Monday in Manchester 2015

Just passing some nervous time before my first race of the event tonight in  the evening session. I’ve been here since Thursday A.M. already and there are plenty of memories already. Some repeats of last year like getting take out food from the Spicy Mango to feed a hungry group on Saturday night. Some adventures with the car driving to find the house, then going downtown to find a phone store, picking Andy up at the airport, driving through major soccer game traffic to get Jen and Chris to a bike store before they closed, which we didn’t make but they stayed around for us anyhow.  I finally feel somewhat comfortable driving on the left and getting used to lots of round a bouts and traffic lane patterns that are totally different then the U.S. The stop lights turn yellow before green here as well as yellow before red.

The track is as wonderful as ever. So smooth and quiet to ride. So easy to get spoiled riding tracks like this. I’ve been to a few of these worlds masters events so there are a lot of familiar faces, both competitors and event personal. There can be a language issue trying to communicate with other country  racers but everyone is friendly and happy to be attending.

Social media is lots more prevalent this year with Twitter feeds of final events and victory ceremonies. Facebook posts that happen as the events occur and immediately after proclaiming results with pictures. One of our group talked about how old-fashioned blogs are now. Oh well, I still like to document some of what happens for anyone willing to read through the posts. It’s also good for me for future planning. The days just tend to fly by and run one into the other. I am already trying to figure out what day we went to the bike store and that was only 2 days ago!

Results; Andy Kruse in the top 10 in one of two of his events (an IP), not sure in the kilo, Sandy North (from Boulder) getting a 4th seed and then bronze medal in her 2K. Dan Casper, another world champion in his IP event with fantastically fast times that demoralized his second place competitor. Timmer got 7th I believe in his TT event.

Almost 1:00 here at the house now, we leave for the track at 4 so we can prepare and get ready for Chris’ 750 and my scratch race. The butterflies are building. Before you know it I’ll start to get quiet and focused. It will be good to get there, ride some rollers and then get on the track and get rid of more nervous energy before the scratch.

Remember to check Jen’s blog at   www.VaVaVelo.com   for a different perspective.  Also there is live streaming of finals and event ceremonies. Search Youtube for “Crew of a Few Productions”  to find the events.

Ride safe, have fun, make it hurt…