariel had to be cooked from the morning 35+ race and we dropped him and I was left with Doug. I may have been stronger, but Doug was better. He was a stud on the descents and bunny hopped the barriers every lap in front of the hometown fans. We rolled in 14th and 15th. I claimed some Cup points and didn't kill myself. Successful day.