A couple stops for gas and lots of Iowa country side in the middle of the night makes for a pretty uneventful drive down. I rolled into Kansas City around 7am Saturday morning just in time for the sun to come up. Took a quick nap in the car before some breakfast and checking out the course. The venue looked pretty good with a little bit of mud, some technical turns to keep things interesting and a gradual climb across the back of the course leading to the run up. I watched a race or two before finally getting on the open course at noon for some warm-up laps. I managed to score (free) some sweet new Challenge Grifo tires with the help of an old teammate Patty from the Planet Bike team. I was pretty pumped and decided to run them for my race. Everything looked good and felt dialed so it was off to the hotel to relax until the big race.
You know it's windy outside when it wakes you up the next morning. The good news was it was windy but warm out side, upwards of 65 degrees that morning. I knew I packed my sandal for a reason; one last chance to wear them this year outside. 
Starting in the second row is awesome. Pissing away a second row start is not so much. I shouldn't have been surprised when just about everyone was bashing and chopping wheels on every corner for the first lap. Let's just say I wasted a stellar call up position and found myself pretty far back by the half way point of the first lap. I did my best to claw my way back up to the front but the leaders were already long gone. It took a lap or two but I got settled into a rhythm and started to pick people off one by one. The cold front was bringing the possibility of rain and snow so I let some air out of my tires in anticipation on the start grid. No bananas on the rain or snow left me riding too soft in the rear. It's rather frustrating knowing you are capable of going quite a bit faster on the entire course and rallying every corner but not being able to because you might roll a tire. I pushed my luck as much as possible on every corner and thought I was going down a couple times but I kept it up. With 4 laps to go I found myself in no mans land with no one in sight ahead or behind me. Something was wrong at this point as I felt like I was riding in a bog and everything was rather sluggish. I debated with myself every time I came close to the pits about grabbing a different rear wheel but decided not to with the fear of being caught. The lap cards slowly turned over one by one as I keep riding as fast as possible. I tried to catch the guy in front of me and came close a couple times but ended up getting gaped out of every technical corner. I ended up finishing in 38th place on the day; short of my goal of a top 25. Although I didn't make my goal I had fun trying. It wasn't until after the race that I noticed what my part of my sluggish feeling was caused by. My rear tire had about 2 inches of the bead come out of the rim and created a small bulge that my brake was rubbing against every turn. I'm not saying they were bad tires, in fact the tires were awesome and felt really good when they had the right amount of air in them. I'm sure if they were some cheap injected molded tires and not quality tires that are hand made they would have surely rolled off. This goes to show you should thoroughly test your new equipment before racing it.
Just because my race season was officially over doesn't mean everyone Else's was. I put on some warm cloths and watched the elite mens race to cap off an awesome season. I was a little disappointed in the super fan turnout, but the few that did were impressive. Running around crazy with next to nothing on in 20 degrees with biting winds is super fan worthy if you ask me.
Honestly, one of the best races I have ever watched. There was always something going on in the race and not just at the front either. I was kinda bummed I wasn't in there racing with them for a little bit after racing with most of them at some point or another this cross season. It was pretty amazing to watch some of our nations young talent duke it out with the best of the best. Mad props to Jamie Driscoll and Jesse Anthony, they'll surely be wearing the stars and stripes jersey in the years coming.
Trebon killing it.
Wells and Page duking it out
Ryan and Jamie at the finish.
FYI: Cross season isn't over yet! Don't forget about Matter who's racing in Europe for at least two more weeks.
What now? I'm thinking I'm going to try skate skiing again this winter along with hopefully learning to either snowboard or downhill ski. Anyone want to teach me? I'd be a fool not to try learning some form of winter sport with over a 18 inches of snow on the ground already and more coming this week. It'll surely be a white Christmas. Happy holidays!
The 3 of us rolled back to the hotel to watch a little college ball and re-pin numbers for Sunday's race. The forecast was calling for true cross conditions of high 20's and blowing snow. Here's a picture out the hotel window in the morning.
Day 2 of racing was a new course that runs backwards up Mount Krumpet letting us ride up the back side and descend the really steep section. I don't know what people were complaining about, I was having a blast ripping down the hill barely touching the brakes. The Grinch was even having fun on the decent, check out the end of the video.
Did a couple warm up laps with Brian and found the conditions to be Belgium worthy with slip-n-slide mud, off camber corners, spectators cheering in the worst of conditions and plenty of running. I was pumped and felt like I was able to ride just about everything. The only problem before the start was trying to stay warm and dry. You would think starting in the 3rd row on the far left side would be a pretty good spot right? I was thinking thinking this until the guy in front of me started at about 4 mph and left the entire field pass us! Upon getting around him I was sprinting behind two guys who were trying to lock handlebars and headbutting each other. Needless to say the start was a little sketch in the back. I worked my way up into the top 20 after the first barrier and kept the gas on until Mount Krumpet for the long sloppy run. Running seems to be my weakness this year as I watched the group of 5 I was with gap me by a little more every lap. Closing the gap started to get harder and harder until I couldn't do it anymore. I got passed and gaped by Kyle J. on the run up on my last lap before getting pulled. At first I didn't worry about it knowing I was riding better everywhere else on the course until I looked back and saw the leader Todd Wells was not that far behind. I sprinted through the start/finish area hoping to catch Kyle and praying they would let me go for one more lap to pass Kyle back, but I got pulled with 2 to go. I was pretty bummed because I still felt good and was having a blast . Here's a couple post race shots.
I'm still pretty pumped from yesterdays race and have some new motivation to train hard for the next 2 weeks till nationals. This race was just what I needed after a couple disappointing races. I'll post more pictures as I find them from the race. Next stop Nationals!
Congtrats to Brian for being selected for Euro Cross Camp. Help him out if you can as his trip is going to be pretty spendy.
