First hand account of Nationals

This was an email that was sent to me via the Green Mountain Sports team. It is Eric Sheagley's experience at Nats and his phenomenal ride

Race report from Kansas City

My father (my pit man) and I arrived in Kansas City on Friday just in time to preride the course. As I was getting my cycling gear on, I was quite surprised to see riders coming from the course covered in mud. I soon found out where the mud came from; 90% of the course was covered in 3-4 inch deep muck. I was prepared for snow, ice, warm, cold or dry conditions but I was not prepared for anything that I saw while preriding. I did one and a half laps and I decided that my time would be better used preparing myself mentally for the next day (I HATE mud!).

Last night my father and I were eating in a very depressing pizza joint in Bonner Springs (right near the race sight) and they had a TV tuned to the local news. I was amazed that the weather for today, that on Wednesday, forecast the temp to be sunny and in the high 30s, was now supposed to below 20s and snowy (4-8 inches). I immediately went from the "what the hell am I doing here" attitude to the "oh yeah, this is going to be a good race" mentality. I figured as long as the ground froze before the snow fell everything would be good for me.

Last night I kept an eye on the clouds and temp. by the time I finally fell asleep, I figured that the temp was low enough low enough to really freeze the ground and the snow had not yet started to fall.

Today, we made it to the race site just in time to get numbered up and do 3laps for a warm up. The course was nearly rock solid and quite rutted as the mud had frozen in the position it was in at the end of the day yesterday. Some of the ruts were getting polished to a glass like finish.I let a bit more air out of the Tufo Flexis tires mounted to the Rol wheels so generously lent to me by John Shearer (they are in one piece and worked better than I could imagine, thanks). During the warmup, I went OTB right in front of the pit and landed on my right arm leaving me with a seriously sore and swelling forearm.

The line up was quicker than I imagined. (very good as it was pretty darn cold). I was in the 6th row back looking ahead to Jeff H (Excel), Tim Faia and WAY in front was Mark McCormack. The start was extremely fast and very chaotic on the salted road(only part of the course that was not froze solid). I quickly made my way to 2nd position on McCormack's Wheel and sat there for at least 1/2 lap. on the second lap, I made a few mistakes that had me running through an icy puddle near the pits, while I was running he easily rode away. That was soon followed by another bobble that put me in third. Brandon Dwight (Boulder) rode by me at the beginning of the third lap and very quickly bridged the 15 second gap to Mark (he ended up beating Mark). I rode the rest of the race conservatively and kept a huge gap on5th.

By the last lap I had caught up to 3rd and was riding comfortably. He and I had several bouts of physical contact while jockeying for position. I stupidly went down again, right where I hit the deck on my preride and he got away with only a half of a lap to go. I got up and rode as hard as I could, knowing that 3rd was within reach. I bridged back up but was unable to pass. He forced (knowingly or not) me into a very slow line as we transitioned to the pavement sprint finish where I easily lost 2-3 seconds. Unfortunately, the work done to rejoin him after my fall put me in enough deficit that I did not have what it took to over take him so I ended up 4th.

Not bad! I was shooting for a top ten and I came home with a medal and 4th place in the nation.

Mark and Brandon, watch out next year!