Rockburn Redemption

So this week started off kind of crappy. Had a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday and got some mixed news. Long story short is that while my disease is smaller now than it was a year ago, what’s left of it has started to grow again, and I’ll most likely require another intensive in-patient treatment in late January. But the good news is that I’m really good at scheduling major healthcare events around cyclocross season! That’s right; we’re still planning on heading out to Madison that first weekend in January.

Now, on to the week’s main event…

We skipped Vint Hill this year because we just needed an easy day at home. I rode the trainer for 50 minutes, watched the GvA, slept some more, and raked leaves in the afternoon. Rachel and Eric got in from Pittsburgh around 9:00 and we hung out and shot the shit for a couple hours before bed. They’re only coming down for one more weekend this season which is a bummer, I’ve really gotten used to having them around on the weekend.

Steve was thinking about maybe doubling up at Rockburn, but with all the crap we were dealing with during the week, he had only ridden once, and decided to stick with the “old man” race again. He started in the very back just like last week, and almost immediately passed a ton of people. But without the training and fitness, people began passing him late in the race. I think he was pleased with his result, and perked up even further when he saw that Ben had brought him his brand new Ridley frame. Hurray for more bikes!

The “old man” race was pretty exciting overall though, at one point three people from the team were in the top five! Cory and Jon are always strong, but G has been improving steadily throughout the season; having netted his first top ten last week I thought for sure that fifth place spot was his this week. Unfortunately his string of bad bike luck continued and he rolled a tubular, falling way back and never catching back up.

I have to say that it’s been really fun and impressive watching the team over this season; a brand new team consistently filling the top spots in the Masters podiums. And you really couldn’t ask for a nicer bunch of people, seriously. Every week just reinforces what I love about the sport.

Didn’t take many pictures this weekend, but I really like this one of Eric over the barriers in the Elite race:

Thanks for reading.