Nationals. Three days away.

Collegiate nationals are coming up this Saturday. Lisa, Orion, David K, Peter, Takuya, and myself are leaving on Friday afternoon and arriving in Fort Collins Colorado, elevation 5,000 feet. The elevation is going to be a disadvantage for us, but I’ve been looking at a picture of the Himalayas every night, which should help with my acclimatization.

We aren’t competing in the TTT, which runs on Friday, because we would not be competitive. Instead, our main focus is the road race. Peter won the road race a while back when he was at a different school, and it would be great to have someone from the team win this year. It is a real possibility, which is why I’m getting nervous. I guess I don’t get too nervous for big races that I don’t think I can win. But when there are expectations to be met and the chance of success actually exists, the pressure seems to be greater. I do well under pressure though, so bring it on. (Well actually there will be less pressure up there…crap).

I have been resting this week and my legs will be fresh on Saturday. This is the first race that I have tapered for this year. Just about every race preceding this one, I have either done a couple hundred miles in the days leading up to it, or my legs have been toasted from intervals earlier on in the week. It will be interesting to see what I can do with a rested body.

The course is rolling hills with a couple steep, medium length climbs, and the finish is a flat sprint. It should suit me well. Both lanes of the road will be given to us, and of course there will be no traffic. I have only had this experience once before (Sea Otter) and it was great. But there will be twice the riders there were at Sea Otter: 160. Hell yeah!

The downtown crit is the following day. It has 8 corners. It will not suit me well at all, but should be crazy exciting. My plan is to be in a breakaway on both days. It’s a pretty complicated plan, and I’m sure no one else has thought of it.

Here’s a link to the site.

–Kennett