Nationals day 2

 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.

2019 nationals day 1

We had a treat this season- a nationals you could drive to, as long as you didn't mind the 800+ mile marathon. Our first stop was the family home of Aaron Bradford. Aaron and his dad made sure that we were comfortable and well fed on the first night in Tacoma.

The next morning we were down at the course. While most of us would just be checking out the course on foot and doing a few pre-race laps there were some who opted to race in the 'non-championship' events on Tuesday. Although risky, the races were a good way to check out the course conditions on that day. The conditions would be changing quite a bit from day to day. Tuesday's relatively dry and tacky course would give way to Wednesday's rain and the softening of the muddy stretches in the area surrounding the pit.

 Sarah Jordan, Kristy Vahlberg, Kathleen Bortolussi and John Vahlberg did the non-championship races on Tuesday. There would be more later in the week.

 It would not be until the next day that official championship racing would begin for the team. The cloudy skies and nearly constant rain of the following days coupled with low temperatures would make conditions for a classic edition of the cyclocross nationals.

The Lakewood, Wa. Stielacoom park course has been used on many occasions for CX racing and its most notable features are the steep and choppy run-ups, probably some of the toughest in USA cyclocross. These long runs would prove to be testing to every person on a bike the whole week.

CX nation mud fest

 The races were behind schedule , the results were a mess and some of the races were cut short. That said, it was about as good as it gets in terms of CX racing as it should be. The rain came down all day and the mud was deep and plentiful. We had a pretty good number of riders there and some decent results. Getting them all sorted out might happen some day but here's what I know for sure: Hannah Dillard got 2nd in the women's elite, Brendan Lehman got 6th in the men's elite, Kathleen Bortolussi got the win and Sarah Jordan got 2nd in the women's masters 45+. Eric Brown , many juniors , Kailin Waterman and others were there-not sure where they finished but I think that Kailin might have won the single speed A race.

 All the bikes got pretty trashed and the mud might never fully wash out of the kits but it was all worth the long drive to Sonoma for this, the first real mud of the season. Now it is off to Lakewood, Wa. for the nationals and more mud- maybe not as deep as the Sonoma mud but it should be wet and slippery. Just about everyone who was at the CX Nation cup will be going to the nationals.

 I would like to thank Brian Staby and CX Nation for putting on this event as I know that it must have been a really difficult day with the weather and the timing glitches. If you came to get re-aquainted with the mud, you got your wish last Sunday.