Thankfully, no children were run over during the junior state championship race. It was weird to be in a field that ranged from a couple fourth graders to myself in my last year of junior racing. The 15-18 field had five riders present, of which we were the only team with multiple people. The plan from the beginning was to get Ben the jersey for the second year in a row. I sent an attack on the back side of lap one to shed one older racer and all but one of the 10-14 year olds from the back of the group, reducing it to five. And that was that. Those five were the final selection. Ben then went off the front to test the legs, gaining a few seconds maximum and forcing people other than me to chase for a couple laps. After that, nobody seemed to have motivation to animate the race, which we were perfectly happy with. I rode the front or forced a non-xXx rider to for the majority of the remaining 15 minutes, keeping it fast enough to discourage any flyers. Ramped it up in the last lap, gapping the two riders on the back of the group, and delivered Ben to the final corner with plenty of speed. He quickly established a sizable gap to Jorge Zapata, the only threat left in the group of three, and took the victory and the state title by several bike lengths. Behind, I sprinted out of the wrong gear and wouldn't have been able to catch second-place Jorge even if I had the legs. Whoops. That result, though, is by far secondary to another team win and another state jersey for Ben!