Rocket Racing: CX Nats Fri Update

Lots of racing today and lots of action, I could write a pretty long entry but this will be short compared to the amount of action on the day.

Pits were busy all day long, the words of the day were "MUD" and "POWER"

Its been very warm for Madison this time of year, two days in a row we were over 40 and the normal frozen tundra has turned into sicky, slimy power zapping mud. Wed when I raced it was 1/2 frozen icy and slick muddy mix which was slick and as fast as you dared go. Two days later it is slick and deep mud and with temps looking like they will be in the upper 30's again tomorrow I don't expect the course to change for my race tomorrow at 2:45.

Tilford taking the hole shot and Songer right behind.

Today kicked off with the Masters 50+ which had 4 KC area racers in the mix. Tilford owned the race from gun, he was flying out there but had some good competition in the race so it never was fully in the bag until the end when Steve won another title. Songer, Lucas and Anderson from 360 were on course as well and Songer put in a great race coming in 9th, he was sitting top 5 for a while but had some mechanical issues during the race. Lucas had some bad luck as well and looked cut on a knee and pulled out while Anderson rode to a 45th place finish. It's pretty fun cheering on the local boys in the big races.

Fast Girls Rule!

Next up was the future of the sport show with all the juniors from 10-18 boys and girls. It's a blast watching these kids get after it and get after it they do. Some crazy fast kids on the boys and girls side of the racing today and the future of CX in the USA looks to be very strong indeed. K-Rocket's big race was after the younger juniors finished and she was feeling pretty good before hand during warmups.

Karen 4th place early on

2nd row start and coming out of the first tight turns she was sitting 4th place. From there she starting going backwards and really struggled to race her normal race today. She pitted each lap and so did pretty much everyone. Travis and I teamed up in the pits and had extra help from Joe Parker to make sure she always had a cleaned bike ready to go. A clean bike each lap was pretty much mandatory, for those that did not we saw a lot of broken derailleurs. Several girls passed her 1/2 way through the race that Karen has beaten before and I know from personal experience how that feels when you know you should be going faster but the body won't respond. We think the cold she has been fighting just kept her off her "A" game and on this course you needed 110% to do well. She raced it as hard as her body would go and took 9th on the day. Not where she wanted to be but sometimes the mind says GO and the body says NO. What a great season by Karen this year taking some huge wins and several podium spots at big UCI level races. Future looks bright indeed!

Later on we watched Isaac and Lane compete in their first big race. I talked them through various tactics and preparation the night before and the day of the race. They both looked ready to go have some fun and race hard. Karen helped them at the start with jackets, bottles etc while Joe P, Dean A, Bill M and I manned the pits. Pits were very busy and there was a lot of good racing action all around with over 50 15/16 boys out shredding the course. We saw two kids snap derailleurs right at the pit entrance, talk about a lucky break! a few more feet down the course and that would have been the end of the race unless they were sic cross country runners. Isaac finished 36th and Lane took 48th, the smiles on their faces were grand for sure.

Tomorrow Travis and I race @ 2:45 and Andrew races right after us. Callups are in and Andrew is 18th in his 30-34 Masters race out of 45 guys. Travis and I are being called up 20th and 21st out of 72 men. It will be pretty cool starting the race with my teammate by my side, let's hope we are both on our game and the Ethos pain train runs some folks over on our way to top 10 finishes. There are more racing as well with Bill S, Dan M and David H mixing it up in the morning.

Dinner is down, pit bikes and pit crews are ready, mind is go and tomorrow it all goes down.