Nationals, etc.

The Seven Springs road course is tough. 3000 ft. of climbing per 30 miles X 3. I was settled in at the team's condo 2 days before the race after the travel day from hell. I was planning on riding 2 laps and my two teammates had said they were only up for 1 lap since they'd done the TT the day before. Matt Weyen got 9th in that race which was a great result since he was only 30 seconds down on the winner. Had the course not had 3(?) turn-arounds, I think he would have been only 15 seconds down since he probably kept his bike in his gigantic 55x11 (or whatever) the whole time. Good on him for getting a top-10!

Anyway, I wasn't too eager to do 2 laps of the course either it turned out, and so we settled with one. Then the rest of the guys showed up the next day, and we did another lap, and again, I didn't feel up to doing more than 1 lap. Just riding the course fairly steady is that difficult. Not a good sign if you are supposed to compete with 150 guys that are motived for a national championship on such tough course.

Come race day, the plan was to get 1 or two of us in an early move, and I was one of those guys, and then everyone else was going to support Matt since he was our sole leader since our other top rider went home after the TT claiming he was sick.

When the gun went off, I attacked and Steve Tillford, The Evergreen, came with me and another guy somehow came with us, but he was worthless and riding a bike made out of bamboo. Yes, a bike made out of bamboo.

Tillford and I swapped pulls and were going really hard. We got about 40 seconds and when we hit the short wall climb Tillford accelerated and I thought he'd ease a bit, but he kept the gas on. I should have killed myself to stick with him, but I held back and made it to the first long climb. After a little while up the climb the field came along with a few surges and I jumped on one of them. Soon the field engulfed us and I made my way to the back of the field, getting spat out too far from the top of the climb. I got over in front of the group of stragglers I was with, but the field was out of sight, end of race for us.

I rode another lap, mostly alone, and picked up Brandon and we completed the second lap together. Last we'd heard, Matt was trailing the lead group by 15 seconds. He'd flatted, chased, caught back on, and then got popped since they were just then cresting the last big hill. He rode in for 32nd or something.

After packing up we headed to Pittsburgh and after much confused driving in downtown Iron City, we eventually found the Southside which we'd been looking for. I'd stumbled up on it in 2001 while on my big racing trip in the east and remembered it was really hip. So, on our last bonked legs, we found a mediteranean cafe with a grouchy waitress and got some dinner at 10 pm.

Beer is cheap in Pittsburgh. You can find $1.50 bottles, $1 pints, and even $5 pitchers. Quality may vary.

After Nationals the next big event was the Boise Twilight Criterium, now a part of the USA Crits series. Sarah and I drove over in 2 days and made a bit of a vacation out of it. Unfortunately the Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City, OR, along with all other lodging, was booked due to the annual Miner's Jamboree. Ooops. We had to keep moving east to Ontario, OR to find anything. Avoid Onatario, by the way.

We stayed at Hotel 43 a block from the course and hooked up with Brandon at his new pad. We did a little ride and my legs felt like they'd returned to normal after feeling horrible the whole week. We hit "Los Betos" for some delicious and cheap burritos before heading back to the luxury of Hotel 43.

The race was stacked with national crit talent and the stats were as follows: 44 miles, 29 miles per hour avs. I was too late for a $200 prime and made a couple of probing attacks, one that caused me to get passed by 40 or so guys as the field came by single file. Everyone was on the rivet at least.

In the final laps it was pretty dark and hard to see who the riders were and what were only shadows. I decided to toughen up and moved up on both straightaways in the last laps until the final lap where it was all out. I was able to pass a few guys in the sprint and ended up a respectable 20th.

Upon returning from Boise I drew up my training plan for criterium nationals in mid August. Somehow I must recover from the training pre-road nationals and at the same time, have really good form: speed and sprint, for crit nationals.

So far so good. Not tired, was able to kill the club ride, did a sprint workout and a motor-pace this week. Oh, my damn calf. It's a little gamey, but holding together.

Yesterday was the Whale of a Criterium, the last event of the WA Cup. I needed to beat Tubbs by 13 points to pass him to take 2nd overall. He ended up 2nd and I 4th. So, I didn't pass him. I gave it a shot and was clsoe, but I should have been in the top 3 on the last lap, but that's where everyone wants to be. It was really competetive and sketchy the whole race, especially in the last two laps. It was an accomplishment just getting up to the position I was in in the last laps with eight corners to deal with. It was nice to do well in a tough field and get decent prize money.

Next up is Volunteer Park on Sunday. I am feeling confident and will have some old friends in attendance to put a show on for. Too bad the prize money will probably suck if I end up doing a good result.