Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

Well I'm back in Bloomington and the dust has settled after my final race of the season, 'cross Nats. If you're reading this you probably already know, I got my ass kicked. Love, Ryan. I don't really know what happened. I got out there plenty early, did some good laps on Saturday, got a good warm up on Sunday, got a good start, and rode a good first half of the race. Then my legs decided that they couldn't wait another 30 minutes to end the race season, so they were going to clock out now.

My 1 UCI point got me number 52. Not great, but middle of the pack. The start went pretty well and I avoided carnage and moved up when I saw openings. I ended up riding in the high 20's, with some pretty solid guys after a few laps,Adam Myerson, Brandon Dwight, Molly Cameron. I was even with Jon Baker and Erik Tonkin for a while. Sure, I was hurting, but I really didn't foresee this massive explosion.


The face says it all

The course had a pretty long hard climb in the first half of the lap and it was beating everyone up. The ground was like cookie dough. It was really soft, but not really like mud. It just zapped any momentum and speed you had anytime you weren't thrashing the pedals. After a good while to reflect on my race and why I just didn't have it, I'm not really sure why. I knew I didn't feel great on the warm up laps, but thought I could ride through it and find some legs. I really don't think it was a great idea to skip the bigger races at the end of the year in favor of winning the overall in the OVCX, because I never really had to go UCI hard. I was just riding kinda hard for an hour. Then I get here and it's literally all out from jump street. My body didn't know what to do. I guess it makes sense though. The last time that I really had to dig really deep and give it full gas for more than 30 seconds was back at the end of October at the USGP. Lesson learned. I don't really know what I was thinking. I would have never tried to prepare for Crit Nats by doing a bunch of local races, it just doesn't translate. And this isn't me bashing the OVCX either, that series is awesome and I love racing with that group of guys, but realistically it isn't the best training to prepare to go fight the likes of Trebon and Page (and apparently Driscoll).



We'll thanks to all of you who were so supportive throughout the season and even yesterday when you saw my stellar performance pop up on cyclingnews. It was a great year for me and I feel like I learned a lot and met some awesome people along the way. Last night I spent 2 hours on the phone planning big things for 09. After a week or so off the bike, I'll be getting the ball rolling towards a new set of goals. See ya on the road.

P.S. I've just gotta attempt to clear my name a bit: When it says "2 laps down" in the results, it doesn't mean I was lapped twice. I means I got lapped when I had 2 laps to go. Just throwin' that out there.