OIL & WATER

Well Sunday rolled around and it rolled in COLD. Getting up at 5am to drive over to Ashevegas for the Mars Hill Collegiate Crit was rough, I didn't sleep much that night. On top of that when I arrived at the mall where the race was to take place that little thermometer in the car was reading 38*. UGH!!! If you've never been to a collegiate race they hardly ever get started on time and this was no exception. I'm glad that the host school showed up late along with the USAC officials. Instead of a 8:30 start we started at 9:15 just enough time for the sun to get up over the tree line and provide some warmth. My warm up lap was at 39* and somehow the cold found its way passed every layer I had on. At crit time it was 10 degrees warmer, ahhhhh!

I'm not in any shape to be road racing right now but I had fun. I managed to stay in the field right to the finish, which truly surprised me, I figured I would get dropped after two laps or so. We averaged 25mph which is a pretty fast crit (to me). I hung around to watch Thomas race his first B race with little training under his belt and he did very well. He stayed in the pack all the way to the end, great job Sally! The A race was pretty good with a small group getting off the front with a friend of mine Brian Sheedy in the midst. I think he finished 2nd after one of his teammates broke away for the win, good job Lees McRae!

Ok that was the water now for the oil. In cycling I don't think you could go farther in differences of disciplines than a road race in the morning and then a BMX race in the afternoon. It was funny, at the crit there were several riders from different schools came up to me and said "only ETSU shows up for road races with "those type bikes" - sweet". We may be a small school and not "team" competitive at road or XC but they definitely give us respect when it comes to anything gravity related. After the funnin' I put the BMC Team Machine up on the roof rack and aimed my xploder towards I-40 west bound. Let's go to Morristown, a make-up race for Saturday that was rained out, oh yea!

James had the track in perfect condition, so smooth. After sitting in the car for the 90 minute drive from Ashevegas my legs weren't feeling so well. My one practice lap down the track felt horrible, my legs acted like they forgot how to go round in little circles, for real. I stretched some before the 12 motos that would soon begin and it helped. All my motos were pretty good, Corey showed up and pushed me, which I'm grateful for, he makes me faster. My first straight is getting better too, I'm managing to get to the first turn 1st in front or beside the fast guys again, I just need to work on the rest. There is one jump that's giving me a fit though so a day of just plain practice may be on the radar with the outdoor National visiting us in 2 weeks. My Sunday rocked to say the least!

This week a lot is going on organizing the ETSU Nationals Qualifier, we had a meeting last night for final prep and weekend assignments so no one is confused about what's expected of them. I think I have everyone happy too. There's a Collegiate Road race at King College (Piney Flats Sat / Crit @Bristol Speedway Sun) this weekend and all my roadies are able to attend so that makes us happy although I'm stretched pretty thin at our race. As long as we don't have over 100 riders we have it covered. Usually when ETSU hosts a race (road-cx/mtn) we have volunteers galore, so far nill. I was hoping for some volunteers from the MTB community but have yet to see any "step up".....

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