I had a successful race at the CX season opener this past weekend. The venue was in Eagle, WI at the Kettle Moraine Ranch. Except for the occasional pile of horse manure, this venue was pretty awesome in that the course weaved around the surrounding fields, hills, and buildings including a long run-up on a set of wooden stairs (see picture above courtesy of Nikki Fraizer) . The rain made the course challenging, but more so for the early races. By our 2:15 start time, there was at least 1 firm path around the entire course with a few sections having multiple good lines. I was a bit nervous about racing Masters this season because the age groups were changed around enough that I didn't know who would be racing the 35+ category (used to be 40+). Once we lined up it was obvious to me that the competition was for real. Jeramey Rodriguez took the holeshot with me grabbing his wheel. He was riding a little tight so I worked my around and built a pretty decent lead early on. Later I found out that Jeramey had several bike changes due to mechanicals = there will be those days. This lead got me winning the 2nd lap prime that consisting of a set of CX tires, a boot shaped mug, and $50 cash (put up by fellow Master racer Christan Griego). How awesome was that! Anyhow, there were still many more laps to go so I just focused on working my way through the Cat 1-2 field (they had started 1 min ahead of us). At about the 1/2 point of the 65 min race I saw last year's State Champion, David Peters, moving up from behind. Dave is typically a slow starter but really knows how to meter his efforts when the course is soft & sticky. He rode 3rd wheel for about 1 lap with a Cat 1-2 racer between us. I was pretty gassed and had settled into more of a time trial pace. Dave saw this and made a pretty significant surge going up one of the long grassy climbs to pass both us, and create a gap that I couldn't close. I still kept the effort steady, but managed to drop my chain in the process allowing the gap to grow larger. So that's all she wrote. Finished about 1 min behind Dave. We had passed 7 of the Cat 1-2 racers along the way, and had a decent size gap over 3rd place finisher Paul Roltgen. Added another $40 to my winnings; looks like Daddy gets a new pair of shoes! Seriously, I really needed a new pair of MTB/CX shoes. Looking forward to a well contested WCA Cyclocross Series in the Masters category. Thanks for reading!