MY FTP was higher than ever before for cross. My 20 minute power was a stellar 5.5 watt to kilo and I was riding near 6.5 for 5 minutes. I had developed a powerful motor....But as we all know......CROSS is just as much about SKILL as it is about power.
Nationals......went OK, but I had no answer for the snow and ICE.
The masters race 30-34... I pulled off a TOP 10. Good enough for a front row again next year, but I got greedy early and paid.....I just couldn't turn lemons into LEOMONADE. LIKE everyone in my race I had to battle the conditions, and they got the best of me......I went from 3rd to about 35th or so....after a first lap mistake. I was able to move back up....but on that course... that day... this is the best I could ever expect to do. We all have certain styles we can/cannot race and this was pretty hard for me. I wish I had better SKILLS (chicks dig guys with skills)Napoleon dynamite..
In the elite race I had a stellar start position!! With the UCI points.... I was in the 4th ROW. Unfortunately, I found myself not really able to move up...or fall back. I finished in the MID 30's. A great ride when you look at how fast the CX scene is getting. Last year I had a bit better finish, but in the "ICE" this was all I could really pull off. Survival mode was the name of the game for me. After hitting the ground several times......I saw Trebon getting carried off the course and I rode pretty scared for the rest of the race. It was a bit anti-climatic. All this fitness and no where to GO!
For those of you who made it to KANSAS ..an ICE storm pretty much made the course a FROZEN hard rutted nightmare. It was scary for me to just navigate the course at full speed. I found to hard to pedal for much of the course. Certainly a great weekend for the GUYS with mad SKILLS and Big engines.
So after CX ended I got a phone call from a good friend that was headed to BELGIUM to race Masters Worlds. I bought a plane ticket, and 5 weeks later we were riding cobbles and racing in Belgium for a few weeks. We raced a FLEMISH CUP race and I rode from the back row all the way up to 6th!! It was a great ride for me. TONS of MUD and the course was SUPER slow.. Perfect. Then we raced masters worlds. A flat course that was primarily single track and fast. I got called up to the BACK row. No joke. I was the 2nd to last person called. I was able to move up to 2oth or something like that by the end of the race. It was blast and a great way to end the season. We rode parts of ROUBAIX and tons of the climbs on the Flanders course. It was one of the best trips I have ever been on. I hope 2008 CX season gets here quickly. I am ready to roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
