Gambling on success.

In 1995 collegiate cycling championships descended on Reno, NV. It was my first year racing

collegiate but I had been racing Pro1/2 for 5 years at that point, including 2 seasons in Belgium.

I liked collegiate racing in that it was a little lower pressure and really focused on the team’s

performance. We had fun, raced hard, and then went back to class on Monday. Meeting

athletes from other schools was always interesting, and many of them I had been racing against

around the country in Pro1/2 races.

On my team that year were some extremely good riders. One of whom, Chris Baldwin, went on to some fame

on the USPRO circuit. We’d been training and racing together all spring. As one of the big

Colorado power house schools we expected a good ride.

Collegiate national championships always follows the same schedule. Being very team oriented

the week starts with the Team Time Trial. This is one of my favorite events. It’s fast, technical,

and extremely hard. It’s also the event where I’ve won virtually all of my modest number of

national championship medals. My first came in 1988 and by 1995 I was looking for another.

The highlight of the trip, the day and the race was the unexpected appearance of my father,

always a big supporter of my racing, at the race as we were getting ready to warm up and start.

He had not told me he’d be coming to Reno and it was awesome for him to just walk up to me

and ask how it was going!

(My father in the upper left - you can just see his head)

We started with 5 guys, shed one at the turn around and then hauled ass back to the finish.

Colorado teams are always expected to ride well and we knew we’d had a good ride. As the rest

of the teams came in we stayed at the top, and then near the top of the leader board. Nearing

the last of them we realized we were gonna be on the podium. It was a great feeling knowing

we’d be getting some hardware hung around our necks. It was made even better by finding out

that the podium ceremony would be under the lights in downtown Reno. The crowd of other

racers and curious onlookers looked huge to me as I gazed down at them. I was elated to finally

get another national championship medal.

The road race was a few days later. I had a terrible ride as the course was just too hilly for me.

I’m more of a criterium and time trial guy and was racing the road race in support of the other

riders. I ended up getting dropped early on and handing bottles and feedbags to my team

mates.

After a strong performance in the TTT I was excited for the criterium. I knew my legs were good

and the course suited me. I’ve always been able to step up for the big events and interesting or

grand venues always made me up my game. This race was held on the main drag in downtown

Reno and passed right under the famous arch. We’d had a few days rest and I personally had a

good warm up. On the line waiting to start my father appeared out of the crowd and walked up

to me. He put his hand on my back and spoke calmly in my ear “You can win this…” Then patted

me on the back and walked back to the side of the course.

In the race were big hitter crit guys I knew from racing big criteriums around the country, and

guys I had come through the junior ranks with. I knew it would be fast but I was ready. We

started amazingly fast and in typical fashion the race settled down after 20minutes of so. My

teammates and I stayed together as much as possible but really didn’t have a cohesive plan. We

hadn’t practiced doing a lead out and, while we had done good teamwork in races in Colorado,

at this level we couldn’t put it together. It was every man for himself. I started making my way

to the front at 10 laps to go and was in the top 10 starting the last lap. I fought like hell and

went into the last turn in good position and ready to sprint. Just as I went to get out of the

saddle a rider came under me in the turn and, I don’t know if it was deliberate or just us getting

too close, his hip went under my bars and I popped up and then saved it. But, I had lost a few

places and was out of the top 10. I sprinted like mad and got a few places back and ended up

15th. Not bad but not what I had hoped for.

That night my father took me to dinner and then I went to celebrate with my team-mates. The

night after collegiate nationals is almost always a party and lots of fun. The next morning I got

in the car headed on to my next race in Seattle. It was national championships and one of the

Olympic trials qualifying race. I wasn’t eligible for the qualifier but had designs on the national

championship tandem time trial. I’ve written about that elsewhere on my blog. Go check it out