What a weekend!

First things first. Friday was a crazy day. Some of you know that I put my house on militaryforsalebyowner.com. I received an offer, countered, and accepted an offer all in the span of friday from noon to 3. Wow. That was a roller coaster. The only problem with that entire scenario is that I was supposed to meet keith at 1230 for the drive to salisbury so that we could spin before sunset. We didnt even leave norfolk until 6. We got into salisbury late and stayed at keith's peep's house. Very nice place and $free.99 can't be beat. Thanks!

I was so emotionally drained from selling my house that I slept most of the drive down. We woke up at 455 the next morning (for some horrible reason unbeknownst to me) and drove to Charlie Brown aka-the judge's house. From there, we drove (I should say Keith drove as my ass slept) to greenville, sc for the fork shoals road race. It was rumored that George Hincapie would be racing the Pro 1,2 race. He was there and that was cool, but I missed getting his pic. Onto the race report.

Keith raced the 35+ Masters and scored a solid 6th. The untold story there is that his teamates went 1,2 because of his efforts. His selfless efforts there serve as testament to fact this guy understands what it takes to be a great teamate, and he will rip your legs off at will!

My race was a little different. There were at least 75 people in the Cat 3 (only) race. Most of the teams were SC or NC and most had 5+ people / team. As I sat on the start line, I looked around and noticed that I was the largest kid on the line, and that I was the only person from VA there. I figured it was just a training race anyway. So, right from the gun, two dudes roll off the front. I was happy to just sit there and see what would happen. After 3 miles, those two had a 1/8 mile gap and no one cared. So I just rolled off the front. No one in the race knew me (or my team) from Adam. So I kept the gas on with the hopes of catching the two escapees. After 30 seconds, another dude broke free and I soft pedaled until he caught up. He then tells me that he was already toast and was just trying to string it out. SO I just left him and continued my 10 mile bridge to the leaders. Caught them at the finish of the 1st lap (15 miles). The 3 of us rode the next lap together with only 2 of us taking pulls because the 3rd guy was hurting. He took every 6th pull. Weak. Chris Brianas told me he saw CSC banners at Tour of Cali that said: "Harden the F Up" Thats all I could think about on this 57 mile death march I was attempting. At a minimum, I would make the race really hard for myself and get good quality miles and training.

We were caught by a group of 6 breakaway riders at the start of lap 3. A couple kids were really hurting and then there were some kids who looked really strong. The course was rolling with only a couple climbs that would put you in a deficit. One of those climbs was right at the finish. So the group soldiered on for the next 1.5 laps. A couple times I had to remind people that we were racing and needed to keep the pace high. Anyway, with 3k to go, this guy takes a flyer up the long hill. I watched him for 10 seconds and he kept pulling away. I didnt know him and asked everyone else if he had a chance. They all claimed he did. Will (blacksheep cycling) Hoffarth took off after him. Will was the only other kid more than 150 lbs. He recognized that I had horsepower and made a couple comments to me during the break. I knew this was a great opportunity for me and let him gap a bit. Then I punched it up the climb to bridge to him. No one could come with us. We quickly ate up the suicide solo and then he and I had to keep the pace up for the last k to be certain to not get caught. He just had a couple more HPs in the tank and got me at the line. I figure my 10 solo bridge miles are a decent excuse, but are still an excuse.

This pic shows me holding my prize cash! Photo credit to keith.


I got back last night at 1 am. Woke up and went straight to Freedom Park with Rammer and Andre. I have no idea how doug's gear didnt explode on this header. His glasses and helmet were fine but he obviously has a serious amount of dirt on his temples!

Rammer and I pre-ride.

Andre is probably going to grow a tape-worm after drinking out of this absolutely disgusting camelback tube. He claimed that the human body has the most amazing defenses. I probably would have just went thirsty.


This is my first video posting! I took a little log drop. It was enough to get my heart rate up though!




I welcome all comments!