State

This past sunday took us out to Hermann MO again for ye old state championship race. It featured the usual sprawling course, with numerous dismounts, a "no fun sandpit" and those stairs. I usually like the courses that we have for the Hermann night race but not the ones for the state race. This one was a lot better than last year for sure. It was a bummer to have yet again another non rideable sandpit. I don't even like riding sand, but it's kinda fun when you're not in contention. Also, just because how cold my feet got the stairs actually weren't fun. Usually I can crush it up the stairs, but with clunky stone feet it's kinda hard. Anyways, I rolled up to this race feeling pretty optimistic, I felt real good last week at bellefontane, and I had felt good all week. Cousin Dan came up to me and and seemed to be bummed when he told me it was a "road riders course". Maybe yesterday is all I have to say. The ground thawed out, and somehow that park holds water for weeks, cause it was the single slickest race I have ever done. It was worse than the quad cities crit this year where guys were crashing at every corner. In the warmup lap, I couldn't believe it. It was like a joke or something. It was a bit of a bummer because I'm pretty sure that if the course had been dry I could have killed it. Anyways, I started 3rd row, and somehow got up to maybe top ten on the long pavement stretch. I was stuck behind a few fast starters who I knew weren't going to be able to hang up there, and that I needed to get around. As I tried to make my way through the pack fodder, I saw Dan, MJ, Alex Edwards and two guys I didn't know slowly pulling away. They held me at about 10-15 seconds for the first lap, then hitting the pavement again I put it in the 48x12 and hammered. After two laps of that had caught back up to the main group. I fell off a bit again, and then coming through starting, I think, our fourth lap, I caught MJ and one of the other dudes I didnt know (DIDK), and told Matt to hop on my wheel. I ripped it down the pavement and pulled back 10 or so seconds on dan, and we were a trio on the front. We stayed together until the hill where dan tried to ride it, and I was running behind him. He bobbled and I stopped, allowing him to keep going and trying not to screw Matt, who was also riding the hill. Dan got a little gap on us here, and then, through the next two corners which were the slickest two on the course, my bike kind of slid out, and I ended up kind of running past it or something weird. It took me a while to really get going agian. A few went by me, and I found myself in 5th. Behind Matt and Dan out front, and then Alex and a DIDK. They stayed about 20 seconds in front of me for the rest of the race. I got about 8 seconds off of Alex who had fallen off of DIDK on the last lap, but 4th and 5th isnt a huge difference. Neither is on the podium. It was a bit of a bummer of a race. I knew I had good legs, but the unusual slickness of the race put me out of comission I guess. It kinda sucks that state is in conditions we havent had all year, cold and muddy, but that's bike racing. Keaton and I hung around the 1/2 race for a bit, but it was truly depressing. 9 guys riding around in the cold is pretty boring. I guess I kind of feel like I did after snake alley this year. Where I went in with a lot of anticipation and got crashed out on the line, and I knew I should have been top 3. Here I went in with a lot of hopes and fell short just due to a few little things. Again, had the course been dry I'm pretty sure things would have been a lot different. I can only speculate though, and that doesn't really do anything. I was however really impressed by MJ. Before the race he told me he was going in to just have a good time and enjoy the race, I told him "with that attitude, you'll probably have a good race". I had a feeling he was going to ride well. It was a good Mesa day though, with a few jerseys and a handful of podiums. Probably the best team spread all day. Tomorrow at 6am(uggh) we leave for Portland, and then will drive to Bend from there. The weather out there right now is a joke. It is, as of 10:35am on Tuesday, 9 degrees and has been snowing all week. It's a little stoopid. Didn't they take Nats away from KC partially because the temps sucked so bad? oh well. I think our race is being broadcasted live here on saturday. I'm racing thursday in the B 10-29 race, which is a non national championship race that is kind of a course preview race, and a race for people who arent elites and arent in an age category. In that race I'd really like a top ten. Saturday is the U23 race, which is really really really fast. The top guys are serious hitters, who put in top 10's in the big elite fields. In that race a top 20 would make me really happy. I really don't want to get lapped, and I dont think that should be a huuuge problem. I got lapped the last two years, but the first year was my first year and I was in over my head, and last year I was sick. We'll see. I really have no clue what it will be like. I'm pretty nervous and excited.


edit: this is what trebon says it looks like as of yesterday in bend.