I wasn’t going to write this until later, but I’m on my way to the airport and this train has a table, wifi, and a power outlet, so here it goes.  I got into Ogden at about 10:30pm on Friday night, after a long day that included a test in the morning and a lot of sitting in airports.  I went to sleep quickly, was woken up twice by Southwest Airlines (because they had lost my bag), and woke up at about 6:30am because I’m on east coast time.

Saturday

I had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, and stole a few bananas for my room.  My quest for food took me to Rite Aid, where I managed to get a ton of stuff to snack on leading up to the D1 men’s race at 4:30pm.  I went out for a little spin and to catch some of the women’s races and then headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before getting ready for my race.  I got ready for my race and took a long warmup to cool my nerves and get my legs feeling normal, as it took much longer than usual to get them feeling ready.  Dylan and I headed to staging after commencing our respective warmups and waited.  For some background, they line riders up at the line from each school one at a time, so as to not have teams clustered together at the start and to give everyone a fair shot. Of course, Marian riders decided that they were above this and somewhat successfully cut up in line, which is something I’ve seen countless times from them as a former MWCCCer.  Unbelievable to me that you feel the need to cheat the system when you’re collectively the strongest riders in the race, but I digress.

The crit was insanely fast, that’s about the only way to describe it.  So fast to the point that you can’t move up even if you want to.  I was in over my head from the start, and was struggling even while in the draft.  There were countless crashes in the race as a whole, and I saw a fair share of them, but was lucky enough not to go down in any of them.  After about 25 minutes, my legs finally blew up from the pace that I was forced to hold and I slowing drifted back in the pack, eventually coming unhitched completely.  I rode around for 10 more minutes before being pulled and placed for 102nd.  Dylan finished in 31st.

Sunday

Sunday was the 125km road race.  I once again woke up early and enjoyed my wonderful Hampton Inn breakfast, and then sat around for a couple of hours before we headed out to the course.  It was super windy during the morning and a little bit overcast and cold, so I wasn’t sure what to expect come race time.  I did my usual pre-race stuff and then just spun around the parking lot while we waited for all of the women to finish so that we could start.  They lined us up the same as before, and we were sent on our way.  We did 3 small loops and one large loop (that contained the climb).  There were constant attacks flying off the front of the race and the pace was extremely high, but that’s what a field of close to 170 riders will do.  We averaged right around 28mph for the first 60ish miles of the race.  Dylan fell victim to a crash in the feed zone on the 4th time through on the small loop and never managed to regain contact with the group.  I was in the group until the base of the climb, where I immediately just settled in and let them ride away.  I knew there was no point in trying to stay with the top guys, as I’d just end up blowing myself up.  The climb was absolutely brutal, and it was super hot the whole way up as there was no shade.  I crested the top alone, somewhere near the middle of all the riders in the race and began the descent and the final 10km to the finish.

On the verge of cramping (I didn’t take a feed due to sketchiness) I just pedaled as hard as I could and didn’t make any quick accelerations to attempt to join groups that were passing me.  10-15 guys passed me in the run-in to the finish and I finished alone in 94th place.

All in all, I had a great time this weekend and am incredibly excited for next year.  I had never raced in a rolling enclosure prior to this weekend, and that may have been worth the whole trip.  NO CENTERLINE RULE!  There are some pics to follow, see you next season on the blog.

In the crit.

Waiting to line-up for the crit.

The field in the road race.

Finishing the road race.