Racking up the (NICA) miles

Back in late February, my personal log of annual bike vs. car miles had been clearly in favor of the two-wheeled variety: For every mile I had piloted a car I had pedaled more than ten miles. Well, that quickly changed once the domestic officiating season kicked into full gear, and over the past month or so I have spent more (literal) time sitting in the BMW than atop my Seven. At the time of this writing, I am closing in on 4,000 miles in the car while I still have not cracked the 1,000-mile barrier by bicycle, something that just a couple of years ago would have happened in early February, or March at the latest. As Bob Dylan crooned, the times they are a-changing.

Thanks to somebody's senseless war gas prices are spiking,
and the common folk are bunkering diesel

Since my last blog entry, I have worked an additional three NICA high school mountain bike races, thus concluding my 15th season with the Texas league. First there was the "home" race at 4R Ranch & Winery, near Muenster and Gainesville—"home" because with "only" 613 miles of driving it is the race closest to Lubbock. 4R took place on the last March weekend, and after one weekend off I had two back-to-back races that required almost 2,000 miles of driving in total.

Maegen is one of the many solid rocks of the Texas NICA league

First off, there was a second trip back out to Longview, in East Texas, thanks to a massive weather system over most portions of the state that spared only the eastern portion of Texas. The production team of our league did an amazing job re-locating the entire event from Troy to Longview, and the coaches and parents were amazingly resilient in changing work schedules, rebooking hotel rooms, and making plans for the trip that is a long one for everyone but a few teams from East Texas. I got in the car on Friday morning (to avoid the worst of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Friday afternoon traffic) and checked into my hotel almost 500 miles later. We had condensed all NICA activities into Saturday, with a brief pre-ride session before noon and racing until around 7:00 p.m. And we did it! Obviously, there was no way to even start heading home, so I spent another night in the LaQuinta and started westward, now in intermittent rain, on Sunday morning making it home late in the afternoon. Those are hard, exhausting weekends.

League Director JJ takes a well-deserved dog-nap

After only four days at home I left town on Friday for our NICA State Championships, heading south-east into a relentless, straight headwind toward Warda, a tiny hamlet just north of I-10 about halfway between Austin and Houston. In other words, to get from West Texas to Bluff Creek Ranch is another long haul. (In comparison, the roundtrip to Longview totaled 989 miles while Warda was 934 miles.) I spent the night in the illustrious Super Ocho in Giddings, a low-cost, low-amenities, low-everything caravanserai only 15 minutes from the venue. On Saturday we had our scheduled pre-rides and put the finishing touches on the entire production, and then I went back to my modest pad for the night.

At the State Championships, all graduating seniors are recognized
with a laminated race poster that they can keep
as a permanent memento of their high school racing career

Sandy's grandson, Zane, is graduating but could not make it to his final race
because of a robotics competition and prom night

Overnight it rained, and we had to postpone Sunday's race for 90 minutes to establish detours around hopelessly muddy sections and let wind and sun dry things out just a little. Race attendance set a new record with 573 riders, and there was not a face without a smile! It was a fabulous end to our season, and I cannot emphasize how much I enjoy being part of this league. I will surely miss our team members as well as the students, coaches, and parents in the many months to come until we kick off the 2027 season.

Race Director Kim is always up for some shenanigans

By the time the last medals had been awarded it was about 5:30 p.m., and I headed west to Austin, where I had made a reservation in a Simply Suites by Sonesta. The name sounds way better than what the chain provides, but at $70 for a night to put one's head down, who cares? Of course, it would have been nice had my room not been flooded after I took a shower and I had to switch into a new habitat.

Yesterday morning I woke up to heavy rain in Austin, and the drive home to Lubbock was anything but enjoyable. Even Lubbock was cold and dreary, which came as a shock after all the sun that West Texas had enjoyed over the past couple of months. I made it home right at five o'clock, and then the usual unpacking, doing laundry, going through accumulated mail, writing out my invoice, and all those other chores followed. The 2026 NICA Season had been officially completed, and tomorrow Sandy and I will embark on a quick trip to New Orleans.

