GACX 6: State Champs

First off, congratulations to Brady. I am not sure why but he is often overlooked as having won now 3 state championships in cross. He was very motivated to win yesterday and has a great ability to step up when it counts. Daryl and Shey rode great races with no mistakes.

I had a lot of people telling me that I would win the championship yesterday and that I was the favotite. In 9 years this was my best shot because Tony was absent and by my testing Saturday and the previous Sunday, my power numbers had never been better.

I had two strategic plans. First was to make the race as hard as possible from the start. The start was almost identical to Glouchester in terms of the uphill and I knew there I was able to go really fast there from lap to lap. So I tried to blast off from the beginning. The second plan was to stop working if plan 1 failed and beat everyone in the sprint or a last lap attack. My max sprint power Saturday was 1240w and my 12 second average was 880w. So I felt like if it came down to a sprint that I would be competitive.

My check time was on the third lap. I tried numerous attacks to soften up folks and get away but by the third lap Shey, Daryl and Brady were more than able to stay on my wheel. So, at that point I decided to stop working and let them dictate the pace. When I let others come to the front the pace slowed a bit and I was able to recover.

On the 4th lap going into the sand, Shey and Daryl were in front of me having ridden 3/4 of the way across. We were all back together as we started coming off the sand and they were going very slow. So I did the stupidest thing possible.

What is the weakest part of my "game"---running. Does anyone ever actually win a cross race by running away from anyone? No. So when I decided to sprint out of the sand and pass both of them I must have been seriously mentally impaired. Immediately my troublesome calf pulled and I was out of the race. Thirty seconds later I was bewildered in why, how I would do something that stupid. Especially since by the end, all 3 of the guys were together going into the sprint. Smart Bob would have just let them dictate the pace and follow plan B. Smart Bob was not racing yesterday.

Shey did the right thing by leading out. Usually in cross the person who leads out wins and he only lost by a foot. Daryl could have won it too since the margin of victory was not huge. Brady is just a 2 foot better sprinter who hardly ever came to the front.

There are really no excuses to be made. The table was set for all 4 of us and I really had fun battling 3 guys I know well and I am glad all made the podium.

Now the plan is to try and heal up for nationals and take out my frustrations there.