Hurtin' in Kamloops

I know that Buck already put up some stuff about the road nationals but thought that I would chip in my two cents as to how my day went. From the gun I was having a hard time, particularly feeling the heat on the climb - which was funny as I had just the night before been talking about how the blistering heat the year before hadn't bothered me a touch. Oh, oh. Things didn't get better until much later.

It seemed like everything was going wrong: my lungs felt like they were burned, my stomach was acting up (from the undercooked pancakes at the 'great' breakfast place Buck picked), the phlegm was thick and coppery tasting (a sign in me that I'm not on a good day), and my back seemed on the verge of giving up the ghost. What a suck I sound like. Feeling like that I didn't think that I was going to make it anywhere near to the finish.

Making the split when Ryder went was a nice surprise; I was still in the race when so many were already out. Hanging in, and actually feeling better on the climb than on the flats, I slammed a couple of cold bottles of water and hacked and spat my way around for a bunch more laps. With the sore stomach Gatorade was out and I think I only ate one Clif bar, so I was worried about coming up short towards the finish of the 180km energy wise. Luckily a well timed dose of Clif shot solved that problem .

With 3 laps to go I was surprised to find myself still in the front, the legs had finally come good as I kept making the splits on the climb. For the last few laps of the race I had to stand on the climb as my hamstrings were cramping. This played havoc as Eric and I were chasing back up to Ryder and Dominique with 2 to go; I really had to mete out my effort that time. Dropped with 2 to go on the climb I struggled back on the flats and then was popped pretty quickly again on the last climb, which was disappointing. It seemed like a repeat of last year.

All in all though I have to say that I was really happy with my ride. The whole day was one long painful experience and to salvage a decent finish on what were some not too super legs is satisfying. Next year nationals are in Quebec I hear, allons-y.