I was up in Fort Collins, CO attending the Collegiate Cycling National Championships. This is a once a year event where the best college cyclists from around the nation converge for 3 days of brutally hard racing. Its rewarding no matter how it goes, but the best of the best take home bragging rights and the stars and stripes jerseys reserved for those who have won a national title. Cycling is funny because since its not an NCAA sport you can have professionals that still race collegiate. Think New England Patriots vs. Washington Huskies. Ouch. Also, this year nationals were held at altitude, so us poor sea level folk would be missing that sweet, rich air we've come to know and love.
Despite the odds, Nats proved to be pretty rewarding. The guys from Mitch's alma mater rode an INCREDIBLE team time trial the first day. They beat everyone else handily and earned themselves some of those sweet, sweet stars and stripes. I'm also proud to say the Stanford women also managed to win the TTT, pulling off a major upset by beating a team with a number of professional women on it.
As for me... well, I'm normally a criterium specialist, and with a hilly road race and not much air to breathe I wasn't expecting any fireworks. But in cycling you just never know, and i was lucky enough to make it into the winning break for the day with 6 other riders (including Paul Mach from UC Davis). We fought freakish headwinds and a looming blizzard and managed to stay away for 50 miles. In the end it came down to the last mother of a hill, and when the rider from Lees McRae attacked Paul was the only one who could stay with him. I chases like mad with 2 other riders as we watched the National Championship ride slowly away form us, but we couldn't close the gap. So, with about 300 to go when it was clear we were racing for 3rd we started looking around at each other. Its a classic game of mouse that always happens when a small group comes to the line together. Who's fresh? Who's got the best legs? Should I make the jump or should I wait to react? There was a stiff headwind into the finish and I trusted my jump more than my top end speed, so I figured I'd wait for the first person to make a move and then try to hop in his draft. Sure enough, Taylor, from CU Boulder, went for it and I had just enough to get into his slipstream and come around him for 3rd place. It was an incredible moment for me, and I still don't think its really sunk in that I podiumed in a National event.
Alas, the rest of the story is one of heartbreak. After a strong road race I was poised to take the win in the individual omnium that determines the #1 college rider in the US, but I wore myself down to nothing in the road race and just didn't have it in the crit the next day. It was one of the bloodiest races I have ever seen with maybe a dozen crashes, many of them simply spectacular, complete with aerials and acrobatics, the smell of burning brakes and jarring screech of metal on pavement mixed with agonized cries. Criterium racing is rarely beautiful, but on Sunday it was downright ugly. I didn't have the legs to stay on the front, and when a promising break I was in with 10 laps to go I just didn't have the legs to finish. I ended up 16th in the Crit and 6th in the individual omnium. Not too shabby, but its tough to be so close to a national title and have it slip away.
But, despite being bone tired I'm riding as well as I ever have, and after I get a little rest I'm gonna get myself to Belgium where the racing is flat, windy and hard, just the way I like it. Thanks for reading, and for helping send me and Mitch to a place where cycling is king, the hills are few and far between and the big guys like us get a chance to laugh last.
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