Sonora Soreness from Bob B.

I thought of a few other names for this race report, Sonora Road Rash or Sore-nora Road Race, but in the end decided to keep it simple.
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I woke up at 5:00am with the still pitch black sky sprinkling a light mist and thinking to myself that maybe I should just go back to sleep. The thought of Nelson's poetic plea to get people to the race and the HTFU emblazoned on the neck of my jersey steeled my nerve and I made the two hour ride to Jamestown.
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The day started off ominously for me. Prior to the start of the race the tire on my rear wheel developed a bulge in the sidewall. Minor but not something I wanted to roll out on. The only other tire that I had was a heavy training tire but Lee let me borrow one from him. (Thanks Lee) I heard about the slippery railroad tracks and that a couple people had fallen already but didn't think too much of it.
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We start the race and everyone is a bit tentative and taking it easy. We get to the first set of railroad tracks which cross the road at about a 45 degree angle and sure enough my tires go over it squirelly but I avoid falling. At the second railroad section, again at 45 degrees, I slip to the back of the group to take it as slowly as possible and about eight guys go down in front of me including Nelson and Lee but Mark and I make it over safely. Being at the back of the group I need to hustle a bit to get back on the group but do it in short order.
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Halfway through the loop there is a moderately steep decent that ends at 180 degree turn over a slighly pot-holed one lane bridge. They had a person on the side of the road yelling "slow down, sharp turn" since you couldn't see the bridge until you made a sweeping left just prior to the sharp right over the bridge. With the roads slick and your wheels wet, this was an interesting section of the course.
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It was on the second lap first set of tracks that I went down. I was being very careful but the guy in front of me slid a little and the slightest movement of my front wheel and "WHAM" I was down along with another guy behind me. Shoulder sore, hip scraped, hand cut, ego bruised. But I got up, checked my bike and chased to get back on, all the while cursing this course and the weather.
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Took me almost the entire rest of the lap to get back into the group. I know there are only two more trips over the tracks. One guy took off after the last cross of the finish line. I wasn't too concerned as long as we kept him in sight. Once we all slowed at the final track crossing, I couldn't see him. I moved up to the front and said that we have a guy off the front. Half the guys said "I know" and the other half said "no we don't". Anyway, we did so I was hoping to get some organization going to pull this guy in but after only few guys were willing to roll through the front everyone seemed to settle in for the race for second.
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At this point I just got pissed. Three hours of rain, mud, and crashes to race for second? I moved to the front and pulled the group through most of the rest of the race. I decided that I was going to push it, attack a couple times and see what happened. I figured there were a couple of outcomes. One of my attacks would stick or some of the group might get shed off the back giving Nelson, Mark and me a better chance to place higher. I did hope that some people would come up and take a pull but that really didn't happen. I launched two good attacks that got me some good separation but no one came with me and since I was already doing most of the work at the front of the group I couldn't make them stick. The finish was at the top of a hill and I had very little in me to try to fight for a win. I rolled through about eighth without a win but with the satisfaction that I was the most aggressive rider at the end and that I Fred would have been proud of my HTFU effort.
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Today I am sore but healing and glad that I made the trip.
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Bob