Capital Cup

The #2 race of Series 60 CX held out in the capital city of Kansas, hence the name. It was the first real fall day we've had for cross, yet it warmed up quite nicely by the later races. Early racers had dew laden course that was frought with spongy power sapping grass. The course was almost the same as last year, but was shortened up to only 3.2K! Wow, it must have been 5Ks last year.

In the earlier races, SlimenundGrossen teammates Scott and Joe both did well. Scott has been solid in the Masters category and again took 2nd place behind Winkler. Joe is still hanging tough in the cat 4 races clawing his way up the rankings. Joe finished in 4th behind his neighbor and cross newbie, Todd. That really steamed him up, but hopefully enough to motivate him to not let it happen again. Joe was less than a bike length behind the neighbor going up the last runup, but alas the gap opened even wider in the closing seconds of the race. Even through my harsh cursing and screams of motivation Joe coudn't close the deal.

My race played out about as expected, especially given the low racer turnout. A dirty dozen lined up for the 1/2/3s and I recognized all but a couple. It was heating up and I had done a pretty decent warmup on the trainer, working up quite a sweat. Downed a bottle before go-time and got ready to roll. The start was fine and I was sitting around 5th wheel, but as the front group picked up the pace on the first lap, I was stuck behind a guy that wasn't going with them. I tried 3 times to get around him, but got cutoff and never got around. Well the front group rolled away as I watched. Made the pass and attempted to close it down some, but they were moving and I wasn't able to bridge up. It was then and there that my time trial started. Just keep the guys behind you behind you and try to move up if possible. When the field is that small and you're sitting in no-man's land, its tough to do much of anything. I started checking time gaps and was staying in the same place 30 seconds back of Shad and 30 seconds up on the 2 behind me. It more or less stayed that way the rest of the race give or take a few seconds. Highlights were the Mound of No-Mercy which featured two steep run-ups, spiking everyone's heartrate and creating gaps on the running challenged. The sponge grass dried up some by later in the day, but still was a power sapping effort everytime through the backside of the pit. I ended up 8th place on the day.