#Louisville2013 U23/Men's races

Up next was the U23 race. While Logan Owen was a legitimate hope for the Juniors, the only American mentioned was Rapha's Zach McDonald. Interestingly, he's majoring in aeronautical engineering at U of Washington and he's a Seattle-area native. Good stuff all round. By far my favorite picture sequence from the weekend are the following. Please read the narration.

Opening of the U23 race with the first run-up. Notice the three Dutch riders leading.

We then have a phalanx of Belgians just behind the Dutch. I love the waves of national team jerseys.

Where then? Well, we're now at the back of the opening group and this pic is literally filled with Anglo-speakers: Americans, Canadians, and Brits. And this division was within the first half of the first lap. Those Low Countries!


A muddy (and out-of-focus) Zach McDonald

Dave and I spent the U23 race roaming around a bit, but we weren't as aggressive in seeing this race as the others. Afterwards yet another beer line. A long beer line. By then the main event (sorry to the other racers, but..) fired up. We started standing down at the Rogue Racing/Nurplerides tent with a bunch of known 'Ville entities. Fun. Very fun. Mid-race I floated my way up towards the more gnarly parts of the course, falling in the slippery mud to the cheers of the crowd. It was interesting that I found myself alone at several times during the course of the day, but I could have cared less. The atmosphere was all so great.


Francis Mourey in first on second lap.

Eventual winner Sven Nys bunny hopping from afar.

J-Pow! 

Just take a look at that surface.


Brueghel's sea of humanity in Louisville for the 2013 Worlds.

I have several not-that-good shots from this spot, and in every one this guy with the glasses and hat is going absolutely ape. I think I eventually moved because he was so geeked up. I like the weird crookedness of this one, with the feral roar of superfan.

Ryan Treborn early on and towards the front. I never did find out why he DNF'd.

Late and atop the hill, this is Sven Nys coming through on the third-to-last lap. The smear is mud on the camera lens.

Belgian who dropped a chain here. 

Nys and Vantornout coming through second-to-last lap. He would soon profit from a Vantornout error and get the necessary gap for victory.

The great #Fail of the picture weekend, the #photobomb glove blocking my clean view of an about-to-win Sven Nys. It was a nice guy from New Hampshire.

Jamie Driscoll

A clean look at Bart Wellens, 4th place for the old man

My friend Mourey nearing his race finale. I have pics of his practice, his lead and now if muddy refrain.

American, I believe Johnson, turning left on the finishing straight.

Comments

bikeolounger said…
I enjoyed that WHAS talked about Drew Dillman. When I was at Scheller's, Drew's mom and I got to be friends. I got to chat with Drew briefly, and it was good to see him. That he was in the race at all was impressive, and he still has a few years in the U23 to build his skill set.

As a volunteer, I got stuck (!) up by the first turn, with a fairly good view down the front straight. I didn't get to see the action afield, except via a jumbotron sited outside the first turn, but I got to watch some of the crowd migrations as the action moved about. That was almost as fun to see.
Pondero said…
Cool stuff, and thanks for all the action shots. But I have a question...were you and Dave at the same event? If so, it appears while you watched the racing, he was...uh...mingling.

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