If you go [with a break], you can either win or not win

"If you go [with a break], you can either win or not win. If you don't go for it, you definitely won't win.” –Jens Voigt

This weekend I started my race in the middle of the field. The days of a front line call-up are over now that I’m racing Category 4. At Providence, I played it safe at the start and lost places. This time I decided to be aggressive, hold my position, race “hard” start to finish and take my chances on blowing up. I made it half way through the third curve when I suddenly had the sensation of being upside-down. I remember how blue the sky was – it had been cloudy the day before the race. Thud! I was on my back in the middle of the field of racers. The bike lying next to me wasn't mine. “Where’s my bike?”

Some random guy was trotting upstream in the flow of racers to hand me my bike. Without pause, I superman mounted and re-entered the race. Peddling away from the scene of the “accident” I started to assess the damage. My bike seemed fine. My chain obviously stayed in place. The shifters were aligned. I was missing some skin from my left knee. Other than my knee, I’m okay. Bottom line, that crash was no big deal in comparison to the mountain biking crashes I've endured. Two days later though, my ankle is stiff, my back tight and I have a sore right buttock.

Jen Voigt says going with the break is “just logic”. I cannot argue the logic; I can however question the return on investment. The investment being the stiff ankle, a tight back and a sore right buttock; the return being a smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-the-pack finish. For me, being smack dab in the middle at the finish is very satisfying. I value that satisfaction as being worth the stiff ankle, tight back and sore buttock. I’m guessing that not everyone will agree with me – it might just be the mountain biker side of my brain typing – but I’m going to hold my position and race hard from start to finish from here on out. Not necessarily because it’s logical, because it’s satisfying.