chuongdoan

So who's coming to KC this weekend?
Its gonna be all kinds of nasty! We're getting a half inch of ice as I speak...

Duane

We're going to attempt the drive tomorrow, we'll see if we get there or not. If it gets too bad we'll just find a hotel and finish the trip on Wednesday. Either way, it's gonna be epic*!

*there's a fine line between "epic" and "sucks". Hopefully we'll stay on the epic side of things.

duane

jfmckenna

I am driving out on Thursday. 1st stop Southern Indiana then on to KS hopefully in time to get my race packet and ride the course.

chuongdoan I still need to find a hotel. Do you reckon the hotels around the airport are close enough to the venue? If you can think of any reasonably priced ones let me know.

briscoelab

My wife and I will be there, coming in from Iowa. We're both doing the Collegiate race (grad student and Med student). Should be all kinds of fun!

chuongdoan

The airport is about 30 minutes away so its not too bad.
Theres a Super 8 right by the park though:
13041 Ridge Dr
Bonner Springs, KS 66012
(913) 721-3877

ronbridal

I'll be there in the M30+ race. Starting position is 81st so it should be fun trying to make up some ground (or hold my own). Conditions should be great for a sloppy race. I can't wait.

Ron

jfmckenna

My goodness did you guys pre ride the course today? IT's nasty! It should be real interesting tomorrow after the predicted 4 - 6 inches of snow

p4nh4ndle

stay warm everyone.

dirtyphotons

BIG UPS TO CARDSTOCK!

58th in the country! way to go ben!

dc.cyclocross

good way to put it. personally, I'm sick of "epic"- going off to do a local race in snow might be fun, but aiming for nationals is a lot of time, money, and effort to go and have the course be almost un-raceable for me, as it was on saturday. I could ride it, but I was slow.

either a lot of people got shut out of the airport or decided that racing in the tundra didn't seem worth the trip- the no-show rate was VERY high- 30%? 40%?

if it were up to me, I'd put nationals someplace warmer. and right now I think I'll skip 2008 in KC.

cardstock

nevermind, the weather this weekend was not pleasant, but remember, this is the middle of december. Cross is supposed to be difficult and on a course that is not exactly in prime riding condition. If you put nationals in a place where it is 70 degrees and sunny, count me out. Complain about race conditions saturday, at least you were not with the junior girls on friday morning, skip KC next year, it will be your loss

Lithuania

seriously, im so jealous of the conditions of this course. That is exactly what I want to race in and I am already planning for next year.

ronbridal

And really, what made KC so bad? It was cold, the course was tough, and travelling to the race sucked for me. Immediately afterward I had to consider whether it was all worth it. After a few days to reflect, my answer is yes. I didn't race that well, but I now have the experience of racing in one national championship under my belt and have more of an idea what I need to do for next year. With some of the international riders riding in the masters categories, I know I won't win a national championship. But next year I will have learned from the mistakes I made in preparing for the race and in competing in the race. I can't wait until nationals next year.

jfmckenna

Epic is a word that should be used reservingly in cycling and the 2007 Nationals in KS was truly epic. I drove out there from Virginia, call me crazy but I am sure glad I made the trip The funny thing about that race is that it was easier in one sense then any of the races I have done all year. At the same time it was the very hardest race I have ever done in my life! It was easy in the sense that you really could never put power to the pedals. It was not a race of power and strength. It was a race of smarts and pure cyclocross technical abilities especially in cornering.

I almost made my goal. I wanted a top 20 and came in at 29th. I started literally on the last line. The field was 100. There were approximately 60-70 DNS. Having said that there was a Richard Sachs rider that started on the last line with me and ended up 4 minutes ahead of me in 7th place. I don't know how the hell he managed to do that. I thought for sure that the race was over at the hole shot but this guy proved me wrong. None the less it was very difficult to pass because in order to do so you had to pop out of the beaten path and ride the frozen ruts. There was not enough pavement to make any gains though that probably is where I made most of my time.

All in all I had a kick ass time.

Here are some pics: https://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...w&linkid=link2

Did any of you guys do the B race on Thursday?

Duane

I did the B's 40+ on Thursday. It's amazing how different the course conditions were.

jfmckenna

Duane was it muddy soup on Thursday?

I pre road the course on Friday - Bad mistake. In the future I will trust the weather forecast and not bother trashing my bike and risking injury on a course that will be nothing like my race day course. Actually I wish my race day course would have been more of the soupy mud rather than the icy ruts. I take it you did the 40+ race Saturday too? That was quite eventful and entertaining

Lithuania

ugh you guys are making it sound so fun.

jfmckenna

here was the Tree Trunk crash:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=32q1oJtNDrQ

Unfortunate but given the conditions anything goes.

Duane

You know, on Thursday it was an icy mud more than muddy soup. There was still some icy spots on the course that could take you down, but you could break through the ice on the edges of the course and gain some traction. There were some sections by the pits and the barriers that were quite wet but over all not too bad. I didn't ever have enough mud build up that I thought about swapping bikes.

I worked the pit for a 45-49 racer on Friday and that was a real mess. Lots of bike swaps that day. No ice or ruts, just pure soft mud.

The Saturday 40-44 race was a whole other story. I got caught up in the pile up right at the first turn off the pavement. In this picture I've just got up off the ground after hitting the deck pretty hard.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...79/CYX-KNE1700

The frozen ruts were miserable, you could try and point your bike in the direction you wanted to go, but it often followed the ruts instead. I never went down again, but came close a bunch of times. I ended up getting lapped and finished about 1.5 laps off the lead.

My main complaint about Saturday is the officials messed up and logged me as Did Not Start (DNS). Not sure why. I left before they posted results to try and thaw out, so I never caught it until final results were posted. So that's how it's recorded. Oh well, I got lapped so it's not like I was contesting for a top finish.

jfmckenna

Duane thats an awesome picture. I saw that pic on another web site (lol well not awesome for you I suppose) My field had some small crashes there as well which I barely avoided and probably bumped me up 20 places.

This is same pic right?



I raced the 35+ just before you guys so yeah the conditions were the same. I crashed 3 times. One of which was along the back stretch that led to the pit. There was a steel fence with SRAM and Beer banners on it. My bike shot off to the left and I felt like I was being run through a cheese grater

I test road the course on Friday and learned to never ever test ride a soupy muddy course again especially when the forcast predicts snow and freezing temps.

It's amazing how connected a cross racer must be to his/her environmental surroundings. It's a part of the game I really enjoy.

here is a few more videos:

https://youtube.com/results?search_qu...07+kansas+city

Duane

Yeah same pic. At that point I hadn't realized my chain was off and my shifter rotated around on the bars. And I really wanted to get out of the way so I didn't get run over. It took me a minute to get everything straightened out, and by that time I was truly DFL. But I got it together and started chasing, so I was able to move up from last to around 60th.

dc.cyclocross

after watching the Olympics, it struck me that some people must like it when an event's outcome is highly likely to be determined by a lot of crashing and luck, and when it's normal/exciting/cool for people to crash and often get injured in most every race.

to me, it's normal that there is some risk of crashing in CX, and that bobbles will decide some races. but, I don't think important CX races should be like BMX, where luck, crashing, and high risk/prevalence of serious injury characterize the event.

marc