Nebraska Cyclocross weekend

Nebraska Cyclocross weekend

What a weekend.
Started with heading to Lincoln to the D Street bike mansion Friday afternoon. I was on the door step before sunset.
Met the D Street boys (CVO, DK, and Cornbread) and girls (Jackie and Steph), had a beer and waited for Scott to pedal across town and Emily to get in from Ames.
Once the group was all accounted for we jumped on bikes and pedaled downtown to Yia Yias.
Beers were swilled and tasty slices of pie were consumed. It was good times.
Up next was a stroll down the sidewalk to O' something... Scott told me it was a trashy dive bar-ish. It wasn't nearly as bad as I pictured in my head. It was too well lit.
The pitchers of Old Style started coming fast at this point, and our numbers increased. We added Mark, Tad, Justin(?) and surely some one else. By thing point I was starting to feel pretty loaded.
Deciding that there wasn't much point in drinking anymore at the bar and knowing there was ample amounts of brew waiting at D Street (along with bacon! thanks CVO!) we mounted up and headed home.
Once back at D Street beers were swilled, bacon was munched, and stories were told.
Good times had for sure.
At some point we were drunk enough that we started dropping like flies
I think the Emily and I were the last two standing... well, sitting on the couch.
Next thing I know its 8 am and I am waking up to the sounds of a D Street morning on race day.
I don't think I slept as much as I just passed out.
Wow... hello hangover.
I spend way too much time that morning trying to get my shit together.
I felt lost, stumbling around looking for things yet not being sure what I was looking for.
The plan was to pedal across town with Emily to meet Scott for breakfast. I think Scott called 3 times wondering where we were.
"Are you ready yet?" I heard from Emily a few times.
Scott had only been waiting 30 minutes by the time I had my shit together and we started on the 10 minute ride across town to meet him.
When we got to the restraunt I realized just how rough I was feeling. I ordered a breakfast burrito anyway... looked at it for a while... took a couple of bites and then realized it was better off wrapped up and in my bag than in my stomach waiting to come rushing back out during the race.
We beat it back across town and then out to Pioneers Park for day one of the cross weekend.
I raced in the 4's sporting the BKB stars and hearts.
Decent sized group. I pedaled around to check out the course a bit. Did some riding in the grass and on the cross country running course to test my hand/wrist on the bumpy stuff. It hurt a bit but I figured I could deal with it.


At sign ups they did something I haven't seen at a cross race before. They put a timing chip on my fork. WTF? Was the place I was bound to get not embarrassing enough now I was gonna know how increasingly slow my laps were? Great.
The course was tough. I didn't like it much. I started out thinking that I was gonna do OK. Going into the first set of barriers I was moving forward and feeling good considering that I was racing on an empty stomach with a nasty hang over. I think I held my own pretty well until the 2nd time up the big run up. After that I realized there wasn't any one in front of me to chase, but there wasn't any one closing behind me either. I was fearing that I was already in last place. Then when the course double backed on it self I realized I wasn't off the back. There were a few guys chasing me. I dug deep to see if I could attempt to keep my small but shrinking gap.
I never got around to looking at my lap times at the end of the day. Hell I didn't even know my place until I checked the results today.
19 out of 24 isn't too terrible for me all things considered.
The course sucked. Not a mountain biker course, it was a roadie with gears course. The long road section was the worst both days.


It wasn't really all that fun in comparison to other courses I have raced this year.
But the race was done and it was time to carbo load with some tasty beers.
After the race we banged it back to D Street. Showered up and a few of us headed out to meet Nate and crew for dinner.
We had some tasty Mexican vittles and a couple of margarita's. Scott was going on about some rock show he wanted to take Emily and I to. We were resistant, I was beat. Scott started showing signs of being on the edge of drunk and gave in to our dual wills and gave up on the idea of the show.
We cruised back to D Street with the intention of having a beer or two. Scott was prone on the couch as soon as we cleared the door frame, and I don't think I bothered getting a beer to open. It had been a rough day and some how I had managed to convince myself to do it again.
I didn't see any reason to be hungover again and D Street was being pretty mellow. Really mellow.
I think by 10 Emily and I were alone on our respective couches and D Street was down for the evening.
8 AM came earlier than I wanted or maybe not soon enough. I had a rough time sleeping. Kept having weird/bad dreams. Never seemed to be asleep, restless.
All the races were starting an hour earlier on Sunday, and I had decided to do the single speed race. Get racing over with early in the day.
I got to the race a good hour and half early.
Got registered and numbered.
Dropped my street clothes and showed off my skin suit.
Thats right, skin suit. It was time to bust it out again. First CX race of the season that I have worn any of the Evil gear also the first CX race were I needed long sleeves.

They ran the course backwards of the day before. My racing was worse than the day before. I blew up in the first stretch. From the gun was a sprint down the asphalt that was a false flat that turned in to the grass were the real climbing began. Trying to keep the pace down the road I was spun out and falling behind. By the time I hit the grass I was spent. My race was pretty much over. I struggled through the first lap and realized that I was falling behind fast.
I didn't quit I just stopped trying.
There wasn't any reason to kill myself going full out. I was a 1/2 lap behind and wasn't closing any ground. I stopped at the top of Hooligan hill for a extended beer hand up. Cheered on the other races. Soft pedaled around until the finish. I got lapped twice by the race leaders. Those guys were moving!
Rolled though the finish. Stopped to slap some hands and have a coke with Nate. Headed up the hill to pull on some warm clothes, pop a barley soda, and watch some race action.
At the end of the days race I headed back to D Street to load the Green Torpedo. I didn't really want to leave but knew if I didn't make tracks soon I would get sucked into another night.
I bid my farewells and motored away from D Street about sunset.
Good weekend, good times, good friends, I will have to make the trip to Lincoln again some time soon.
Check out photos from the weekend from:
CVO or me
Also there will be or are write ups by (be sure to scroll down the page) CVO, Cornbread, and the lovely Sidney