Sedalia Saturday Night

I love racing at night. I don't know what it is about flying around a course in the dark with 100 or so other crazies but it's fun. Sedalia is a warm up for next weeks Gateway Cup race on Friday night. I guess this year I'll be racing when it's still daylight which is kind of a bummer, but it will still be fun to watch the Pro Men and Women race. Heck, after the 3's performance last night I might have to warm up my camera and watch the 3's race. Seriously, I can't believe how many crashes there were in that race. Lot's of torn kits and busted bikes in that one. You may wonder if a certain local team was involved. All I can say is that I saw 1 on the bottom of one pile of bodies and bikes and I don't think any of them finished the race.


The bummer about watching all of this crashing is I think it spooked me a bit. The course had changed and went in the opposite direction from the past few years. Then there was the issue of some dark corners, really dark. I knew we had an issue when the official making the pre-race announcement stated that, "all of the holes and sunken manhole covers had been painted...........but now it's dark so you can't see them anyway". It actually wasn't that bad and in a Pro, 123 race most of the guys know how to avoid hazards.



The race started and I got a terrible start, ended up way back in the field. The pace was fast from the start and it was tough to move up. It was made even tougher with the inexperienced riders jumping on the brakes in the dark corners and creating gaps. I think I spent the first 30 minutes of the race just getting to the front. Once I got there I was feeling pretty comfortable. Hmmm, comfortable.......the race was hard with all of the attacks and chases but I think I just got satisfied with being safe in the front part of the field. Kind of odd, looking back now I think I could of went with some breaks but never even tried. Could have something to do with the 2hr tempo ride in the morning, who knows. In any case I just rode it in on the last lap, 5 guys up the road, and 5 places for the group for money. I was totally out of position with 5 laps to go so I just finished.


Kind of weird, no pictures to share but what can I say, it was dark!

I do have this pic. Got home from Sedalia and into bed around 1am. Got up at 6am to get the family up in time to ride the Tour of Shawnee. Pinky rode it last year and was totally wasted. This year he did it and rode much better. We even had Mathgeek and Curly with us this year. Nice ride that the shop supports and I heard they had over 500 riders this year. Pretty sweet when you can roll through Shawnee on closed roads with police on every corner waving you through!

So now I'm really tired. Time to rest up for Gateway Cup, but first there is the final Tue KC Crit and the final Gardner TT on Thursday. Yahooooooo what a way to end the road season!