Steve Tilford

Our cat, Ollie, was killed yesterday evening. He was hit by a car in front of our house. Kris heard it and rushed him to an emergency vet, but she said that there wasn’t anything to be done about it. Kris took him home, to let the other pets see, then buried him in his favorite place.

I try to not get too emotional when pets pass. I think that we take pretty good care of our pets/friends. And it is sometimes a choice between quality of life and quantity of life. We all try to balance it as well as we can. But, life is harsh sometimes.

Ollie was a great cat. He was a very good boy. We still have two of his siblings, Fran and Kukla. I’m sure they will miss him too. The closest I get to religion is when a pet dies. I’d like to think that there is a heaven for all pets. And if there is a heaven, then I think all pets go there. There can’t be a hell for pets. Their souls are too pure.

I’m sad.

Anyway, I wasn’t in Topeka when it happened. I was driving out to Colorado for Cross Nationals. I have a few “important” things to do out here. First and foremost is watching Sunday’s racing. This morning I’m going to drive over to Boulder with Vincent to pre-ride the course. He’s racing tomorrow. I’m going to meet my friend, Andy Hampsten, on Pearl St., for a cup of coffee first. He told me that he is bar tending tonight at the Rocky Mount Party*. That should be fun.

Okay, kind of a yin-yang post, but that is how I feel today.

Ollie.

This is a photo from right before I left. He liked to sleep in weird positions.

*JANUARY 10th – Rocky Mounts Valmont Bike Park Fundraiser
Where: Rocky Mounts, 2055 26th St, 6:30pm
What; Rocky Mounts official product launch and Valmont Bike Park fundraiser party with special guest bartenders including Andy Hampsten Winner of the 1988 Giro d’Italia
See more at: http://www.bouldercyclesport.com/2014-cyclocross-nationals-social-event-calendar/#sthash.QuMgF7NF.dpuf

Yesterday was long. I didn’t sleep worth a shit. I’m not sure if it was the passing of Ollie or altitude. Either way, it didn’t happen.

Vincent and I went to Boulder and met up with Andy Hampsten. We ended up hanging at the coffeeshop a couple hours. I was crazy jittery when we left.

We went by the VW dealer to get Vincent’s number. I ran into Russell Stevenson there. He is racing the Master’s race today and then the Elite race on Sunday. He got number 40 for the Elite race. I asked if they were lining them up by numbers and the official there said yes. Russell said he didn’t have any UCI points.

Anyway, the officials were listening to our conversation and said only 30 guys with UCI points were racing. That is low. I don’t know how many Elite riders have UCI points from the US, but it is double that at least. I guess the race is too late in the season for even those guys. Or maybe the altitude scared them off. Either way it is quite a few less than the previous years.

We rode just one lap on the course, right after the junior 13-14 race. There were a ton of them. Way over 50. Maybe way more than that. They only did two laps, less than 20 minutes. That seemed too short.

The course is awesome. I saw Peter Weber and told him so. It is super technical and switches up during the days as it warms. Lots of off-camber sections. A big hill. Pretty cool. It makes me want to enter tomorrow.

I might have to retract my not awarding Nationals to Boulder post. It’s close. The venue and course is so cool, it nearly offsets the altitude issue. Almost.

Anyway, I ran into a bunch of friends already. Vincent races at 9 am this morning. Too early for my liking, but that is the deal. It is going to be frozen and super bumpy. Vincent starts at the very back, so it should been interesting watching him move up. He has a new Garmin video camera to capture some of the action.

Okay, have to scoot.

Peter Weber and Dave Toll.