Celebrating A Masters World Title

Mark Savery celebrated his masters world cyclocross title at the Trek store. Check out that cookie!

Sydney Brown and me. (Photo by John Peterson.)

It's not every day that you get to celebrate a world championship. And certainly, it is even a rarer moment when that world champion is someone from your hometown.

But that's exactly what we did tonight at the Trek store after Mark Savery captured the Masters 40-44 world cyclocross title in Louisville, Ky.

I've known Mark since he raced for the Kinko's Copies-Domino's Pizza team back in 1991. He was always head-and-shoulders above many of the guys on the team and nothing has changed nearly 24 years later. It was quite a nice time hearing about all the training and preparation that went into pursuing his dream of winning the rainbow jersey on home soil.

I also got a chance to catch up with Sydney Brown, who is pioneering the path of women's cycling in Nebraska. I still remember officiating her first race and seeing her potential. She's a past age group national champion in the time trial, which makes her another one of the state's most prolific and storied cyclists. It's a pleasure to know her as well.

So This Is Madison

Here's the view from my hotel window. Not exactly Denia.
I'm on the road again. This time for the USA Cycling national cyclocross championships. I don't know that I've been to Madison, Wis., before. But I am sure I will get to know it because I'm spending nearly a week here. Temperatures are expected to be cold, but not too cold (30s and 40s) and there's no snow in the forecast.

Hopefully I can keep the entries coming daily, as I did when I was officiating cyclocross nationals in 2009 in Bend, Ore. (See my gallery and report from that year here.)

The YD Christmas-turned-New Year's letter is going out today.

I threw the airport shuttle guy for a loop when my flight showed
up an hour early at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison.

Epic System Corp's Intergalatic Headquarters are in Madison.
Amazing campus and buildings. Read up on them here.

Yes, my room has a doorbell. (Insert your own joke
about it being the "room for handicapped.")

I'm not sure why my bags were tagged "priority" but I'll take it.

Here's the room I'll be sharing for six days. Good wifi (and free).

This is a big change. No black in my closet.

My roommate, Rich Weiss, showed me his scoring system.
He got his official's license in 1975. I was eight.

Each guest at the hotel gets these
directional sheets when they check in.

We had our first officials meeting tonight in the lobby.
That's chief referee Carla Geyer on the left.

The late Reggie White's jersey hangs in the sports bar
across the street from my hotel.

Thousands Of Miles Away

A year ago, I was in Bend to officiate cyclocross nationals.
This morning, I'm staying up in the middle of the night
to watch the races on UStream.

Cyclocross Nationals Recap

The "official" officials crew photo (at Starbucks, of course).
Better late than never, here is a look back at my five days in Bend, Ore., while officiating the 2009 USA Cycling national cyclocross championships.

My in-flight meal on Alaska Airlines. I was supposed to be on Northwest
but I missed my connection out of Minneapolis due to a blizzard.

The "sisters" mountains that overlook Bend.

This pretty much sums up my four days of officiating:
scoring races from the finish line trailer.

Bend is even more beautiful in the winter. It was about a
100-degree temperature difference from the weather in July.

A look at my scoring for one of the races.

I couldn't resist a photo with Oregon's mascot.

The other half of my job: ringing the "last lap" bell.
The bell was handed down to me from the estate of the late Sue Hefle.

I had a stopover in Salt Lake City on the way back.

I would not have had the chance to take this photo had my plane
not been forced to circle Eppley for some unknown reason.

The 'Snowpocolypse'

Looks like very few people went to work today.
It's five degrees here in Omaha as I type this. And in Bend, Ore., where I am headed, it's -11. Whoa.

I was scheduled to be on a plane to Oregon at five o'clock this morning. But the storm that dumped nearly a foot of snow on Omaha between yesterday morning and this morning canceled my flight. When I learned of this last night, I immediately re-booked. Now I leave at 3:05 p.m. with a scheduled arrival in Redmond, Ore., at five minutes to midnight.

I will be officiating the USA Cycling national cyclocross championships this week/weekend. It promises to be ultra cold and likely quite snowy, too. It's my goal to post updates every day. We'll see how I do.


The three-and-a-half foot drift on my porch.