'cross weekend wrap

after yesterday's 5th i was looking forward to todays race in reston.. i've raced there before and the course has always been pretty hard, lots of climbs, plus a couple of technical sections and - most importantly - not that muddy... even after yesterday's 5th, given the amount of climbing i wasn't expecting a lot, maybe a top 20... probably go out strong at the start then slowly drif backwards for the rest of the race...

the course was pretty similar to the course i rode there last year, but with an extra trip up one of the climbs and a gravel pit and technical section... did a couple of pre-ride laps to check out the climbs then rode down to the start to line up...

the field was big and the start was pretty typical for me... i ended up in the top 20, hanging at the end of the lead pack... the 2 laps i slowly moved up, eventually getting into a group with kevin dillard of NCVC and a couple of other riders starting the 3rd and final lap... kevin came by me coming across the dam and so do another couple of riders... held close to the tail of this group around the flat section and then we hit the final grass climb... i attacked up the climb and passed and dropped the rider right ahead of me and make the turn onto the road for the finish... chain into the big ring and a couple cogs smaller in the back for the fast road downhill to the bottom of the finishing climb... get aero and keep pedaling and i'm within a couple yards of kevin with a 100 yards to go. sid lea is up with kevin but he sits up - turns out it was chain issues. i start to accelerate and when i hit the flatter section of the climb and put the gas down and come by kevin... coast across the line and drop the bike on the grass and collapse for a couple of minutes... don't know how many riders were ahead of our group, but i figure it's 5-7 so i'm pretty sure i'm top 10... took a while for the result to be posted, but i ended up in 9th in a 48 rider field...