US nationals day 3 final wrap up

Overijse Belgium on Sunday a familiar sight

1. Sven Nys
2. Sven Vanthourenhout!
3. Niels Albert
4. Erwin Vervecken


i'm super happy for vanthrouenhout. i believe he only has a couple more races as a rabo rider. then on to the new team, sun web/pro job. good luck sven.

speaking of belgiun's nationally recognized christine vadaros flew in from belgium to compete at nationals hoping to place well and earn a spot on the US worlds team. she has been racing in europe and kicking some ass. great race christine.

on sunday i was thinking that i wouldn't be as excited for the giant strawberry mens elite race but when they starting staging again i knew right away that it would be just as good. ben jacques-maynes road awesome both days. on day 2 i saw him in the chase group with mccormack and baker. i was watching from a really good spot near the pits. when the trio came through they were looking good but when they made the sharp turn onto the gravel straight jacques-maynes washed out his front wheel and took a nice digger. the pair rode away. its not like they were going to wait. ben was in no mans land for the rest of the race. he shook it off and stayed in the race to finish 4th. pretty impressive.

tim johnson at the start. he was looking fresh and ready to battle after a flat the day before. i beleive if any of the elite men could have stayed with trebon it would have been johnson. tables turned as trebon flatted on day 2 and johnson rode away to vitory. he deserved it. great guy.

young stud troy wells had a great day too. hes not having any trouble following in the success of his older brother todd. hes a former collegete national champ. this year he placed 3rd. its cool to watch the best of the younger classes because guys like troy and jessee anthony will be the podium finishers in the future. watch out jamey driscoll!

this was the podium on sunday for the california giant strawberry cup mens elite race. johnson, mccormack, baker, jacques-maynes, and trebon. oh did i mention that tilford raced again sunday. damn the guy races all 3 days. wins the masters the first day, 11th in the mens elite the 2nd day and 9th on sunday. damn tilly! awesome.

after thinking about it and then watching all those races i totally should have raced again. i'm not sure what my reasoning was for that. all the other races i've done with back to back i've felt super strong the second day. next year forsure i'll be making a full weekend of it down in kansas city. looks like i was caught in the glut pretty good there.

always something to make you laugh at a big cross race.

so cross is officially done for us amercians. well for most of us. i heard trebon and vardaros as well as a few others flew back to europe today to rest and prepar for the next month of racing. some big races coming up. this weekend is the world cup in Hofstade Belgium. on deck is Middelkerke and of course to finish off the month the famous Superprestige in Diegem.