The Pursuit of Rad Skills

As you know, Cross Nationals and the USGP Finals, and some other important races are just around the corner for me. I'm nearing the end of my final training block for the year and just got back from Iowa this weekend. Before I can give you the short and not so sweet low-down on Iowa, I need to report on my racing in North Carolina the previous weekend.

My dad decided to make the trip to NC with me and it was nice to get some time with him rather that karokeing in the car by myself during the drive to and fro. We got in late Friday night and I decided to ride the trainer for a little while to see if it really did any good for my legs the next morning. Well even though I had put in some pretty hard training days that week, a little trainer riding and foam rollering had my legs feeling pretty nice for Saturdays race. I guess I'm gonna be one of those trainer riding guys from now on.

Saturdays and Sundays courses and races were nearly identical in all aspects. The front group was pretty big because there were long open sections in between the technical sections and that would always allow things to come back together to some degree. Although the groups were a bit bigger, there were really only a few guys showing their face at the front and "racing". It became pretty tactical and a lot about positioning for the last lap of the race. Luckily there were a few harder sections at the end of the lap that allowed the race to be sorted out and didn't result in a big, road style, bunch kick.




I felt good through the entirety of both days, but think I wasn't quite strong enough to match Matter and Fratinni at the end. I also think I should have raced more aggressive in the finale both days as well. I ended with two 3rd places, but I was nearly as pleased that I had good legs after such a hard week of training. I really believe that taking care of them better after my rides and the drive down played a bit part in still being able to race at a decent level in the midst of a training block. Learning is FUNdemental. And good for UCI points.



I don't have much time, and don't really want to, so I'm not going to say much about Jingle Cross. Crashes, rolled tubulars, bad legs, bad bike handling, and who knows what else. I'm glad that weekend is behind me and I can focus on the bigger things coming down the pipe.



My crash as a result of a rolled tire on an off-camber. If I had known how the rest of the weekend was going to go, I'd have just kept rolling down that hill, all the way back to Bloomington...

You win some and you lose some. I'm still feeling pretty good about the way things are going. See you in Portland.