I was corrected today. I have actually ridden with a collegiate national champion. Mark Smelser, my friend, got the gold last year. He was the reigning nation champ in the crit. Silly me! (He's still a lot better rider than me.)
His mom gave me the following report on this year's nationals...
No repeat gold medal, but [Mark] was pleased with his places. They were both [the road and crit] tough races. Very hot both days, in the upper 90s, and the detours on the road race were killers. Some of the roads around Perry Lake are under 10 feet of water; in fact the water is still rising because they can't let it out, too much downstream flooding already. We've had more rain this week, so as long as the gates are closed the water will stay up. Campgrounds and marinas are under water . . .not good for Memorial Day weekend coming up.
Anyway, since this wasn't an Iron Man competition and no amphibious bikes showed up, they had to reroute the [road race] over some gravel road sections. It was awful . . . Shimano and other support teams ran out of spare tires and wheels. And since the Mens D1 race was the last race of the day, they had the fewest spares going in. A lot of the field dropped and didn't finish.
But Mark was in a break neck sprint with the front pack. The leader was way out in front, no question. But the rest of them all crossed in a blur. We had no idea what his place actually was until we saw it posted . . ."same time . . . same time . . . same time"
And Sunday was so exciting. Another hot day and Mark ran out of water, but kept at it. He stayed in the peloton for half the race and then broke away with some others and stayed well out in front of the main pack for the rest of the race. He was in the lead several times . . . so much fun to watch! He had a bunch of friends there, and both our families were there, many of them had never watched a high speed bike race. They were amazed!
Anyway, he stayed with the lead pack of about 10 riders and was actually in front going into the last lap, but they jumped him and he didn't have enough left to get back in front. I thought it looked like he was 4th or 5th, but they were all so close, by the time they sorted it out he was 10th. But he was happy with that. He said what kept him going the last few laps was all the cheering . . . he left it all out there.
Had several interviews on Saturday, and again after the race on Sunday. He had more TV cameras around him that the winner did!
The guy that beat him for the omnium last year repeated as Omnium champ this year. He didn't win either race outright, but had enough points and preems that he won by about 25 points. He only beat Mark by 2 points last year!
But you wanna hear a sad story? While he was on the podium getting his gold medal some slime ball stoke his bike, right there on the street in front of all those teams.
Somebody went shopping for an expensive bike and found one. So while he went home with a gold medal, he didnt't go home with the bike that helped him win it. I couldn't believe it.
Anyway, we had a National Champion for a year . . .somebody else gets it this year. You should have heard the announcer . . . it was great . . . when Mark first squirted up to the front and came screaming down Mass Street he was yelling "and here come our own home grown National Champion . . . and that's why he's an champion . . ." and on. It was great. . . . they even pronounced his name right this year!!!
Fun stuff! I'm still cheering for you Mark!
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