luck and negative luck

skipping cyclocross races every-other weekend makes me really relish the ones i make. it wasn't a bad strategy for the first few. i think the time off gave me some nice recovery time. oh, and also i had to do real work. but that's all boring crap, so here's the part where i tell a funny story:

southern pines. first lap starts with a scary start on a narrow 180 degree u-turn on pavement. i was scared and slow and hung out at the back. we got back to nice, safe grass, but for some reason, on a nice, wide straightaway, there was a big crash that tangled up most of the field. slackers like me in the back rejoiced and jumped up to some nice places. this is the beauty of cyclocross. weird stuff happens and you seize such an opportunity, if the opportunity should arise. so this is all great, until, about 2 laps later, just as i've bridged up to a useful group, someone breaks the "caution" tape that marks the course. tape goes into the cassette and around and around and around. okay, i gotta stop, pull all that crap out, then get back on the bike and try to chase down all the dudes who passed me. tivo forward a couple more laps. i'm trying to bolt past some dude across the barriers, throw my bike down too roughly, and drop the chain. and, yeah, so at this point, i'm done. not like DNF done. DNF is not cool. but i'm basically just riding out the rest of the race, trying to get fit for the next race in a couple of weeks.

that's luck.