home turf...

After 2 years on the East coast Nationals came to our backyard in '07. Well KC that is, were down there racing all the time anyway, I consider it our backyard. With it came an ice storm leading up to the event which entombed the trees & venue. Locals, that includes me, knew the course from a lead up event a few weeks earlier. Big difference though was that it was bone dry & super fast for that preview event.

Thursday's 40+ B race was the warmest day of the weekend & probably the best conditions. It was muddy & frozen at times but the real damage hadn't been done to the course yet.

I turned a 2nd row start into a 2nd place finish, Patrick Morissey from NM was at least 25-30 seconds up the road & I never could close the gap. I caught a whiff of the coveted Sandbagger National Championship but the top step eluded me this year. Darren Cheek from Breckenridge is the other dude on the podium.

Didn't race on Friday, my 40-44 was scheduled for Saturday. The sloppiest, muddiest, course destroying event of the weekend was the 45-49 event Friday afternoon. It was the last race of the day & it had warmed up enough so that the course was a disaster. This race set the stage for the weekend, Friday night the temperatures plummeted & the deep ruts carved by the 45-49's froze solid. Saturday's racer's were greeted by a nearly unrideable surface. Early on the muddy ruts were still a bit pliable but as the day wore on & it got colder & started to snow, everything froze rock hard. By the time I raced, if you want to call it that, it was ridiculous. Snow was coming down & your bike just went wherever it wanted as your wheels jumped from rut to rut. I was running Mud 2 clinchers & I can't believe I didn't flat. I was taking bikes every lap because the braking surfaces on my wheels were so iced over. Easily the most defeating part of the course was a big water hole you had to ride through every lap. The pond was created by water from the bike wash truck flowing down the hill onto the course. So every lap you had to ride through this big water hole which soaked your already freezing feet & iced over your brakes. I can't remember what race was after mine but they removed the water hole from their race.

I survived...

May not have time to post an '08 recap but maybe.

Later,

TK