US Cup/SERC/GA State Series

this past weekend was strange but loads of fun! lots of first for me on a race weekend...but not good first...first time i watched a pro crit at night in the rain, first time i hung out with Lena, first time i stood up all night the night before a race, first time i didn't eat a good dinner before a race, and...first time i didn't pre ride the course.


the combo of all those didn't help my cause out at all.



it rained all day on Saturday so i decided not to pre ride and stay clean. i still had planned to ride the trainer for a bit but opted out of that too. we went to watch the Athens twilight crit sat night and it was awesome. those dudes are so fast. anyway because it was packed out there was no quality food to be had...i ended up with a gyro and fries...not the dinner I'm used to before a race.

Sunday brought dry an sunny skies but the trails were messed up pretty good. still very ridable but nasty. and because there was no pre reg on sat, all the racers had to pre reg Sunday before the race...made for a long line and a delayed and shortened warm up. i also had to set my bottle feeders up...and made a mistake but wouldn't find out until later...at the start line i noticed our field was stacked with quality riders. i knew it was going to be a battle.



the gun went off and away we went...fast and steady...i entered the woods 4th behind Sibly, Johnston, and Alison(ba from FL)...dudes fell off me pretty quickly and soon it was just us 4 rolling together. after about half a lap were joined by Shey and he was rolling fast. about that time Sibly attacked all of us and would set a blistering pace for the rest of the first lap. we all 5 came through the finish of lap 1 together...as we entered the feed zone, i realized my mistake...my bottles were too far off the path and i had to veer way off to get my feed...and ended up crashing..in the feed zone. not only did it hurt but it was super embarrassing...wreck right in front of everyone...argh! i also lost contact with the group and had to fight hard to bridge back up...maybe too hard...and right as i got to them, i went down again...by the time i got up and back moving forward they were gone and i would never see them again.



i pushed hard but could tell the power was fading. i had only brought one gel and that had been gone since the first lap. i was now in conserve mode but stay steady. i came through the 2nd lap knowing that this last lap would be all about survival! i again had to swerve off course to get my feed and again almost wrecked again...but stayed upright. the last last lap seemed to take forever...i though i had last 10 min on the last lap but only dropped 5min off my first lap's pace, which isn't great but not too bad for as bad as i was feeling. you know you're not having fun when things are in slow motion...the races i feel great on, they fly by...this lap...drug on...and on...and on! Plus my back was killing me...not sure why...it really hasn't bothered me all season and it was in full effect Sunday. i still managed to hold on to 5th place and would still make the podium but not by much.

BTW...dude on the #2 box isnt the dude who raced us...this is the stand in...Allison is super fit and fast!

after looking at the lap times...the 3 guys behind me all had faster lap times on the 3rd lap than me...thank goodness i held on!

this week is recover and get ready for Huntsville, AL.

knobscorcher 2010

i knew this weekend was going to be better than the last race weekends...cause it was going to be dry and sunny! plus i love the course and the venue.

as for the weekend...we had a blast. Max and i drove up friday to Athens, TN and crashed at the nastiest room I've stayed in, in awhile. we woke early and finished the drive.

the Burgers always have a knack of making old course new. and this past weekend at Tasli, NC was no different. the had switched the course all up with lap 1 being 18 miles and lap 2 being 12 miles and a bunch more climbing vs. last year. we only rode the 1st lap for the pre ride..of course we took it easy and keep the effort as low as possible on the climbs and our ride time was 1:35...long!

sunday morning brought the normal race jitters as always but i love those...i think it's one of the reasons i love racn! the start was crucial...only a short sprint up hill to a tight entrance to the trails and then it was ripping fast for 3+miles=no place to pass! luckie i had the start i wanted and entered the woods 5th and we were off..smoking down the trails. a group of about 10 were all together until the first major climb and then it all blew apart and the real racing started. nathen silbley, a super fast dude, blasted off the front and andy chased followed by some dude in a blue jersey then me. sometime shortly we were all joined by Omar. it flew by me and joined the front guys, i was 5th at this point. on this course, i can almost always can pull the :20 seconds i lose on the climbs back on the downhills so i never worry to much about getting gaped on the climbs but these dudes were just as fast so i had to work hard to bridge and it took me several miles to get them even in sight. i did bridge up to the 2nd chase group which was everyone but andy...and he was gone! sibley dropped soon after that due to a leak and as that happened omar took off...i chased him and dropped the dude in the blue. i kept him in sight for a while but he slowly pulled away...and by the end of the last 1st lap he had a minute on me and the dude in the blue had caught back up with me...and i was hurting. dude in the blue would drop me on the 1st big climb and would end up putting 1:40 by the end of the race. i was passing the mid packers of the groups that started before us but i was dragging ass. what should have taken :53+/- minutes took me an hour...i was 8 min down on 1st place...i should have been 2nd! came in 4th.

oh yeah...the new kits came in and i got a tech-T along with them...rock stars baby!