Day 1 Masters National Championships Recap
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 09:04AM 
Like all of aspects of life, bike racing has its down hills and up hills.
Saturday was a travel day and unfortunately had to miss the double rides out of TARGETRAINING. I was traveling to Louisville solo on this trip, leaving my family behind. Things began ominously as I dropped a plat on my foot during breakfast which shattered and cut my toe wide open. But hey if Conrad Stolz can do it so can I.
What was to follow was the smoothest and easiest flight to Louisville that I could have imagined. We missed an accident on interstate 95 by 5min that shut the highway down while driving to the airport, and to boot the airline even took my bike box for free. What luck!
My good fortune continued when I arrived in Louisville. My bike had arrived in one piece and I even got a free ride to my hotel. Wow was I having a good day. I knew I wasn’t in Fairfield County when I noticed tornado shelters at the Louisville airport and was greeted with SUNNY skies and temperatures in the 90’s. Here are some fun facts about the Mint Julep town:
- 15th largest city in US (hard to believe)
- Home of Papa John’s Pizza
- Home of Louisville Slugger Bats
- Home to the Kentucky Derby
- Home to Bourbon
One of the unpleasant necessities to fling to bike races is that you have to pack, ship and then build your bike once having arrived at your destination. After years traveling around the world with a bike, I developed a system that makes the process less painful and keeps the equipment safe. But every once in a while there is a hiccup. Having shipped my road bike ahead of time, I collected the cardboard mummy of a bike at the hotel lobby, and quickly set to the task of building it up. My day of good luck quickly ended as I pulled the Cervelo from its tomb only to find that the rear derailleur and hanger had been damaged in shipping. So here I am in Louisville with no tools, no open bike shop and a seriously damaged bike. Well as they say this is the uphill portion to this trip.
Not wanting to waist the day, I threw the bike into a corner, hoping that it would fix itself and took my time trial bike for a recon of the road course just a few miles from the hotel.
It is of great value to recon courses before race day, so I quickly made my way to Cherokee Park in downtown Louisville which would host the road race championship this week. Situated in a beautiful Central Park like setting, the course contained not a single flat or straight road. It is like throwing someone into a pin ball machine. This is going to be one explosive course, a perfect template to work with on my Cervelo SLCSL, if I could get it fixed.
Having recovered from the shock of my damaged road bike, and the complexity of the road race course, I made my way to the street party atmosphere of 4th Avenue for dinner. The locals like there booze here as even a trip to CVS meant maneuvering my way around and outdoor bar only to find that you could also purchase beer, wine and spirits inside. I was getting the feeling that I was at a casino were around every corner there is a slot machine.
Having reached equilibrium with my luck, I was looking forward to some down hills in the coming days.
