Sucker Brook Fruition

It's definitely groovy to start the season with a win. Before the start, I really had no idea what to expect in terms of my performance potential at last Sunday's Sucker Brook cross race. I thought the field was reasonably big for the first one of the fall - and because it wasn't a Verge series race. I surprised myself by being first into the first turn out of the start! I have never led at the beginning of a cx race before. It was a strange feeling, and one much too reminicent of my recent crit performances, when I've spent too much time on the front. Three of us got an early gap on the group which stuck through to the finish. The big drama in this race was that I made my life pretty hard for myself by making a costly mistake just a couple of laps in. I actually crashed REMOUNTING! I'm not exactly sure how I managed it, but my foot slipped or something and I bit the grass after the barriers. I popped up immediately, but noticed that my chain had jumped on the inside and managed to lodge itself perfectly under the 3rd eye chain watcher... so that left me off my bike, wrestling the damn thing out. I figured that was it. The girls I I was riding with would attack and I'd be unable to catch them if they worked together. Luckily, I felt pretty comfortable with my lead on the rest of the field. A friend gave me splits for the rest of the race. First I was 30 seconds behind, then 20, then 10, and I punched it, knowing I could bridge that. The whole chase I managed to stay calm (I never even cursed while I yanked my chain out) and kept my riding steady and clean. It worked. After several laps, I caught on. At the end, I was able to dive the last corner inside She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named :) and then, being in a bit lower gear, worked my fast leg speed to accelerate up the short finish straight. It was a very close match sprint, but the victory - she was sweet! The moment I played in my mind so many times over was finally realized.