Ed Sanders Cross 2008 race report

Ed Sanders Cross
Buckeystown, MD
September 28, 2008
B Men

I'd never done this race, but I'd heard really good things about it. It's in a lily farm called Lilypons- basically a series of small ponds with different lilies growing in each. And the course goes between all the ponds, and on some access roads around the property. Ed Sanders used to work at Lilypons, and passed away much too young. Lilypons honors his memory by holding a race there every year, and proceeds go to fund his son's education. Good cause, good course!

The pre-ride pretty much took care of the clean bike- mud, gravel, and grass had collected everywhere. I knocked as much as I could off before staging...

At the start, I'm pretty far to the back of staging. But I hear my name called, and I end up on the second row. I had finished the previous year's MABRA series in the top 15, so I got the callup. I had no idea they'd be doing that- it worked to my advantage, though, as I went from starting on the 6th or 7th row to 2nd- there was a turn early on that would be critical.

Off the start, I'm in good position. A little further back than I wanted to be, maybe 5th or 6th. But I made it through the first tight chicane okay- didn't take the line I wanted, but stayed in the top 10.

After the first lap, I'd moved up a bit to about 8th, but the top 2 were in a group, and the next 4 were in a group. I was aiming to pick off somebody each lap, and I almost succeeded, but not without incident. A teammate had told me about a water hole that was very deep off to the left side of a fireroad descent. I saw it on every lap, and avoided it until I was about to pass one of the guys I was chasing- I took a slightly wide line so I could see around him, and my line pushed me into the hole. It may have been about 1.5 feet deep of cold and muddy water. It didn't stop me, just caught me off guard. But all the ground I'd made up, I had to make up again. I rode the entire course for 3 laps by myself and gave everything I had on the last 2, and caught one guy each lap, though... and ended up in 6th, almost catching the group of 2 in front of me on the last lap.