Assault

Yesterday I rode a half butted attempt at the Bay's Mtn Rally race that is held during funfest. I wanted to see what kind of time I could acquire at about 80% effort before today's race. As I rolled out and headed to Kingsport there was a looming cloud over the mountain and the closer that I got you could see the sheets of rain cascading down from them. After summiting up to the upper parking lot The rain had stopped and the humidity was nasty. I suited up and hopped on the 575. The 575 is not a XC racing rig but it handles like a dream. I'm now in the market for a hardtail to keep around just for racing. Anywho, I roll over to the starting line and hit the garmin and take off. My plan was to ride this at about 80% to save something for tomorrow. The trail wasn't nasty but it was wet. The grit getting slung up into my face and into my contacts was just annoying enough to make me a little grumpy but I pedaled on. After the 1st steep climb I was ok with the time and sorta pleased because I wasn't really getting on the throttle, like I said 80% was the goal for today. I'm good on the downhills and I usually make up some time in races there so I wasn't concerned about pointing the 575 DH. I got to the lake road and more grit slung in my eyes, grrrrrr! Up onto the Chinqapin trail and it was perfect. I made it to the big gravel climb to the towers and that was ok too but the ridge was wet and sandy, yuk. All in all it was a good ride and I managed to get to the finish line in 1:20:10 - ok, but I was hoping for better. The old course I was doing it in 1 hr flat....

After I got up this morning I listened to the radio while laying in bed and the weatherman stated it had been raining all morning. I get up and look outside...........dang it. OK decision time. So I made the decision to call Dawn to come down so we could go to the shop and size her for a full suspension rig. So, no Bay's race for me tonight. My next engagement will be:

I have boycotted this race for the past couple of years because of the FAILURE of the crew to keep enough water at the second rest area. (yes they ran out of water at this station 2 years in a row) After a couple of proper emails to the director and some very poor responses I decided to keep my hard earned $$ and not give it to him. Those two years failed to see him max his 400 rider limit. This year he has filled the quota and there are 400 riders and registration closed early this year. Yes, I'm going to this and yes it's expensive but it's such a cool event. I don't have any aspirations of winning or glory. I do this race to challenge myself, sort of a "how are you feeling this year scoob" kinda ride. 63 miles and 11K of climbing will take it's toll and I always dread seeing Kitsuma for the 2nd time but I enjoy it. So come Sunday, hello Old Fort, N.C.!

PS: who in the heck designs stuff for most bike races? The T-shirt artwork for most all shirts suck!

SUBURBAN

Ok the big whitetruck is officially in the driveway and I have all kinds of ideas what I would "like" to do with it but realistically I'm not sure yet. I do have some ideas though.....

All kinds of ideas here............... what do I do?

LAter G...........................