Nationals Day 3

Today made for some outstanding spectating at the bikes races. I love watching racers giving their all, regardless of what place they hold. The weather took a turn for warm and winding resulting in a tacky, fast course. The Utah/Idaho crew put on a great show.


I'll start with the ride of the day. Ali was officially 2nd in the 30 - 34 but won the Non-Full-Time-Pro national championship. He rode a really smart race working with another rider to stay away from Sam K, then attacked on the last lap to score the Silver. Very cool.


Here's Ali, Eric and Sam at the start.

Sam was a solid 4th and just missed the initial split of the front 3. He rode solo the rest of the race and almost closed to Ali.

Eric also had a nice ride to finish 13th. The course wasn't ideal for him, but he put in a great effort. I was proud of him.

Jon G had lousy start position, but worked his way up to finish 17th in the 40 - 45. He looked stronger as the race went on.

Art had an even worse start position, nearly the back row, and worked his way through the huge field to finish 22nd. Impressive.

Mitchell was feeling under the weather, but still managed 20th in the U23 race.

Richard Feldman from Idaho was a very close 2nd in the 40 - 45 group.

The hard-guy award goes to Bob Walker. He broke his chain just past the pit about half way through the race and ran the entire hill and decent to get another bike just in time to get passed by Ned Overand. That's bad luck.

I always have to stop and gawk at Trebon's mutant bike. No human should be able to ride this thing. If it stays dry (the big storm is forecast to hit sometime tomorrow afternoon), the big guy is the favorite. The course is all about power when dry. If it gets wet, I'll go with Johnson or Page. Bart's hoping for the storm to make things difficult. I think he'll do well either way.

I won't be able to post any more updates until we make it home. That could be Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday............ Only the big winter storm knows.

Oh and I have some "explanations" for my poor performance yesterday (I'd never make excuses). The first corner altercation did more damage to me than I thought. Last night I was really sore in my neck and back and I had a big headache from getting nailed in the head. The impact also knocked my rear wheel out of true so my brakes were rubbing the entire race. Add empty legs to the list and you get a finish of 55 out of 95 starters. I was considering giving up serious racing last night, but 24 hours has pulled me back from the ledge.