A call up

Two races done, one rib damaged (repairing well), one week off. The ridiculous thing was that my damage came after the last race when I wasn't paying attention while riding slowly back to my car. The only thing that you can do for damaged ribs is not to laugh too much, don't sneeze, don't cough.

The last race, cyclocross at a Central Park (not the Central Park) turned out to be a loaded race on a tough course. Very rough grass sections, mercifully dry, with a lot of rises and sharp, fast turns made for a very hard effort. I gave pretty much what I had but was disappointed not to catch the guy ahead of me - a frantic sprint effort to catch him at the finish left me 1/2 a tire width short. The rider ahead of him led by 6 seconds leaving me 6 seconds from 13th place, the field median. 

The highlight of the day was getting a call up. As I've described before, this is a rare privilege for the proletariat but the start was wide enough for the small field to only fill two and a bit rows.  The moment of fame was great.  Seeding for this race was done based on the NJBA standings.  As my semi-pro teammate and I have discussed, placing in this competition is a greater accolade than you'd expect from a NJ state series.  There's no requirement of state residency to be granted points (and a placing in this competition) so it could be thought of a national competition.  Furthermore, there's not even a US residency requirement as all that's required is a 1 day USA Cycling membership which means that Belgian ringers can participate for a princely $10.  As such, it could be described as a world championship of sorts.  A call up in that is really something.