I've loved the Winchester Apple Cross course and race since the very first year when it was a small race off series (by the way a separate set of thoughts on the importance and joy of non-series small races coming later).
Today Jake, Liam, and I awoke at 5:30am to make our way out to Winchester. After a week of rain and 40% chance of rain, I had packed us for all possible contingencies, so the car was totally full. Armies have gone to war with less stuff. It was cold (mid 40s) and threatening rain.
It took us too long to pack the car and were late getting out of town. We got there just in time to get Jake's number before they closed registration for the Cat 4 race. He got one lap of the course as "warm up." After 3 days of rain and rain over night the course was slimy with mud in the morning. Jake was on the front row thanks to my registration skills. I literally saw none of his race so this is 2nd hand. He couldn't get clipped in until after they were off the road and so fell back into the 20s. He says he moved to the front of a group and drove the pace dropping them. At some point I got back to the course to get the pit bike (shared by me and Jake) to the pit and Bill Browne told me Jake was in 13th. Ok, that's not great, but I had to get back to Liam to get him ready. Well, Jake made his way forward and finished 7th, which is solid and a good come-back from his bad start. Maybe not his best. In an incredible development, the top 3 in the Men's Cat 4 were all juniors and add Jake's 7th and 4 of the top 7 were between 14 and 16 years old. Hopefully all in the 3/4 race soon (Jake will move to 3/4 starting at DCCX).
So, while Jake was racing, I had to switch Liam's pedals. He didn't want to race on the clip-in pedals. Then I couldn't find his number. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was taking Jake's tights and giving him knee warmers. We never found the numbers so 10 minutes before Liam's race we ran to registration and they let us write his number on the back of an old number with a Sharpie pen. He and Dustin lined up and took off. Liam did ok. I rode with/followed him for the last half of his last lap. (Liam finished 11th and Dustin 9th)
Ok, so then it was supposed to be my time to "warm up" for my race. I got a whole 10 minutes on the trainer before it was time to get off and line up. Oy. This isn't working. So I felt so so, had the same clip in issues as Jake and slipped into 12th behind Jeff Anderson. On the first lap it was going ok, we were right in a group but on the 2nd lap on a little greasy up-hill I was forced to the greasy side and went down. Ugh, so that gapped me off the group. I chased but never made up a lot of time. I was catching Karl Kensinger and with one lap to go I was on his wheel but on the transition off the pavement at high speed on the back side my wheels, which were completely covered in mud, slid out and I went down on the pavement, landing on my hands and left side. So Karl was gone and I just made my way in with no one behind me. I never even checked the results. Probably dead f'ing last. Pathetic. The life of a Junior Soigneur is not conducive to racing well (oh, did I mention I was changing out my rear brakes Saturday night). My left hand is pretty tender now.
Jake then did the 15-18 race at Noon. He did better than last week with the double up. He and Tanner were together most of the race but Jake had some technical bobbles and so finished 4th a few seconds behind Tanner. Not great but he handled the double up much better this week. Justin Mauch rode away and Conner Bell was 2nd, so strong 16-17 year olds were ahead of them.
It was so chaotic I didn't take a single photo or video other than a podium photo of Jake on my phone.
Joe Metro got a photo of Liam HERE
I'm disappointed in my race, but I guess I've committed to the Juniors this year.
other Coppis did well. Kimani Nielsen got another 4th in the 3/4.