Nebraska State Cx Championships

I received the OK from the wife mid-week to race up in Lincoln, Nebraska for their big cx weekend. I wouldn't be able to race both days, but i would at least get to go up for one day. Since Heather was working Thursday and Friday nights', she would be sleeping and recovering on Saturday. So it only made since for me to drive up early Sunday morning to Lincoln to race the 2nd day. I would spend the early day on Saturday hanging out with the little girl and Heather could catch up on some sleep. It turned out that the biggest contingent of KC racers would be going up and racing on Saturday and not on Sunday. Turns out that there were quite a few KC guys who stayed the nite and raced both days. Lucky Bastards!......oh well, i at least get one race in for the weekend.

So the plan was to race the Masters' race on Sunday. This would be the first race of the day at 10am. Now that is not too early, unless you live 3 hours to the south of the race course that was set up at beautiful Pioneers' Park in Lincoln. I was up at 430 on Sunday morning and out the door and on the road by 4:45. A quick stop at MickyD's for a breakfast sandwhich and an OJ and i was rolling. Pulled into Lincoln at about 7:45 and into the park a few minutes later. I was there early enough that i could could my morning bathroom break in, check both bikes out, and sign in and dress with out having to feel rushed. Just a chance to calm the prerace nerves and get a good warm-up in. I decided to bring 1 of my 2 dogs with me for the trip. Landis, my brittany was the lucky one. He is great with people and is a good car dog. He probably slept 2 and a half of the 3 hour drive and all of the 3 hours back home. Landis got to partake in a litle of my warm-up and then hung out at the car which was set-up on the west side of the race course. He had a perfect view of everyone racing by. From what some friends said, he actually seemed to be quite intent on checking out the dorky spandex clad racers going by him.

My initial impressions of the course were good. Tjis is the 4th year in a row coming up to Lincoln to race at Pioneers' Park. Have had nothing but great experiences racing at this venue. I new it would be a fun but hard course for me and other racers. The start and the long pavement section was on a 1/3 mile stretch on a gradual incline that was actually into the wind. This would make it difficult for the racers that were going it alone on this stretch with racers that were working together chasing down those lone individuals. Once off the initial pavement section, the course took a soft right hand turn into the grass that immediately began to pitch up and over a little knoll and pitch up again another 20-30 meters to another knoll and take 90' right turn to a false flat that led into another 90' right turn down a 20 meter hill into a fast hard left hand 180' on a little bmx off camber bump. Once the racers got thru the 180, the course then climbed back up the hill, carrying a little momentum, it climbed for maybe 75 meters into a 90' right hand turn. Racers then traversed across the hill gradually descending into a 90' right that took you thru a little chicane that bombed into a fast but soft right hander that led into a 180' hard left hand turn. Carrying speed thru this turn got you up a quick incline for another 90' right turn which led to an off camber 20 meter section into a soft left hander. From here, the racer wanted to maintain momentum around another pine tree right hand turn and bomb down into a little mtb section thru a stand of pine trees that had you going left and down the hill for 75 meters into a hard and fast 180' left that took you back up the hill to the first barrier and to 'hooligan's' hill. The barrier was set up in a place just past the base of the hill that had guys loosing all speed before actually getting to the barrier. For me, the section was always very awkward. I always seemed to be running in 'quick-sand' here, but never actually losing time to the guys behind me. Once the racers were over the barriers, you had another 20 meters before a 180' right hand turn that bombed back down the same hill into a frigging fast 180' left that led you into another pine tree stand up a hill and around a tree, taking a right and flying out of the pine trees, heading down towards the 2nd half of the course. Out of the pines, you were into a power section flying into a couple of fast technical turns on grass heading towards a steep but short 5 meter pitch to a short 20 meters of pavement and then back on the grass down into a bmx type 'dipty-doo' right hander back up and out of a ravine and on to the pavement for another 20 meters into another power section with a series of fast 90' power turns. Thru these turns the racer was met with a decision making seemingly innocent soft, but off camber right hand turn. A racer had 2 options at this right hander. He could set the right hand turn up by staying far left and low which allowed the racer to maintain a high speed into an off camber quick 2 meter incline where the turn was actually at, or the racer could stay way to the inside leading into the turn essentially taking a short cut. The racer had to scrub some speed and travel thru a questionable off-camber rutted out line into the turn. I took the latter line every time thru for all 7 laps. Had no problems whatsoever until the decisive bell lap. Once thru this turn the racer was basically entering the latter 3rd of the 1.5 mile lap. This section was fairly strait foward and simple but was also a real power section that had the second set of barriers and then another 400 meters of grass before the racers entered the finshing 300 meters of pavement to the start/finish line.

With a most of my warm-up done on the course, and a few leg opening sprints and a coiple of hard efforts, I felt i was ready to go. Racers began lining up for the Master's 40+ category about 9:45. Sunday's turnout was much lower than Saturday's races. Unfortunately some of the missing faces were teammates and 'fast guys' Steve Songer and Andy Lucas. they could only race Saturday and had to get back home. This actually left the door open for me and a couple of other guys to battle out for the win. Another regular master racer and 'fast guy' Mark Studnicki wpould race later in the day with the Elites'. I felt like the race would come down to me, friend and deisel engine Dan Hansen and Nebraska resident Randall Crist. He would be vying for a Nebarska State Championship as well. So me and 11 or 12 other guys were ready to go. With roll call at the line finished......

