Not as expected

I raced yesterday at the Hudson to Highlans/Campmor Series finale. It was at Blue Mountain in Peekskill.

The course was incredible, really rocky, technical and flowing. Not alot of climbing, but never really any flat sections. 3 laps ~10 miles

A small spattering of pro/semi-pros showed up (8 to be exact). Off the gun, I missed my pedal and couldn't get my foot in...so I gave chase to the group caught em and was at the tail-end, bobbled on the rocky climb and lost some ground, but had them constantly within reach. Must've banged my rear derailleur on a rock somewhere as it jammed up in the spokes, quickly pulled it out and was on my way, only to have it happen again, this time it took a good 5 or so minutes to get it unstuck and bend the der and the hanger so it wouldn't do it again, by this time I was a ways down, even caught by most of the experts. I pushed it hard on the 2nd lap, and the 3rd lap the chain jumped over again into the spokes, I almost was resorted to walking the course but got it out after another good 5 minutes or so of fighting with it. After that I just took it easy coming in.

Tough day in all...but oh well that's racing. After not having raced on the dirt for a good month or so, I hope to come back stronger in 2 weeks at plattekill for the last race of the season!

At least I hope I will be faster than my dog, I've been doing my easy rides with her off road lately and she is keeping up no problem. Hell after the race on the short ride back to the car I couldn't even keep up with her on the little rise!!

Also, my 3rd edition of This Week in Cycling Podcast is up! Check it out in the iTunes Music Store under Podcasts>This Week in Cycling it's located in the sports section.

For those in the know how here is the xml feed
http://www.jasonhilimire.com/files/podcast.xml