nationals

nationals is a very special event...there is really no other event i do all year where nearly everyone there is trying to be on their best form of the year. nationals also seems very odd...it seems very odd that you work so hard toward one day for nearly a whole year and that it is over so fast. two weeks ago the anticipation for nationals was high and expectations were huge, now it is all over so fast and everyone has to wait another twelve months for another crack at the champions jersey. some people leave happy some dissappointed and some indifferent, the way one day of racing seems to hold so much power is very special i think. with that said heres a quick rundown of how it went for me.

nothing really to say about the time trial, 21st, not good not bad i guess, i was 4th placed first year u23 i guess you could say thats decent...but i wouldnt. time trialing is a weird even, it puzzles me sometimes how someone i can outclimb can beat me in time trials...i feel like it should be the same thing...but i guess it is not, still a lot of area to improve. the guys who really rock the time trials always impress me, theyre so dialed in on the details.

crit...um yeah, its kind of a boring crit course, all flat four corners gave it a couple goes to get away but didnt want to burn too much gas with the road race the next day, had a decent go with 3 to go and made it about halfway across to bk but the a-train brought me back after a little more than a lap and bk went onto victory

the road race was ok. i felt pretty good but it didnt exactly play out how i had hoped. it was very tense the whole time as most people seemed nervous about a big early move going like it had the previous year. however that said the big teams never took control and the race did not get as hard as i wish it had as there was never a major selection taking place. early on i bridged to a 6 man move on the second lap thinking it might get established as the early move which the final selection would ride up to, however with the field still antsy we got brought back after about half a lap. after that time the race started heating up, i made sure to mark all the favorites over the top of the most selective climb every lap, a few times i thought we had the break established. the most promising was when i got away with summerhill and howes (both garmin), bk and kyer (both trek), and talansky...however i guess it was maybe just too many strong guys up the road because co operation was weak and it came back together quickly. shortly after that in the beginning of the fourth lap kevin started one of the best moves of the day. him and three others quickly got two minutes up the road, however with neither of majore teams represented it was back after a lap. shortly after it was brought back i started following a flurry of attacks until all of a sudden the field shut down and i was off with bk, a bissell guy, and jerome. we opened up a minute fairly quick, soon jerome was gone, then a while after the feedzone it was down to just me and bk as the bissell guy cracked. i guess this is where i lost the race...i hate to be the guy that sits on even if it means im going to get dropped...so i got dropped, pure stupidity, i insisted on forcing my body to working as much as bk and ended up getting dropped...that was the race i got brought back shortly after and rolled it in with the 35 or so guys left, getting popped with 5k to go. i was so close if i had been more willing to ride in a more conservative manner i surely could have gotten 2nd, but i guess thats what i get for pretending im better than i am. so all in all nationals was decent, but not exactly the results i was hoping for.

next up is onto fitchburg, i like this race and am hoping for a good ride, we'll see...i need to start getting some results if im going to consider this a successful season.