Cross Vegas. I had high hopes for a good result. But, in the back of my mind, I think I was still shell shocked from last year’s experience here to be too comfortable with any thoughts of success. It didn’t go too well.

The Cross Vegas course is a pretty unusual cyclo-X. It is mainly on 3 inch super thick grass. Super resistance. No technical aspect at all. I actually just rode road tires on my ‘cross bike. The photographers had a field day with that.

Last year I started so hard that I coughed little nodules out of my lungs for a week or so. It wasn’t only me, it was a lot of the riders who had the same problem. I’m not sure if it is the dry air or pollution or fertilizer on the soccer fields, but it isn’t a normal thing. This year I thought I’d try to start slower, after warming up harder. It only shuffled me further back in the field as far as I can tell.

Lance showed up to race. Rumors had him coming and he came. He lined up on the 4th row, and got a pretty good start, I think. Because before a lap was over, I heard the enormous crowd yelling for him pretty close behind me. I was in his group for the next couple laps. Somewhere between 20 and 30th places. Then, a guy in front of me crashed in a corner and I hit him straight on. It took me a while to untangle our bikes and by then I was completely out of any kind of mix I would of been happy with. There are only 15 places for UCI points and I was not going to get anywhere near that place. And, I took a systems check and realized I had already hurt myself, lungwise, pretty substantially. So, I bagged it.

I hate quitting races, but I paid for that last year. For a couple weeks. And I’m racing the USA Criterium Finals tomorrow night and then flying to Madison for two more UCI ‘Cross Races, so I actually don’t feel so bad about the decision.

Anyway, Thomas Frischknecht was here doing his last race in the US. He and I travelled together the first season he came to the US for MTB racing, so I’ve known him for a while. I had only raced ‘cross against him once, in California, a few years back and he crashed and I finished 3rd, so it gave him a chance to even the score. He was in the front group of 14 all race and finished somewhere in the top ten, I think. His statement to me was that if I did one more race then I would “survive” him in the sport. I thought that was a strange way to put it, but you know how foreigners sometime use English words in a weird context and they sound good. That is how this came out. It was great to race with him one last time.

Ryan Trebon won easily again. He has an enormous amount of horsepower. Tim Johnson was 2nd, sporting his National Championship jersey and Adam Craig had a good ride for 3rd.

OK. Got on the asleep at 2 am schedule again. I like the late night racing, but it kind of screws up the day a bit. Better get to sleep.

Thomas and I at the start line.

Lance from behind. Pretty good definition, huh.

The USA Criterium Finals are held in the Madalay Bay parking lot at 10 pm the day after Cross Vegas, Thursday night. My lungs are pretty jacked up still from the cross race. I haven’t talked to a rider that raced Wednesday night that has any different feeling. I rode a couple hours in the morning and didn’t feel too bad except the coughing of nodules ever few minutes.

The race is pretty sketchy. Only one true 90 degree corner. The rest are sweepers that are mainly off camber. I got a call up and lined up on the front row. They announced a $500 prime to the winner of the first lap. I thought I’d go for it. I clipped in perfectly and then proceeded to throw myself onto the pavement 10 seconds later. Then another 10 guys threw themselves onto the ground another 10 seconds after that. And that is pretty much how it went the rest of the night.

I’m not usually one to get rattled by crashing, but a couple corners, the first and last were pretty weird. I’m not sure if it is from the lack of rain to wash the roads or what. But I felt my tires slide a fair amount of times. It was like racing a wet course, but it was dry.

I tried to move up the last couple laps. Made a big move and got chopped pretty badly and ended up 18th. I’d won a couple primes, so the night wasn’t a complete waste.

Then the rest of the evening went badly. Mainly the problem was the road rash. Normally, after cleaning out the wound and putting tegederm on it, there isn’t any more pain. But, something is going off differently this time. I packed bikes until 2am. Went to bed, but couldn’t sleep because every 30 seconds or so I had a shooting pain on my hip. It was weird, but pretty painful. Finally around 4:30am, I walked a mile down the strip and went to a 24 hour pharmacy and bought some antibiotic creme with lidocaid in it. I got back to the hotel at 5:30, just in time for a nap, for leaving for the airport at 7am.

So, we fly into Chicago, where I left my car, and proceeded to get stuck in Chicago Friday night traffic for the 4 plus hours drive to Madison for MadCross. I feel pretty wasted, but I knew it wasn’t gonna be pretty. 4 stages down. Two to go.

Good friend Michael Aisner (Coor’s Classic promoter, announcer, good guy all around) at the start.