I’m not going to dwell anymore on what happened. Here’s my memories from Sunday. USAC screwed up the numbers for the Elite race. They are supposed to be in UCI point order, but they weren’t able to complete that task. Even just 15 minutes before the race, the call-up order was wrong. It was going to be the difference of being on the 2nd row or 3rd for me. Anyway, the UCI official fixed it on his own pretty quick.

The conditions were pretty bad at the start. Frozen ruts with wet mud everywhere. I decided to go with the Dugast Rhinos with a little over 30 psi. I knew it might be a risk with the sharp ice, but it was Nationals. Anyway, I got a pretty good start and left the pavement in the top 6. I passed a couple more guys at the first corner and settled in to getting my “sea legs”. It was mayham pretty much. I was riding around 6 or 8th the first half a lap and then disaster. I went into a rut and came out of it with no air in either tire. It was not far after the pit, so I had to ride the majority of a lap on two flat tires. Riders were going by me in droves. I came out of the pit in 54th place. I was thrilled to here that number. But, it was a solid line of guys in front of me. I rode pretty steady the next two laps and Trudi said that if I passed the next 10 guys I would be in the top 20. I passed a bunch of riders at once. They all seemed to be going so slow. Even those that were in the top 20. I’d be gaining a ton on them on the downhills, so I thought that they must be riding the uphill sections fast, but that wasn’t correct either.

Anyway, with 3 laps to go, I was 12 seconds out of 15th.  I was kind of surprised I’d moved up that much having to go so slow around other riders.  Now, I was thinking of still a top 10 result. Then, disaster number 2. Double flatted again. Same place, different rut. I’m not sure what the deal was. I wasn’t riding any different there than anywhere else. This time I was riding clinchers with Mud 2’s on them. That lap to the pit was pitiful. I had to walk nearly all the uphills and fell a few times since I was riding mainly on my rims. I got my other bike back with Dugast tires again, but I wasn’t so motivated anymore. I spent the last lap and 3/4 trying to watch the front of the race to see if Page was going to catch Johnson. Obviously, he didn’t.

I’m not sure if it was just bad luck or I was riding too heavy on my bike. I do know the conditions, especially the last half of the race, were perfect for me. I could get enough traction to climb the hills off my seat and the descents were tricky/slick. I looked at the results yesterday and realized that I was going pretty good. That is really all that matters, unless you win. I’d rather finish badly and be riding good than finish OK and be riding badly. There is one place at Elite Nationals. 1st. Everyone in contention knows that. So, til next year. Each day, Thursday-Sunday, the course changed significately. It was interesting. Next year, dry, fast grass I bet!

Pictures below- T.J. following me first half lap. More to come.

I’ve been pretty bad on updating this since Cyclo-X Nationals. Sorry. I’ve been trying to catch up on regular life things, plus the holidays. I did the normal holiday things and went up to Cable Wisconsin to cross country ski for a couple weeks and build a shower for the “garage” we build up there a couple year’s ago at Dennis Kruse’s compound.

It’s a good time to be up in Northern Wisconsin. Lots of snow this year. Plus, lots of events and people travelling in from all over the country. The first weekend was a double birkie ski which is an unofficial event organized by Tom Schuler that skis the birkie both directions. It’s somewhere between 90 and 100 km depending on if you get lost skiing into Telemark Resort for the lunch stop. The Senior Nationals were held the same time pretty close, so alot of the best skiers in the country were in and out of the area. Last weekend, the 24 Hours of Telemark was held. It’s a 24 hour race with a ton of different catagories for teams and individua skiers. Finally, the Seeley Classic, a 42 km classic event promoted by Dennis and the Seeley Ski Team. So, there is lots of stuff to do, other than skiing, snowshoeing, chopping wood, bear cave viewing (bear included), etc.

Plus, I’ve been meaning to finish a bathroom in the “Kansas garage” that I started a few months back. Now, the building is pretty complete. Super nice place to stay. Dennis has more people coming through his compound that can be imagined. If he had a guest book, it would include names of superstar athletes from multitudes of sport. Cycling-Greg Lemond, Ned Overend, Travis Brown, Kent Eriksen, Bob Roll, Joe Parkin, Jeff Bradley, Tom Schuler, Davis Phinney, etc. etc. Skiing, the same quality and quantity of names. Plus journalists, photographers and a million other interesting people.

Anyway, I thought I was gaining a bunch of weight, but was pretty happy to get back to Kansas yesterday having gained only a couple extra pounds. And, I’d been in a car 12 hours and hadn’t exercised all day. Went riding for the first time in a while yesterday. Low 30’s and humid. Windchill is incredible, huh? I under dressed, which I rarely do. My fingers never got warm. I was skiing 25 degrees colder with super thing gloves. Riding with the thickest things I can fit on my hands and still get my fingers to bend. And still cold.

I was observing yesterday how quickly form leaves. It seemed like it tooknearly the whole ride to get pedaling in a somewhat normal rotation. Plus, every small rise seemed like a big hill. Streets I thought are dead flat seemed mountainous. Pretty weird.

Ok. Gotta get dressed for day two of 2008 bikin’.