Sunday, December 14, 2008

James Lalonde, National Champion!

Congratulations James!

An awesome year of cyclocross racing and your well deserved Singlespeed National Championship!


After a tough end to the season in WI which saw James miss the State Championships with the flu, and a brutally cold race in Chicago at the IL State Championships where James was forced to withdraw on the last lap, it seems to have all come together today.


Lisa and I traveled down to Kansas City on Friday to see the race and here's some photos of the action.


We were a bit worried when they lined everyone up by their race number, this put James in about the 8th row back and we knew he'd have to work his way through the field.















Luckily, we had nothing to worry about as he had gotten himself into the top 10 by the middle of the first lap.














James kept working his way up on the next couple laps...














And by the halfway point he was in a three man lead group with a pretty sizeable lead on the chasers.


















On the last lap, James forced open a gap, and by the time he came into sight from where we stood at the finish line, he had at least a 5-10 second gap on the second placed rider.

I have a video of the finish line, but I'm having technical difficulties uploading it, so the next shot is the post race interview.
















We also had the pleasure of visiting my Grandma Wages in Independence, MO while we were in town, she's turning 95 on Tues. and she's still as sharp as ever and a joy to be around. Happy Birthday Grandma!




4 comments:

F.W. Adams said...

Congrats to James. Is he riding a custom Ellis, or does Ellis make stock SS CX bikes?
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www.singlespeedrevolution.com
Ride One or Ride None!

Dirk said...

Wonderfully exciting news! James' bike looks fantastic.

Dave Wages said...

Every Ellis frame is made to measure for the individual rider, no "stock" bikes. James' frame is fillet brazed with internal brake routing, but I do lugged frames as well.

F.W. Adams said...

DW--ahh, very cool. Thanks!