Fair Hill cross, Fair Hill MD

It was a new course for this race; same location, different course. I was expecting a grass crit. I was wrong. Lots of abrupt ups and downs, some elevation change, that coupled with a head wind, was a beast. Off camber stuff, some mud, a little bit of gravel, a big log, a run up, and a long start/finish straight. About 50 of us Masters B's went off (biknben, K-man) and headed up the hill. I was up with the 1st group for a while , then things slowed down through the off camber turns. A lot of them were only passable single file, and if you got behind someone with less skill than yourself, you were hosed (me). One really nasty one I chose to run; it was faster by far. My legs were not feeling especially good, but after things got sorted out a bit, I felt like I was in a decent position (for me). I was pretty much right. I kept swapping places with a couple of guys from Evolution racing; they'd get ahead of me on the back side of the course and I would pass them up the start/finish stretch. I had it all set in my mind as we went into the last lap; I'd keep them close then pass them at the end. One small problem, though; as I remounted after that nasty off camber turn, I didn't do it very smoothly and coupled with the fact that it was on the side of a hill, I rolled my rear tubie. I tried to get it back and at least finish. I was about to pack it in when I gave it one last try; I got it on. Took off and tried to regain as much ground as I could, but ran out of time. I lost at least 5 places, probably more, but still finished 35th out of 42, which, all things considered, I'll take.
Loved the new course; ranks right up there with Granogue and Rockville bridge in terms of difficulty but still really fun. I had my tires dialed in really well and found some good lines after a lap or so. Effing mechanicals. Oh well, that's cross!