Early season cross

The first few weekends of cross have been pretty good. I've been getting acceptable results, and even pulled home some cash one night. I've been sick for two straight weeks and not riding during the week, but racing hard on the weekends...and I don't seem to be getting any better. Imagine that!
The first weekend of local cross was in Lenexa at the sar-ko park. New venue, new course, and new racers. All of the field sizes have increased this year, and so has the speed of a lot of the dudes. It's an brawl to get the hole-shot, and I'm having to fight the whole race to get a top-10 finish. I love it! I got 8th at Lenexa, and felt like that's where I belonged. After a terrible start, and even worse first lap, I put in a hard effort to break into 10th and pick a few guys off during the middle part of the race. The last 2 laps I just held my position. I wasn't going to move up, and I sure wan't going to let the 2 guys behind me catch me. I actually had control of my spot in the race for the last 2 laps...if only that spot was 1st place instead of 8th.
The next local race was another new venue out in Topeka. This will be the race that all other races are compared to all year (until Boss Cross 1). It was a night race out at Hearltand Park race track, a groomed dirt track. Great venue, with a very fun a fast course. This was the first race where a 1x10 almost didn't cut it for me. Once again I got a slow start and had to play catch up the whole race. Fortunately, I had the power to pull away from the majority of the field. The dirt track was extremely fast, and I was nearly spun out in my 11t on every lap. The last lap I buried myself trying to catch first place and ended up in 2nd by about :06 seconds. Still made $50, so the drive to Topeka was worth it. The only bad part is after racing at 7:30pm and hanging around for a while, then driving home, I still hadn't recoverd for the 10:30 race the next morning in Lawrence.
The next day was Chris Cross out at Clinton Lake. Good sized field, and I had a much better start. Going into the second lap I was in 4-5 pulling away with the lead group. 20 meters after the pit I hit a huge hole in the course and my front brake seized up. My wheel wouldn't spin at all, and it took me til after the race to figure out what happened. I ran the 500 meters to the pit grabbed my pit bike and it was time to play catch up again. I managed to reel in 15 or so riders to pull of 16th place...not pleased. It turns out that my left brake/shift hood had moved and it pulled the brake cable tight. I guarantee that every bike I worked on that week was working flawless, but my own bikes never get the attention they deserve.
Until next time.