kccx: friday

Ben and I hit the course around noon, in time for his teammate Sarah Kerlin's warmups. I naturally gravitated straight to the pit, said hi to Jose, saw Steve Feehrey working for his son in the juniors, and realized this is GOING TO SUCK, regardless of weather.

Usually I'm pretty understanding of promoters who don't totally have every detail wrapped up with a bow, but this is nationals. The pit situation is really completely sucky and I do hope they fix this problem by Sunday. Here's the gig:
There is one water truck. (remember how we made one run out in jersey, where the field was half the size?) Hooked up to it are three pressure washers. The truck is parked about 200' from the pit, and we have to cross the course 3 TIMES to get there. Yes, three times across the national championship course to do what we're supposed to do. Excuse my whining, but that's kind of ungood.

Anyway, back to the races. The juniors bikes were coming in porcupine-like, caked with mud bristling with grass. The afternoon sun dried up the course though, and by the time the afternoon races started, it was dry and fast.

Sarah went off the front from 1/3 of the way into the first lap and didn't look back, passing all but 4 of the women that started 30 seconds in front of her in the 30-34 field. She did awesome and she has the stars and stripes to show it.

Congrats also to Diane for winning her field again, and to the Wisconsin riders who absolutely killed it. I'll dig up photos if I can.