Got in the car Thursday night after standing in my garage for an eternity building cross bikes and drove the 10 hours to Cincinnati for 3 cyclo-x races.  That is so cool that the promoters got together and have that many races on one weekend.  Anyway, it drew a pretty good field in both the men’s and women’s fields.  Actually really good fields.  Katie Compton, Georgia Gould, Sue Butler, Jeremy Powers, Barry Wicks, Jerimiah Bishop, plus many more.

Anyway, the course was pretty bad.  It hasn’t rained here in months and it was bumpier than sh**.  And there were a million u-turn corners.  Very hard course to get any sort of rhythm on.  And I had very little rhythm to dance to today.  There were over 50 starters in the men’s race.  I started OK.  Got into the grass in 6th, behind Eric Tonkin.  It was so tight for the first few minutes I could talk to him.  Not a normal cyclo-x thing. He was having some cornering issues and it was gassing me.  A big gap and then a hard acceleration.  So, after a lap and a half, Jerimiah Bishop, Troy Wells and a couple others went by.  I felt like quitting and saving it for the weekend, but thought there might be an outside chance that I could still finish in top ten and get some UCI points.  But, I never got going and ended up 13th.  So I’m steadlily moving down in results in UCI races weekend to weekend.  Last race 12th’s. This 13th.  And it wasn’t an easy 13th.  Not that cyclo-x is ever easy, but this seemed extremely painful for some reason.  Probably because it was in the mid 80’s temperaturewise.  And it is supposed to be the same the next two days.  Great!  I’m not doing so well in the heat this fall.

My travelling  compatriots didn’t fair so well either.  Catherine Walberg returned from Europe on business late Wednesday night and got in to the van at noon the next day.  She took a bike with here, but only rode it a couple days in Paris and hadn’t been on it for most of the past week.  She tied me with a 13th place finish.   Bill Stolte came looking for one measly UCI point for the weekend.  Not today.  He was 25th, which is the last paying place ($19).  He had some mechanical issues and had to make a few stops into the pit.  It should go better for him the next two days I’d think.

So,  two more painful days for me to look forward to.  At least it’s a weekend and we get a reprieve and don’t have to endure the stocks market woes/economy disaster for two more days.  Cycling is a simple life in comparison.

Results from my recollection as follows (don’t hold me to these!).

1. Jeremy Powers
2. Jerimiah Bishop
3. Barry Wicks
4. Joachim Parvo
5. Jonathan Baker

1. Katie Compton
2. Georgia Gould
3. Sue Butler
4 Deidre Winfield
5 Devon Haskell

Photo smorgasborg below. (Double click photos to enlarge.)

Me and my garage.

Prebuild fork selection.

Looking for my seat and post and Bromont took it to bed with him.

Right after the start.

Another artsy photo.

Day 2 done. Things went better today for the Kansas gang, but the results won’t reflect that. The course is awesome. A much different course from yesterday. It flowed much better with a U-turn through a sand pit and some other well thought out sections.

The start is on a grass field with the barriers pretty within the first 30 seconds. It was just as hot as yesterday, mid 80’s. I got an OK start and was 5th or so over the barriers. There was a huge crash 100 meters from the line and it split up the field pretty good. I kind of faded a bit towards the end of the first lap, start of the second lap and ended up riding with Marko LaLonde in 9th and 10th for a couple laps. He was going good pulling the whole time. About half way through the race just before he was going to catch the group going for 6-8th I flatted. I instantly went under the tape having no desire to try to play catch up for UCI points. Tomorrow is a UCI C1 race with double points 15 places deep, and anyway it would of been a stretch to get any points today without a monumental effort. I think Marko ended up riding up to finishing 6th. Pretty good race.

Catherine was riding better, but had a chain issue that made her frequent the pit enough that she lost all motivation to race. Bill was pretty much on the same schedule. He has been into the pit more the last two days than any other rider by far I’d guess. I think he has quite properly it figured out now— hopefully.

Jeremy Powers schooled everyone as Katie Compton did in the women’s race. Georgia Gould flatted, ran half a lap and still ended up riding up to 6th. Jerimah Bishop finished 2nd, Barry Wicks 3rd, etc. Pretty much the same 5 as yesterday.

So, we had to hunt down a new chain for Catherine’s bike, glue a new tire on my rear wheel and stick Bill’s spare bike away in the depths of the van where it won’t be needed for the rest of the year hopefully.

Another start photo.

Lead group after a couple laps.

Marko and me.

My view for a couple laps.