Today went better than last week. I rode nearly 1/2 the race today. That is a 15 minute improvement from last weekend.

Got to make this short. I’m riding a 100 mile gravel road ride/adventure at the wee hours tomorrow. Supposed to nearly freeze tonight, so it might be pretty chilly starting out.

Anyway, I raced in Kansas City at the Boss Cross #1. The course was great. Lots of off-camber corners. Enough open riding. Sand, but not bad. I started just okay. I kind of chopped Tom Price (KCCX) for the hole shot for the first tricky corner. Sorry Tom. I rode at the front for the first lap and half. I realized early on that I didn’t have enough pressure in my tires. The speed was pretty fast and they were folding over in virtually every corner. Coming onto a pavement stretch off a curb, my front tire completely folded over and I started sliding. I thought I’d saved it, but I slid into a micro cone and then fell. It wasn’t too bad. I only lost 15 seconds or so.

I chased back on in less than a lap. There were 5 of us in the front. Tom and Jeff Winkler, KCCX, Brian Jensen, Tradewind team mate and Jonathan Schottler, Big Shark. I recovered okay, but didn’t feel great. Going through the sand the next lap, I was following Jeff Winkler. You needed a bunch of speed to clean the sand riding. Jeff accelerated and I followed. Then he decided to run and stepped off his bike. His front wheel twisted and he high-sided. I plowed into him from behind and flipped over the bars. My hamstring then cramped. Our bikes were all tangled and I just let Jeff figure that out.

I got going before Jeff, but knew it wasn’t going to be good. I rode a lap or so with Josh Johnson, winner last week, and then waited up for Bill Stolte. I started feeling better and we started going faster compared to the leaders. There were only three left in the front. We were gaining on the front, but the next lap on the fast dismount, my left leg was done. Jeff Winkler was coming back and I thought Bill should just ride with him.

I was done. I did so much damage to my hamstring last weekend, that I wasn’t going to add to that. I probably shouldn’t have started, but thought that I’d be alright. Guess I was wrong. Jeff rode up to the front and beat Brian by a few seconds. I think Josh finished 3rd, followed by Jonathan and Tom Price rounded out the top 5.

Anyway, I don’t think it is good racing again tomorrow. So, 100 miles on gravel. We’ll see how that goes. I might wear my helmet cam to show how beautiful Kansas is this time of the year.

Leading into the sandpit.

Catherine over the uphill runup. Her legs are looking pretty buff.

Me, sort of, doing the same runup. Not so buff.

Yesterday I finally made a good choice. Riding a long gravel ride instead of cyclocross racing. There is no way I could have had as much fun racing cross as I did riding all day on new roads on gravel. It was a blast. The 8 am start in Lawrence was the only drag of the day, but you know how that goes, after you’re up early, it doesn’t really matter.

It was cold at the start, but the day eventually turned beautiful. Mid 60’s and hardly any wind (for Kansas). Who’d think that Kansas is hilly? I was even surprised how hilly it was. Like crazy hilly. I need to ask one of the guys with a Garmin, but other than the last 3 miles, it rolled all the time. Some of the climbs are nearly 20% grade. There are not many paved roads that direction from Topeka, so it is kind of uncharted territory for me.

Joe Gatti’s wife Melody met us up int Oskaloosa with a pickup truck full of food. It was great sitting in the main square, hanging in the sun.

It didn’t get any flatter on the way home. Eventually it got down to just 7 of us. Catherine had been whining the whole day, but was finally coming around after 5 hours. Cycling is such a cool sport because you can eventually ride into “form” during a single ride. Dan Hughes, cycling czar of Lawrence, kept his testosterone under control too most of the ride, so it didn’t go too crazy.

I got better the whole day too. It is nice feeling the best of the whole ride at the finish. It took us nearly 6 hours for the 105 miles, which isn’t even 18mph, but we weren’t going slow. I wore a helmet cam and got the first few hours of the ride on video. It might take a while to get to that. Maybe not.

I’m not sure what’s on schedule for next weekend. I need to start addressing my leg situation or my cyclocross season is going to be short lived.

The hills never stopped.

Low water creek crossing.

Lunch.

Catherine on the Kansas River levee coming back into Lawrence.

The map above is interactive. You can click on elevation change to see how undulating the route was.