Rolling the Wheels, Not Dice in Vegas

My luck in Vegas wasn't there last night. I was pretty nervous and was hoping to push hard for a top 5 finish in the race. Warmup, pre-ride all went well, I was 7th ranked on call up so everything was there for me to give it a go. And then the luck disappeared. Start, three times until I get my foot in the pedal. I managed to get back on the train and am in 7th. Then a couple bad turns by a few girls in front, gaps open up and the get away train is already gone. 7th seemed to be okay for the first lap and then it all went even more downhill. It was pretty hot out and I think with my nerves and everything I cranked my left shoe way too tight. My power was dropping in the race and I was having a hard time climbing the hills, next the barriers (which running was going really well for me this year), I jumped off and felt like I landed on a stump on my left foot. It was completely numb and buckled causing me to almost smash into the barriers. I then kind of dragged slash ran up the hill as I couldn't use my left foot to run off of. By then 3 or 4 more girls had passed. I rode another couple of laps still feeling the numbness and not a lot of power, then I loosened my shoe about 3 times and fought back and forth with Laura Van Guilder for 10th for awhile but every time we hit the barriers I would stumble pretty bad and loose 10 seconds with my foot being numb. Then get back up to her through the fast turns, at least my technical skills were working for me. Finally last half of the last lap, my power and leg seemed to be back after loosing the shoe so many times and I started getting back into it and was on my way to catching Laura again, then.........500 metres to go I flip my chain over the big ring and jam it. Got off my bike and had 3 girls go by while I was trying untwist it and ended up 15th.

Needless to say with my luck last night, I wasn't going to spend any time at any casino in Vegas!
The top 5 riders really had a great race, but none of them did a race last weekend, let alone two cross races. I think to win Vegas, you got to be fresh off the weekend and also have everything play right as the course is a power sucking course and once the lead group is gone, it's gone for good. It was good to get the jitters out in a big race and I know I can come top 5 with these girls when everything is going well and I have two legs to use. Maybe when the travelling is on an equal playing field things would also be a lot different.

Something totally amazing went on with Derrick's race though. He had probably one of his best cross races, starting back in third row. He got to race around with Lance Armstrong for an hour and then beat him to the line. Although he missed the front group, probably more from his start position and a couple of crashes that guess who had caused (Lance Armstrong). So Derrick missed the get away car and was in a chase group with Lance and Tony Cruz. It was pretty exciting and I am sure there will be thousands of pictures with Lance and Derrick in them as well.

Next up, we fly out this morning and get a little closer to our local time zone in Wisconsin. I'm sure my days will get better over there. This little stint of racing is all to be better prepared for nationals and have a variety of courses and scenarios come out of the races. So at least I can say between Derrick and I, that is happening. Stayed tuned for Derricks update of Vegas.

NCE