Monday, March 30, 2009

Cold and Muddy

Saturday morning I was up at it early for the 5+ hr trip to Columbia, Tn. for round #2 of the S.E.R.C. series race. We arrived event free and set up Everett's land yacht. I had some work to do on a couple of bikes while the guys got geared up to ride the muddy mess that laid before them. We set up beside a picnic pavilion with water access. Everyone was washing their bikes, they were so coated with mud. The guys took off while I got my work station setup and some other things finished. After about 90 minutes they started trickling back in. They were nasty, lol. "E" had a Santa Cruz superlight that I recently built for him that I had planned on riding but I just didn't feel like getting out in the yuck and muck. I was happy and content on just wrenching for the weekend after seeing all the mess.
We settled in and made some yummy chicken tacos and had some Fat Tire brew to wash it all down with.....good stuff! We chilled out and told several racing stories before turning in. The temp had dropped from a nice 70 to a very chilly 40 something after the sun went down. There was also a deputy driving through the park warning about tornadoes that had been spotted north and south of us......JEEEZZZZ. The wind blew most of the night and we awoke to Steve beatin' and banging in the kitchen at an early 6am. Jesse and Steve raced first so they had to get up earlier than us. After breakfast Jess and Steve returned. Jess won 1st again and Steve had got a 2nd place finish by nipping the dude at the line....Good Job !! Jason was next, he arrived at the starting line to realize that he was about 5 minutes late and they promptly left without him. He turned on the after-burners and caught back up to finish 19th which was pretty good considering. Now for the big guns 12:30....still very cold with WIND now... Troy our PRO and Rob CAT1 out first. Troy stayed in the top 10 the whole race moving up to an impressive 5th until falling back to finish 9th after having to manage a flat on lap 2. He looked strong all throughout each lap every time he passed me in the feed zone. Rob had the flat tire gremlin grab him on the first lap as well as Everett. Rob stayed focused and kept a strong pace to finish in the $$ with a 6th overall!! Great job! Everett CAT1 had his flat 30 yards past Rob but continued to try a different strategy. After losing his bearings he managed to get back to the RV and do a complete wheel swap and get back after it losing alot of time. Even though the flat gremlins were running amuck amongst our team he kept a cool calm attitude and managed a 17th for the day. Eveready Endurance/The Bike Shop made a strong showing and are showing good improvement early in the season. Next week is Tsali and the long term forecast is rain....not again!!


Later G...............................

No comments: