Here I am at only my second race of the year. Showed up and reg'ed for Open Single Speed (now Cat. 2 SS), saw Bike 29 owner George W. in his awesome Tang Cheerleader outfit - Yikes!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=1092319&id=1586951622

Changed my front tire 10 minutes before the start tire and got to the line. As my friend Jeff Whittingham suggested, I charged off at the start, not too crazy, just a good hard pace. I led for the 1st half lap until hitting my LT and then a couple of hills took their toll. Lots of traffic which was good (for recovery) and bad for obvious reasons. At least I could use passing sometimes to try and hold off the guys behind me. The first SS passer went by on a small hill and he took the lead to the finish. I guess we had a good gap on the rest because it wasn't until the end of that lap that the next guy passed and kept it for 2nd place, we were together for a while but he dropped me on a climb and I couldn't get it back. I crashed once on a short downhill (controlled somewhat, not injured/broken), then hit the wall at the top of some longer climb - just puttered and bounced along for the next couple minutes. While I was recovering I caught a handlebar in some bit of snow-fence at a tight cliff spot, lost another minute it seemed. Another tight spot I just turned into a tree for no reason. Starting to recover and find flow, made some passes drank, thought of some of Jeff's "Pain Cave" posts and tried to work through it all. Charged the start/finish in third, no one in sight behind me. My recovery was only partial and I was noticeably slower on the technical and steep parts. Hard going and painful now, trying mental tactics to get more out of my crippled ride-soul. Couple miles in the # 4 SSer caught up to me and we were back and forth for middle 1/3 of the lap - he was wasted too, so I dug deep to just stay ahead. He eventually passed while we were staggering up a hill. He lead for a bit then crashed on a technical switchback downhill rock obstruction. I asked if he OK, "Yes", made the spot and pass, he said, "This is your lucky day." I just felt like jello and hoped I could hang on and not crash too. I did hang. Went as hard as I could, made some passes, got passed by some pros, Andrew Frey and another local 29er Crew guy among others. I did draft a geared guy on double track with no remorse. Charged the finish. Cheers from Dylan/Lucas/Tara. Good feeling. Happy with 3rd.