The race official blew the whistle....we were off. I made no effort to get to the front in the long stretch of pavement leading to the grass. I just wanted that 2nd or 3rd wheel and to stay out of wind and use as little energy as possible before we got to the grass and started the climbing. With my extra few lbs this racing season.....i could use all the extra energy when the terrain starts to turn upwards. 2 teammates of mine, Dean Parker and Bill Anderson, were battling it our and coming from there 2nd row start to jockey for front wheel position before the pavement turned to grass. This threw me for a loop, cuz I had never seen these 2 race so aggressive at the start of a race. They were drag racing the last 100 meters of pavement. I had to really catch myself to not go with them. I needed to be patient and race my race. things would settle in and down once got into the grass and the technical stuff. At least that is what i kept telling myself. Climbing up the initial pitch and into the first turn, we were going 3 wide. This was totally unexpected for me, i was used to this in a cat 3 race with 30+ guys duking it out but not a masters race. Oh well......lets' race. Into the 2nd turn i went from 5th or 6th wheel to 3rd by cutting a couple of guys off. Dont remember who, but sorry. I would be the fastest once we got to the high speed turns and it was to my advantage to get in front a.s.a.p. Not to get a gap and go on my own, but so my pace wasnt slowed and dictated by a slower rider in front of me. I knew noone in this group that i was racing against would be as aggressive and as fast thru this technical part of the course after the first bit of climbing. I needed to get to the front. Somewhere in the next couple of turns i got past 1 more racer and was now 2nd wheel. Heading down towrds the 1st pine tree stand i was still 2nd wheel. I accelerated to get past Randall and get to the trees first. I just barely got by him and into the trees first probably forcing him to break check a little entering the 90' left thru the trees. Oh well, we were racing...right??? Down the hill and into a fast 180' and back up towards 'hooligan's hill' to the first barrier. I ran the bike up about halfway and was back on my bike first as Randall was running along side of me rounding a tree into a right hand turn that took us down a bombing hard left hand 180'. Getting on my bike and clipped in before Randall allowed me to maintain my front position and allowed me to just absolutely rail the fast 180' 2 truns later i looked back to see a 8-10 bike length gap. As I got thru the bmx dipsy-doo and into the power section on the back side of the course, I looked back to see my gap expand to an advantage of 3 or turns ahead of a group of 4 racers. I hadnt necessarily planned on going it alone, but I committed to and I was out of the saddle and pounding it now. Fuck It! I was going for it.....

The next 2 or 3 laps were uneventful. My lead, depending on where I and my chasers were on the course was any where from 3 to 15 seconds over the course of the next few laps. Randall finally shed the 2 or 3 guys that were initially with him on the 1st lap. So for laps 2-6, He was just breathing down my neck. He would climb faster than me, so would close the gap to just a couple of seconds on the early part of the course only to have me get all that time back on the technical fast grass turns. It was a constant yo-yo. Every time I would start the grass climb I would question my intelligence(or lack there of) in my decision to try the solo effort. Every I would come thru the start/finish line and look back, my gap on my chaser always seemed to be about the same.....until the start of the last lap. Randall had just gotten in contact with me on the previous lap on the last little uphill dig in the grass, and would have stayed there had I not nailed a couple of turns and gotted an few seconds back on him. But, thru the start finish area on the start of the bell lap, Randall was charging. Midway thru the pavement section I sat up a little to try and recover for his inevitable attack on the grass climb. I knew it...he knew it. I needed to respond and stay as close as possible to him so I could in turn attack him on section of the course that played to my strenths. Hmmmm....if only I had something left. I actually wasnt that blown, but he was going really good, and once we hit the initial climb....he just kind of danced on the peddles and immediately got a 4 or 5 bike length gap on me. I just couldnt close any ground, even on the technical turns. I was so redlined that I couldnt really rail the turns.....it was all i could do to keep my head up and keep pedalling. I was 3 or 4 seconds back entering the bmx 'dipty-doo' when i saw Randall slide out a little and lose some serious momentum. I was up and out of the saddle in response. He had given me and opening to get back in the race and i couldnt let it slip away from me. Within the next 3 turns i was bck on his wheel. Coming out of a 90' left I sprinted to get to that damn '2-line' choice off-camber turn that I had talked about earlier. I felt like if I could beat him to the turn I could take my high line and force him to take the slower low line or have to scrub some speed to allow me thru 1st. Good thought, and poor execution....I totally over-cooked the high line and the off-camber line shot me towards a tree on the left of the tape and i was instantly bouncing off a tree and tangled in the course tape. All I could think about was getting out of Randall's way and not take him out as well. Fortunately, Randall floated by me and my overaggressive moveand was down the road. That was the race.....45 minutes of racing came down to a questionable overaggressive move on my part. Oh well........ it was fun as hell. I didnt take a competitor out and I made the effort to win the race at least. I went for it. In hindsight, I probably should have attacked him at the last set barriers. Live and learn, race and learn. It was a blast, I finished 2nd and am not too disappointed. Teammates Dean, Doug, Keith, and Bill all raced hard and Keith and Dean even lined up 2 races later to race the singlespeeds....they are Hardasses!

A lot of people may think I am crazy to drive 6 hours round trip to race my bike for an hour or so, but it is what I do. It is what I love. Landis got to cruise around with me and chase some squirrels while I cooled down after my race. He got to swim in some nasty pond water and just basically be a happy dog running around. I got to race my bike with and against some friends. I got to push myself beyond my supposed limits, and I won forty dollars for my effort. That covered my gas money, but that doesnt matter. I would have done it knowing I wasnt gonna win any money. Man, I just love racing my 'cx' bike. I just love racing and riding my bike with my friends.

So its monday. My legs are tired and sore. I have got a big smile on my face typing this. No race for a couple of weeks.....I think I will put my little girl in the stroller and grab the dogs and go for a run............

See yah!