collegiate mtn conference championships

lawrence, kansas
oct. 15-16, 2005

matt, john, and i headed down in a minivan again. arrived on saturday, about 2 hours before the dirt crit started. ndsu, ksu, kansas, isu, nebraska, and us. (i think that was all that showed up) pre-race, and all weekend...everyone was awesome. there was a kind of fun, easy-going atmosphere going on. everyone was more chatty and friendly than we all have been at prior races. anyway, it was a nice improvement. not to say that anyone was unfriendly before, but it just seemed like at this race everyone was real nice-like. carrying on, we got ready, and headed over for the dirt crit. there was some concern about people being able to figure out the course, which in retrospect, was well marked and i thought clear. so after a few attempts to describe it, which ended up just adding more confusion...someone suggested a practice lap...so sure enough, we had us a giant group ride around the ~1/2 mile course. nice course. nicely laid out, fast bits, and a couple of climbs. not too terribly technical, but just nice, a great course for a crit. 30 minutes + 1 lap was the order of the day. we ended up doing 6 (possibly 7) laps. yerke 5th, me 6th, john 7th. a good race.

the xc race was sunday. so after the crit we headed into lawrence to try to find a dinner joint the kansas boys suggested. we failed, so just picked a bar for some burgers and it turned out to be nice. interesting decor...dollars bills used as wallpaper, decorated over the years by patrons. i thought it was a fun idea. we sat at a table which coincidently had an IOWA dollar up near it. downtown lawrence is a lot like i.c. only bigger. all sorts of fun. post dinner we retired to set up camp and get us a good nights sleep.

sunday's race was nice. the weather was good. it was held in a different part of the park, so we packed up and headed over. again, same nice atmosphere...made for pre-race time being real nice. we warmed up a bit, did a very brief bit of trail exploring, got a glimpse of the rocks that would kick my @rse for the remainder of the race. at the start, i got cut off and out gunned by a kid whom i knew to be a bit slower than me, so as a result i got stuck waiting it out with john until we could find a spot to slip by this joker. the course was punishing. at least for me. i'm still new to rock gardens and they do a number on me. (read: darn near stop me) so i lost the boys relatively quick, but happily caught a few glimpses of them up ahead of me in switch-backy sections. pretty quickly the field spread itself out. john and matt quicker than me as usual put a bit of a gap on me, and i in turn put a nice little gap on the rest of the field. not to be passed again until the local experts started racing. those boys were fast... there was a one mile section of the 4 mile course that was dubbed "mad mile" or something like that. and i say, it was an appropriate name. not quite as rocky as tour de lizard, but still pretty tough. stopped me a couple of times on later laps when i was a bit tired. at one point an isu kid showed up from out of no where. don't know if he was an 'a' racer or 'b,' but passed me briefly when i got stopped by some vicious rocks. caught him right quick like on the next climb and left him for the rest of the race. 5 laps. 4 miles. lots of rocks. some real nice quick sections. with a bit of nice climbing mixed in. i liked it. i would have liked it more if i hadn't exploded a gu packet all over my right handle bar at the end of the 2nd lap. oh well. i had a super grip for the rest of the race...that stuff is STICKY!!

john made an impressive showing for himself, taking a solid 4th. matt took 6th. i caught a glimpse of him right toward the fast bit that finished up each lap, he noticed...needless to say, i didn't see him again until the end. he admitted afterward he didn't want me to beat him, fair enough, i would have taken the chance if i could have!

a nice little awards ceremony. they even gave us some medals. and we qualified as 1st team for nationals this coming weekend. 2nd team overall in our conference. i even made 4th in the individual competition for conference....solely because i did all the races and quite a few quicker guys finished below me because they skipped a race or two. (matt and john included!) still, i'd be lying if i didn't say i was a pretty proud of my finishes. good times...looking forward to this weekend!s