Cross Nationals, Kansas City

This last weekend the National Cyclocross Championships were contested in Kansas City, KS. I flew out thursday w/ Rachel Lloyd, her bikes, my bike, and our bags. When we got in to Kansas City, we discovered that management (you know who you are ;-p)had reserved us a standard size car, and all the company had left was a bunch of convertibles. It was about 30°, not the best weather for a droptop even if all the stuff would fit inside. We got the cheap upgrade to a nice SUV, and all the bags and bikes easily fit in, AND it had all wheel drive...which would come in handy. We went to the course after putting the bikes together at the hotel and did a couple of very muddy, cold laps. The conditions were pretty terrible, with wet soupy mud in some sections, sticky mud in others, and a small amount of wet grass. I raced on friday afternoon, the last race of the day. I got called up 96th, which guaranteed lots of fun for me. Steve Tilford got the holeshot and pretty much killed our race. I rode around and tried to destroy part of the fencing around the course. Out of 119 supposed starters, i finished 63rd, which was actually more pathetic than it seems 'cuz about 30 guys didn't start, and about 10 more dnf'd. I pretty much suck.
The next morning were the U23 races, w/ the women going first. I dragged my wheels out for Amy D. to use, and brought my camera as well. I walked to the course w/ Fred Dreir of Velonews, and he somehow mistook the fact that i was letting Amy use my wheels for her b bike as meaning that i was her "personal mechanic". Pretty funny how it says in Velonews that i was running around in the pit washing bikes while i was actually running around everywhere else taking these shots...
That's Amy on the way to her second straight U23 championship. And Natasha Cowie got on the box too...

Congratulations to 2 wonderful racers who will undoubtedly have great racing careers!

The weather was pretty bad on Saturday, with snow throughout the day, and most of the night. We woke up Sunday to clear skies and no wind. Rachel was pretty fired up about the conditions, as she is probably the most skilled bike handler on the circuit. At the start of the women's elite race she got bumped around a bit, and came through in 5th place. By the 2nd lap she had moved up into 2nd, and was slowly catching Katie Compton. As the bell rang for the final lap, Rach was about 30 seconds behind Katie. She pulled back some time, but finished 22 seconds back. It seemed to me that there were a ton of people that were really happy to see Rachel come back to cross racing and get such a great result. I wish her the best of luck in Europe and wish i could be on that plane in January!
Sunday night was the post-nationals party, which started at Dave and Busters.

After many cocktails and some ferocious video game action the crowd moved downstairs for some...

of this. I had never tried riding the mechanical bull, but it was a blast. Barry liked it too...

Andy won himself a nifty new jersey in the Masters 30-34 race, and got 6th in the elite race...but...

he got launched. It ended up being a pretty fun night...