Cory Williams' Race Report from CBR #1

First race back and I'm already having problems. When I got to the start line I was missing one of the pads in my back brake. I didn't want to miss the race so I didn't go get a new one. I didn't mind not having brakes—after all, they just slow you down, right? I felt really good in the race—went with some early breaks and also chased a few down. From the outset, our plan was to help my brother Justin win, while also making sure that I looked good for the national team coach. In the middle of the race I decided to follow one of my old team mates, Alexander V. Unfortunately, I hit a bump in the road and rammed my knee into my stem. It hurt so bad that I fell from 10th place to 80th! As I was moving back toward the front I knew that Justin would push me—it took a while but it happened. It took around 20 minutes to get back up to the front, but I couldn't hear how much time we had left in the race. The next time by I finally heard that there were five laps. I thought to myself, "Finally!" It wasn't too difficult to stay in the top ten positions during the closing laps of the of the race, but it was kind of scary without rear brakes (but nothing I couldn't handle). On the second-to-last lap I followed two guys that tried to go off the front, but we were caught by the group entering the third turn. Back in the pack, I moved to the front and started a lead out for the Pista Palace team because they were short on teammates and my brother was behind them. I took them all the way through to turn one on the last lap and hoped that Justin would get the win. Turns out that he was close, but didn't quite make it—finishing 2nd place. But he did it with only 2 weeks of training—that's what I'm talkin' about!