#Louisville2013 Junior/Women's race

I might be a bit too tired and hungover to do a proper write-up, but my public demands my creative product! These are from the Junior and then Women's races, which came first in the morning at 9.45 and 11.00. The Junior race was dominated by Mathieu Van Der Poel, the Women by Marianne Vos. The two Dutch riders were comparably dominant and both races were similar in that the American hopefuls Logan Owen and Katie Compton respectively spent their entire races overcoming really bad starts. Owen clawed his way back into 3rd relatively late before having a little mechanical snafu pretty close to where I was standing. It wasn't more than 5sec, but it was enough for him to be put back behind his Belgian and Dutch opponents.  I was personally surprised at how much Vos dominated Compton, but just as it was with Van Der Poel, the difference in speed was observable.

And there was a lot of beer drinking, btw.

Expo early in morning. 

This is the pit area. The Juniors didn't make too many switches.

Uh, this is at around 10.00. It was a long day. ;)

Van Der Poel coming through turn on far corner with rising river over his shoulder.

I'm pretty sure I got a clip of VDP's only mistake of the day. You might notice is angle beyond a little acute. He hit the deck and fence right after this squarely in front of me.

2nd-place Martijn Budding

Van Der Poel full tilt

Logan Owen would go on to take 4th

Sharp corner holding on to fence and headtube

Same corner with toptube

This time trying to stay on bike. Owen bobbled here a bit, further allowing the Czech rider some space

Sometime after the Junior race I ran into Dave, Jenny Oh Hatfield and The Bearded One. First Dave and I ran around a bit and later we all crossed back over into the woods for the gnarly stuff. I'm sure I drank some more beer in this time. It was 11.00am.

Vos on flyover

This might be Sanne Van Passeen. My pic of Vos from this spot is pretty blurry.

Compton giving chase.

How silly of me! I didn't get any pics of my #1 cycling fan- Emily Batty- but I did run across this interview. Actually, Dave and I were right behind her (...) and I gave her words of encouragement in a loud, enthusiastic voice that she was allowed to contact me anytime. My schedule is quite busy, but I might be able to carve out an hour for a training ride or whatever.


The two pics below show how many more fans piled into the Expo area as the day lengthened. The second pic one of the beer lines. When Dave and I arrived they told us they were out of change, so Dave bought $20 worth with a 20. Makes the math easy. (Thanks, Dave. I owe you some money)