Today was the 1st race of two for me this weekend, the Master’s race.  I’ve kind of been nervous about this for a better part of a week.  Not sure what that is all about.  I usually don’t stress about things out of my control.  Anyway, it’s going to be a busy weekend.  It was good to get today over with.  I won again.  The course changed up a ton hour by hour today.  It was slick and tricky earlier and it got dryer and dryer throughout the afternoon.  By the time we raced, there was no technical part of the course and the ground was a wet sponge.  You had to pedal the descents, no rest.  The officials held us on the line pretty long, like 30 minutes.  I have to remember that the starts in Master’s events are much slower than the Elite race.  Anyway, my plan was to ride pretty much as fast as I could to the top of the climb, 1/2 lap and then see where I was.  I was a long ways ahead.  So far, that I didn’t have to kill myself the rest of the race.  But, Mark Noble who finished 2nd, rode a good race and kept me honest somewhat.  My lungs are abit torched now.  Went to another “social function” tonight and got home pretty late.  Washed the bikes after midnight of course.  OK.  Enough.  Pictures from the last bit below.

Pets always know by the packed bags. (Bromont and super cat Wink)

Stack of bikes in the garage.

Mud and Blood Bash with Andy Jaques-Mayne. Jeremy Powers in the background mixing the music.

Bike racing on soggy carpet.

Winning photo from a ways back.

Awards podium.

Richard Sachs and me afterwards.

A Michael Fatka sighting out of the state of Iowa. Eli and Bromont accompaning.

Awesome junior finish!

Best usage of a signed Steve Tilford card I've seen recently.

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.