KU Cycling
I raced in Manhattan, KS, Iowa City, IA, Lincoln, NE, and Minneapolis, MN against all teams in the NCCCC. Last year I raced as a Category C, and this year I bumped up to A so that I could have a chance to make nationals. Had a ton of fun racing with all the new KU Cyclists and saw them all become quite good racers. Everyone is sticking around for next year, so we are bound to have some epic good times again! Overall, I ended up doing mediocre in the A/B races held all seasons and wound up qualifying for the Collegiate Nationals Criterium and Road Race. With school pressing down on me, no one to travel with, and 9 hours between my school projects and racing against pros way out of my league, I decided to stay home. Next year, I will try my best to go.
As for summer racing, almost the entire KU Cycling team joined the local Colavita team, so we can continue to race together throughout the summer and into cross season. We have formed a really close group, and I'm glad we are continuing to race on the same team.
MO State Champs RR
Sam, Andy, and I traveled to Sainte Genevieve and had a good time rolling to some 50s music with the windows down hauling at 80 mph.
I've had to race many times this year with no teammates so I'm hoping in the future I'll have some guys to work with in the 3s. Again, I was alone for the MO State RR champs, and midway through the brutal furnace-fest, I was feeling the effects of no racing and little riding (finals suck) since my last collegiate race in April. Kent and Eric (KC guys from Bike Shack) were kind enough to be friendly during the race, and we all found ourselves up at the front with 20 miles to go. I was out of water by this point and literally holding on by a thread, so I tried to just keep from having a heat stroke. I was dropped on the last KOM hill and managed to bridge back within the next couple of miles. Hard work and I missed seeing the break and really had no idea what was going on. I knew Kent was up the road, and there were about 10 riders in the group. Some fireworks happened in last couple of miles and I found myself at the back of a fast train going into the sprint. I thought we still had a couple of miles to go, but we were within 500 meters and guys were starting to jump. I didn't end up doing much and was really just relieved that I made it back alive. I ended up getting up and overtook some guys for a 10th place finish overall. Not bad for how I felt. I'll be looking for some placing/podiums in the near future. Congrats to Kent for taking the MO state Champs title!
Dirty Kanza is coming up June 5th, so I'll be prepping for that. I may race the Wichita RR this weekend, but it's not a definite just yet.
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