Patience and Timing Round #6 @ Oleta

All right time for the work to begin. Practice day on Saturday I felt good but not great. Usually on Saturdays I never feel good but I was confident about Sunday.
15 seconds, 5 seconds, the horn goes off and we are racing. 30 yards into the race there was a crash and I was involved. I did not go down but came to a dead stop as everyone headed around the wreck and into the woods. Never the less I went into the woods in last place, 15 seconds behind the last rider, Wow this is going to be tough.
I choose to use my experience and not get excited but rather pick off racers one at a time. By the end of the first lap I was in a comfortable 4th place. All my competitors were waiting for me to attack but the question was when?
In my mind I wanted to get into the woods 1st at the end of the last fire road, not the case. Ryan was attacking me on every fire road preventing my ability to surge around at the end. So I remained patient, and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally in lap 4 with about 4.5 miles to go I had moved into 2nd just off of Ryans wheel. We came out of single track to 30 yards of double track and I saw Ryan's right hand start to leave his bar as though he was reaching for a water bottle, and realized now was my time to go.
I stood up and sprinted around Ryan and dove into the woods. I went as hard as possible, pretty much a 4.5 mile time trial. I wound up winning by just over 30 seconds.
That was my first State win in 2 years, I was so freak'n pleased. I think my course knowledge and experience was the key to my success at Oleta.