October started with the BossCross race in Westford, a race I always wanted to a do. It was a technical challenging course with some rooty sections and some loops through barns. It also had short power sections which works well for me. Back on my Mudhoney, I felt great, and only got tired towards the end. I knew I had a good result, but that I would finish 2nd was a total surprise. People had technical issues and I almost got first as Jay who was in the lead broke his frame in the last corner and I saw him running across the finish line in my finish sprint, missed it by 3 seconds. Result 2nd out of 25.
The next weekend, I had not signed up for a race as coach Steven and I decided to make room for a training block. This meant a few easy days earlier in the week followed by 6 days of hard training days.
The next weekend I raced in Keene at the Pumkin cross race. I was still slightly fatigued from the trainingblock, but had a good race. I got the holeshot, won the start sprint to the first corner. Unfortunately I could not maintain my first position. I got overtaken halfway the first lap just before the sand section. In the 2nd lap a Sunapee racer and my teammate Colman overtook me. The race of the race I fended off any upcoming racers and finished 4th.
We were in Falmouth for Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross the fourth weekend. We drove down to Falmouth on Friday and I spend Friday afternoon pre-riding the course. Coach Stephen was out there for the weekend to and we did multiple laps preriding the course. The sand section was super hard and was not able to get through it cleanly.
Saturday had a great ride, ran the sand section, the lines I examined with coach Stephen, I was able to ride smoothly. Despite the tough competition I finished 6th and my best crossresults score of 311. Sunday they changed the course somewhat as they linked up the technically sections a little different. The Sunday race was a bit more eventful. It began with the start, I was on 2nd row behind Sam, the current 60-64 US champ, when riders from the left veered into my line and I almost lost my balance. Fortunately I stayed upright, but lost some positions as I had to pull back power for a bit. Then at the start of the 2nd leg just before the pit I felt my rear tire being flat and rode into the pit, after a bit of a search I exchanged the bike without a loss of position. During the rest of the remaining laps, I overtook 4 riders and finished 4th, just 1 spot shy of the podium, but with a great result of 306 points.
