SCX #2 Arlington Airport

Another race down, and it was another warm and dry (read that as dusty!) weekend.

Returning to Arlington Airport, the site of last year's state Championships, was this years second installment of the SCX series. The course was a little altered with multiple passes through a sand field that had been dumped on the grounds, but it was still mostly the same - flat long straightaways punctuated with grassy corners and dusty, bouncy forest sections.

Coming off the race from last week I thought I would be able to pull a good result here, however this past week I managed to get a cold and hadn't put in much in the way of training, so it was going to be a crap shoot. Warming up I felt good and got a good starting placement from my 5th place finish last week. After a very long 15 minutes of sitting in the start grid due to some course trouble we were off! I entered the first corner in 4th place and manged to stick with the leaders until the first trip through the sand hills (about 2/3 of the way through the lap). At this point I was just red-lined even though it wasn't that far into the course - the sickness had taken it's toll. I struggled to stay within sight of the leaders for the remainder of the race, slowly losing position as racers would sneak past and I was unable to expend more energy to stay with them.

By the start of the last lap I had fallen to 12th place but still had a decent gap to the next group. Coming into the long back drag-strips I was passed by the leaders of the master's race that had started behind us. I figured now was as good as any time to kick up the gas and leave it all on the course. I jumped into their wind-shadow and before coming back into the course we had passed one of my riders (so I was now in 11th). We cut through the remainder of the course and almost managed to catch another rider before the end. I don't remember feeling so completely spent at the end of race before, and I hope that with the sickness past I can get back on track for next weekend. The 11th place today was a little disappointing given how close I was to winning the race last weekend, however due to upgrades and riders skipping races I am 2nd overall in the series so far, so can't be upset about that!

Congrats to our Bikesale riders today -

Dave Matthews - 28th in Men's singlespeed

See you next weekend for Starcrossed at Marymoor!