Nobody wins when you're playin' Bloody Knuckles.

Actually, the course tape pole won this round. I was ski-racing one of these a bit close and re-opened a scar from earlier this year. I should get some gloves.

I went deep yesterday, as promised. I had a good start, probably top 25 and settled in carefully to a pace I could deal with without blowing sky high. I faded back to about 40th at the worst and battled back in the later part and won a sprint for 31st. All in all, it was a pretty good race considering the brutal lack of oxygen in the air.

I really liked yesterdays course. It was truly a classic track with all the best features that a UCI event should have. Lots of grass with straight and twisty parts, some fast off camber, a paved climb, 1 set of barriers into a short runup, a grassy climb and a wicked sand section. It was very windy, which did a lot to shape the race at the front and throughout the rest of the field. If this thing was about 1000' lower it would be one of my favorites!

I'm pretty glad to be back home, I'm feeling pretty beat down yet again. I feel lucky to have survived this weekend after my goofy crash, Simon's hard crash and worst of all, Josie Beggs gnarly collision with a spectator. From what I know, a kid jumped out in front of her and she went down hard on her face. She broke her cheekbone in 4 places and needs reconstructive surgery. What a shitty freak accident- I have nightmares about this kind of thing and I sure hope Josie gets good care and has a quick recovery.