The Big Show

I guess I have time for a write up as Penelope and I are snowed/iced in at grandma and grandpas.  

The elite races were held about a half mile down the road from the master's venue.  It was the same course that I raced on at the Louisville USGP races earlier in the year.  On Thursday while I was out riding on the road I was able to ride the start/finish area as they were finishing up setting the course.  I stopped by the Trek area to check out their setup.  Mark was busy setting up Katie's bikes and Matt O was working on Emily's bikes.  By the time I was headed back to master's course, they had opened the elite course for training and I almost headed out on a lap but decided against it.

Riding the start/finish on Thursday

Mark dialing in 1 of Katie's 4 bikes 

crowds were awesome

Friday morning it was decided that all of the events would be moved and scheduled for Saturday.  The course was near the river and would most likely flood so they were building sand bag walls to keep water off the course.  That would mean that Saturday would be an all out cyclocross bender, 4 races and lots of beer drinking.  

I had general admission tickets but our hosts had a table in the VIP tent and were gracious enough to give me one of their extras.  It was a large, heated tent with catered food and all the Sierra Nevada beer you could drink.  I had a 1 liter stein that would help with that.  The lines were long to get into the venue but the VIP tickets had us cutting the line.  It was kind of a pain getting around the course with all of the people trying to get through the course crossings.  I guess there were around 10,000 people at the races.  We were there from 9 til 4 watching all of the races and drinking plenty of beer.  Trek brought a charter bus of employees down for the weekend and they had huge CXC flags all over the course.  I think most people were happy about all of the races being on the same day because I could not have done it all again on Sunday.

Katie headed up the stairs

Logan Owen before the steps

Saturday night we had our season ending Trek CXC party at the Maker's Mark lounge.  We had a few drinks, I had Katie sign a cap for Penelope and then headed down to the FoamParty.  There was a line down the block but I was able to get the Trek crew in with a text to Brandon G.  It was packed and all of the World Champs from the day were there. We had our photo taken on the red carpet and called it a night.  What a fantastic day of racing and celebrating the end of a long season.

Sunday we checked out a basketball game and also checked out the course to see that moving all event to Saturday were a good idea.

Sat here first-top row of arena

hosts had season tickets-moved to here-2nd row on floor

Sunday! moving the races to Saturday was a good idea

4th in the world

The final race week of the year is finally gone and done.  I ended up 4th in the final today for Master's 35-39 World Championships.  I was only 20 seconds off the podium so that was the bummer.  I had a front row call up in the #7 position which was only made better when 3 of the front row did not show up for call ups.  Talk about an amateur move (yeah, I am talking to you Russ, Haha).  I had a pretty good start but not the hole shot like I hoped.  I moved my way up to 4th by the second lap and could not close the gap to the podium.  Hollywood was out on the course yelling what lines were the fastest which helped a lot. I was pretty bummed with missing the podium but after calming down I started to feel a bit better about it.  My teammate, Tom Price was an ace in the pit.  I was able to get 1 bike per lap and without that I would not have finished.  Brandon Gavic, of 2013 FoamParty fame was also helpful in getting my pit bike ready while I warmed up.

Tom also helped Mark Savery to his World Championship win in the tough 40-44 age group.  It was a huge win and awesome to see right before I hit the line for my race.

The master's venue became a non priority to the promoters as the big race was coming up on the weekend.  The power washers were left out on Thursday night and were frozen which meant only buckets and brushes for the races on Friday.  I am not sure what Tom's secret was but I cannot thank him and New 40-44 World Champ, Mark Savery, enough for the place to warm up and all of the help.

Yep, there is a $9000 bike in there. Not mine.

The after race is always the worst part.  I had a rental car that would not hold bikes because Ian, from HED, drove my bikes down so I had to find a place to clean them before sending them with him. Brandon found some races with some rack space and they dropped us at a shop about a half mile from the venue where I was able to wash both bikes back to race shape and get them to Ian.  We hung out at the shop and dried off with some beers with the owner who Brandon and I both ended up knowing from our days in Tucson.  Small world.

The season was finally over and it was time for the beer drinking to begin. Although, I am a pretty big talker when it come to the off season as my wife would say.

Up next, the Big Show.