Fergie doesnt do well at stage races.

But he will do a cyclocross omnium, and will crush it pretty hard. Rewind for a minute.

Wednesday, Friedman came down to the oval and really put the hurt on us. I was in a move with Ruggs when I turn around and see Friedman coming up to us. He basically towed us around, shredded our legs, I couldnt pull thorugh anymore, but Ruggs had some in the tank left. Then he just dropped back to the field. It was like being behind a motorcycle.

Thursday, Mayhew and I met up with Kirby (former member of Kraynick cycling), who is recovering from a bad crash (bad = life flight). We did Stig's loop (the hardest ride ever) after that. Halfway through we see the sky turn emerald green. It reminded me of when I was in Minnesota and we literally saw a tornado, same color. 3 inches of rain in the 40 minutes led to us riding road bikes as if they were mountain bikes when the rain slowed enough for us to get out from under our cover. Heroic! Middle road had washouts that covered the entire road with softball sized rocks.

Friday I decided to do the cross race in jersey on saturday, because I thought my ribs were feeling a bit better. Cross racing isnt that hard on you is it?

Saturday Soupie and caroline pick me up at 8am for the 6 hour drive to Jersey. We stop at the super sheets and are amazed as usual. We saw the Mayor of Fizz city, I think he removed Docsnides from his mayorship in a coup. He had no sleeves and a 52oz thermos that costs 89 cents to fill up. God bless America.

The cross racing. Soupie's first race, he drops his chain. He still finishes despite having to flip his bike over to unwrap the thing from the square taper. It seemed to be everything short of getting a chain tool out and then pulling the cranks off.

The elite men had like 60 events. I was only signed up for the actual race. There was an elimination thing that worked almost like bmx. There were heats, then quarter finals, then semi finals, then finals. 4 men enter 2 men go on. It was fun to watch, but I thought our race was at 6 and it was actually at like 8:20.

7:30pm the bunnyhopping contest was pretty intense. I tied for 4th at 14". I want another go at 16 inches, I think I can do it if I practice for a few minutes. Doing double barriers is all the more impressive to me now. When I was doing it, the announcer was like "this guy is here all the way from Pittsburgh PA" and then I immediately heard "THE STEELERS SUCK" from a audience member. Awesome.

The race. Not sure how many starters, Im thinking around 25ish. The course was fast and tight, with a few weird rollers, 1 runup/rundown and a set of barriers. Lap times were no more than 1:45. That is crazy fast compared to most cross courses at around 7 minutes. I really thought the shorter lap length would ensure me getting lapped by at least 1 guy.

We're off and Im sitting in a good place, there is a bit of tangle and somebody goes down to my right. We roll the berm pretty smooth and do a lap or two almost as a group with a few stragglers. Maybe 3 laps into it Im sitting 5th wheel, Donahue from Nerac, Mike Cody, Eneas Freye from Target training, Fergie, then myself. Good spot.

Then all of the sudden heading into the runup/rundown somebody is coming up on my left.
My thought process: "I feel good, but I know Im not going to ride away from this lead group, so I will stay where I am and watch attacks. I wont try to go around Fergie because I know he wont let gaps open up, and he will keep it smooth. Who is this passing me? Ill just go back around him on the barriers, what a jagoff."

The Navigator wachtung D Bag behind me's thought process:
"Im going to pass this dude in front of me on the run up... yeah, sweet now Im going to jam my back wheel in front of him so he cant come back around me, because Im passing him on the outside, which is like 5 feet longer... ok now Im going down the rundown and jumping on my bike.... OH MY GOD WHERE DID THESE BARRIERS COME FROM? WERE THEY HERE THE FIRST 500 LAPS THAT I RODE THIS COURSE? OUCH LAYING ON MY FACE HURTS.. ..." and so on.

The vaginator totally stacked it in the barriers, I fell on top of him, which created a gap between me and the 4 leaders mentioned above. I got up and worked my way back through a few guys who passed me while I was down and end up in a 3 man group with an Indy Fab guy and a Verge Test Pilot. I like the verge socks, he was wearing them and I must say they are really stylish. Anyway, the Indyfab guy was all about rubbing elbows and I was all about not crashing twice in a race, which forced me to whine to him about being aggressive. Whatever.

He stacked it in a turn and I didnt really attack but just rode away from him and the verge dude. I was hurting but kept it steady enough for 5th place, just a few seconds off of 4th, who was just a few seconds off of 3rd. I think 1 or 2 more laps, I could have caught them, or maybe I looked just as spent as they did? 1 or 2 more laps and I think I would have gotten lapped as well, so its a tradeoff!

Race was over and after a ride in the ferris wheel for soup and caroline, we hit the road at 1030. 3 hours later, we were back at the super sheets in altoona, and 3 hours after that, it was 5 am and I was laying down to go to sleep.