After a perfect come-from-behind start, Jeremiah did an excellent job of riding the slippery downhill chute and lap-after-lap powered his way up the climb above the start/finish.
He would often pass a handful of riders in each section. Unfortunately, the gritty mud seemed to have wrecked havoc on Jeremiah's derailleurs, and from the sidelines it looked like he was stuck in the big ring for the race's entirety. Mom and I watched as he toughed it out in style. He finished on lap with the leaders and promptly rode to the venue's hot showers.
On Sunday morning I got things started with my cross country race-turned-ride. I had a fun time on the course and will share some of my adventure riding with the junior men on a more appropriate blog. Thankfully, the previous day's rain had dried out and it looked like lap times for the Pro race would be super fast.
Click on photo for CyclingNews article
When it was Jeremiah's turn to race the winds were picking up and so was the excitement at Laguna Seca. I'm still not sure what determined starting order, Jeremiah was on the front line, but as we listened to the call-ups, I was impressed by the stacked field of riders. Even after 10 minutes of naming names, Richard Freis was stilling rattling off a who's who of mountain biking. The crowd was pumped up and the final two minutes till the start were, as always, filled with an energy that buzzed like high tension wires. When the start gun sent the pack on their way, Jeremiah shot forward like it was a World Cup! From my vantage point at the start/finish, I could look up beyond the venue and see the riders climbing the far side of the raceway, and I swore I picked out Jeremiah in the lead with a string of the fastest riders just behind. (My binocular vision was later confirmed when Jeremiah told me that he was leading at that point and even got the hole shot at the entry to the singletrack.)
While Jeremiah raced around the course, the North/Bishop family had an estimated 1:15 to enjoy the venue. My Uncle invented a shwag-getting game governed by the rule of "Erin said it would be ok if we have one." He had been hanging out at the Trek team trailer , the Volkswagen Garage and the JBL tent a little too long and lost sight of reality; not everyone at the Sea Otter knows who Erin is. Needless to say, dropping my name did not win my cousins free moccacinno's at the coffee shop.
Cowbells in hand, we made our way back to the raceway where we found shelter from the wind, and warmth radiating from rocks in a run-away car trap. Our location turned out to be perfectly suited to watching the men emerge from the trail and onto the raceway under the "Zoom Zoom" sign. The first to hit the track was a small 5-man group that included Kabush, Peraud and Sauser. This group didn't want to work together and they wiggled about looking for someone to take the lead into the wind. Shortly after this, another 5-man group emerged. Immediately they formed a line, tucked their heads and sped toward us. Lookin good, Jeremiah was a part of this group, as were his fellow Americans Adam Craig and Sam Schulz. I cheered on their cohesive efforts, "keep working together! You'll get 'em!"
And there we waited while the semi-pro men and pro women came racing by, until the pro men made their way back for the finish. When we finally saw the lead moto again, there were only three riders following behind. They were Kabush, Sauser and Peraud, and I have never seen such a ridiculous finish to a MOUNTAIN BIKE racer. There, you won't read that on VeloNews!
The three riders split across the top of the raceway, all sitting up, all looking from side to side. They slowed amazingly, side by side, waving their arms at one another. I, feeling the need to interpret what the heck was going to my extended family, tried to sum it up by saying "none of them want to work hard right now. So, they are avoiding the wind, and it looks like a shouting match is going to decide what happens next." After showing off their trackstands, they finally got going again, it looked like the Euros were more willing to get things going than Kabush. He sat on as they snaked back and forth across the track, ultimately hanging back just enough to sprint into the draft and around the other two. We almost thought he went too soon, but held it to the line. Sneaky. Dirty? Road racing!
When Jeremiah hit the top of the track, he was with Sam, and they were riding in eighth and ninth. Jeremiah knew where we were cheering and he put on a good show for us by letting out a guttural yell as he wound up to sprint around Sam. He charged forward a few hard pedal strokes and when he tucked down to ride it out to the finish, he stuck out his tongue and wildly shook his head. This all got a great reception from my Dad and Uncle!
So, despite the cold damp wind that's always a blowin in Monterey, the racing action was great and fun times were enjoyed by all.
Until someone puts an end to it, I'll keep on bloggin!
Erin
