Yesterday was better than Friday night, but it couldn’t have been worse. And it wasn’t that much better. It is pretty hard racing local races when you think you should be riding better and it just isn’t happening.

We were more active. Bill is riding mediocre too. And Ben hasn’t raced this year because of a Mono-Chronic Fatique, Epstein-Barr thing, but he is going pretty well considering. Bill got off the front with Adam Mills, Mercy, Lawrence KS friend and training buddy. They were flailing a bit, but eventually got up to 40 seconds with 4 laps to go. But, the chase ensued and they had less than 10 seconds with 2 laps. Kris French, Snapple, strong guy from Arkansas jumped and bridged up to them. That is when it went badly for us. Kris jumped them right when he caught and Bill got popped. Bill realized they were getting caught and had just put in a big pull and didn’t see Kris. Adam latched on and sat on Kris to the line. Adam won, which was super cool. I was 4th in the field spring for 6th.

We drove back through Lawrence and went to a house warming party at Matt Gillhousen’s, TradeWind Energy Czar. Matt just got a new Eriksen 29’er that is sweet. There isn’t a component on the bike that is wrong. It weighs a little under 23 pounds with 800 gram bomb proof tires. When he puts on normal race tires and changes out the fork to rigid, for Chequamegon, etc., it should be down to 18 lbs. or so. We ended up staying out way too long and I drank a couple too many beers, so it was a short night.

This race is doing reverse splits for start times. 7:40 pm, then 2:25, now 11:05 today. We’re racing the same course, but backwards. I don’t really like the course, but that is just because there isn’t any bike handling involved in riding a lap. Makes it a little boring. Okay, gotta get going. I hope to feel just that much better today.

Dave Wiens once told me after he’d finished like 80th in the World MTB Championships (he was current PRO MTB National Champion) and I asked him why he just didn’t quit, he said something like this- “I kick these guys butts all season long. I’m not sick or hurt and just having a bad day, I am not going to DNF just to protect my reputation. They don’t quit when I beat them.” I’m a little cloudy this morning, but that was close to what he said. And he meant, that part of sport is being able to handle sub par performances. I hate those sub par performances. They are painful. Always.

Pre race meeting looking like post race meeting.

Bill looking back at the wrong moment. Eventual race winner, Adam Mills following.

Matt's new Eriksen 29'er.

The Tour of Kansas City is officially over. Shad Smith won the overall and gets his name on the trophy. I ended up finishing 3rd overall in some weird tie breaking way. I finished a miserable 3rd yesterday in the final race so I guess a 3rd, 6th and 9th = 3rd overall. And by miserable, I mean that I felt miserable most of the day.

I got off the front early with Kent Woermann, Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee and Austin Vinton, Mercy. I felt better before the race and mildly better early, but never got close to going good. I keep getting a super debilitating side ache. Maybe it was a combination of the heat, which was off the charts, and riding lousy.

We stayed together until the end. Kent put in a couple hard digs, but it wasn’t until Austin jumped on the final tailwind uphill that I realized it wasn’t going to be good for me. He put a pretty good gap on me and I couldn’t claw my way back. The finish was downhill a couple hundred meters, so it was over. Kent got shelled a bit, so I sat up and let him get 2nd on the day. He was doing the majority of the work and deserved the result. Austin is getting better and better as the season progresses. He’s gonna be a force to be reckoned with soon.

So that is over. I’m planning on eating a bunch of yogurt and probiotics and see how I feel next weekend at Tour of Lawrence. If you have nothing to do next weekend, you should consider making your way over this way. The race is great. Racing in downtown on Mass. St. doesn’t get any better. And the circuit race on KU campus is the best course I race all year, and close to the hardest. I think we’re doing just 55 miles with something like 9000 ft. of climbing.

I’m taking Trudi to the airport now. She is flying to the Tour de France this afternoon. She is only going to be gone a month, coming back for the Tour of Utah and the new PRO race in Colorado. She begin stressing a bit the last few days trying to get ready. It doesn’t help much that I was racing a 3 day stage race this past weekend. She is carrying some new prototype TT helmets and other stuff, so it is going to be difficult hauling all the stuff around once she lands in Europe.

It’s supposed to be in the upper 90’s most of this week, with a couple days at 100. Plus, we’ve been having thunderstorms each night, so the humidity is nuts. I’ve never been much to get up early and ride in the morning. I might have to rethink that this week.

You can tell it can't be going good when I'm looking at the ground pulling.

The cats are getting full use of the TV room now. Still 5 available. If you know anyone that might want a kitten, I'll figure out a way to get it to them.