Ft. & Back

How to kick your ass in 5 days???  Hop in a van drive for two days straight.  Race two USGP's and start driving home immediately after the second race.  Finish it off with a 17 hour pull and you'll accomplish your mission of total destruction!


It started off Thursday morning.  The goal was actually not to destroy ourselves, but I knew it was going to be tough.  We left the driveway at about 10am.  Stopped in Des Moines, IA 7 hours later for a nice spin and a stop for dinner and some halloween shopping!  Another 3 hours in the car until 10:30 pm put us in Lincoln NE.  

Friday morning was when the pain started to set in....one day not bad...two days starting to push the limit.  6 or 7 hours from Lincoln to DIA where we picked up Tristan and then drive up to Ft. Collins.  Checked into the Comfort Inn suites and immediately left to ride the course.  First impressions were, "I wish I had my Top Fuel!"  Little did I know the course would change drastically along with the weather.  It was 70 and sunny.  After the pre-ride we went out for 45 more minutes of riding and try to loosen the legs from the drive.  After the ride we watched the Brewers for 5 minutes and then headed to the numbers presentation.  After that it was to Carrabas for some pasta.  Home by 10:30 made for a long action packed day.

I was motivated to race, but Saturday morning I was blown out....the morning coffee wasn't doing the trick.  Good thing I had until 4:00pm until we raced.  We killed a little time at Safeway across the street getting some groceries and I did a little work on the laptop for Momentum Endurance.

We headed to the race course around 1:00 and it was nasty...completely different from the pre-ride.  I swapped to the HED Ardennes wheel with the Rhyno's.  I still love it that when the conditions get nasty I have full confidence in swapping the the aluminum rims with the positive braking action!  They said go and I was off the pavement in about 10th position and immediately started going backwards.  Uh-oh.  Each wheel that was good that went by me I thought lets go, but I couldn't and proceeded to go backwards to about 35th position.  20 minutes into the race something clicked and I could go again....wow...maybe the drive finally shot out of the legs or the body cleared itself after not going hard for a while since Wednesday.  Anyway I could go again and started moving forward fast.  My A bike was awesome, but something was a little off on the B bike.  With three to go I decided to stay on my A bike when I was working back towards the top 20.  2 to go and I was near top 15, but then I flatted.  1/2 lap until I could pit again back to the B bike.  I think the A just had less tire pressure and thats why it felt better.  Finished 19th.  Not really what I wanted.

We were the last ones to leave the parking lot with a complete mess on our hands.  We were back to the hotel at 6:30 and by the time we showered and finished cleaning the bikes we were heading out to find a laundromat at 8:30 at night.  Unfortunately there was no way we were going to make it to Trav and Chloe's wedding.  We hit up Big City Burritos and enjoyed dinner in the warmth of the laundromat.  Back to the hotel by 10:00.

Day 2 was going to be better.  We started off by watching the first round of the Superprestige on the laptop.     We packed up the van and headed over to the course at about 1:00 again.  This time the course was fast and dry and the mud from yesterday had smoothed out most of the bumps from Friday.  The race started and I was inside the top 10 of the pavement, but this time I stayed there!  I was feeling good and riding behind Ben Berden and Tristan.  After the 2nd time through the pits on lap 1 I smashed a pothole and my bars made a horrible noise as they rotated down.  It was so much that I couldn't ride good anymore.  I lost contact with the lead group in the corners.  The second group w/ Tim Johnson caught me as we were approaching the pits.  I had to get off the bike with the bars pointing down.  I swapped bikes and lost the 2nd group when I pitted.  Back on the B bike that still wasn't feeling good.  A lap later and I had to switch back onto the A bike after my awesome pit crew made the changes!  Once on the A bike I started killing it....went from about 20th place to 13th.  I was closing down on guys in front of me and doing lap times as fast as the top 10.  Bad luck early on in a fast race is hard to overcome.  Happy though that I felt strong and was racing good.

Sunday night after the races we stopped by my Uncle Steve's house in Potter NE for a short visit.  We made it a little further and then had to stop for the night.  That left us about 17 hours of drive time on Monday...ouch.  I arrived home to a nice new present from my sponsors J-Tree...check it out!