Georgia On My Mind

This weekend we loaded up the vans and headed for Conyers, Ga. just outside of Atlanta. Last year this was the first stop on the season and the weather was hot. This year it was the last race of the season, chilly and also the conference championships. When we left I managed to leave my cell at the house accidentally. It was kind of nice to be off the web for a few days I must say.

I opted to skip the TT first thing Saturday morning because it just sucks. TT's should be for roadies only not mountain bikers. Straight up Georgia bumpy granite, it will beat you to death, it's almost exactly like riding in Moab. Shane decided to race it all by himself so the team rode over to the 'carnage' spot where everyone eats it where the granite stays wet. We witnessed several diggers and no one was seriously injured so it was all good fun in the heckling dept!

Short track was reversed from last year, same course but the other way. That meant we had to do a long gradual climb in the grass out in the sun. At the start I picked what I thought would be one of the fastest guys out, I was wrong he was the clumsiest. After about 50 yards him and another rider tangle, hit the dirt, I hit both of them and we all crash in a pile (me on top). You don't recover in a short track race you get pulled. I managed to get up and hammer for 8 minutes until some dude from Brevard lapped me and that was it for me and the short track.

pardon me boys, I need your noggin to remount my steed, whooooooaaaaaaaa

The guys kept after me to do slalom and the gavity kid inside me said "heck yea" but the older dude was thinkin' "hmmm is that really a good idea?" The younger kid won out so I saddled up and slid the seatpost all the way into the frame for some practice. I was like a monkey riding a football. I just want to interject that a carbon BMC TE01 "is not a slalom racing bike"! period. Steers way tooo quick! I qualified and thought I had a good time maybe for top seed, boy was I wrong. I barely made the cut. My BMX skills kicked in after qualifying though and my gates were dead on snapping all my competitors at the start making them play catch me if you can. I won every round and took the win for Slalom C's at the end of the day. The team won every class in the mens too! Geoff won Men's A's, Shane won Men's B's and I drug up the rear in Men's C's.






Sunday we awoke to a crazy chilly morning. Very unlike Georgia! I was shivering and everyone was cold during warm-up. Alot of the teams were warming up in jackets and arm warmers. I did my usual ritual staying inside the van and stying warm instead of riding around in the cold. At the line I let them gap me about 100 yards but within a mile I was back in the pack and starting to pass riders. I passed about 8 riders before Alexis form Brevard (women's A's) caught me and I locked onto her wheel. I managed to stay with her for about 4-5 miles until she dropped me on a climb with her Lynskey SS. On the 2nd lap I burped a tire really bad and started bouncing my rim off everything and was starting to get worried I may damage it. I rode for as far as I wanted to then dismounted and started pushing for the last couple of miles to the finish. Oh well, I got over to the trailer and checked my pressure I only had 8 psi left but I didn't dent my rim! This was a karma situation because I started to put my seat bag on and then decided not to at the last minute, I could have saved this situation out on the trail with my CO2. Lesson learned huh?







Two weeks until Collegiate Nationals, we have 6 riders qualified all in gravity. We should do pretty good with a couple of them but the other guys are not as serious I think. Look out Lake Tahoe here they come.







On a local note I will be able to pitch in with the NTMBA's poker ride on the 16th at WPSP. After returning home "off the interweb" I saw where the 6hrs of Warrior Creek opened up registration for one day and gave the option to register for $40 via Capt. Dingo's FB page. That was half off and I missed it. Last year there was a ton of people wanting to race this but it has a cap of 300. Well it met capacity shortly after they opened it but they were gracious enough to open it back up and let 50 more register, I was one of them. If none of my friends wants this I will put it up and let some strangers bid on it because I'm not an endurance racer - heck I'm barely a racer period. I will pobably be at a collegiate road race with the team anyways.










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