CCCX Final XC, #9, Fort Ord, 8/23/2014

By Mark Giblin

I had a great weekend in my small world of racing, I won my final series race at the CCCX- XC (cat 3) age group Saturday. I also won the series which was 9 races total, starting in February. The breakdown was 3 first place finishes, 4 - second places, 1 third place and 1 sixth place, ( I know, I was tired, over trained, did not have a good day on the 6th place finish).

To say the least I was a little stressed going into the last race series because it was double points and you have to finish, I only needed 5th place or better but I was more worried about a breakdown or crash. That being said, I was on my last lap leading and about 1 mile from the line (on the same down hill section where my closest competitor broke his collar bone and two ribs on race number 5) and a 15 year old Junior (racing for 8th place +/-) rider past me by where there was nothing but 6" of beach sand and bump my handle bars pushing me further into a bad line. I used my Jim Langley voice (without swearing) and explained to him that I did not appreciate that and that he should wait 20 yards for the opening next time.....he apologized.

The end result is that I won by 2 seconds.

I would like to thank Mark E. for continuously putting the work outs together and the motivation/encouragement throughout the year. I would also like to thank Scott, Jim, George & Matt for keeping me honest on the workouts and pushing me hard.

 
Thanks for a great season,
 
Mark