Cross Nationals

I forgot how much fun collegiate racing could be until last weekend in Kansas City. Although my result wasn't quite what I was hoping for I still had a blast trying. It was the perfect way to end a long season.

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.

I should have known the whole sandal thing was too good to be true! Just getting back from a little spin is when the cold front took away my joy of warmth and reminded me it was cross season and mid December. In a matter of a couple minutes it went from 65 to 30 something. I wish I had a video of all the people scrambling in the parking lot diving into their bags to find knee warmers and thermal jackets. I felt bad for the collegiate women; they were standing on the start grid when the front hit so no one had a chance to change into warmer cloths.

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!