Sedalia Crit & Otterville Road Race... big posts are back!

Hey Gang,

Status update: Totally stoked after a great weekend of bike racing in central Missouri.

This was my first year at these races but i already cant wait to go back... and i didn't even do that well.

Saturday evening was the Sedalia Crit. For a rectangle course it was really fun and the long steady uphill finish made it that much harder. Being located in the historic downtown area put it over the top. I thought this was a really well organized and top notch local event.

I entered the 3/4 instead of the 4/5 and was feeling confident on the start line. Then i looked over to see Erik Finks lined up and thought to myself "oh, this could be hard". Then i realized i haven't raced my road bike since the Tour of Lawrence (not even the tuesday night crits... they were cancelled) and thought to myself "oh, this could be hard". Then 20 minutes later i was drifting off the back of the pack and thought to myself "that was hard".

But i wasent that disappointed. I basically have no talent what so ever so i cant just show up to a 3/4 crit and expect to do well. I need to be racing somewhat frequently so that my body is used to it. Still, even with getting dropped i still had a blast. The first 15 minutes were good, then i started to yo-yo but for 3 laps was able to use the corners to catch back on. I'd get gapped on a long strait-away but then hall a** around the corner and catch back on, then repeat. Eventually i couldn't catch back on anymore and rode a few laps solo, then was pulled.

Sitting in my lawn chair watching the rest of the races on a perfect late summer night was a little slice of heaven.

The Otterville road race is located in Otterville, MO (population 476) about 15 miles east of Sedalia. 48 miles over rolling hills. I thought the course was totally awesome.

After my all to brief appearance in the previous nights 3/4 race i opted for the 4/5 race at Otterville. I think it was the right decision.

The nutshell version of this race is that i was feeling great but got horrible cramps with about 5 miles to go and even though I reached the bottom of the final hill with the peleton I was already toast. I gave it everything I had on this final climb but halfway up i came to almost a complete stop, my legs would just not work. It's a shame because i really think i would have crushed that hill. Seriously.

The good news is that i'm feeling strong. I took some pulls during the race, helped chase down an earlier break, and was at or near the front for a large portion of the race. The highlight has to be when my teammate Kenny had a mechanical (apparently his front derailleur fell off) and came to a stop right in front of me. I managed to swerve into the grass at the last second and then back onto the road, narrowly avoiding him and somehow barely losing any speed. it was king of like a scene from that movie Days of Thunder where Tom Cruise (me, or course. Scientology rocks by the way) is hauling a** and then all the sudden from out of the pack in front him emerges a car rolling side ways into his lane. Thankfully he possesses amazing skillz and avoids disaster while living to fight another day.

I'm a bad ass.

So the results from the weekend suck but I throughly enjoyed all my time on the bike and am very excited to see what will happen in the next few months.

Like my friend said after the Otterville race, "that was the first cross race of the year"