Pick from Heartland Sports Promotions website
Pic stolen from Shad Shreiners Blog
Photo my Kristine
Heartland Sports and Team 360 used every inch of availble ground and put together a super technical course. Only 1 long pavement section to get things wound up. The rest of the course was tight turns with a nice long section of dirt through the trees. Since my MTB form is in it's "off season" already, I decided to double-up Saturday and do both Masters 40-49 and Mens Open, and not do Sunday's mtb race. Warming up before the race, I got stung by a bee that went into my front helmet vent. Did not feel pleasent at all. The masters race was 25 deep with all the usual suspects. The 360 duo of Lucas and Songer and Jeff Winkler, getting in a warm-up race before heading out to the Hermann Night Race. Uphill paved start was a new twist. Never had to start a cross race in my smallest gear before, but it was cool and suited me at least. I got the whole shot easily with Lucas, Winkler and Songer right there. The traffic jam behind really got clogged up and the 4 of us already gone hitting the pavement for the first time. I drilled it on the front for 4 laps trying to brake up the group. Winkler went by me the road and got about a 100ft and stayed there. I still had Lucas on my wheel and Songer was still close enough to keep my interest. I didn't want the 2 360 guys to get together so I kept the pace high enough to get rid of Lucas but I didn't have much to close the gap on Winkler. He could have easily made the gap bigger but put it in cruise control since I wasn't coming back. Ended up 2nd and pretty happy with that. The Mens Open race was small with most guys out in Hermann, but we still had Brian Jenson, Shad Shreiner, Doug Plummer, and Cameron Chambers. I sorta ended up getting the holeshot after Jenson blew the the first turn and headed down the road, and Doug Plummer drifted wide on the first grass turn. Once on the front, I pinned it with everything I had. Shad Shreiner stayed glued right on me for a few laps then took off. I was started to feel the 2nd race in my legs and had to start conserving a bit. Plummer, Chambers, and Andrew Coe were still close but not really gaining ground so I just stayed steady. After Brian Jenson got back on course, he managed to get through the traffic and up into 3rd. He got within about 30 seconds of me but then stayed there for the last 5 laps or so. This course didn't give him any place to really wind it up. I'm sure he made me look silly on the long paved section, but I seemed to be a little faster in all of the tight stuff. Shad checked out and finished a ways ahead, I cruised in for my second 2nd place on the day and Jenson followed in third. I was pretty gassed at the end. I was open to doing the Sunday's mtb race but the legs were not cooperating this morning. Would have loved to race and support the guys buiding those new trails, but the morning HR confirmed I had raced enough for one weekend.
