Ended up racing Day 1 of the Desoto Nationals and that was interesting… been having problems with my lower back since before November and I’d seen the rehab doctor 2 times the week of that race.  Thursday practice went fine but when I woke up Friday morning I couldn’t get out of bed… literally had to put my hands on my knees and prop myself up to be able to walk.  Ended up taking some pain meds (hate those things) and stretched and eventually made it to the track not knowing if I’d be able to ride.  Luckily I drew the easier of the 2 racks and Pyper and I just coasted it in (I had gone to 3/4 speed by the 1st jump and qualified easily.  I took another pain med 4 hours after the 1st one, drank some 5 hour energy to balance it out!  Was feeling ready for my race (after sitting around for 5 hours after my only other lap of the day) but ended up getting a little too psyched up and hit the gate… thus spinning out a bit and getting horsed to the 1st jump.  I tucked into 5th out of the 1st turn behind some solid NAG riders, but never made up any more ground.  You just can’t spot good riders a couple bike lengths like that.  Hadn’t planned on racing Sat or Sun so I slept in and headed back to Austin.  Was great to see Tim Kneip and Josh Johnson having fun and doing well.  Lots of other ATX riders did great as well.

Since I wasn’t racing Saturday, I loaned Jeremiah Oliver my cruiser for the USAC race.  Here’s a video of him in the 30-39 Main racing Carnes, Roebuck, and Dougie Crowell (who takes the win):

Planning on biking (XC, dirt jumps, and BMX) if it STOPS RAINING… it ALWAYS rains a ton right before big races… planning on racing the USAC race assuming my lower back is ok’d by the Doc.