Shawano, WIThis is the first year for this race and very unlike myself I decide to skip pre-riding to stay home and get some stuff done around the house. (which I still can't decide if it was worth it yet, I'll tell you why later)
Aimee and I got up early on Sunday morning, packed some food and gear and we took off for Shawano, WI. With a 3 hour drive behind me I was pretty much a nonenergetic rider at the start. The course sounded pretty boring from several pre-ride reports from some of my friends. The most challenging part was going to be riding through a small culvert that went under the highway, we had to ride through it twice. You can check out the pictures of that on my photo site.
Don counted down and yelled GOOOOO!!!!!! like he aways does and we were off. I quickly realized I had a bad cleat on my right shoe, which was causing my right foot to constantly come off the pedal. This plagued me all race. Then about a mile into the race the 
dude in front of me puts his bike into some bushes and I rammed my front wheel right into his rear end! That took me a good 20 seconds to get untangled from and the leaders were gone...out of sight at that point!
dude in front of me puts his bike into some bushes and I rammed my front wheel right into his rear end! That took me a good 20 seconds to get untangled from and the leaders were gone...out of sight at that point! Next was riding through the culvert, I made it with no problem. Than on to the 4 laps that I hadn't seen prior to riding at race speed. The first lap I had to take it a little easy since I didn't really know what to expect. I was still feeling sluggish from the drive up also, but by the beginning of the third lap, I was feeling great. I started to catch people and pass them. I followed the guy that ultimately finished behind me for the entire third lap. On the final lap I really kicked it and took off, I really felt good.
I had no idea that the guy who finished thrid was less then a minute ahead of me otherwise I would have done a few things differently and maybe I could have caught him at that finish.
It was a cool overcast day, the trees were changing and the competition was light, and I pulled a 4th place finish out and received my first medal in Comp Class. Not a bad day! (If I had pre-rode I could have a least had third)
