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.