MY SEASON IS HERE

All year I plan, go to meetings that could have been conducted other ways, come up with ideas and brainstorming things for ETSU that may/will help campus trails. All that business time invested so that myself and 20yr olds can have fun racing other colleges. Last week we hosted the season opener on campus and with the help of some great volunteers it was a huge success. Rider turnout was a little off from last years numbers but the huge out-of-conference powerhouse Lindsey Wilson wasn't there. We had fun though. I'm really excited about having three girls on the team this year too. They are all three rookies but the guys have been taking them on training rides and showing them all the technical aspects of mountain biking. They are really progressing too, it's awesome.





I did about mid pack as usual at these races racing the "kids". This years B group is more competitive by far. B's have out numbered every group so far this year. Tough bunch!





We left Friday for Tallahassee, Fl. to compete at FSU the home of the Seminoles. Their last club meeting they had 75 students show up, that's just outstanding!!!! At the colleges that don't have much in the way of mountains and steep hills for the gravity bunch they opt for a MTB TT through the woods. Our team isn't big on TT's so it's hard to get many to do them. We did place a guy and a girl in podium positions though at the FSU MTB TT. 4X was held on a BMX track that's not used in Tom Brown Park..... me? I love it! I took home 1st in C's with Mark getting 2nd, we placed 4 guys in B's and 2 in A's for 4X. One of the girls, Melissa, took a huge spill during her first ever 4X race (it's ok she's a roadie that we are trying to convert)

In this pic Melissa takes a huge spill on her first ever 4X race on a BMX track. She's tough though, she got up and staggered away then raced Short Track afterwards. What a trooper she's getting us all kinds of points for the weekend. Great job girl.



Saturday night we hit the same Mexican place we always hit while in Tallahassee, Los Amigos. They always have specials that everyone loves and we have a really good time there. After food it was off to the pool! We lounged around for about three hours with college kids doing what they do best, having a wild time.




Sunday rolled around and so did the tropical depression. It rained alot during the night but seemed to give a dry window for the race, it only sprinkled the whole time, whodathunkit? Only about half the team raced, several of them were BEAT up from Saturday's events and not feeling well, it's ok. We drove home through some of the hardest rain I have ever driven in, thank goodness the rain was only for 50 miles or so.




Traveling - break down issues! First time in three seasons using the motor pool at ETSU. We had a belt separate inside the tire and had to stop and get it replaced/repaired. The owner of the small tire business was one huge douche-bag too and boy was he grumpy! I'll save that for another story! Here we are getting a used tire for $30! Glad we did too because 2 hours later...

150 miles later? the other rear tire has a belt separation issue, dangit! We had to change this one on our own, heck I had 8 strong young backs to handle this.....ahhhhhh! It was pretty nice too there are several guys on the team that can play the guitar VERY WELL. In the pic above Greg lays down some soothing tunes to keep our spirits up in our time of bad luck.

Get it boys! We almost had the fastest pit time too. Nascar who? When we drove through McDonough we exited for dinner so that Matt, a former teammate, could join us for dinner. Good times! This week we travel to Georgia Tech and race in Conyers, Ga where the MTB Olympics were held in the 90's. Weather is looking great and the rider turnout should be huge!



Later G.................