Louisville, KY. Not quite an idyllic locale, but it’ll do.

Much like Waterloo, I’ve spent the last few years shooting the elite levels of this race and racing the singlespeed event. After a few DFLs and trip to the 80% tent, I left my derailleur-less bike at home this year, and just brought some cameras.

Historically, the SS national championship was held in the prime time slot on Saturday, and then Sunday was packed with 6 races from the U19, U23, and Elite levels. This year, USAC tried out a new schedule where SS moved to Friday, U19 moved into the prime time Saturday slot, and Sunday only had 4 races with the commensurate downtime throughout the day. My opinion on this? As a photographer, it’s a win. Sunday was a real slog in the past. It may kill the SS race though, as participation will surely go down, and the lack of crowds will suck. If I’m being flippant, USAC has been trying to kill the race for years, so might as well do the deed already. What started with 80% rules, ended this year with a DSQ’d shark that had no sleeves. I’m sure they are stoked on the reg fees though. Gotta pay for that FloBikes production somehow.

Okay, off my rant. The new schedule afforded my some extra time to do the junior racers justice. Much like Friday in Waterloo, the weather sucked. Like epically sucked. Mud everywhere… sucked. Tornadoes… sucked. Either way the photos turned out pretty rad, and with CX Social working closely w/ the USA Juniors this year, they got some publicity.

DJT landed a Junior Men win in his fancy AG2R-Citroen kit. AG2R then ran my photos on every social stream they had. Count that as my first feature from a World Tour team. Made the trip to Louisville worth it. I packed up early, as to not break another camera this season. As you can see, I am learning.

Sunday brought some cold, cold weather, but was generally dry. The U23 riders went off early, followed by the elites in the afternoon. After losing control of the track in 2018, the race organizers took a more muted approach to the Louisville venue in 2023. Unfortunately, that made it kind of boring. There was one wooded section with some hilly switchbacks, but otherwise just a bunch of generally flat, crit-like sections.

I struggled to find interesting angles, as there wasn’t much to play with. At the end of the day, I did what I could and reminded myself that every day can’t be a stunner.

Clara Honsinger took the four-peat and frankly looks unbeatable stateside. An entire generation of women’s racers are missing in the states. This should improve as some of the U23s come up the ranks.

Eric Bruner took the men’s win. It looked like there may be an “upset” as Strohmeyer was driving much of the race, but in the end everything kind of shook out. The competition is stronger over on the men’s side of the house right now, with Bruner, Strohmeyer, Funston, and White showing good potential. Throw in Kerry “Kenny” Werner, and 2024 could get pretty interesting.

That is it for my 2023 ! 17 race days starting in my backyard at BWR, and ending in Louisville. This adventure took me through the ruins of Rome, the mountains of France, the cobbles on the Champs Elysees, and the mud of the Midwest. The season was an inflection point where I finally hit my stride, and made some lasting memories. Only one way to go from here! 2024 has some big things shaping up, including a return to Europe!

Next Up:
– WC Hoogerheide (NL)
– UCI CX World Championships (Tabor, CZE)