This should be a short one as I didn't fall and didn't have any real power.
Campton Hills is the usual Halloween race. Many people dress up on the sidelines and especially on the bike. Most of the costumes are in the later races but even in the 45+ race there was a guy in a full bunny suit. There was an appearance by the Allez Omi Opi fan as well.
It had rained a bunch during the week but the course turned out to not be too bad. Us old farts go early in the morning so there is dew even if there isn't rain as the temps drop. I put on mud tires considering last week fall fest and that seemed to help. I also finally warrantied some really old Reynolds wheels and got a deal on some ATR 700's. 23mm internal width which should also be good for gravel tires (Rough Road anyone?).
The night before the race we went to a birthday party and while I went to bed later than I should have I think it was the patio party chill that zapped my legs. I could feel it in warm up and especially at the start.
The start itself went well. I picked a left side lane because there was a right bend initially and didn't want to get pinched. I clipped in right away and made good progress but by the time we got to the first u-turn/pinch point I could tell the legs had no pop.
I held fairly steady and only people with lower numbers were passing me (lower meaning started ahead of me - I was 5th row). 2 guys crashed on the first barriers (which were low by barrier standards). The only real technical part of the course was an off camber u-turn uphill. I put a foot down 4 of the 5 laps not losing too much time and botched the other time completely.
I said I was gonna keep this shorter so I'll just say I kept fairly steady the whole race and finished 33rd out of 53. My best placement at this race in previous years was 40th (also my previous high water mark in general). The bummer is that if I had the same legs as the Glenwood race I would have been probably a minute faster and moved up a few places. This was a course for power.
Bryan C was also out there with me in the 45+. Mark M., Fran, George and Bob did the 55+ right before us where Fran was on the 2nd step in the 65+. I caught some of the last two laps and George and Bob had a nice battle going on.
Nationals is the week of Dec 7th. Hope to see some of you out there.
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