The 2008 season is over. It ended with cross nats back in Kansas City again, but this year at a different venue and with some different weather as well. We made the drive out starting on Wednesday, stopping in St Louis and arrived at the venue on thursday afternoon. The course was awesome! Not your typical cross course, this one was on the side of a pretty serious hill....so the majority of the course was uphill, then back down again...nice and wide with very little in the way of technical sections. For me this course was about as good as it gets...pure fitness not finesse. At first the course was pretty sloppy from previous rain...but by the time of Cara's master's race on friday it was nice and tacky...soft, but not messy at all. Cara had a very good ride for 9th in a tough 30-34 yr age group.
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My age group race was friday..and the conditions were just as good. Temps in the 50s and soft but grippy ground. To top it off I was 9th on the call-up and with one no-show I ended up with the last place on the front line. With 120 of my closest friends next to and behind me, it was going to be a battle. Even with a course that suited me and a primo start position, I didn't come into the race this year with lofty goals. I didn't have anywhere near the fitness I had for my couple of 2nd place finishes a few years back....it has been a strange and long season...but I WAS hoping to get the best out of myself. Was a podium (top 5) out of the question???
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The whistle blew and I had a good start, found my pedal and had a good first few pedal strokes (it is unbelievable how important those first few seconds are in a big cx race). Then, just as we were about to get off the pavement I had the sensation of being pulled backwards....did I go too hard? I figured out pretty quickly that my rear wheel was rubbing my brakes, but was not sure why...no time to think too much about it yet...I just needed to drive hard. I managed to stay in a decent position...probably just outside the top 10, but my gears were slipping and something just was not right with the bike. Near the end of the lap, just after the barriers, I reached down to try to tighten my rear skewer....it was WAY loose: problem identified. I reset the wheel and tightened the skewer. I thought I had it fixed, but the gears were still slipping so I knew I would have to change bikes. In the meantime I had lost a whole bunch of spot and after my bike exchange I was back in the mid-20s.
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With a fresh, properly working bike, now it was time to see how far up I could battle. I actually did a really good job...rode to my abilities (read: really, really hard) and made it back up to 11th at the finish. I was pleased that I was able to make myself suffer so hard and go well...but something about 11th place is not particularly satisfying. No excuses here...even without my first lap difficulty I figure the best I could have done was something like 8th...just a few spots better than I was....it really comes down to simply not having the fitness to hang with the amazingly strong guys at the front of that race. I will get back up there...but cross is becoming more and more competitive at every level, and to get there I am going to need to make it a focus of the entire season. This will not happen next year, but sometime in the next few years this will become the number one goal. I was really hoping that fellow ashevillean Will Black was going to win, but he had a bit of a bad day and bailed...my guess is he will be back for it next year with a vengeance.
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Sunday was elite race day. Here is where the weather story of the weekend comes in. When we got up in the morning it was 60 degrees (no joke!) but at the start of the women's race it was somewhere around 25 degrees....crazy. At least we knew it was coming...but we didn't think it would be that sudden. I was able to see a little of Cara's race while I was warming up...enough to see Katie Compton crush all....and Cara have a decent mid-pack finish on the lead lap.
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The elite men's race was crazy-insane as usual. I have no illusions here...I was doing it for fun and to be part of the big show....if I could make it to 1 lap to go before being lapped by the leaders I would have been happy. The worst part of the race was standing at the start waiting in the cold. Once we were off I just tried to stay safe and ride hard....which is exactly what I did. I started mid-pack and that is about where I ended up being scored. By the end of the first lap my hands were screaming in pain from the cold...but I was able to push that out of my mind with the help of hundreds and hundreds of screaming spectators. If you have never been to a cross nats....you need to get your butt to one to see what I am talking about. I will gladly hand over my $50 entry fee to be in the elite race for just that experience...it is always a highlight of the season and a great way to end the year. I rode hard. My gears started skipping again about mid-race. I still can't believe I went all year with my bikes working PERFECTLY other than a couple of punctures..then they don't work at nats?!?!?! I changed bikes with about 4 laps to go, but knew my time left in the race was limited. Ryan (the winner) lapped me as he was heading in for his 2 to go. In the big uci events (nationals IS a uci race) you get pulled from the course either just before you are lapped, or at the start/finish just after you are lapped. I was pulled when I would have seen 3 to go ...which is why in the results I am listed as 3 laps down...no I wasn't lapped 3 times in an hour...I am slow, but not THAT slow :)
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It was so cold after the race we didn't really hang around ...we just packed up and hit the road. Unfortunately we didn't get to say goodbye to everyone. One of the other great things about cross nats is just seeing everyone one last time for the year. Some of the guys from the west coast we actually ONLY get to see at nats...and it is something that I will miss if we don't get to go next year. So that was it: the 2008 season is in the books. Was it good? bad? It was certainly a strange one. I will do a season summary soon and see if I can't objectively quantify how I feel about it......
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We headed east and spent a couple of days in (very cold) St Charles, MO..had a nice holiday visit with Cara's family, then made our way back to our lonely cats in Black Mountain. I won't be taking too much time off the bike this year.....while I am somewhat "retired" from road racing...I am still cooking up some cool plans for 2009. In fact I did get out for a couple short rides on the new cannondale 29er....more on that later.
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