The End of Bend

Jolly good, jolly good indeed chaps. I do say, that final day of the elite national championships was quite a doosey, wasn't it? We rode a pretty solid race as a team: Kennett started the first breakaway, and Sean bridged to it shortly thereafter. Phil did a fantastic job of both marking moves, and getting bottles for everyone else. Lang was very aggressive late in the race, starting and driving two very dangerous moves inside the last lap two laps. Chris finished 6th, our best placing at a national championships since 2005, and Kennett wowed us all with his sprint, besting the chase group to finish 9th (I dare say his best ride of the year). I am so very proud of my team for the race they rode. it would have been nice to have someone inside the top 5, but things went pretty much exactly to plan, and that almost never happens in this sport.

I was the only one who really didn't do much. I sat on most of the day, conserving energy (in theory). But when the going got tough, and the tough got going, I got dropped. I rolled into the finish nearly 10 minutes down, wondering what happened, and why I didn't have legs.

Yeah, I had a slightly disappointing nationals. I'm trying to focus on the big picture here -- it's a long season, and it's been a great one so far. There's a ton more racing to do, and I've got a nice chunk of time in between now and Cascade to press the reset button.

To cheer things up, here's a photo of our homestay children, sporting Hagens Berman jerseys, and posting up for the camera:

And here's a beautiful mountain we drove by on the way home: 

And here's the place we got dinner -- the best fast food place on earth. If you don't know about Burgerville, you should. Let's just put it this way: their motto is "Fresh. Local. Sustainable."