Yesterday was a nice day for racing here in Austin.  It wasn’t so nice for just riding though.  Bill and I got out for a little under 40 miles and it took nearly 3 hours.  It was dropping temperatures all day and super windy.  Even compared to Kansas, it was windy.  Like 30 + mph windy.

We got back to the Nationals course at Zilker Park at around 3:30.  The singlespeed race started at 4 pm.  Vincent seemed pretty calm.  We’d switched his Di2 geared bike over to a singlespeed in the morning with spacers in the rear and singlespeed chainring bolts for the front.  It worked great.  He decided to ride 36 x 19, a pretty easy gear, but he was starting 135 riders back and knew he was going to be having to pass guys all day and have to do a bunch of accelerations.

The race was fun to watch for me.   It seems like singlespeed fans are pretty dedicated, as the riders are.  I’ve never been much involved with riding a singlespeed.   Not off-road or on the road.  But, it was interesting watching the different style of riding and techniques.

I ran into a bunch of people I haven’t seen since, well, maybe last year at cyclocross Nationals.  A pretty diehard bunch of people we are.

Vincent had a pretty good race.  He moved up past a chunk or guys early in the first lap, which was to be expected, and then kept picking guys off the rest of the race.  The guys at the front were just racing for 2nd, pretty much from the gun.  Justin Lindine had checked out and was pretty much gone from the gun.  Mo Bruno Roy had done the same thing in the women’s race to win again and defend her title.

I was rooting for Tristan Uhl, who was in the group racing for 2-5th the whole race.  He was 3rd going into the last set of barriers, just a couple hundred meters from the finish and ran past the front two.  It looked like he had made the perfect move for securing 2nd, but slid out on, really, the last U-turn corner and ended up 4th.  It was a great result, but should have been better.

Vincent finished 46th, which doesn’t sound that great, but considering he passed 90 guys, it was about as good as it was going to be.  He seems happy with his race.

Tomorrow, it is supposed to be just a tad colder and then on Friday, it really is going to get ugly.  Highs in the 30’s and wet.  I’m wondering why it always seems to be pretty crazy weather at Cross Nationals.  It started probably around 2000 and it has been pretty much the standard since.  Weird, crazy weather, compared to the normal highs and precipitation norms.  Guess it’s just ‘cross.

A ton of people, nearly everyone I run into, seems to think I‘m racing.  I tell them no and they say I am.  Or they think I’m not racing because my shoulder is bad.  I’m not racing because my hip is bad and I’m not willing to risk screwing it more for a cross race that I’m not ready to do.

I know, that isn’t normally how I do things.  I tend to err on the extreme and take risks, but this doesn’t seem like there would be much of a reward for the risks.   I do plan to race cross again, just not this year.  Ashville isn’t that long from now, just a year.  Right now I’m just going to try to enjoy this Nationals as much as I can, just watching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather change today is the big news here at Cyclocross Nationals.  Yesterday it was just cold.  Like in the 20’s all day.  But the course was dry.  Today it’s a completely different beast.  It rained last night and is still raining.  It is barely above freezing, in the mid 30’s.  Super cold considering the conditions.

Yesterday I didn’t see much of the races.  I did get to see Paul Curley win his master’s race.  I read somewhere it was his 26th National title.  I didn’t get a chance to see local Kansan, Tom Price dominate his race and win his first National title.  Tom has had super bad luck the last few seasons and it was great to see it finally come together for him.

I did get a couple hours in yesterday, even though it was below 30.  I rode by and saw a bike shop in an Airstream trailer, in downtown Austin, then rode across the river on South Congress and meandered my way over by the course and then did a short loop through town.  It is always fun doing a city ride in Austin.

Trudi and Bromont came down along with our sponsor, Matt Gilhausen from Tradewind Energy.  Matt and Vincent are racing this afternoon at 2:45.  Matt hasn’t see the course yet.  I think it is going to be hard getting a rhythm on this course when the course is wet.  It is going to be super slick and tricky.

I’m trying to decide if I want to go out and ride the course some with these guys before the race.  I think I’m going to have to, I really can’t stop myself.  It will get me a better read for spectating  the next couple days, since that is what I am now, a spectator.