Jürgen

Four spring race weekends in a row, and more on the horizon after a 10-day break at home

If it hadn't been for the weather-related cancellation of the NICA race in Bridgeport in mid-February, it would have actually been five events in a row. What a way to start the 2026 officiating season! You already read about my trip to Puerto Rico, where I was assigned to a UCI race, so no more about that. Thanks to my $500 flight-voucher delay ex-Puerto Rico I had only a two-day turnaround before I had to leave Lubbock to drive to Longview in East Texas.

The weather gods had mercy on our third scheduled NICA race of the season at 29 Pines. (The season opener in Troy had also been cancelled while I was still in Tokyo.) It's a long, long drive to the piney forests, and both going and coming back I stayed with friends in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Friday night I found shelter with Shawn, one of Judy's distant cousins (and so we playfully call each other "cousin" as well). It was a special treat to spend some time with his sister, Suzi, and their mom, Betty, who live just around the corner; we had seen each other last year when 29 Pines was a first-year venue for our league.

With Betty and Suzi (top) and Shawn and his GF, Andrea

The race course at 29 Pines is deceptively challenging, with wide-open park-like pastures and meadows that give way to punchy climbs among the pines in the second half. The race was open only to our North Conference athletes, with the southern division battling it out at the same time in Aggieland's Millican Reserve. Yep, we've grown so much that the majority of our races are now happening at two separate venues, on the same weekends, with separate crews.

Jessica, who this year works the North Conference call-ups

From left, JJ, Cole, Robert, and Carlos

Cole and his daughter Ezrie, former racer and now medical staff

Future State Champion

Before I knew it, the last wave of middle schoolers had departed and already returned to the finish line, and it was time to start driving back west. I spent Sunday night with my old buddy Keith on the northwest-side of Ft. Worth, thus being able to avoid Monday's insane metroplex traffic. It was great to catch up with Keith and his partner, Cindy, both of whom I had seen last in 2024 on the way back from Missouri. Damn, time flies. Thank you guys for your hospitality and friendship!

Texas played host to a rare USA Cycling National Championships the following weekend, in the form of Collegiate Gravel Nats. I had actively lobbied to get assigned to this inaugural championship, which was relatively small (about 125 collegiate riders) and had piggy-backed upon the much larger Valley of Tears gravel event in Turkey, Texas. This small Panhandle hamlet is about 110 miles north-east of Lubbock, close to Caprock Canyons State Park (you may remember the photos of the buffalo last fall when Sandy and I went out there to hike).

Thanks to the proximity of the event this one was a two-day affair, driving included. Sandy had been able to adjust her work schedule on fairly short notice, and together we left Lubbock on Saturday morning, arriving in Turkey by noon. I was the only assigned official for the USAC race, which was run under slightly different rules than the "outlaw" Valley of Tears. Vanessa, USAC's Technical & Events Manager, and Kyle, USAC's Director of National Events, were on hand to help with the event, but in all honesty, it was the organizer of VoT, Micah (himself a longtime former USAC employee), who did the brunt of the work.

So I did what one does in a situation like this: I looked busy, displayed my official aura, and acted as an ambassador for our governing body. In other words, I had a great time! Aside from playing with any heavy equipment she could find around town, Sandy enjoyed especially Saturday's dirt crit (with some heavy-hitting pro men and women lining up), a 20-minute affair in "downtown" Turkey, which is better known for its Bob Wills Day than bike racing. Valley of Tears offers a combined purse for the pro riders (equally distributed between men and women) of a whopping $45,000, so you can imagine what kind of quality field that attracts.

We spent the night in the historic Hotel Matador in the eponymous town, about 20 miles south of Turkey. The three ancient school-marmish sisters who had previously owned the inn had moved on (or passed away), and now the charming hotel is run by a Canadian/German couple who have elevated the experience of staying there. Highly recommended for a night away from the bustle of bigger cities!

