First 1/2 win!

Two weekends ago my dad and I packed up the car and and I drove to the final MSG race. This was the longest I have driven and the rain was kind of scary. We arrived at the Unicoi Farmhouse safely, though. The course was a lot different than the 90 degree desert it was at the beginning of the season. The conditions for the race were 40 degrees and raining. Luckily I had some warm base layers, gloves, and some fleece shorts that really helped.
I pre-rode one lap of the course with an extra jacket on and crashed in the tricky switchback. The course was really good for applying the techniques I learned from Andy Johnston at MTB camp, namely braking before corners, countersteering, and keeping my weight over the bottom bracket. Feeling pretty confident I toed the start line on my sweet carbon Van Dessel. The gun went off and Eric Wondergem took a pretty big early lead, but he came back when he crashed on a slick off-camber turn. Funny thing though, the next lap I came around the same corner in third place and also crashed, busting the brake lever halfway out of the shifter (Harper's got the company to warranty it though, thanks SRAM). The pit was just on top of the hill but I had a Sven Nys moment while I scrambled around looking for my pit bike (always watch where your dad puts your extra bike). By the time I got going again, Eric Wondergem had about 30 seconds on me but I figured that other people would probably crash too so I kept going hard. I rode a couple people off my wheel through the next thirty minutes including Will Black which seemed like the opposite of every other MSG race. The Mud 2 tires on the Redline hooked up about 10x better than the Challenges I had on the Van Dessel. I finally caught back up to Wondergem who was riding with Noah but by then Eric had broken the paddle off his shifter and had to run up all the hills. If you put mine and Eric's bike together you might even have a working shifter! Around this time I decided to take off my waterproof outer gloves and just wear the liners because the gloves were getting kind of hot. Bad, bad idea. Then I rode with Noah for the last few laps. I led pretty much the entire time because I knew I was pressuring him through the technical parts. I noticed the saddle on my pit bike is super comfy. It's really soft and it has a lot of flex. I think it's some kind of Selle Italia. Anyway, Noah attacked me after the last runup but I caught him and knew I had to lead into the barriers so I passed him and worked pretty hard on the last uphill climb to the finish. I messed up the last corner and had to dab but I clipped in again really fast and took the "W" by a wheel or so. After the race I jumped off my bike and ran to the car. My hands were so numb I couldn't even unzip my jersey. This was by far the muddiest race of the year. I couldn't see any skin on my face and my eyes really hurt. I was very happy to finally accomplish one of my goals for the season. The competition at MSGs is small but super intense. After the race we watched the series awards and Larry C. of the Bike Zoo took home the points win for masters 45+. All right Larry!

Chasing back

Noah, my main competitor

Muddy

Eric Wondergem

Also notable was the nice pass-the-hat collection taken up for series promoter Dwayne Letterman. Without Dwayne there would be very few cross races in TN. A good time was had by all at the last MSG of the year. Don't forget to come to the UCI race in Johnson City in January!

Check back for a race report on CX national championships.