Yep, the title of this post is pretty strange.  Especially for a cyclo-x.  That is what cyclocross is all about, weather.  Inclement weather at that.  But, the promoters and/or the UCI decided that the weather was too bad in Koksijde Belgium to hold the race.

I was looking forward to watching the race this morning.  This lack of sleep thing makes the early morning way too long.  It takes me a while to get to a mental point that I can actually move around and do things, so early morning cross fills the gap quite well.  Not to be.

So, no cross this morning.  Me,personally, I’m hoping to get driven to Lawrence to watch the 360 Cup Cross race later today.  It all depends how I feel.  I should just commit right now.

Anyway, here is a link to the announcement.  There are a couple tweets by Wout, and such, that applaud the cancellation of the race.  I guess I get it.  They aren’t getting any big start money to do it, since it is a World Cup, so I guess they would just rather skip it.   And the promoters were probably worried about the attendance.  Belgian fans are pretty weather resistant, but I’m sure that storms and wind would have made the fans apprehensive about coming.  And that gate fee is an important part of the viability of the event.

I feel pretty badly for all the foreigners, especially the 14 Americans, that flew over there to do the race.  I’m sure that some, or most of them will stay for a week longer and do the next World Cup, which is next weekend, but it is still a big deal financially and motivational too.  In 2014, American  Gage Hecht won the  junior race in Koksijde.  

Koksijde is a pretty sandy place.  The race is known for the sand.  You would have thought some rain and such would have made the course better for the riders?  Guess not.  Guess it was too windy.

Anyway, if you want to watch some cross, I posted the video from the race yesterday.  You can click on the YouTube link on the bottom right if you want to watch the women’s race.   Wout and Van der Poel didn’t race, but it was still a good race to watch.  American Stephen Hyde was riding at the front early on, but must have had a problem, or just the travel got to him, because he finished 13th, which is still good.  Okay, have a good Sunday.  Enjoy.

Koksijde sand.

Yesterday, I felt good enough that I went over to Lawrence to watch many friends and team mates race the 360 Cup Cross race.   First of all, I realized that I was bummed that I wasn’t suited up and racing.  It was a nice day to race cross, temperatures in the mid 50’s and sunny.  It was funny how cold that 54 degrees felt to me standing around.

A big surprise was the my team mate, Brian Jensen and his wife, Michelle, were at the race.  I guess Brian was doing some wind turbine work north of Lawrence and is going to be here until Wednesday. Then back to Colorado.

Brian was a big surprise, but the biggest surprise was that USADA had two tents set up and had been doing drug testing the whole day on most of the categories.  This is a first that I can think of this happening.  This was a pretty small, local race.  I know that USAC has this new Race Clean program going now, but I can think of a lot of events that might prove more productive.

I’m wondering if that USAC was there for one guy?   Seems like they have been pretty good at catching riders that are pretty obviously taking drugs to race.  I don’t know that guy here.  I very much doubt they are going to catch someone.  I know just about everyone that raced and not one of them is on my radar screen.

Anyway, I’m not against USAC showing up.  The more testing the better.  I think all the amateur guys that are doping to race aren’t nearly as advanced as World Tour guys, so the chances that USADA cleaning up the local and regional scene is much higher.  It just really surprised me this is the event they picked.

I was only there for the Elite 1/2 race.  And even though I was only gone from home for 3 hours, I was done.  It was the longest I’ve stood up in the last 5 weeks.  It is amazing to me how out of shape a person can get for normal daily things in such a short time.

The race was good.  My team mates all rode at the front the whole race and all finished great. I’d loaned my set of race wheels to Joseph Schmalz, and after getting a mediocre start, he eventually rode to the lead and won the race.   So at least my wheels are getting to race some this fall.

The course was tricky with a lot of tight turns that demanded acceleration after.  I liked the course a lot.  I raced the event last year and finished 2nd to Joseph.   It was a bigger course, more open, but still tricky.

Anyway, I’m going to try to go to more races on the weekends, if I have the energy.  I need to get out more.  I walked 2 miles last night before going to bed.  I find that if I walk, or ride the ergometer, after dinner, I have a much higher chance of sleeping over 5 hours.  These head injury deals are peculiar.

I’m heading to KU Med, in Kansas City, in a couple hours for a ton of appointments.  My first appointment there is a MRI at 10:15 and the last is with my neurologist at 3, so I’m going to be beat again.  Hopefully I get some more answers to a slew of questions that I have.  I tried to get the answers on the Internet, but TBIs are hard to get specific answers about.   I’ve really improved a ton, at least feel better, the last two weeks, so I’m hoping that makes my doctors happy.  It makes me.

Shadd, Joseph and I before the start.

Brian, Trudi, Tucker and I.

Joseph running the logs.

Garrick running the logs.

Shadd, Finn’s dad, riding the logs.

And here is FInn, who showed up everyone. He won the Junior State Championships and is a super bike handler.

The podium – Joseph Schmalz , Garrick Valverde,  Shadd Smith, , Brian Jensen,  and Britton Kusiak.

Tucker met a new friend, Max, at the race.

He was as done as me last night.

The Wizard of Oz was on last night. I love that movie.