Monthly Archives: June 2016

Heading East / Criterium Nationals Course Change

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I got off to a late start this morning. Trudi is flying back from Geneva Switzerland to Louisville today. She arrives at seven. I was considering leaving tomorrow and having Stacie pick her up tonight. But after yesterday’s hot ride, I figured I needed a day off. 

Yesterday, five of us rode over to Lawrence on gravel. It was in the lower 90s and super humid. One of those days it’s almost impossible not to melt. I felt way better than I did last Monday doing the same ride, but it takes it out of you.

So I decided this morning to pack up and get moving. Tucker saw me packing and got all stressed out. By the time I had most of our stuff in the van, Tucker was nearly in a frenzy.

Right when I was ready to leave this morning, my neighbor, who is 90, came and told me she couldn’t open her garage door to  move her car.  I didn’t really have the time to fix it, but I went over and gave it a try. It wasn’t that hard of a fix, it only took me 20 minutes. 20 minutes that I didn’t really have.

It’s close to nine hours to Louisville from Topeka.  And I only have 8 1/2 to get there. Another snafu on the drive, was after I started there was a cat in the van. Fran, decided she wanted to go on the trip. I was only half a mile from home when I realized she was there.

I received a few emails yesterday about the Citerium National’s course in Louisville. Guys were saying it was super dangerous. I’ve even been offered other rider’s slots. I don’t think that’s how works. Anyway, today they changed the course. I think they didn’t want to repeat the crashfest at  Masters nationals.

Here’s the official announcement – 

Due to the overwhelming interest and the number of participants entered in the criterium (crit) component of USA Cycling’s 2016 Road National Championship, the original crit course in Norton Commons cannot safely handle the number of riders in several age groups. The new crit course will be located in Shawnee Park, one of Louisville’s signature Olmsted Parks. The wide roadways inside the Shawnee Park and bordering the park will provide a safe and challenging national championship course.

I posted this from my phone, while driving, so forgive the horrible errors. 
  
Kind of a mess. A couple set screws were loose, so a pulley spun. 

  
Fran nearly took a road trip. 

  
Catherine melted yesterday. Here she is sitting on the floor of a Quicktrip in Lawrence.

  
Tucker’s driving position. 

Long Travel Day

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

I thought I had a long day driving to Louisville, then going to the airport to get Trudi.  But Trudi had a super long day.

She got up early in Geneva Switzerland to catch the shuttle to the airport.  That went pretty well, but after that, not so good.  The flight back to DC was good, but she was pretty much strip searched coming back into the US.

See had a few hour layover that turned into half a day.  Her flight from Dulles to Louisville was changed from 5 to 9, and eventually left around 10 I think.  I picked her up at the Louisville airport around 12:30 am.

I was pretty good until the 20 mile drive back to Karl and Stacie’s.  Then I sort of ran out of juice.

I got an email for Tara at USA Cycling that said they are changing the criterium course and are “hopeful” that they will expand the field limits for the criterium.  “But, no promises as of yet.”

That is a good thing, trying to accommodate the masses.  But really, it seems like they might have had this down less than a week before the event.

Stacie is having a huge party tonight for a bunch of riders.  Something to do with the Louisville Sports Commission, I think.  Roy Knickman and his super junior team, Lux Development Team, is coming.  It will be nice seeing him.  I really don’t see him much at all now, just at the Nosco ride in LA in the fall. His son, Bo, is killing it this year.  It should be fun watching him race firsthand.

It is supposed to be hot-ish in Louisville today. Close to 90.  Then cool off for a couple days, then back up to 90 for the road race on Friday.

I’m pretty sure that I can’t get much better than I am, other than getting used to the heat.  So I’m going to go out and ride a few hours during the heat of the day this afternoon, then call it done and rest.

Made an Apple appointment to fix my phone, again.  I can’t say this “new phone” has worked out all that good this time.  After I broke the screen, it has sort of gone downhill.

Okay, that is about it for now.

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