In the matter of minutes it looked as if my cyclocross season was over. A build up for weeks, intervals, racing, resting, then culminating on one perfect cyclocross weekend then ending in one giant thud and crack. The thud was a wood post the crack was my body. Preriding and warming up is a ritual to me, perhaps even more fun and important to me than the actual race. I slow warm up lap looking at the lines, calculating corners, seeing the spots to pass and recording the moments where my strengths should be played and weakness shown. Next up is to do the slow lap FAST, race pace, hitting the corners and spots that my mind recorded as if I was racing. Trying the lines that I think might be faster, the areas where I know I might be forced to run, the one legged BMX style turn. This weekend was no different, in fact it was amplified because of the magnitude of the race course which was top notch, the competition and last but not least the weather and conditions which was sloppy, rideable and greasy.

Pre ride lap #2 – I hit it all just right and then in one lapse of concentration it all ended. I slipped and slided though the lap as i had planned, as I had envisioned and as I charged up the finishing stretch and on to the first greasy section as I did the lap before I took my eye off the track, the brain drifted and so did I. I slipped through fast and I steered the bike I over compensated and clipped a wood post at 100% effort – crack goes the wood post and pop goes my body but I am ok, or so I thought. No big deal, I have crashed before and it is always ok, in the mud and slop it is almost expected. I remounted and pushed on, through the next corner and into the pain. I pull on the handlebars and there it is a twinge in my side, my ribcage is not right. I suffer through the rest of the lap hoping that the pain will go away but it just increases and I drive the bike around the mess I realize I just ended my weekend, in one blink of the eye the weeks leading up to this race are moot.
I role back to the car muddy, bloody and disappointed after all these years of racing and steering a bike I made a very rookie mistake and I paid. I sat in my folding chair with friends nearby looking at the mud on my shoes and blood on my hand and I concede to the USGP, it beat me before I even entered the ring.

I am now a spectator. Now buy a shirt.