2019 US Cup, Bonelli Park, Day II: Generation Gap

It was not what they had, rather it was what they lacked that mattered. At least that is what I convinced myself made the difference. The younger riders came swooping around this slightly off-camber turn with far more abandon, less caution, less temerity than the older riders because they were less burdened - no lifetime account of crashes working against them, clouding their reasoning, obscuring the idea of cause and effect.

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While the Elite UCI racers would return for some short track racing in the afternoon, the morning was filled with cross country races for the non-UCI Pro and Category 1 racers, followed by the Cat 2 and Cat 3s. That they were not household names really did not matter - two-up sprints to finish one spot ahead of the guy you were battling for the previous three laps ended with the same exhaustion scratched across faces you may have seen a day earlier. If they did not wear that disguised look of bravado at the bottom of that rocky descent, the look was one of relief, the barely-in-control-but-I-survived look, a certain nervous grin or set to the eyes. 

the look of a racer

a fraction of a second earlier this was a fist bump, now it looks as if #658 is telling Reggie Miller to "keep back, keep back."

if you don't finish exhausted, you didn't put enough into it.

A selection of ninety-eight photos are in the race album - a few from the Pro / Cat 1 race, but most from the Cat 2 / Cat 3 race.