CX Natz Saturday

Cyclocross Nationals Saturday

Exhaustion and beer led to a solid night of sleep. We awoke early to fuel up on coffee , oatmeal, and yogurt at the buffet. Morgan and Sam were racing early and we wanted to arrive early to get set up in the Pit.

Those guys had solid races against tough (and older) competition. They'll be back to challenge for the jerseys next year.

Sam's Dad, Harshman, Bernie, and I had the Pit covered.



After the Junior races I finally got my cooldown from the day before. I did a super-easy spin on trainer and then did a couple of laps on the course. It was firm and much faster than the day before.

The rest of the day was spent watching the U23 and Elite races. Fast dudes on a fast course was fun to watch. Trebon did as expected and went for the win immediately. He got the gap and kept riding away. Wicks was a good teammate as he had the chase group covered. Tim Johnson and Todd Wells put in an impressive charge to ride up to the chase group. I would have liked to have seen a couple of guys stick with Trebon longer, but it was still fun to watch.

I was pretty beat from running around and spending most of the day on my feet so I made the drastic decision to forgo beer on Saturday night. I was desperate to salvage a good ride on Sunday.

After another cold shower (I was 0 for 3 on hot showers) we hit Bertucci's again for another solid, no surprises Italian dinner. Butts drank enough beer for all of us. I got an Advil gel cap stuck in my right nostril in an attempt to swallow it through my nose.

On the way back to the hotel we had the surreal experience of seeing the police approaching an SUV that literally had the rear wheels falling off the axle. The lady in the passenger seat was dressed in a shower curtain and had some monstrous something or other on her head. And I really didn't drink that night. Bryan made a bid at getting us arrested by hooting at the cops as we drove past. Good times were had by all.

Back at the Holiday Inn Express I cleaned my drivetrain and did openers in the hallway. I'm sure that embarrassing photos will show up here sometime soon.

It had been a long, fun, and interesting day. Sleep came easily.