Yesterday was the stellar day of the week, weather-wise, for Austin.  It is just going to be going downhill from now on.  It was nearly 70 yesterday, 45 today, and then the 30’s and rain/snow for Friday-Sunday.  Cross weather.

Bill, Vincent and I rode about 65 miles yesterday.  On our cross bikes, with cross tires, mainly on pavement.  I felt alright, other than my neck, from face planting skiing a week again, was super stiff and giving me a splitting headache.  Or maybe it was because I was out for 7 hours and didn’t have a bottle, thus didn’t drink anything?

Anyway, the ride was good, out by Lake Travis and back.  Man, that lake has no water, like the docks are hanging like ladders on the shore.  Nearly vertical.  It is going to take years to fill that back up, even if they do get some rain.

We ended back up at the Nationals course and I rode just one lap.  It is going to be very technical.  It is nearly all on the side of a small hill and it just zig-zags up and down the hill pretty much the whole course.  It is a good course, don’t get me wrong, but there aren’t that many places for just full-on pedalling.  And if it get wet, like it is predicted to be Friday-Sunday, it is going to be very, very technical.  Lots of u-turns on off-camber hills.  It could make for a lot of dismounts and running.

The course is very tight in many places with only one line.  The start is going to be very important in these large fields at Nationals.  I wish I would have taken a photo of the rock run-up.  It is scary steep and the “steps” are more like ledges.  I think you could pick a way up where the steps are less than 16 inches, but it would be tricky.  If that gets covered with mud, there are going to be a bunch of ripped up shins come Monday.

I ended up staying around until nearly dark and had 8 miles to ride back.  It was fun riding through Austin in the dark.  I rode through downtown, then the university and up through the neighborhoods.  It was getting a little cold, like in the 50’s by then, so I was chilled, but felt good.

Okay, we need to go and try to get Vincent’s bike singlespeed legal.  He has some spacers lined up and is going to take off his extra chainring.  He races at 4 pm this afternoon and then again on Friday.

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.