State Championships.

Mud, I have no confidence in this stuff, but seemed to ride it faster than the guys I was with.

Barriers in front of the Rocky Mounts cheering/barbeque section.

My first flat tire of the year.


Racing here in Colorado is over for the year. Two more races and I get a break. I think I'm ready for it. It's been getting harder and harder to get motivated to get out and ride the past couple weeks, and the fact that I've been riding alone doesn't help. Oh well, One more hard workout, and two races before it's all over.

Saturday was the State Championships. A top ten there was a goal for me all season, but didn't quite happen. I got a front row call-up which was awesome. They did call-ups based on BCR (Best Cyclocross Racer) points, so I had a great start, which was really important on the course. There was a small road climb, then straight to singletrack, which would have caused a huge bottleneck, and I'm sure it did, but I was in front of it. The singletrack turned to off camber slop, with some whoop type stuff filled with peanut butter mud in the troughs, more off-camber, and muck, barriers, then some road "S" turns through a parking lot, sloppy singletrack downhill to a mud field with huge whoops and mudpits, more barriers, and back to the road climb. I started top ten, but drifted back into 15th or so in the first few laps. The TIAA-Cref kids must have been playing a game to see who could lay it down in front of me the most times. I think I ran over or into one of them at least 3 times in those first couple laps, and coincidentally lost the group I really wanted to be in. For the first time this year, I was able to shake it off, ride my own race, and pick guys off. With 4 to go, I had caught and passed the group I wanted to be in, and was sitting 10th or 11th with a small chance of catching the group just up the road containing Katie Compton, the US woman's national champ, and if Saturday was any indicator of her form, I think she's got a great chance for a rainbow jersey in February. I probably wouldn't have caught them, but it became irrelevant when I flatted at the start of the singletrack with a lap and 3/4 to go. I rode the rim for 3/4 of a lap, losing positions the whole way to the pits. I got my wheel changed just as I heard Baker finish behind me, so the last lap was just sort of a tour of the course as I was the last person on it.

On a positive note, I didn't get lapped, even after riding a half speed lap. Since I was alone at the end, I tried hopping the barriers in front of the Rocky Mounts tent. I didn't make it, but I think if I would have practiced a little during warm-ups they would have been totally doable. Huge thanks to the guys in the tent though, the drunken rowdiness always makes it hurt a little less for a second or two. Those brats smelled good too, if I wouldn't have lost it immediately, I kind've wanted to get one handed up.

I took a History final this morning at 8:00, and my Art final is at 1:30. I should go study a little more, gotta get that architecture stuff down. Two more finals after today, then it's off to RI. I lost my coffee cup so I better go make some more. Enjoy your day, I know I'll be enjoying mine, after the Post-Traumatic Test Taking Disorder wears off. Those Art History tests can be upsetting, I think I just stared at a wall for an hour or two after the first one.