2003 Sacramento CX #2

Granite Bay was again the venue for race number two, but this time on the north course. This typically entails a lot of riding and running through sand, which I suck at, and today had plenty of sand. And I unsurprisingly sucked.

Dismounts are not my strong suit and today there were many. Riding in sand is tough for me as a skinny guy, and we had that. Running is by far my weakest skill, and we had two different running sections in deep sand.

That's me in the lower left watching the big guys power away from me.

It was a struggle from start to finish. I couldn't get going, couldn't maintain momentum, and there were no hills to speak of for me to make up time. Every time I even began to feel strong there was another section of sand to run.

Here's Rio teammate Curtis also struggling.

In the end I took a very disappointing 13th place. Gordon again won while Alex took fourth. Curtis finished right behind me in 14th.

I have some work to do to get back in this series. We have a break in the schedule, so hopefully I can start peaking and work on my technique.

Later.

2003 Sacramento CX #1

Race number one of the 2003 series was a good one. The Granite Bay south course has been good to me, and today was no exception. My buddy Steve came out to watch and manned the camera. After the race he assured me that he took lots of "sweet pics," but this was the only one on the camera:

Sweet, indeed. Not sure what button he was pushing, but it obviously wasn't the shutter.

After taking second in the series last year in the Cs, behind Alex, this year we both moved up to the 35+ B class.

Race wise, I took off and hovered around second to fifth place most of the race, ultimately taking third at the end. Gordon won and Alex took sixth. It was nice to grab eight points right off the bat. Hoping for a solid race number two next week.

Later.