Nationals day four

Sunday morning saw sunny clear skies and the junior UCI 17-18 and elite races, the last events of the nearly week-long nationals. The very first race of the day had both Dan English and Nate Vahlberg , the 17-18 UCI juniors on what would prove to be a very fast race. Dan had the benefit of a front row start and made the most of it finishing in 6th place and possibly securing a spot on the junior worlds team to compete in Fayetteville, Ark. next year. Nate Vahlberg was many rows back but when the race started he rode past much of the field getting as far up as 18th place before he had a crash and a mechanical made a pit visit necessary . He still wound up 31st , very far up from where he started.

In the last race of the day, the mens elite race Max Judelson started on the 4th row and Andy Wulfkhule on the 5th. Both of them moved up- Max quickly into the top-20 and Andy steadily up to the top-30. The speed of the race was crazy fast and many in the back of the field got pulled from the race fairly early on. Max and Andy made it nearly to the end , both of them riding for nearly the full hour of the race. Less than 20 riders made the lead lap- maybe one of the fastest nationals I have witnessed. Max finished 20th and Andy 30th. 

Here's the view from the pit right before the start of the elite race. In the pit the workers were me, Brendan, Hannah and Andy's friend Steve. Steve was a pro at pit support and helped guide us through the chaos and hectic times during the race. Mud was clogging the bikes and exchanges happened pretty much every lap. It was a good example of how a team can come together and make a racer's hour on the course more fluid . 

This was the first time most of us west-coast lobsters had met Andy and we were all really impressed not only with his racing but with what kind of a person he is and what he brings to the team. This year the crew that came to Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois was a small one by our standards but everyone pitched in, everyone finished and all of us did the best that we could each day. I'm not sure if we will ever be back to this corner of the US but I'm very glad that CX is back and that we made the trip. With luck some of us will get to Fayetteville to possibly watch one of the team compete in the world's. However it shakes out , this was a good trip- two podiums, one silver medal and several top-ten finishes. Not a bad record from a tiny team out of a small town for the most part. 
 

Nationals day three

Since nobody from the team was racing Friday, Saturday became day three of the nationals for the team . Saturday is the big Junior and single speed day and we had six riders racing in some of the events. First off was Remy Schmidt in the junior 13-14 race where he looked very good in the race - riding in the top-20 until the last lap where a mechanical forced him back to 45th place. In spite of the bad luck, he showed that he had the skills and speed to do much better .

Next up was the youngest group, the 12-13 year olds and we had Noah Hekkert. Noah rode a clean race and passed riders for his two laps of deep mud and got 19th starting from near the back of the 39 riders. It was an excellent first nationals result.

Next up was hard charging Mac Tomkins in the junior 15-16 race. Mac had to start pretty far back in the field and looked good through most of the race but the freezing cold must have taken a toll. Still, he finished in 59th.

Last two events of the day were the single speed races. In past events we have had many entrants but this year only one woman was to make the trip to Cantigny park- Hannah Dillard rode the same bike that she borrowed for the Tacoma nationals and stayed steady with only one crash and finished 8th. The overnight rain had turned the dry course into a mud bog and skating rink in places. 

For the last race of the day, the mens single speed my phone battery had died so I was not able to get any photos. This is pretty sad as we had two riders , Max Judelson on the second row and Brendan Lehman on the 5th row. Max started well and within a half a lap was in second place and held it all the way to the finish- a silver medal and the second podium for the team. Brendan Lehman came from the 5th row and immediately began passing riders. He and max both rode a crash free race and Brendan made it to 31st in the field of 102 riders.
 

Nationals day 2

On Thursday we only had two riders racing. In the men's 50-54 class Carl Hekkert finished 50th in the largest field of the day.

In the men's 40-44 master's race Pennsylvania native Andy Wulfkhule rode from the second row to a podium spot in 4th. He was near the front much of the race and made the most of the 45 minutes. After a several year draught of medals Andy has provided the team with a nice accomplishment for this year's nationals. 

Tomorrow we will have the day off as nobody from the team is racing. This is good as the weekend will be very busy with all the single speed, junior and elite races happening.  Stay tuned......
 

Nationals day one

After attempting to ride the course on the day before in 17 degrees we were very happy when the temperatures made it up into the 20's for the Wednesday races. Brendan Lehman raced in the masters's 30-34 group where he made it to 10th place. 

The next race was the master's 65-69 where Paul Sadoff made it to 14th place. The master's fields were not that large but the course was pretty demanding with many corners, a lot of bumpy turf and some headwind stretches. This isn't the epic nationals course with long, steep runups and death defying muddy descents-it is a fairly tame collection of features. # 1 is the "Belgian stairs " which is about 8-10 railroad ties put into the ground on an uphill that would have been fine to ride up but was now a short run to an off camber with an uncomfortable remount. # 2 is a sand pit that was basically frozen and fairly easy to blast through, although there were many people crashing there. There were a few places on the course that were slippery with icy grass where some people were ending up on the ground. Even though it was only the first day of championship races there were many spectators present.