While Saturday had been stinking hot, with a strong southwest wind, Sunday morning's temperature was barely reaching the mid-40s and the wind was howling from the north. Typical Texas spring weather! But everybody had a great time, nobody got blown off the bike, and by noon we congratulated the first American collegiate gravel champions. The Skyhawks from Fort Lewis College in Durango did the almost impossible by sweeping the top four spots of the podium in the men's race.

The college kids' race had been "only" 49 miles long, the medium distance for the Valley of Tears event. So, it took a while for the "long" course athletes—pros and amateurs alike— to finish their 93-mile race (there was also a short version of about 19 miles for those less ambitious), but nobody seemed to mind because there was free barbecue & beer for everyone in the spacious backyard of the Hotel Turkey. What a class event. By the time Sandy and I finally left for home I had talked to more than a dozen or so old friends whom I had not seen in ages, people with whom I used to race or who had lived in Lubbock. Really, to get paid to "work" such an event is almost embarrassing.

Enjoying the good life at our Airbnb after the long drive to Burnet

It was a good thing that Nats had been so close to home and we were able to return to our respective homes on Sunday night as the next race weekend came only four days later and started with our long drive to Burnet in the Hill Country. Sandy was looking forward to the Reveille Peak Round-up because her grandson, Zane, was going to race in the combined North/South event, and he was going to be accompanied by his parents as well as sister, Scarlet. We had rented a very nice Airbnb less than five miles from the venue, a comfortable, well-appointed double-wide right on Buchanan Lake. Sandy and I were the first ones to arrive as the San Marcos bunch had to first finish their work week. We had stopped at the HEB in Burnet to load up on groceries and booze for the weekend, and after getting settled at Blue Haven we enjoyed margarita juice and watched the resident Egyptian Geese.

Roy, Melanie, and Scarlet arrived before it got dark, and we ate pizzas out on the deck, with Sandy just beaming the entire time—she is the happiest when her family is within reach to hug and kiss! Zane had not joined them as he had a robotics competition with his high school team on Saturday; the competition went so well for them that he and a buddy couldn't leave San Antonio until late Saturday evening and finally arrived at the Airbnb close to midnight. Ah, to be young again and be able to get up the next morning and get ready for the race, without having had a chance to pre-ride the technical course. 

The RPR race set a new attendance record in our league's 15-year run. A total of 559 high- and middle-school athletes started in perfect conditions, and the lack of any reportable injuries was a Reveille Peak first. It all went smoothly, and it is always such a joy to see so many kids and parents and other supporters enjoy themselves. Our race crew is amazingly dialed, and we're all friends. We had some visitors from the relatively new Nebraska NICA league, and they were duly impressed.

An hour after the last racers had crossed the line, an expected cold front moved into the area with a huge drop in temperature and winds that produced wind gusts in excess of 40 mph. Texas weather! But by then, our family was happily in the Airbnb for a final meal, this time inside. Monday morning was cold, and bucking a headwind and well aware of the spiking gas prices thanks to this idiotic war with Iran we stayed below the speed limit, race #4 in our rearview mirror.

In the week since then I have finally started to ride again with some regularity, tough as it is after such a long period of being mostly off the bike. This past weekend, Wes and Susan joined Sandy and me for a nice home-cooked meal prepared on the recently repaired Kamado. (I found a local mortar wiz who was able to re-attach the propane burner assembly. Thank you, Nick!) The live oak tree is in its final phase of shedding this year's leaves, and I have started to putter around the backyard, which is coming out of its dormancy. 

Well, all this domestic activity won't last for very long since this weekend another North Conference race in Gainesville beckons, and after the Easter weekend the final two NICA races and a trip to New Orleans are on the calendar. But right now, I still have three days to ride and enjoy my own bed!

Jürgen