... One more brutal, loose grinder of a climb, a cyclocross style grass descent through private property, and I would be at the last aid station, with a bottle handup waiting from the man Brad Wiggs and less rugged roads ahead for the remainder. Except I smacked a hidden rock 50 feet from the bottom of the descent, which blew out my front tire and almost pitched me over the handlebars. Skidding to a stop at the bottom, I got out my CO2 inflator and tire plugs, but a sticky valve stem and sizable hole in the sidewall kept the plug strategy from working. The first chase group zipped by 2:30 later as I removed the wheel, booted the tire, threw a tube in and got it aired up, with the help of @jasonstrohbehn and a few other @pirate.cycling.league folks from the 50 mile race who were passing through at the time. That seven minute pit stop got me back into the race with another strong group, including Brennen, Laurens Ten Dam, Lance Haidet, Innokenty Zavyalov, Logan Owen, and Tanner Ward. I immediately hit the gas, ready to go for broke and leave it all on the course, but both my legs cramped up on the first climb out of the aid station and forced me to temper my effort. I pedaled through the cramps, and the group worked well together, but there was no pep left, and soon Inno and Lance got tangled up in a corner and went down. Owen still had some juice left, pushing it over another set of steep kickers and tight descents around mile 85 and whittling it down to him, me, and Wertz. A three mile section of 30-40 mph headwind that felt like 10 miles took serious perseverance and teamwork, but we made into the Sugar Creek valley with enough left in the tank to catch Pete and Cole Paton. We were now miraculously in position to battle for 7th place, but cramping kept me from sticking with Wertz and Stetina as they punched it up the last two climbs into town before the finish. I rolled in alone for 9th place, happy to have come away with a top ten result in spite of the mechanical, but disappointed to have missed the podium after having been in such a promising position. 📸 by @photowil