Granogue: Challenging Day Sealed with a Crash

Granogue is an awesome race held at a spectacular hilly venue on the Dupont estate in Delaware horse country. The course is technical and I knew going in I needed to race it clean to have a shot at doing well. Off the line, I tucked in behind Kerry Barnholt (the one to beat), then came around to take the hole shot and lead the upper part of the course, which was a defensive move on my part given Kerry's technical prowess. Then I bobbled on the off-camber switchbacking descent (which was really silly because since I was leading I could have gone as slow as I wanted), and Kerry was gone. I drove it hard on the pavement with Mo Bruno on my wheel, wanting us to work together, but could not quite close the gap. Mo crashed and I was riding alone for a few laps, conscious of being close to my limits and that Rebecca Wellons was chasing me. I tried to get some recovery while I held the gap, but Rebecca bridged up (on the pavement!) with two-to-go and then gapped me. I was "in difficulty," said in my brother's best Phil Liggett imitation, conscious of Megan Monroe and Mo behind me, but still in the race for second. I pushed it over the top of the ride-up after the descent and put on the power on the fast downhill where I had being gaining ground all day (after losing it on the switchbacks). And I ATE IT. I have no idea what happened, but it was a pretty big crash. I was fine but shaken up and it took me a while to get back on the bike. I rode the last lap and finished, but came in 11th. Kerry won solidly, Rebecca completed her fantastic ride for 2nd, and Megan took 3rd ahead of Mo and my teammate Melanie Swartz, who is clearly finding her form. I'm not sure what the moral of the story is given that I have no idea why I crashed, but what can I do but rally and go for it today?