yeah, nationals was basically the best race ever. i had a blast, raced well both days, saw good friends win jerseys, it was beautiful weather, i don't think it could have gotten much better.

i was in with the Giant Berry people, Anthony hooked up the arrangements and i was tagging along. thanks big 'twan! we had the red eye wed night, i didn't sleep a wink and was pretty haggard all day thursday. slept, ate, slept.

then friday i rode around a bit, practiced biking, the course looked sweet and i was getting jazzed about how things were going to go on the weekend. it was 60 degrees and sunny, perfect weather for spectation and just breezy enough to keep you from really overheating in the race. i heard it was hailing back in cali, so it seems like the cali weather just follows us everywhere this CX season.

game day: got a great start, rode a bit over my head to make the front group and so had to back it off and wait for reinforcements. ryan was already WAY off the front. McCorrmick hit a cameraman on the first lap when we were going FAST on an off camber downhill, and i thought we were going to ball it up with 150 guys hot on our heels. that would have been bad.

TJ and Wells came up after getting their races sorted out, and i followed them out of the group with the purpose of helping tim try and bridge. nothing doing, i was popped from their little train after a lap and a half and rode the last 6 laps solo just monitoring whitey and mark behind me and making sure they didn't come up and take a spot from me. finished 7th, which seems to be what i get lately (7th at USPRO road race, 7th overall in the USGP), but it's also the best i've ever done at natz.

i thought i was pretty much done with CX and i wasn't going to race sunday so i went for a nice dinner with the other J-M's and then saw Brian's picture show which ended up being at a punk used bike messanger hangout called the Hub and everyone was there. had a few brews, talked it up and then cut out to be in bed by 9:30. getting old.

so sunday rolls around and i get talked into racing, and i guess that was happening a lot because there were many racers claiming to not race and that was their excuse to drink the night before, and they ended up lining up too. didn't do very well though. it really was the CBF invitational, not much motivation rolling around, i was calling tilly for the win while justin called Mark the Shark. so i go hard off the line and get run into by a new junior national champion, he'll learn to not half wheel someday, almost crash,punch it into the front group, and then proceed to trade attacks with Timmy until it's just mark left. by the start of the third lap i was done so i told TJ to make it count and sat up to sit on the next group. it worked, mark came back to me as i was sitting on Baker and we had a solid group and i thought we'd pretty much have it locked up. no dice, i do the stupid "wash out in the gravel" move that takes me 10 feet off the back and chasing for the rest of the race. i guess Andy did the exact same thing not 10 seconds later as he was in the group just behind. weird.

chased, held the gap, finished 4th which was still good for the podium and same cash, but it's not the same as getting to go head to head with some guys, which is something i have not really been able to do as much as i'd have like to this year. that's racing.

which is done for now.

...cyclocross being the primary thing i do.

here's some leftovers from the Districts:





this is from a while back. we gotta get a better stroller, this one does't fold up too well.



here's me after the SCCX finals, with my borrowed bike.



and finally, i did a nice ride out to the coast, this is me up on old highway 1 (last used in 1932) above Half Moon Bay.

the cyclocross season is winding down, marked by the finale of the Surf City CX series. i had heard the crew needed some help setting up on friday so i went down to watsonville and helped set up the course. we didn't have much room to work with but i think we made the best of it and the laps ended up being quite long, especially cuz of the rain that fell overnight.

so i showed up sunday and it didn't seem too wet...until i saw the course:



man, that thing got blown out. it was still hard and quite fast when i had left sat. afternoon. wow. anyway, all races turned into slogs (borderline death marches depending on the categories) but everyone said it was a cool course and i was pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out. the mens A's was one of the death marches, Barry took off and won by 2 minutes, my bike went south and i had to kick it old school on the borrowed SS (thanks Brent!) for the last half of the race to finish second, and Andy got off the plane from the far east that morning, ruled the trans-continental class for a third place. that order was also the series results, Barry crushing with me and Andy hanging on for the scraps.

I had talked to barry while waiting for the start, annd we agreed to donate our overall prizes to the NorCal MTB league, which was having a benefit dinner sat. night. Andy joined in as well, so between the three of us we gave $500 to help High School Mountain biking. it seemed like a good cause, a good way to spread the love and feel like i was working towards something useful, plus the whole NorCal thing is close to my heart as it all started out of my old High School just after i graduated.

we did the CCCP race this sunday, it was the District champs and i was fortunate enough to win the title again. it was a cool layout, classic coyote point and the tide was out which meant a lot of sand to ride/run through. this pic is from the 2nd lap, and i was away from that point on. my legs were a bit dead due to a 6+ hour ride sat, but i can feel the road fitness starting to kick in...