Nats Day 1 AM Course Recon

During Heidi's and Erik's race I managed to get some pictures of the course.

For the early races, single file and in the brown was the strategy.



Most singletrack is fun. This was not.


Later this fast barrier section became slow and sloppy with mud.


From here the stairs look innocuous...


...but looks can be deceiving.

Nats Day 1 AM

Today is my tune up race. The course is open for riding this morning from 8-845AM. Erik races at 10. I race at noon. We're up at 645, head downstairs for some breakfast, load up and then roll out. It's 29 degrees and overcast. We get to the course where we plan to pick up our race packets, then head out for some practice laps. Erik heads to reg, picks up his packet and then takes his bike to the SRAM booth for a "quick" tune-up. I drop off my wheels and bike in the pit, and head to registration. After much confusion with the reg folks, I've got my numbers for both races, and I'm ready to roll. Or so I thought. A fellow SoCal Crosser, Heidi, races at 9, and hits me up to pin her numbers to her skinsuit. How can I refuse? I manage to get this done--four numbers, 8 pins each--in what seems forever--15-20 minutes (hey, it's early and cold), then I'm out into the elements to do a lap. I get back to the SRAM booth, and discover Erik and his bike, and the surly SRAM guy haven't seemingly budged. No time to worry about him--I got to get moving. I take off and make it about quarter of a lap before the announcers start requesting riders get off as they are ready to start the first race. I ignore these warnings and continue on my merry way. The course is hard as a rock and slippery. I barrel around a couple of corners and see I guy stopped in the middle of a high-speed sweeper. Hmmm, what's that about? I enter the corner as he's restarting and completely lose it. I'm thinking "This is going to hurt", but because the ground is so slippery, I just keep sliding. I'm back up quickly and finish a lap before a UCI official kindly reminds me to stop. All right, at least I got one lap in--I'm not sure if Erik got out. My tire pressure seems fine, but my hands and feet are cold. I'll work those out later.

Nats Ground Report

I just left the Nats course. I didn't get a chance to ride it as my flight was delayed and it was dark. What I did see was that there is a couple of inches of snow on the ground, a bit of ice on top of that snow, and several places where the snow/ice melted making the sections muddy. No doubt it will re-freeze tonight. At the base of the staircases is a drainage ditch which will make that section very interesting. Just walking on the off-cambers was treacherous--I can't wait to ride it. More tomorrow.

CX Nats Prologue - Denver Airport

So this is what the season has lead to: a chance to bang bars with the best of the nation. Well, the best in the nation that have decided to show up. My philosophy is that half of winning is just showing up. You can't win if you don't play.

This week has been hectic. Monday morning, Debbie's car wouldn't start so she took mine. I worked from home until noon when I could get someone to jump start it. Then I headed to the airport to verify my luggage size, change my flight, arrange accomodations and rental car with my new Nats roommate and fellow SoCal Crosser, Erik Turner. Tuesday I needed to wrap my bars and I headed to Action Sports. Yeah, I can do it, but this is Nationals, and I want it to look professional (thanks, Sammy). Sam hooked me up with some cold-weather Specialized Radiant gloves and heat for my feet. Then it was back to work, spend time with the family Christmas shopping, then home to tighten my bottom bracket, install my HRM computer, switch my pedals, break apart my Ritchey Break<\>Away cross bike, pack, weigh, unpack, check, and re-check. I ended up getting to bed at 12:30am with a wakeup call at 4 to get to the airport by 5. The nice lady at United, Teri, informed me that my flight from Denver to KC was cancelled, so she booked me on a later PM flight, and put me on Standby for the next earlier flight. She even checked my bags for that earlier flight. These United people are good. I went to the United Customer Service in Denver, and they took me off standby and put me on the next earlier flight. The first hiccup of the the trip is resolved. Sweet. There's nothing better than good customer service. And frequent flier status...;)