December 16, 2006

US National Championships Report

Today finally came and it's already gone. It was a really interesting day, 50 degree temps, fast tacky course, and tons and tons of LOUD rowdy fans. Unfortunately, I didn't have the race I was hoping for, things just never quite clicked into overdrive and I felt like my limiter was stuck at 90% for the majority of the race. The start was pretty exciting as I was staged up at the official finish line along with the other top ten guys. We then were introduced and got to ride down the road to the start line in front of the crowd. I was the 8th guy on the front row, but it didn't seem to help me too much today.
I hovered in the group of 10th-13th for a majority of the race and never was able feel better. I was hoping I would come around towards the end and then maybe move across a few groups to get a top ten, but it just never happend and instead we got caught from behind by two guys. I ended up losing to all of them and I think I finished 16th. I'm not really disappointed to get 16th, more that I just know I am capable of more and have proven I can finish better when I am on my game. Oh well, it's been a really successful cross season for me and I am trying to not get hung up on it too much, there's always the supercup tomorrow that I can try to redeem myself. I'll be really mad if I feel like a champ during that race, but that's racing and it's all part of figuring it out.

Interesting race notes: I was on Horners wheel at the start of the second lap as we came through the start area. One of the banners along the barriers came loose at the bottom and blew up as we charged past. It caught Horners bar and flicked him to the ground hard, as he somersaulted over the bars his rear wheel wacked me in the side of the head. It was pretty scary cause I thought I was going down for sure, luckily I didn't and I saw Horner at the finish and he wasn't dead so that was good.

Thanks to all the loud crazy fans cheering for me out there, it felt pretty good to have people screaming in my ears as I went past, it was great!

4 comments:

joe1265 said...

Congrats on a great season!!!

Here's another shot of the starting lineup:

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/6861/4033/1600/596175/0%20040.jpg

jsager said...

not dead=good. congrats, and thanks.

Josh and Lauren said...

Props to you on a great season! Wish we could have come up, but we were cheering you on from Philly, could you hear us?

Anonymous said...

Hey Tristan, nice job in the Sunday race. Here's a shot of you narrowly missing the barrier pileup on the first time through.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmcunningham/325401311/in/set-72157594425385251/

Hope things work out with the Euro trip. We're rooting for you!