National Championship – Madison, Wisconsin
Only Edwin and Katrina represented Team Rambuski Law at the National Championships. On arrival on Tuesday 6 December we found a hilly, icy, long parcours. As most of the track was covered in ice, practice consisted of riding carefully next to the course tape on a sliver of grass, and very carefully throught the corners. The promoters applied plenty of salt and sand to the track and the first day of practice was salty-cross. But things were going to change as Madison was headed for a heat wave, predicted to be 50 degrees by Thursday when the championship races started. One more day on the ice, and we had to ride the road as the course was not open for training. Katrina found out how hard it was to ride on ice and broke her helmet on a bike path slide out, scary.
The weatherman was right and by Thursday when Katrina raced the surfaced thawed, the ice was long gone. The track was now a layer of slippery mud over frozen earth. Even the uphills which were easy to ride earlier were getting so slippy that it was necessary to run. Katrina had a super race, with a full race battle in a group of 3 for the 5th and last podium spot. Katrina did a super job and took the final podium spot for 5th.
Friday was even warmer, muddier and more slippery. Edwin started 5th row and finished 20th, mostly due to the awesome pit crew doing bike changes every half lap. So many supporters from Cali cheering for us helped emensley. So slippery by Friday that Tilford was running the big hill.
