Nebraska Cyclocross #3 - Lincoln, NE

A good size field of 22 riders were on hand in very un-seasonably warm weather and bone dry conditions. Since I was leading the series, I unintentionally kept the whole field waiting while I showed up a few minutes late for the start. Actually, they were trying to get the race started early and I was right on schedule. As I always do, I picked the two guys on the front row that wouldn't mind me backing right in. Start from the back? Me? Ahhh, not today. At the gun, I got the wholeshot and led onto the grass with Bill Stolte, Adam Mills, and Tony Wilhelm (all HRRC/
Trek Stores) setting the front group. The first few laps stayed together with myself, Darren Shlake (Monkey Wrench), Iowa's Brandon Jessop, and KCCX's Adam Lang keeping the front group together and not letting the 2 Trek teammates run away with it. At about the mid point in the race, Stolte and Mills started to pull away while I was locked into the chase group with Jessop and Shlake. Adam Lang fell away and me and Darren tried to get rid of Jessop but he wouldn't budge. Jessop would eventually drop me and Darren and bridge up to Adam Mills. That was perfectly fine with me and Darren since Jessop just couldn't keep him mouth shut. He's obviously fast, but just wasn't happy with how me and Darren were riding. If he had been paying attention to the series points, he would have known that me and Darren were going for the series title, and he was stuck with us and wanted us to pull him around. Darren told him he was a dick at one point and I told him he should go back to Iowa. One "the mouth" was out of our way, me and Darren starting working each other over. I had the lead coming into the double run-up and put in one last attack on the small hill before the paved finish but he got back on my wheel and came around me in the sprint for 4th while I got 5th. Adam Lang hung on for 6th while Troy Krause, Chris Wallace, Ryan Legg, and early race leader Tony Wilhelm rounded out the final money-paying spots.