I loaded up early to head to Tsali ahead of the rest of the team to swipe a good spot for the Land Yacht. Only campsite #39 will hold the beast due to the size of it. I arrived around 1pm backed into the spot and unloaded a few thangs. About 30 minutes later a red truck pulls up and said that he had the spot. After a little bit of hee-hawing and proof that he had already paid for it I began the process of bribery. In the end I got him to agree to let me have it for a $20 bill. It was dreary and rainy all day, the temps were in the mid 40's, yuk. Not very good camping weather to say the least. I'm glad I brought the laptop and a cd case full of movies! About 10pm I decided to clean-up a bit before turning in for the night, as I walked to the bath house I looked up and the sky had cleared and the moon was beaming. The stars were sparkling so vividly and it looked as if you could just pluck them from the sky, it was awesome! During the night...........not so much. It dropped into the 30's and I decided to sleep in the back of the exploder and I'm glad I did. About 5:30 I had to fire it up for some heat.
I awoke and received a msg from Rob telling me that the Land Yacht will not be making it this trip, I will explain when we get there. The drive train went out of the big Dodge Friday night. We need the dodge to pull it. Anywho.... the rest of the team arrived around 11 and we got things situated and set out for a pre-ride. We finished the pre-ride, then I got all the bikes ready for Sunday's race and had some salad and pasta. All the NICE places to lodge were taken but Steve was able to get us something at the "it will do" motel in downtown Bryson City. It served it's purpose for what we needed though.
The next morning I decide to race this race because I just love riding at Tsali. CONFLICT: for me to be able to race, I have to race the early "white wave" instead of the "yellow wave" because all but one of my team mates are in the yellow. The white wave is CAT3, Jr's, Clydesdale's and Master's riders. CAT2 ,CAT1 and PRO are yellow. I haven't had a NORBA racing license since 2005 because almost all of my bike racing has been of the "roadie" type. So yes I am a HUGE hypocrite\low life for racing the 3's so that I could do my duties for my team. Very selfish of me. The course was dry and fast, the temps were in the 50's when I started. I completed the 14 mile left loop in 1:11:00ish, won the "prem" for the hole shot and then got to the feeding area for the start of the pro's race with about 10 minutes to spare. We made a good showing with 4 riders making the podium. It was an excellent weekend for racing and hanging out with friends. During the drive home I was feeling bad for racing in Cat3 and I'm going to talk to Dave (promoter) about letting me just ghost ride for fun so I can get back to my duties for the team and still get my "fix". It's alot harder than I expected mentally, I THOUGHT I could handle just getting to pre-ride Saturday's and then working on race day but IT'S HARD! The competitive side of me tears to get out of me and race at these things, it's just hard I tell ya!
I'm looking forward to hearing how some of my friends did at the 6hrs of Warriors Creek held this weekend at North Wilkesboro. I heard they had the same great weather as we did. After a wonderful 70*degree weekend I'm sitting here at the house and it's 40* degrees outside, rainy and snowing just 10 miles north of us. What is up with this weather??? Supposed to get more of the same tomorrow.......
Later G.................................
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