Well, I apologize for not putting up a post-GMSR blog. I was still trying to figure out if I had died or not. For those interested, here is the recap I sent out to my team after the ordeal.

After GMSR, I hung up the slick tires and tried this weird event called Cyclocross, which involves throwing skinny mountain bike tires on a road bike and riding it places you probably shouldn't.

It's amazing.

My first four races came in late September/early October at Deer Farm and King Pine CX, venues which are roughly a half hour and half-mile from my house respectively.

I entered the Cat 3/4 and 4/5 races at each event, and by some miracle placed top-ten in each. (DF: 5th 4/5, 9th 3/4. KP 2nd 4/5, 7th 3/4)

The courses were tough in each their own way. Deer Farm was a much more technical, sprinty course than King Pine, which featured a monster climb 3/4 of the way through the lap, followed by a descent with a mini-headwall before the finish.

I won beer for my podium placing.

Fast forward to Hallowweekend, and I made the trek down to Hampton Falls for Orchard Cross, a day that started at 4:30 in the morning. Arriving at the venue before sunrise is something I haven't done since my Eastern Cup racing years, but at least it was warm this time. My race was the first of the day, and the dew hadn't quite lifted by the time we were on course. Early corners were slick, and sprinting 4-wide into them saw some (including myself) go down in the first couple laps. At least we figured it out by the pump-track.

Regardless, I found my pack with my teammate Ben and we held a good pace for(read: heckled) each other for the first three laps, sitting just in sight of the lead pack of 5.

After a little bit, I made my move heading up the straightaway and entered no-man's-land for almost a lap before branching up.

At this point, CX races become a contest of who can make it the longest without something breaking or crashing. In this case, over the last two laps, the group of 5 dropped to just 2 between two crashes and a puncture.

For the final half-lap, I hung on to the leader's wheel, and didn't try anything until I saw him fumble while remounting his bike after a set of barriers. I tried sprinting past him on the outside lane of the course (which at this point was between rows of berry bushes), but he headed me off in the last corner, taking the lead into the finish straight.

After eight years of racing, you learn to always take it to the line.

I haven't sprinted this hard since I duked it out my junior year against my teammate in Cross Country, and felt like I was going to die afterward. Looking at the finish line photo, the leader started posting up just before the line, and I was able to come around him and take the win by less than a bike length.

This was a huge season for me. I made some big leaps towards where I want to be with my skiing, and found even more things to work on and look forward to for next year.

We left off after the Middlebury Carnival and Cheri Walsh races, my last 3-peat weekend for a while. From there, myself and the team packed up and went west, back to my former home of Lake Placid, NY for the Saint Lawrence Carnival.

This year, the SLU Carnival played host to the EISA Championships, as well as being the NCAA Preview for those who qualified.

The weekend kicked off with a 10km Skate for the men, held on the notorious 1980 Olympic Trail "Ladies 5k." This course features a twisting 1.5km downhill, with athletes reaching speeds of 60km/hr, only after a 3.5km long climb, with a total climb of around 180m. Per lap.

This day was not my day to crack the top-40, but I was not far out. I placed 44th overall, but was only a minute out of 30th, 90 seconds to 21st. So even though the place wasn't there, the pack was so close for this one it was exciting.

Saturday, on the other hand, did not go so well. It was a 20km Classic Mass Start on the same course, and the field got really spread out. After being caught up in a crash right off the start, I played catch-up for the rest of the race, but to no avail. The adrenaline wore off after a couple of laps, and I just fought to bring it home. I ended up closing my collegiate season with a 55th place finish on what is by far the hardest course I've raced.

The next day was the Lake Placid Loppet, and though I was not racing, I still ended up skiing more than some of the racers. I stayed in LP with Silke to be her wax test/moral support as she tackled her longest race to-date, a 50km Classic.

She survived! And won a huge amount of maple syrup for being first in her age group!

And because one marathon is never enough, the following weekend, the two of us travelled to Bretton Woods for the Bretton Woods Nordic Marathon, my first long race. It was a fun race, and at the end of 42km, I was in 34th place. It was nice to be able to have a race that I could just kick it into one gear and go for a while (2:20:11.1), and not have to worry about splits or making a move, I had plenty of time.

But the season wasn't over yet! Before spring break took hold, I jumped into the 2nd annual Cochran's NordiCross Race in Huntington, VT. Last year they didn't have me in the results, so I made myself known this year.

This year I came in second overall, first in my age group, was the first collegiate skier by almost a minute and a half, and walked away with two wax irons, some chocolate, and was one of only three people to break the 10 minute barrier on this years course.

It was a good year.

I have decided to forgo this years collegiate cycling season due to something called academics and choosing to take spring training easy.

Here's to the next time.

.tl