Sock It To Me?

I ain’t cryin’, but I ain’t Laugh-In either.

This weekend could have been great. It wasn’t.

On Saturday at PumpkinCross in Grafton, I placed 6th out of 19 in the Cat 4 Masters 45+ race. I began the day tied for 1st place on series points but I didn’t get a call-up due to a scoring error that I had brought to the attention of USA Cycling on Friday. Starting in the 2nd row, I never got close to the guys who eventually finished on the podium: Andrew Stevens (Rat City Racers), Anthony James (Team Extreme) and Mark Badger (Brazen Dropouts). I have beaten Stevens and Badger this season, and now I am left to wonder whether I would have had a better result if I had not been forced to start from a disadvantageous position.

Today at Badger Prairie Cross in Verona, I placed 4th out of 13 in the Cat 4 Masters 45+ race. Joseph Frost (unattached) of Rockford IL was 1st, followed by Joe Vadeboncoeur (unattached) of Lake Mills and Christopher West (Lakes Area Physical Therapy). The race sorted out early. Frost was gone on Lap 1. Vadeboncoeur and West dropped me on Lap 2 as I dropped Larry Gundlach (MadCity Racing), who started well but eventually finished in 7th place. Christopher Quinn (Team Magnus) was closing on me late in Lap 4 but ran out of time and had to settle for 5th place. Prizes went to the first 5 finishers and mine was a nice pair of DeFeet cycling socks. The style is something that I will actually wear and even the size is right … never a sure thing with feet as large as mine (12 US / 46 EUR). Taking 4th in the 13-man field gave me 1 more USA Cycling upgrade point. I have earned 9 of the 10 points I need to upgrade to Cat 3.