I’ve said many times that I’d rather be riding good and have a bad result than to be riding bad and have a good result.  It’s not about the results.  It’s about having done everything correctly to be able to attain a result.  But, I’m having a bit of a hard time coming to terms with yesterday’s race.

I finished 18th.  The course did not suit my abilities.  It wasn’t horrible, but it was pretty much a hard packed circuit race.  Very, very non-technical.  But, that was just a product of the weather.  It had been pretty technical the previous days, but it dried up and got super smooth and very “easy”.  It was a complete power race.

I didn’t have real aspirations to win.  That was going to be a stretch.  But, I thought I could finish somewhere between 5-10th.  I missed my pedal at the start.  It’s a simple as that.  I was buried immediately.  It was such a simple mistake that put me in a situation I couldn’t recover from.   The race was over for me after one lap.  I had been behind 3 major pile-ups that split the field into small groups.  And I needed to be in the front group from the gun if I was going to have any chance to finish somewhere I would be happy with.

I lost most of the motivation I had pretty early.  After watching a big group of 10 ride up the hill I knew the day wasn’t going to be good. I did nothing but cruise for most of the race.  But, I eventually got some motivation back and  got riding pretty good.  That is the only good thing I have to say about my ride for the day.  It wasn’t like last year when I flatted 4 tires.  That was only partially my fault.  This was totally my fault.  It’s too bad that it had to happen at Nationals in KC.  I had the form to have a good race on a course that I thought wasn’t good for me under the conditions.

Despite the disappointment, I did have some fun.  I saw a rider nearly try to mount his bike without his front wheel, after a crash .  If I would have waited 5 more seconds behind a crash, I would have gotten to witness Jonathan Baker punch Adam Meyerson in the face.  I did witness from the interior of the course of how fanatic cyclo-x fans are.  And, I got the pleasure to race in front of a bunch of friends locally at the National Championships.  Pretty special.  And a million more memories that would take forever to write.

So, I can’t complain too much about the weekend.  There are not too many things I can think of that I would of rather have been doing.

60 degrees in the morning, high 20

Great photo. Sums up my day. Taken by Alex Grigsby

Riding by myself.

Never too happy. Hard packed ground.

Brad Huff and Co.

Guess whose bike? Hint-initials N.O.