College Nats in the Fort

Big fun in the Fort this weekend. I headed there early Saturday morning to get in a very, very windy ride with Velo-One teammates (the wind definitely wasn't the fun part), and then at noon, headed over to Hughes Stadium, Colorado State University's stadium, to volunteer with teammates at USA Cycling's Collegiate National Championships. We were all course marshals all weekend, and it was good times. Saturday, I hung out with new teammate, Mark, as well as Tony and Ruth at a sharp turn on the road race course up in Masonville in the mountains above Ft. Collins. We kept cars from entering the course when the cyclists were coming by -- they did four circuits of this section. The only bummer was the owner of the store on the corner we were on -- he's an angry, angry man, very bitter that cyclists were on the road all day, and he's sure we had no right to be there ... says it ruined his business that day. Pretty hard for me to believe, as the course was a "rolling enclosure," which means that traffic was only kept off the road a-ways before and after the group of cyclists as they made their way around, and, when traffic was held up, it was rarely for more than a few minutes. Road construction takes more time, for goodness sake. So, if you're ever Masonville way and you're at all supportive of cyclists, don't frequent this really mean man's store. Absolutely no sense of community, as having Nats in the Fort is great for the economy and good, clean fun.

And, geeze, who wouldn't want to hang out all weekend with these fans of the U.S. Air Force Academy team at Sunday's crit?
A power house team from a teeny-tiny college in Banner Elk, North Carolina -- Lees-McRae College -- took the Division 1 overall team omnium. I think the other teams here are Ft. Lewis in second, Colorado State University in third, UC Davis in fourth, and Stanford in fifth. Don't quote me on that, though -- I was out in the sun all day on a corner as a course marshal and am a bit brain-dead at the moment. (Note: Division 1 schools are those with 15,000+ students, which Lees-McRae and Ft. Lewis don't have; however, they both were granted upgrades from Division 2 status because their cycling programs are so strong.)
And this has absolutely nothing to do with Nats. Just a cool bumper sticker in front of me at a stop light as I was heading out of town and back to The Bubble.