Boss Cross #3 _ Platte City, Mo

It was about 40 degrees warmer this time around. Perfect weather, bit chilly in the morning but nothing too cold. The course this year was more or less similar to last years: Pavement start with a hill and plenty of climbing. This is one of those courses were I spent about 90% of the course in your 3 biggest cogs and the other 10% in the bottom 3, not much in the middle. The pavement start was flat for 50 yards then a left 90 and up the hill another 50 yards. Sharp right onto the grass and into the bigger cogs. All the recent rain made the grass very spongy but not very muddy. In the Masters 35+ race, I got to the grass first. The first grass section had a steep downhill with a rutted out turn at the bottom, then a hard steep climb. It was farily easy to ride as long as you had a clear shot at it and low enough gear. My 42/26 was a manageble but sure could have used a 39. David Hayduk and Doug Plummer were never too far back so I just stayed steady and tried to use the sections of the course that suited me. The final pavement section through the start/finish area was a bit hairy at race speed, with a hard 180 left turn. The laps was really short and that combined with the steep nature of the course, the race got strung out really quick. I started catching the tail end of the field with about 4 to go. The Mens Open race wasn't until 2pm so I had a couple hours to sit around before warming up again. When doubling-up, the time between races is pretty important. This time I had 1 more hour between races than the previous weekend. It had warmed up quit a bit by the time the race got off. Bunch of fast guys on the line. Brian Jenson, Shad Shreiner, Aaron Elwell, Cameron Cambers, Jeff Winkler, Nate Woodman, and Chris Wallace among others. I got a good start and just got in line and held on. Jeff Winkler, Brian Jenson, and Shad Shreiner seemed to be off and running right away in a front group, then it was a group with me, Aaron, Cameron, Bill Marshall, Chris Wallace stayed together for a couple laps. I was feeling OK so I tried to take off and left that group and was in 4th but it was very short lived. Couldn't keep it going and got caught by those guys pretty quick, then starting go backwards. My legs were pretty dead and getting deader. Shad was flying and lapped me a few laps before the end, as did Jenson in 2nd, and Winkler 3rd. When Jenson passed me, I cut a turn a bit to hard and the back tire peeled off a bit. I could here it as i hit the high speed pavement section, so I hit the pit with 3 to go and got the spare bike. I was pretty dead at this point so the last 3 laps weren't too impressive. I couldn't ride the one long steep hill anymore. Last guy I could tell that was behind me was Bill Marshall but I couldn't see him anymore. Nate Woodman was having a really bad day but got close to me before the finish. Even going a slow as I was, I still caught the tail end of the field.