Today, I had a 10+s gap on second place, coming into the last 1/4 of a lap (which was not a good place for anyone to make up time). All I had to do was not crash or flat. You guessed it, hit a rut that I had avoided all day while racing, and as i was trying to gingerly finish without screwing up my first win in this particular race series... I flatted, and lost 2 minutes.

Last 4 lap times:
7:04, 7:02, 7:01, 9:09.

I did run it to the finish. Was still pretty happy with how i rode. First mechanical in 20 races, so i figure 5% failure rate should be ok... especially with the super rutted sketchy course