Cyclocross Nationals Day 3

Crashes like this were a common sight throughout the entire weekend of racing.


Kevin Bradford-Parish of Spokane, on the right, finished 21st in the elite men.


Todd Wells and Jonathan Page led for much of the elite men's race.


The start of the elite men's race, with eventual race winner Tim Johnson in the center of the photo.


Riding the frozen ground.


Getting ready to head to the start line.

The conditions for my race yesterday were far better than for Ted's the day before. It was at least in the 30s and sunny, so some of the frozen ground had thawed. There was still, however, a great deal of ice! I had never before even ridden on snow, so it was a completely new experience for me to race on a course like that. Grooves a tire width across were carved out from previous races, but the ground was frozen; if you did not get your tire perfectly in the groove, you would slide all over. It was very disconcerting for a roadie like me. I was eventually caught by the race leaders, but it was a good experience. It made me realize that I need to experience many more types of course conditions.

We hung around after my race to watch the elite men. Even more of the course had thawed for them, so it was a pretty muddy race. It's amazing to see how much faster and more fluid they are than all of the other categories. They really do make it look easy... but it's not!

To finish up our experience in Kansas, we went to the post-race party at Dave and Buster's. Lots of people were there and lots of beer had already been poured by the time we arrived. We chatted with a few people, had a couple beers, and played some arcade games. We're home now and pretty tired after our 5 hours of sleep last night. All in all it was a good trip and definitely a learning experience.