Not the way I wanted it to end...

My last cyclocross race of the season.  So far, it had been kind of lack luster and I just decided that this whole season was going to be one giant learning experience. Cue the Michigan State Cyclocross Championship.

This was it, the one last hurrah - now, I had no delusions of winning the State Championship or anything but I wanted to put in a decent effort, cheer on my mates and have a few barley pops with my friends at the after party. None of this was meant to be.

Let's start at the beginning. It was cold... High 20s and I got to the venue really early. So early, I was actually able to get two warm up laps before the first race started.  I completed my warm up triumvirate with one more lap before my race.

I lined up in the second row behind a pretty fast guy so I figured I would get a decent start. And... We were off. A Christmas miracle! The moment I placed my right foot on the pedal it clipped right in!  I was sitting nicely in the top ten as we entered the first turn. After a little meandering, we found ourselves coming up to the biggest obstacle of the coarse; a muddy, severely off-camber section that was impossible to maintain traction on. As we came to it, I figured it would result in quite the bottle-neck (and it did) so I got off and ran the entire thing! I passed at least 3 guys. I remounted and continued on. That's when disaster struck. 

A short descent - nothing tricky and BAM!!! I'm on the ground. Everything kinda went in slow motion as I landed on the ground and saw my bike in the air coming towards me. I rolled out of the way just in time and heard the squealing of brakes and a couple obscenities as the racers behind me tried to avoid my one-man pile-up... I got up, dusted myself off and took inventory. Bike's ok, my hand hurts a bit but I seem fine, I remounted and I couldn't grip my handle bars.... My right hand, no matter how hard I tried, couldn't wrap around my bar or my brake hood. I figured my thumb was broken. My race was done... 5 minutes in and I'm DNF'ing. Sucks.

After visiting the doctor, it seems it's not broken just a bad sprain and some possible ligament damage. I will need to see a specialist to find out...

Not the way I wanted to end my 'cross season - that's for sure.