2,237 miles of driving in three weekends--bring on those races!

The first snow of the season in NM

Since coming back from Hawaii on a Wednesday afternoon a little less than three weeks ago I have worked three bike races, letting the Beemer pur along and racking up the miles. Thank goodness, gas prices continue to be low (this morning, Walmart in Lubbock was getting $2.09 for regular unleaded when I was driving by on my way out of town), and race organizers pay us the standard USA Cycling-mandated mileage charge of $0.46. You can do the math.

My favorite: riding the chairlift to the top of the mountain!

Still, it's a lot of driving. My first trip was up to the mountains, not even 24 hours after getting back home from Oahu. The Rocky Mountain Bike Conference was having its championships in Angel Fire, hosted by Adams State University, and I was the one and only official for the two-day event. Normally I'd arrive late Friday to start my duties on Saturday morning, but since race organizer Tamera Rice-Daniels had never been in charge of a bike race we had agreed that I'd arrive one day earlier, Thursday night, to help her out on Friday.

Tamera gets a chance to shine at the awards on Sunday afternoon

Well, good thinking. With four events (short track, cross country, dual slalom, and downhill) packed into two days (at Mountain Bike Nationals in Snowshoe we had six events in a week, and I was assisted by seven officials!), and the organization of the event was in the hands of USA Cycling and not an eager but still completely neophyte race organizer, there was a LOT of stuff to take care of. Thank goodness, I knew the lead guy for the Angel fire crew, Patrick, and scoring was going to be in the hands of Cath and John from CJ timing, but still.... Let me just stay, I did a lot of hand-holding and Tamera, the organizer, learned a whole bunch more about race promotion than she would have thought possible.

Fall colors in Angel Fire, NM

While the weather in Angel Fire (especially on Friday and Saturday) was simply awful (I had to cut short Saturday afternoon's DS midway through the competition when we had another t-cell move through the area, necessitating us to evacuate the mountain), the next weekend saw gorgeous fall weather (OK, let's call it what it really was: late Texas summer with temps in the upper 80s). I had been appointed as Chief Referee for the two-day Gritty Teeth Cyclocross Festival in Belton, just a few minutes away from Temple. And thus I got to stay once again with Martha and Alan. I had a private room and enjoyed nice dinners, and the racing action was fun. Once again I was the only official assigned and had my hands full, but I worked with two gracious race organizers, Joy and Chad, and they assigned two dynamite volunteers, Murph and George, to assist me. Somehow we managed to start an entire weekend of hundreds of cyclocrossers on time, and our results didn't draw any protests--best of all, though, we all had FUN!

No, the arch in Belton was NOT over the course because ...

... this can happen!

Back in Lubbock it was back to the same routine: post-event paperwork, unpack, wash clothes, go to the grocery store, and try to ride the bike when possible. I had a few nice dinners with my neighbor Janet, and then it was time again to leave. This weekend I am in Georgetown, about halfway between Temple to the north and Austin to the south, for yet another cyclocross race, the Georgetown Cyclocross Festival. This time I am one of a crew of four referees. My old friend Joe Morgan is Chief, and he and I joked a little while ago about his having a crew of three additional officials while I had to fend for myself these past two weekend. Oh well, thus it goes. I am the "pit official" for the weekend, so my responsibilities are somewhat lighter than in the past few weeks. Fine with me!

The sandpit at the Georgetown Cyclocross Festival

We're done with an uneventful, on-time, nicely executed Saturday race schedule, and the plan is to  go for a repeat tomorrow and drive back home tomorrow (Sunday) night, a long 370-mile-or-so haul since I will be leaving for Germany on Tuesday morning and I'd prefer to have the entire Monday to get ready. Good racing, good people, good life.

Jürgen