To be honest I was not expecting much from today’s cross race. I think part of it was because I am used to racing in a Colorado field after the past several years and my training has not been where it needs to be or I expect to be in the last 4 months. But I was pleasantly surprised today. Let me start from the beginning though… This morning I got everything ready and loaded up to head to work. 
After putting in 5 hours at work I headed to the races with Janelle and Katelyn, my number one and two fans. I couldn’t have been set up any better since I was riding a brand spanking new Trek Cronus CX bike, and with a ride like that there were no excuses of issues with a bike. 
With a couple of warm up laps under my belt I took my backup wheels to the pit and headed to the start line. Position was not the greatest since they were calling my name (oops) as the last rider to the line since they wanted an early start for the final race of the day. With the start of the race I weaved through the field and hit the first corner about 8 back and the fun was just getting under way! For 5 laps 3rd through 9th place stuck together. Biding my time I sat in for 3 laps and let 2 guys put in the lions share of the work. Half way through lap four the leading rider bobbled and another rider attacked on the pavement. I responded with ease and stuck to his wheel for half a lap. The surge lost one of our 6 riders and we were down to five. We stayed this way for the next several laps and with 2 laps to go I was sitting second wheel and the guy in front of me eased off at the roughest part of the course and there was an attack from one rider. Everyone sat and let him go through the twisty part of the course until he had a 5 second gap. Out of the final tight corner I attacked and was in no mans land for half a lap constantly reeling in the guy off the front. I caught him and attacked
immediately on the long gradual climb of the course but he stuck my wheel and sat on. With a little more than one lap to go I turned to him and said he was going to have to work with me to keep the gap on the riders chasing behind. He obliged and pulled nearly half a lap. I took over on the narrow single track section and lead the rest of the lap. With 3 turns to go he tried coming around and I accelerated to hold him off and came out of the last turn first wheel where I knew I wanted to be if it was going to come down to a sprint finish. I did not wait for him to attack and went as hard as I could out of the corner with 300 yards to go. I managed to hold him off and get third by a little over a bike length on him. Not a bad way to start off and a great thing to boost confidence for a great deal of roller riding to come.
BRADY IrWIN 
