Wednesday at the course the rain held off until later in the morning. This meant that the first two races would be pretty dry. Starting in the bitter cold at 8:30 AM were the women's 30-34 group containing Hannah Dillard in her first full season of CX. She would finish a credible 8th place. Next up were the men in the same 30-34 age group. Brendan Lehman cracked the top-10 finishing 9th and Eric Brown got a top-20 at 19th . Later at 10:30 the men's 65-69 race got started in the drizzle and the course got slippery. I managed to finish a surprising 15th .
in the afternoon the men's 35-39 group started on a much wetter and slick track. This suited Aaron Bradford as he rode from the back to finish 16th.
The night after the first championship day was a good one for a big team meal of pasta , salad and garlic bread. With a house full of hungry racers and others two full batches were cooked . So far, the start of this nationals week was looking good. The course was very challenging and fun at the same time. The dark skies, low temperatures and frequent showers made for classic Pacific Northwest CX conditions. We in California rarely get to ride in mud like the stuff we were seeing in Lakewood.
Although different than what conditions were for most of the season, we were experiencing what it is all about- the mud.
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