Mellow Classic

Pic taken off Cyclingnews.com

Katie and I headed South to Ranch Juan Pelota this weekend for the Mellow Johnny's Classic.  We arrived at the ranch of Friday afternoon and I headed out for some preriding.  Just as I am getting started Travis Donn rolls up and we go out for a lap.  It was great to see the Ethos Crew made the trip down to Austin to get some national racing experience.  They were all over the course cheering which was awesome, and then had great races on thier own on Sunday.  The new UCI course was quite a bit shorter than last years, and cut out some fun sections, but was still a great course.  After preriding Katie and I headed back to the Homestead Suites and then out for some carboloading.

Saturday morning we headed out to watch some of the womens race and eat a little lunch.  It was pretty cool as the women raced.  By the time I began warming up, the temps were warming up a little as well.  It still wasnt all that hot out.  I am still living off my handful of UCI points which gets me a good call up.  I had a nice position on the third row and was hoping for a good start.  The gun went off and the Mexican Turbo team diretly in front of me on the first and second row didnt really move.  I was boxed in and guys were whizzing by on my outside but I couldnt get over.  So we enter the singletrack and ive lost some positions.  I was feeling okay and began moving up a little.  3/4's the way through the lap there are the two climbs of the lap.  I had just past a small group and was on a Honey Stingers guys wheel when we entered the climb.  He must have need some more Stinger Waffles because just as I moved next to him, he takes a left turn and bumps me.  So  now we are both running the entire climb, or im walking.  For some reason this really demoralized me, seeing all the guys I had just worked to get past ride right back by.  Plus it got hot.

Its tough to race at that level when you are just feeling okay.  I couldnt really accelerate out of the corners and the climbs were hurting way more than they should have.  I could tell thing werent going real well by the gears I was pushing.  The next 3 laps I rode pretty steadily in 26th to 32nd.  On the last lap I got by a few guys, but was caught by a few also.   Katie handed me bottles and an ice pack on the last lap, which we should have been planning on doing all race just like last year, because it felt amazing.  Then she sprinted over to the second feed/tech zone with bottles and my extra wheels just in case.  I think she was trying to impress some of the other teams and get a job as a pit crew.   I remeber Troy Wells passing me early in the lap and moving fast.  He ended up just outside the top 20, so I know if I would have been feeling decent a really good result wasnt too far off.  Russel Finsterwald caught me and outsprinted me to the line so I ended up 30th.  Got a couple of ProXct Points which is always nice.

Sunday we drove the 11hours home and then I went of for a ride.  It seems I missed feeling great by a day, as I felt much better on Sunday.  Still a 30th is not too bad and a few years ago it took a really specatacular day to finish that well.  More pics are on the way as Katie's brother Ben came down from Dallas and was all over the course taking pictures.

Havent done a single local XC race yet, but the national series is 2/3rds done already.  Makes it seem like the season is almost over, when it really hasnt even begun.

Got my confirmation for Chequamegon over the weekend as well.  So im in for two rounds of the Midwest Triple Crown, Iceman and Cheq fattire.