...Yes Todo, we are still in Kansas... Friday morning dawned gloriously here in Kansas City, and as we walked from the hotel Dan remarked, "Nice sunrise. Sure is cold though." At breakfast he had asked one of the racers/coaches, David Rath, "How do you race when it's 20 degrees and snowing?", "As fast as you can!" David replied. This set the tone of the day of racing.



The day began with the junior women. Scheduled as one race with age categories separated by 30 second staggered starts, the girls ranged in age from 10 to 18, grouped in two year intervals. These young women defined the word tough. One mom/coach/rider and twice National Champion remarked, "Every time I watch these kids race, I get all teary, It's just so much heart. But, boy, it sure is fun too."



The course had been ridden the day before and the mud had been very plastic so it was delightfully molded into perfect impressions of crossbike tires and then frozen solid overnight. The course resembled a railroad grade crossing from one end to the other. All 1.89 miles of the Wyandotte County Park cyclocross course was now a washboard of ruts, except, of course, where it was just perfectly frozen ice. Prior to the start of the first races, crews of hammer wielding men were dispatched to crack the frozen mud.