Back late again. Rained most of the late afternoon/evening. It was wet. And super slick. I’d say more than half the field didn’t make it around the first lap of a 4 mile circuit. Mainly because they were laying on the ground when they should have been going forward.

I sucked. Right from the start. Brian fell about 600 meters into the race. Right in front of me. 1/2 mile from the start, I was in the lead group of 4. I was leading into a left hand corner at about half the speed I would of normally went in the rain and both my wheels went out from under me. I unclipped my inside foot, jammed it into the pavement and propelled myself back upright. This destroyed my ribs for the remainder of the race. If I would of just been a 4 on 1 to 10 scale, I would have maybe won this race. But, I was much closer to a 1. Maybe a 2. I sucked. I rode nearly 1/2 the race. There were only 13 guys left in the front group at that point. I think there were only 28 finishers out of 70 starters.

Chris Hall TT’d the last 3 laps to finish 6th. Bill Stolte made a miraculous recovery from a horrible start to bridge up to a group sprinting for 7th 300 meters from the finish. He jumped them, but was caught on the line to finish 9th.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain most of the day. 8 corner criterium downtown at 6:30 pm. Should be a continuation of today. Fun.

Lawrence local, Joseph Schmaltz, winning the sprint for 2nd on the day.

Anyone else notice that Cancellara's number wasn't flat on his skinsuit today. That was just wrong.

Checked out the kittens today over at the Walberg's. They are great.

Saturday in Lawrence was kind of a weird day. I’ve ridden a bunch of slick roads and these were the slickest by far. It was hard keeping your rear tire connected to the ground on every climb. I’m not sure what the reason was.

Sunday’s criterium was wet. Everyone was kind of spooked from the previous day. But, the road was just normal wet. Not anything like the previous day. It was a pretty normal criterium in the rain. Normal for most the riders. Not for me. I had 80 psi in Vittoria CX tires. They were good. Didn’t slip once. Bill had the same tires and said they weren’t good. Again, I’m not sure why that would be.

Anyway, I was better physically than the day before, but the course was much different. 8 corners per lap. Lots of time to catch your breathe. We as a team rode pretty great. We never missed a break. I probably made the break with the highest chance of success, but it was only away a couple laps. Jonathan Baker was killing it on the front those laps.

San Jose put all their guys on the front with 7 laps to go. They were doing the stupid inside of the course riding. That is especially effective in the rain. On the next to the last lap, I was going around the outside moving up to the front. There was a small swerve and the next thing I know I’m sliding on my ass along the pavement at 30mph. I had enough time to get my feet in front of me when I was hitting the curb, so I wasn’t too destroyed. I’m missing some skin. My ribs are sore, but they already were. I’m not sure I’ve ever fallen in the rain that close to the finish. I would of loved to of been there, but that is cycling.

San Jose won the race. Josh Carter kept the Colorado riders honest. The race had nearly a 28 mph average. In the rain, with 8 corners a lap, that is going pretty good.

The weirdest thing of the day/week that happened was that within 15 seconds of falling, as I was sitting on the curb, this guy walked up to make sure I was okay. Asking about head injuries ect. I told him I broke a few ribs the previous week and that they were pretty sore. He asked if I needed a Vicodin for the pain. I said sure and he pulled one out of his pocket. I ate it. Kind of took the edge off instantly. Stuff like that doesn’t happen everyday.

1 42 Josh Carter(Team Hotel San Jose/Mellow Joh Wichita Falls,TX
2 18 Chuck Coyle(Groove Subaru Cycling Team) Boulder,CO
3 15 Jonathan Baker(Groove Subaru Cycling Team) Boulder,CO
4 45 Sean Sullivan(Team Hotel San Jose/Mellow J Boulder,CO
5 36 Adam Bergman(Texas Roadhouse Cycling Team) Lino Lakes,MN
6 28 Jason Waddell(Park Place Dealerships) Norman,OK
7 32 Jesse Goodrich(Primal p/b/ 1st Bank) Louisville,CO
8 17 Lance Sulzen(Groove Subaru Cycling Team) Littleton,CO
9 9 Joseph Schmalz(Mercy Elite Cycling Team) Lawrence,KS
10 49 Chad Haga(Super Squadra) McKinney,TX

Lawrence does their fireworks correctly. Right in downtown. The view from the bridge over the Kansas River is great.

Pretty much all the out of state riders stayed around for the after race festivities. Jose, SRAM, and Kate Ross teamed up for some pool.

I'm not sure Kate knew what the chalk was for.

Catherine and Nick. She must of finally made a shot.