I need a break.

This weekend, although being a total success, took it out of me. I'm definitely dragging today. Our home race on Saturday turned out really well. I was hoping to have a little bigger turnout in the open categories, but I guess it'll take a few years to get the word around about what a great course we have, and I think our organization showed that we can handle whatever might be thrown our way.

Kari Mello rocked the registration table all day, sacrificing her face to some nasty sunburn in the process, but I can honestly say I think it was one of the best run registration tables I've ever been around.

Scott was there all day too and helped out with everything from registration, to running wierd errands, and dialing in all the little details that make the day a success.

We had a good turnout as far as the team is concerned. All but one rider was there I think, and he had been traveling all week, so I'll give him the day off for that.

Sue Bjorland from the Breadboard gave us way to much awesome Lavazza coffee, some great pizza, and lunch for the officials.

Mike Feighny was kind enough to offer his van to me to haul everything around in. I still have it and I'm not so sure I'm gonna give it back. I could really get used to driving that beast full time.



The Roubaix Bicycle Company helped us out with a bunch of gift certificates for the winners.

We had plenty of volunteers that did their jobs to perfection. I was a little nervous with the freshman conduct students that were sentenced to course marshall all morning, but I didn't have one problem or complaint against them or from them. I actually think one of the highlights of the day was rolling up to turn 2 just as these two kids squared off and simultaneously drop kicked a stack of lawn chairs and fell into the grass, only to see me and get up and try to pretend like they were really business like and professional. I laughed and told them the kick was awesome, then they relaxed a little and one of them even bragged that his friend had 360'ed a stack of 3 chairs just a minute before I rolled up. Luckily corner 2 doesn't have much traffic, and it was no mistake that those guys got picked to work there.

The folks from USA Cycling were very helpful and gratitious. I lent them my apartment Friday night because we didn't want to get a hotel for them, and I think they liked it better than they would have liked a room at the Greeley Inn. They ranted and raved all day about my place, the course, and Kari.

Dave Towle capped things off better than anything I could have asked for. When we were organizing this race we weren't sure what we should do for an announcer, but in retrospect, I would never even consider hosting a race without Dave if it was at all possible to get him there. He really MAKES the race. He spent the day calling the race, spouting off random made up facts about Promontory Park, giving shouts to the GPD and several of our sponsors. Without his entertainment, we would basically have all just been standing around in a windy field watching riders go past every 4 minutes.

The racing turned out to be great to watch too. The mornings races stuck together pretty well as it was rather calm, but as the afternoon went on, things got fiestier, and the wind picked up a little. I sat out of the collegiate race, but hopped in with the Pro 1,2,3 race in the afternoon. Somehow, just a couple laps into it, I found myself in a move that contained some real horsepower, most of which wasn't mine, but I worked as hard as I could to prove that I deserved to be there. With 5 laps to go I heard we still had well over a minute on the field and we never let up. With two to go, things started slowing down and Stu Gillespie of TIAA-CREF started attacking every 30 seconds. None of his attacks stuck very well, and I even helped bring him back a couple times. He hit it hard on the last lap with about 600m to go, but got reeled in and he sat up. I ended up finishing out the race in 3rd place which was an awesome way to end the day. I know 3rd is a long way from 1st, but I also know I rode that race as hard as I could, and I haven't second guessed a bit of it, because I know I gave it everything.

Sunday was a rather miserable day. I got a full 8 hours of sleep, but felt like I'd gotten 2. My legs didn't have much snap in them for the morning collegiate race, although I jumped across to the break at one point only to see that the rest of the field crashed behind me and got stuck back in with the break I'd gotten across to. I did the open Cat 3 race in the afternoon and my legs felt a little better than the morning. I put in one really hard effort to bring a break back that Scott and I had missed. I didn't have much for the sprint, and was disappointed in my positioning on the last lap. I was hoping to at least be there for the leadout, but I had nothing. Live and learn I guess.

Last night was supposed to be an all-nighter to get that research paper done that I'd put off all week due to this race promoting thing. Well, that didn't exactly happen. I made it until midnight then decided I needed a nap, that ended up lasting until I had to take the rest of the barricades back at 7am. On a brighter note, I did manage to crank out 8 solid pages on "From Free Diving to the Aqualung: The Birth and Evolution of SCUBA." Maybe I was just too tired when I wrote it, but I actually think it might have been some pretty quality writing? I guess we'll see in a week or so. Tomorrow is class, return the tables and folding chairs, turn in all the money and paperwork from our race, finish my poster project, more class, and then I think I get to just hang out for a night. I've been looking forward to doing that for some time.

I've got more pictures of the race on Saturday, I think I might just make a Kodak Gallery album so I don't have to upload them all onto here. There are some decent shots from Saturday's race, and I think I heard a rumor that there was a race photographer from Aurora at the Oval on Sunday. We'll just have to see I guess. Thanks for reading, this was a long one, guess I'm still in the writing spirit from this morning.

The End