Winding Down

This weekend is conference finals at Mars Hill. This will probably be my last collegiate race of 2013 sadly. Well, it will, since I'm not going to be racing collegiate at Boulder in January. I'll probably end up just racing the TBRA state championships next week, UCI in Hendo the day after TBRA, then the final week of MSG at Kingsport and the UCI at Kingsport the first weekend of January. Then hang up those 32mm tires for the 2.1 fatties and 23mm's. It's time to start base afterwards. I like base for some reason. I really enjoy just riding for hours with nothing to accomplish but just getting time in da seat.

I'm probably going to be the penguin in the pic below after our collegiate cx season ends.This season was a mess in my opinion. Too many things to list here but hopefully I can help make it better for next year. It'll take ruffling a few feathers though but in the end it'll be worth it.

baaaaaaaaaa..... whateva!

The first substantial snowfall of the winter season arrived before Thanksgiving. I know COB is loving this since the ski slopes opened early this year. The view from my back door below.

 My carbon do-it-all-road-bike-disc-brake project arrived just before Thanksgiving also. She's all painted up matte black and all it needs is the decals now. The BMC Team Machine? She's a gone..., sold to a new owner in Delaware.

Monday, the weather was so nice, I did a few errands then loaded up the Air 9 and headed for Damascus to buzz of a few gravel miles on the creeper. After almost 3 hours I found the toaster and headed home. I was really surprised how much snow and ice was still up there.

   Saturday we drove down to Loudon, Tn for TurkeyCross. I was surprised how many peeps showed up. There were well over 100 riders. The course was at a ball park and was nearly 2.0 miles long, 1.9 to be exact. I know it felt like it took 2 forevers to make a lap. I will say it was nice to see an actual run-up that no one was able to ride for a change. Man that thing was steep. I managed a 16th out of 20 something, Casey scored a 2nd and got his first fistful of cash. It was cool to see him stoked like that. He didn't buy my lunch though... bummer.

   This year's been interesting traveling for collegiate cross. It's mostly been just three of us in the van going from race to race. There's Casey who has more energy than a jack russell that I'm still getting used to and Blair who is so new to all this racing that he still has a green tinge to his skin.
They're good guys and have a passion for the bicycle which is what the team needs.

   Yesterday I attended another orientation. Whomever organizes these things doesn't have a clue I tell ya. They scatter groups out all over the place with their tables and it makes it hard for the students to find you or stumble across your organization. I pulled a fast one and moved all my crap to a prime location beside where all the new students get their ID cards. That way everyone had to see the cycling club. I had 5 girls stop and ask about the bike trails and racing along with two guys. The guys I probably won't hear from but I really hope we get a few girls interested and join the team.

On the school front I finished one final already (aced it) and have three more next Thursday. All on the same day, yehaw.















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