Springfield Crosstown Missouri

Kansas City may have taken the right to host State Cross from Springfield, but we brought back most of the jerseys to Springfield. Count em Three (3)! We ended up with 3 firsts, 2 seconds, a 4th, & a 6th. Not too shabby.

My State day started off bright & early @ 4:30 with Amber's new found inability to sleep. She can no longer toss & turn. She now gets to roll to a side struggle to sit up, flop to her other side, then lay back down. I managed to sleep through 10-13 turns but the last one woke me from the dead & it was go time. So I got ready to go, checking & rechecking gear & the Weather Channel(believe it or not they never changed the forecast to mid 60's for me). Amber decided that little sleep & standing in an Antartic simulator was a recipe for disaster so she decided to sit state out. She did inform me that sure as s@#$ if she stayed home I'd win State. ICC called me soon after to let me know the protruding rib was killing him so his job as cheerleader would have to be filled by others. So into the car solo I went to speed North to catch the C's race.

I found the venue(unlike Mr. & Mrs. Uballez-Magellan-GPS) in time to catch the last 1/2 of the race. It was a balmy 18 degrees with a windchill of 6. I hit the tent in time to see Pornstar Emory go though the barriers to announce he was in first with a big gap. Soon behind was El Prez chasing in 4th. With the mixed format I wasn't sure who was from where. It turns out Missouri swept first 4 or 5 spots in C's! It was cold enough to turn the Merms porn beard into ice.

2005 Missouri State Cyclocross C's Champ The Merm!

After putting on every piece of gear I brought I attempted to "warm" up. It turns out the course was only open before I raced an hour before my race so I was forced into a full hour warm up, way more than my normal. The call up was a TOTAL JOKE FOLKS! If you didn't live in the greater metro KC area you were relegated to the back. So much for fair. It was the same for all the races. The USCF official basically shrugged it off. Nice! I had to do a double take to make sure Sandra from Arkansas wasn't helping officiate. I guess AR & KS have special homefield rules. Anyway I got a crappy start in the Master's race(oh yeah I raced Master's after much anguish about which is better to sweep the B's podium or maybe bring home a State title? Took me 2 weeks to decide). So I'm stuck in about 12 out of 35 after the transition to grass. Basically I had to sprint my ass off to get to 6th by the start of the 2nd lap. I paid for this effort later. I got into a good group of 4 working pretty well together for about 3 laps. Then at the railroad ties Tilfords brother decide to fall into me. So I pushed his big ass into the ground & started chasing back to the other 2. They got a big enough gap that I never could chase back on. So now I had to ride not knowing my state position just that I was 8th overall & a huge chase pack was behind. I hit the bell lap & have to start mentally telling myself "7 minutes to go, 5 minutes to go, 3 to go, out of the saddle, sprint!". It was a very onesided conversation. But somehow I managed to cross 8th overall in a very fast Master's field & win the 30-34 Missouri State Title. Double J came oh so close to a jersey in 35-39 but a super fast
wheel change by pit gurus Super G & CMAC could only get him back into 2nd.

Not racing the B's gave me a chance to become the average deranged Belgium Cyclocross fan. I took one for the team here. I rang my cowbell so much I put a blister on my finger. I had more fun spectating than I had racing on this extremely fun course. I got to cheer for VanFasten CMAC, Nate the Prof of Pain, UBallez the Navigator, & Cyclophobia aka Skip. I went from freezing after my race to sweating my ass off running around yelling & screaming. Now I have to admit I cheered more for CMAC than Vanfasten but he had it wrapped up & CMAC needed the mental push to keep the gap to the chase group of 4 & he actually opened it up. Nate caused me to hit the pits to fix my bell. Uballez rode a strong B's race since he missed the start of the C's circumnavigating KC. Cyclophobia seemed to have applied super glue to his saddle & insisted on never getting off it. Skip I looked there is no rule against getting out of the saddle. VanFasten won once again, Cale put the greatest mean on look I've ever seen to finish 2nd. Great job boys! The guy who finished 3 rd overall is the guy who took me to the line last week in St. Louis so it looks like we could have swept the podium, sorry guys.