Time to review the weekend. Friday afternoon I drove to KC for the appropriately named Tour of Kansas City. Unlike last year, I chose to skip Friday night's race. Relaxing and watching the races on a perfect evening was very enjoyable.

Highlights of the night were
1) Seeing Mark Shea had upgraded to the 4's. I don't suppose that had anything to do with the infamous thread on Stlbiking.
2) A handful of women racing with the 3's. One of them was dropped on the first lap. She kept doing laps after, despite being lapped several times. What caught my attention was her very exaggerated riding style. Every time up the finishing hill she was hunched over the bike, rocking it back and forth. You couldn't help but stare. The race itself was entertaining with different riders off the front on almost every lap
3) The 1/2's were also put on a very attacking, fast race. Brian Jensen always puts on a show at KC. Once again he was in the winning 3 man break. Clark Priebe attacked the small group on the 3rd last lap. The announcer stated it was an 8 second lead with 2 laps to go. Somehow, Jensen bridged the gap and opened his own 8 second gap. How do you do that in one lap? He cruised to the win.

I woke up Saturday to dark, cloudy skies. That was a big surprise for a weekend that was supposed to be sunny. I turned on the morning news and there was a big blob of yellow just off to the west. Ten minutes minutes later it was raining.

I arrived at the race quite early. The Masters had just finished and there were several guys milling about with various cuts and scrapes. The course must have been slick. Marco and I watched the Women's race from the hill and cheered on Gina. The wet roads made everyone a dirty mess. Most of our CX races were cleaner than Saturday's race.

The big fun, though, was watching the odd woman from Friday night. She had some kind of issue on the first time up the hill that I did not know about. My guess it was a flat tire that she had changed at the top. All we heard was some cursing and she was starting to pedal again.

Next time up the hill she was hunched over her bike worse than then night before and every word from her mouth was a curse. She would have made a sailor blush. After that performance we could not wait for the next lap and she did not disappoint. She was riding up the hill with one had on the bars and the other making a whipping motion like a carriage driver whipping a horse. That brought chuckles but was quickly outdone by bizarre mutterings about Batman and Robin. Everyone in earshot was laughing. I truly thought the hill had driven her psycho. Every lap was a sight to behold. Only later did Josh inform us that she was the Platypus, a woman I was familiar with but had never seen in action. The organizers could have charged admission for the show she put on.

Eventually, my time to race had come. By 1pm, the roads had begun to dry a little on the upper portion of the course but I had no idea what was below except for reports that some areas of washed out mud were slick.

This is a weekend that I never do well. My expectations for this year were not much better considering my relative lack of training. These courses will expose your shortcomings pretty quickly. My goal was to just do what I could and not get too hung up on my performances. Last year, I really felt crushed by the weekend.

This year I actually had a rather good start to the race and plopped myself in the front half of the pack. Then the hill came and I started drifting back. Something about that hill is very difficult for me and this year was no exception. Then, near the top, there was a Momentum rider that was almost at a standstill for some reason. I was boxed in and could not get around him. That put me virtually at the back of the pack but hung on until the second time up the hill and that was the beginning of the end. I had a nice back and forth for two laps with an Ozark rider. He would pass me on the downhills and I would pass him on the uphills. After 5 laps, I quit in the hopes of saving a little something for Sunday.

Bad things: the hill but I think my problem is that I try to climb it in the saddle. I felt much better the last few laps out of the saddle. If only I can remember that next year.
Good things: a decent start. Maybe not a good thing but the 5 laps was no worse than last year.

Sunday was beautiful weather for a bike race. I had halfway decent starting position. With a figure-eight type course, that pleased me. My start was decent and I pedaled furiously to stay with the pace. Still, guys were steadily going by on my left and right. After half a lap I began to feel desperate. Why was I defenseless against the speed of the others? Maybe it had something to do with being in the small chainring. AAARRRGHHH!!!!!

Not that it made much difference. Instead of my lungs screaming, my legs began screaming for mercy. I lost contact after a few laps and the day's strong winds began to take their toll with no one to hide behind or share the pacemaking. After 20 minutes, I had enough

Bad things: it started with the small chainring and did not get much better
Good things: hmmm... an okay start, I guess. that's about it.

I have a few other random thoughts from the weekend that I will share later.