UCI WEEKEND

CX season has now came and went. This weekends last hoorah of CX for our region was in Kingsport for the UCI competition and the TN State Championships on Sunday. Saturday I raced the SS class while Austin was asleep in the bed back at home where it was warm and toasty. I lagged through 20 something degree temps @ 9am and managed to finish a non-respectable LAST in SS. There were 7 of us, I hung on for about half a lap then I thought "I'm no where in shape for this" so I limped to the finish although in the end I had fun and that's what counts.

My fat butt above trying as best I could in the barriers.

Handup of choice today..... PBR !!

Our local Mr. Wondergem (green kit) getting ready in the Pro class.

I rolled up to the shop Saturday after my disappointing finish to get the demo Niner we have to parade it around the race this weekend to get some Niner interest since we are the only local Niner dealer. Sunday I was thinking that the big hoops may give a small advantage rolling over the grass in the "one off" MTB class that the promoter granted the MTB community just for Sunday. We had a packed class to say the least. After a few practice laps on the Niner RIP I knew I could do better on the BMC. The BMC felt like it weighed half what the Niner did. Now in all fairness the RIP is a trail bike and the CX course is not the place to be "testing" this bike. Albeit the thing felt huge and like a big slug to me just riding for a couple of laps. I'm not here to slam anyone that rides a 29er, It's just not for me, tried it for a year, been there done that, got the T-Shirt.... you know.

I knew that if I rode that Niner I would catch a rash of crap from Capt. Dingo for sure! I also knew that if he beat me in the MTB class I would probably hear more crap about the bigger hoops being BEST as well. I had to defend my little wheels! I took off pretty fast at the start and then let up to get my buds in front of me so I could keep an eye on them. I rode third wheel to them for the first lap then G spun a little coming up to the asphalt and it put me back in front (of our small group). Over where the guys ladies were standing, Iron Man Dillow had some refreshing PBR's, that we had decided to chug during the race, ready for consumption. I rolled up first and swallowed as much of the 1/2 beer we were supposed to guzzle each and off I went. That hot beer had me belching for over half a lap. At one point I thought I was going to hurl. I knew that if I did Capt. Dingo would have more ammo to heckle me with after the race was over so I did what I had to do to keep the small gap between him and myself and keep the PBR in my stomach. I think we may have pulled a top ten.... maybe.

After getting home I wanted to stir the pot some more. I get on FaceBox and "kinda" trash talk the RIP Niner a little bit. It worked! Capt. Dingo's big wheeled Niner faith reared it's head, heck I even got Andy " I will punch you in the freakin' face" Mullins to comment as well. (he's a soon to be a future owner of a big hooped bike) It was all in fun. I hope they didn't get upset. I just like my little wheels. I do look forward to riding the Niner hardtail when we get it built though. There are places that bigger wheels do things better than the little ones and vice-versa. Like I have been saying lately, "buy what you like so you will ride it" they were probably all made in the same factory in China anyways .............................

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