4:30 AM IN KANSAS CITY, FRIDAY MORNING

I can't sleep, not even close. Everytime I move or want to roll over I'm plagued by road rash. I've relived the crash 1000 times while laying in bed tonight. Burnsy is sleeping, and I'm trying to work through it. Once again I've been robbed by misfortune this year. It's almost as if a feverish pitch, for some reason all I've seen the enitre night is the banner on the steel fence just before impact. I never even got a chance to hit my brakes it happened so fast. A photographer at the Mud and Blood Ball this evening said "it was the worst crash he had ever seen". All I keep wondering is why? It was a perfect start, Bob Pugh, a friend I met here last year from North Carolina, had jumped in front of me at the start and it was perfect, he's fast, and we were rolling. He was the perfect leadout. The start was WIDE open and there was absolutely no sign of trouble. Then twenty seconds in the sound of trouble behind me, no biggie, I'm in front I thought, and rolling. When I felt the impact on the back of my rig there was no time for anything. I was suddenly heading straight at the fence. From there I do not remember what happend, I just know I never got a chance to brake. When I finally stopped on the pavement with a torn cycling kit and bleeding I was pretty much in shock. The guy who took me out apologized profusley for what he had done, hopped on his bike and was off. I lay there with shattered dreams. And now I can't sleep, I do not want to lay down and relive the moment another 1000 times tonight, so I sit and type, once again it's the blog that saves my ass from insanity.

When we left the movie premier tonight, what was supposed to be good weather for the next two days had turned into heavy rain mixed with snow, today's racing is going to be something, and with more rain in the forecast for Saturday now and my age group classification race, it may become unrideable on the current course configuration as it's a substantial climb for such muddy conditions. I foresee bikes caked with so much mud that you can't ride them up hill should the rain continue on Saturday....stay tuned, it's gonna get much better from KC.

Day one was greeeezy most of the day....