I'm going to Disneyland....

Like a MVP of a winning Super Bowl Team, I feel like I should be smiling at a nationally televised audience and telling them these same words. But, Disneyland does not give free trips to USA Cycling National Champions and instead of a national audience, I have you guys. So, to all who know me well and not so well....I did what I have wanted to do for a long time; win a national championship. Let me tell you it does feel good, even without the trip to Disneyland.

It seemed as if everything went perfectly the day of the race. First off, the dry conditions that I was not too psyched about on Friday disappeared on Friday Night with a thunderstorm that came through while I was sleeping. When I saw that everything was wet outside, I immediately knew it was going to be a good day. My focused warm-up and my front row starting line-up had me feeling confident of the task ahead.

I took the hole-shot from the gun, pedaled like a possessed man into the first hard left turn, which immediately goes straight up the ski slope. I then looked back to see who was on my wheel and was shocked to see that there was nobody there. With my fast start, I began the first climb with about a 50 foot gap over everyone else and decided at that point I would not look back again. I maintained the first position during the rest of the first lap and was never challenged by another rider in my age group throughout the race. To keep my intensity high, I focused on the younger age class riders that started in front of me and one by one would chase them down. By the end of the race, I finished about three minutes ahead of second place in my race class and actually had the third fastest overall expert time of the day.

Gunnar, Chris McGill, and Justin all tried their best to get me to race in WV today, but I have decided to pass. My next racing goal is the Wilderness 101 this coming Saturday, so I am going to put my focus towards this race. I am switching back to my Bontrager MTB Tri-bars for the race because of all the long flat hammering sections on the course. To get used to the bars and keep my endurance high, I have decided to do at least a four hour ride today instead of racing a XC race.

I need to say thank you to some people for helping me with my victory at Mt Snow. Obviously, there is Speedgoat Bicycles for all that they have done, The Law firm of SPK for their assistance, Salsa Cycles for the ride, the Shimano Tech Tent at Mt Snow for getting my front XTR Disc Caliper to work perfectly in a pinch and also to Alan Neveu of Aline Footbeds. I put these new foot beds in my cycling shoes on Friday, after talking to Alan, and could immediately feel the difference. Check them out at www.aline.com