The Podium

Well, Lance won again. I guess that has been known for a week now. What a way to end an era. I've always had a love/hate relationship with LA. I admire what he has overcome and accomplished, but at times he does and says some things that I don't agree with. That being said, I wouldn't turn him down if he called me up to go for a ride, and he definitely is an inspiration. At some point or another, we've all tried to emulate him out on our rides. You don't want to copy second best.

Way to go Lance!

I feel sorry for Rasmussen and his melt down in the final time trial. He was definitely one of the big stories of The Tour, and he used to be a mountain biker. I'm partial to those guys. Cadel Evans is another one. It was good, however, to see Jan fight back and be able to hop up on the podium. He definitely had a tough start after crashing into the back of his team car the day before the start.

Basso looked as strong as ever. He has become an excellent time trialer, although he did start out a little too fast in the final one. I think he will be a force to reckon with in the future. Next year's race should be spectacular. Basso, Ullrich, Vinokurov with Liberty Seguros, Valverde, and more. I'm sure there will be some other revelation that no one counted on.

Now time for my races. The standard mountain bike cross country race was on Saturday. I pre-rode the course on Friday. My legs felt pretty good, so I was excited about the race. My plan was just to get up with the top 5 at the start and see if it sticks. The sticking was the big question. You see, after a hair pin start, the course takes a turn straight up hill. Were talking about 1300 feet of climbing in about 3 or 4 miles. If you can't do the math, that is steep.

Well, I did manage to get it to stick. For the first time in a race this year, I felt like I was climbing strongly. I think I fell back to about 8th at one point, but was able to attack at the crest of the first climb and make up a couple of places. I had a solid descent, and was able to get with a couple of guys for the 2nd round of the big climb. I still felt strong and was able to make some accelerations to try to drop some guys. One guy overtook me, but I got the other one. By the top of the course I was pretty spent. I made a visit it to la la land at one point. I couldn't figure out why the singletrack was so rough, but then I looked down and noticed my fork was locked out. There's an explanation for you. I just had the descent left, and I was in pretty good shape. I did lose one place right before the last section of singletrack. There was one little uphill section left, but I didn't have enough to catch the passer. I got to the finish and the announcer said I was the 5th place finisher. My best finish at a National, and since they go 5 deep for the podium at those races, my first National podium! Of course, that is always thanks to a little good luck.

I decided to celebrate a little. Rachel, my dad, and I decided to go get some dinner. Just in time too because a hell of a storm rolled in to the village. A gullywasher I tell you. A waterfall appeared on the steps from the upper level of the village to the middle level. I decided this was a perfect time to polish off some drinks. A beer and three margs later I was feeling pretty good, however, an hour earlier, I had decided I was going to do the short track cross country race on Sunday.

Luckily, said race wasn't until 10:30 on Sunday. I woke up in the morning feeling pretty good. That is until I got on the bike and had to ride it up that damned hill to the short track course. The legs were definitely feeling yesterday's effort, but after a little warm up, they started coming around a little.

The short track course was actually a decent mountain bike course. At some places, the short track races are nothing more than a glorified road criterium race, but this one actually had a couple of sections where you had to make an effort to keep the bike rolling and upright.

10:30 rolled around and we had a whistle sending us off. For some reason, the crafty racer next to me decided to take a diagonal line straight into my path. He nearly knocked me off my bike, and I had to sprint around the group and back up to the front. Not a good thing considering this is only a 25 minute race anyway, and it's balls to the walls from the gun (or whistle). I could never make contact with the front two guys, but did manage to get in a group with two other guys. I eventually dropped them. One of the tried to run some cyclocross wheels and tires and wasn't able to get through the rough stuff too well, and the other simply faded a bit. Well, Mr. Other didn't fade for too long, and despite my best efforts, he kept getting closer. Eventually, I decided to cut my losses because I wasn't gaining any ground on those front burners. I slowed to let Mr. Other catch up. I sat in the front a while and eventually decided to let him and do some work. With a lap to go, I had decided I would attack him at the top of the short bumpy climb he had trouble with on the previous laps. I managed to dig down and find a little something for the attack and put a gap on him by the downhill section. It stuck to the end, and in case you lost track of where I was, that was a 3rd place finish. Another best and podium at a national. The training seems to be working. Thanks Phil!

My dad managed to get 3rd in his race on Saturday. An all time best for him! Way to go Dad! Well, I guess that's enough rambling on about stuff that only I really care about.

Maybe sometime in the future I'll get all philosophical and type something someone else can relate to. Yeah right!