Tour of Kansas City/Tour of Lawrence

A few of the guys became sick at Nature Valley...maybe it was all of the slogging through road grime and cow manure on the menomonee stage? Four of us were staying at Adam's between the twin cities and the Tour of Kansas City the following weekend. I decided to pull the plug on Nationals that same weekend after falling ill. Maybe getting some forced rest was good for my legs as I swept the tour of KC that weekend. Winning both crits and taking the omnium. My team raced amazing and it felt good for everything to come together again. Those wins made it four and counting for the season. Shadd Smith rode excellently and ended up 3rd overall with Brian Jenson (Tradewind Energy) coming in second both days and overall.

The next race on the calendar was the Tour of Lawrence. I love the race and was eager for redemption after a second in the first stage and an 8th place in the circuit race the prior year.

Redemption would soon come as I strapped on my State 38's than my usual 58's and won the Street Sprints the opening nights. But I would fall short on the circuit race after a few blunderous mistakes ending up 8th once again. Oh well, it will give me something to work toward next year. I do have to say thank you to our support crew over the weekend though. It was well over 100 degree on one of the hardest circuits in the country. My dad flew in to town to watch/help out and did an amazing job along with Alyson handing up bottles and working a great splash zone.

A break went in the Crit which we had 3 Mercy riders in. I have no idea how it came back seeing as 3 Elbowz riders, 2 Horizon Riders, Stephan Rothe (Tulsa Tough) and Brian Jensen (Tradewind) were also in there. I would end up 9th in the sprint.