Fools in the Rain (KS State Cx Champs)

After nearly a whole season of dry fast races, we were finally treated to something quite slick. Nice steady rain turned a very fast course into one where pure horsepower only put you sideways or down altogether. In the Masters 30+ race, the long start on the cobble road was quite slick and a bit sketchy. A bit of elbowing put me onto the grass in 2nd. I blew the very first grass left turn, which wasn't there when we set the course up the day before. That put me 50meters behind Tige Lamb with Brendon Jenks right behind me. The course was still sticky enough to offer some traction so I got back up the Tige and went by him before hitting the long run-up for the first time. I led the the rest of that lap but we and Tige swapped leads a couple times each lap for the whole race. As the race went on and the rain kept coming, the course changed drastically. By the last couple laps, traction was hard to find and turning was just a best-effort situation. I was super fit and felt strong but just couldn't get the traction to move forward or attack anywhere. Tige was riding the muddy turns way better than me but we stayed together hitting the bell lap. All was going good until the little "run-up" that we actually had been riding every lap. On the approach, my front wheel just greased out and I came to a complete stop. After running up that and remounting, Tige had a 50 meter gap that I couldn't do much to reduce. It stayed until the finish. Tige first, 2nd place for me with a hard charging Adam Mills rounding out the top 3. As the day went on the rain only got worse the temps dropped. I was signed up for the single speed race, but my first single speed race will have to wait. The primary bike was a mess, and the tires on the pit bike weren't up for the mud. Not to mention myself not really up for another hour of cold rain. By the time the single speed and mens open race got going, temps were down into the upper 30's.