The final race of my 2023 cycling season

Quite possibly, the year 2023 will go down in my personal history covering all things cycling as one of the busiest ever. After I had started the year with our 12th Texas NICA high school racing season, USA Cycling as well as ITA anti-doping assignments came in short succession. There were a few road races, several events as vice chief at UCI events, and three stints on crews at USAC mountain bike nationals—first endurance, then gravity, and this weekend marathon. Heck, there was even a weekend as a UCI PCP (under extraordinary circumstances) in New Jersey. International trips to Panama and Canada rounded out my fifteen one-day, weekend, or weeklong assignments this year. I was busy. Period.

Flying into Montgomery, crossing the (low-running) Mississippi

My last race of the season took place this weekend, the USAC Marathon Mountain Bike Championships in Auburn, AL. I had been assigned as Chief Referee, and I'd been truly looking forward to this race. While both Endurance and Gravity nationals are rather busy and can be somewhat stressful, the Marathon contest is much more laid back. This race is not won by vying for the holeshot of a short track race after just 150 meters, and traditionally coming at the end of the season things are a little more relaxed. Sure, many of the 251 racers who toed the line this past Saturday in beautiful Chewacla State Park had their sights set on one of the many age-group Stars and Stripes jerseys, and all of them were hell-bound and determined to have a good showing and respectable result, whatever their individual aspirations may have been. But there was none of that cut-throat vibe that can easily infiltrate such a high-level event. Let me put it this way: There were lots of happy faces out there.

No, it was NOT a Yuengling, but the glass was!

I had arrived in Montgomery, about 60 miles from Auburn, on Thursday afternoon. USAC had arranged a rental car for me, and I was set up with a Volvo S60 sedan so brand-spankin' new that it didn't even have dealer tags but just a sign "Plates Applied For" taped to the rear window. Wow, what a nice ride! On the way to Auburn I stopped at a small BBQ joint cum brewery, Railyard Brewing, in Montgomery, just to keep the list growing. I walked around the town's Wright Brothers park and was surprised by the revitalized downtown district with its cool-looking lofts, museums, and shops. It really wasn't what I had expected.

Downtown Auburn is equally appealing, with a bustling entertainment and commercial district just to the east of the Tiger Den stadium, where we had Friday's racers' meeting. The stadium's facilities in regard to meeting rooms, exhibits, and all that other jazz speak volumes regarding how much money is being poured by US universities into their football programs. Football. Not academics. (Really, should the Texas Tech football coach get paid $26,600,000—yes, $26.6 million!!!!— for a six-year contract? How much does the university Chancellor make, you wonder? In 2021, his base salary was a whopping $866,977, if you really want to know and throw up.)

Before the racers' meeting I had gone out to the venue to check out our start / finish area, the various feed / tech zones, and at least a small part of the 19.6-mile per-lap course. To fit such a long trail onto a piece of land barely 696 acres large requires some serious doubling back and curving, coming up with a design that very much resembles the human intestinal system, sans polyps.

The USAC crew establishing a National Championship venue

The vegetation reminded me a little bit of what we used to see at the TMBRA course in Ruston, LA, with its many pines, slightly undulating terrain, and large lake. The signs warning of an alligator on the loose didn't keep a few kids from swimming. I was a bit surprised by the rockiness of the trail, yet the number of flats was surprisingly low. The racers seemed to love le course, even if some trundled in rather tuckered.

As Chief Referees we work closely with the Race Director who, in this instance, was once again USAC's Associate Director of National Events, Laura. Together we met with members of the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) who were instrumental in setting the course and providing a veritable army of volunteers. As it turned out, most of our course marshals had been working NICA races before, and even their little backpacks with first aid kit, whistle, water, emergency flares (just kidding), and a notepad were NICA issue. Hmmh.... Before they were dispatched, the marshals' coordinator reminded them that on-trail mechanical assistance was not permitted for this race, as opposed to NICA events.

Well, thankfully we didn't have to deal with more than just one such issue, and even that one was resolved with a few racer interviews, uptake of statements, and a final decision that averted discord. Overall, a pretty day, content racers, no alligator chomps, and a lunch that was better than what we usually get at USAC events. Who won? Don't ask me. I just know that young Sarah from our TX NICA league took the jersey in her category, and my much-more-adult friend Christina came oh-so-close. Both are riding for the same team. So nice to see the generations slowly passing the torch....

Our final rider crossed the line around 3 p.m., when most of the other competitors and certainly 97% of the spectators had already left the venue. She was cheered on by USAC staffers and that one lonely supporter of hers (spouse? relative? Uber driver?), and then it was time to pack things up. Laura still has two national championships to organize and lead (Collegiate and Cyclocross), so there will be more of the building-out and tearing-down of the start / finish area and all that other jazz. Not for me. I'm done for the year.

Simply incredible, these little guys, hanging from invisible threads.
I did my good deed of the weekend when I rerouted pre-riding contestants
so they wouldn't wipe them out.

Shortly after 4 p.m., I drove back to the hotel, took a shower, and then headed to historic Opelika, just a hop and a skip east of Auburn. The local tourism board, with USAC support, had arranged for a totally exceptional downtown "social," to be followed by the actual awards ceremony. The shindig was anchored by a couple of microbreweries, a distillery, and the old Coca Cola bottling plant. Really, it was one of the top—if not the best—awards celebrations for a National that I have ever seen.

My wonderful Texas friends, Christina and Sir Toby

I made appearances here and there and enjoyed seeing friends and acquaintances and shaking hands with folks I had no idea who they were. But they thanked me, and so I took that as a sign that our crew had done well and that people were happy. I finally holed up at Red Clay Brewing Co., just steps away from the well-attended awards ceremony. For me, it was brewpub number 498, and the bubbly young woman running the joint and pouring the beers, Rhiannon, took good care of my libation needs while I regaled her with stories. It was a fitting end to a short weekend of southern hospitality (even if Rhiannon was a recent arrival from Michigan) and a general feeling of being content, in all kinds of ways.

I had scheduled my flight home for a civil time, departing Montgomery well after noon. Our race announcer, Mike, needed a ride and as we were both booked on the same flight that worked out well. I managed to not scrape the brand-new Volvo, we got there on time, and everything ran smoothly. Mike was heading to his home out in California's Santa Barbara, and I was able to guest him into the Admirals Club in DFW for his 3-hour layover. I had felt a tiny bit guilty for my two upgrades and benignly smiled at him when he boarded in group 7 when I had almost finished my pre-departure Bloody Mary on the tarmac in MGM, but what can I say?

Nice seat neighbors, excellent flight attendants, no delays, and smooth flights were a welcome departure from what I had been experiencing on and off for much of the year. We landed on schedule in Lubbock right before 8 p.m., and it was the moment when I had just earned the last few of the 200,000 loyalty points (AA's new and still confusing metric on how you are going to qualify for elusive upgrades that for most mortals will never crystallize) needed to once again qualify for Executive Platinum through February 2025. So now, let the fun and games begin!

Jürgen