Save Ferris

After the Iceman race, I hopped in the car and drove back to good old Berwyn. I got a great night sleep in my own bed and woke up ready for more dirtbikin'. This time I rolled with the family up to Northbrook for the 8th edition of the ChiCrossCup. We arrived with plenty of time for me to get a serious warm up and get some course recon before the race. After checking out some of the features of the course, it was evident that this was not your average grass crit, this was a serious 'cross race. Hallelujah, we got ourselves a 'cross race. The guys at Flantlandia and Northbrook Bike Club did a fantastic job on the course. I noticed a very tight corner on the first section of singletrack, and I knew it would cause a huge pile up in the first lap, probably for every race. Seeing this I told some of my teammates how important the start was. You have to get there in the first group, it is essential. Taking my own advice I lept ahead for the wholeshot going into the trail. About 8-10 riders back was a huge pileup, trying to get through a narrow corner, that was partially blocked by a tree. Shortly after that the leaders got away and I chased furiously. Every lap I was crashing in the same spot, and in one of the corners I went down hard. As my front wheel slide out, so did my shoulder from its socket. I screamed more in a rage against the pain than the pain itself. I was not a full dislocation, but I think the scream kept it from going all the way. I caught back up to Greg, who responded 'Jesus are you all right' and all he got for a response was yeah let's roll. We did our best to catch the leaders, and got close, but never quite caught up. Hopefully we can improve on that this weekend.