The phrase of this race?
With this kind of riding, I'll be cyclocross champion of the world.
And just to make it seep in:
If I don't win in the next two races, I'm going to maime someone.
The whole thing started off good- great, even. We've got a new kid on the team who's supposed to be Colombian (high altitude, right?), but looks Irish, but I didn't see him at all after the start. Otherwise it wa the usual slew of us.
As usual, all of the impatient Juniors jumped straight for the head of the pack, while I, being more wise
stuck around in the last 3/4 of the main group sucking off of everyone's air. Everything was all good until about lap 6 or 7 (of 10). One of the guys who races for one of the area bike shops (my favorite, in fact) decided to try to contest my "Biggest ******* in Ohio" belt while I was on the far left by coming up on my right and inching me towards the gravel and grass. Since this was the first time anything like this has ever happened to me, I didn't go onto the defensive, my brain went numb.
So he pushed me into the grass, and I rode through the (bumpy!) grass, watching everyone pass me. As if things couldn't get worse, there was a small mound in the grass which led to
a.) a 3x3 drain cover, and
b.) an 8 inch drop from a curb. So I eased the bike over a little avoiding sudden movements, and sent my baby over the curb.
Just like a cat lands on it's feet after a fall, as soon as both my tires are on level ground, I ****ing gun that son of a ***** into oblivion. The grade ahead went by like a flat time trial. I was in warp speed for a few minutes there. Before I knew it I was passing the lead pack on the inside asking myself how the **** I got there.
I melted back into the group, and served the rest of the laps until the bell lap. On the bell lap, I went to stand on the pedals and just felt weak, I knew I couldn't win, but I couldn't accept it, so I upshifted and gunned it. On the starting straight I was flying in a medium-strength sprint, I felt like I was wasting no energy while I was passing other [stronger looking] riders. On the hill before the finish line, the leaders sprint, with everyone following suit, and I'm just going balls to the wall, I couldn't even hear myself screaming (which a few people commented on), when all of a sudden as I'm about to pass him, the same rider who pushed me into the grass jumped in front of me, making me hit the brakes because there were other sprinters on my right.
So I finished third... again. And I was way faster in the sprint than the other Juniors.
In other news. I finally found my ideal sprinting position. Woot.