Monday, March 16, 2009

rule for life #1

Will McGinnis tells me that rule for life #1 is Don't be a dumbfuck. If you follow that, you won't really need a #2.

Best way to violate that rule in a crit-yell at me about how to take a corner, then crash yourself trying to follow me through a corner on the last lap.

Anyway, this weekend in Rome went pretty well. I didn't do anything special but felt really great on the finish climb of the road race both times over. We managed to win the tt, omnium and road race. Big congrats to Tyler Karnes who is 17, just upgraded to Cat 2s and won the road race. He made the early breakaway that ended up staying away and raced strong and smart to beat the five guys he was with soundly to take a great win.

Last weekend in Greenville-let's just say I road phenomenal, spent most of the day off the front, and took a perfect flyer out of the breakaway with 2 or so miles to go. Got caught within 200 meters of the finish. Quite the heartbreaker, but it's still just local racing and I've got my mind on the mountains of Europe in May and June.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

stranded in greenville

Freak winter storm leaves me stranded in Greenville....gosh, that's just awful.

Between the roads here, the roads in Atlanta and 85 being either closed or backed up for hours, I didn't make it home in time for class monday. Thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the Helms, I am still in Greenville since I don't have class on tuesday. I enjoyed my day off the bike sunday by staying warm and inside most of the day. Of course, once the snow piled up I had to enjoy my first snow ball fight in years and some attempts at sledding.

Yesterday Strad and I used our day off school to go for a nice ride. Everyone we tried to talk into coming with seemed to think we were crazy....I actually thought we were too, but it ended up being great. The sides of the roads were piled with snow but the pavement was clear. We even got out to Caesar's head and did the first 2/3s of the climb before we hit slushy spots. We played it safe and turned around there so we didn't have to descend through ice. Climbing through switchbacks with snow piled on the sides of the road was one of the coolest things I've done lately on a bike. Now I'm chilling out, waiting to meet up with my teammate Chris to do another ride, hopefully making it to the top of the Mountain this time. After that, hopefully I'll make it back to Atlanta for classes Wednesday...and then be right back up here for the River Falls road race saturday!



Oh yeah, almost forgot-the first part of our kit order came in yesterday. So far just long sleeve jerseys and vests, but the rest should be in soon. They look great!



Sunday, March 1, 2009

first race

Hey all. I'm sitting in a warm living room in Greenville watching the awful weather outside. Today's race was unfortunately cancelled thanks to the freak winter storm hitting the southeast.

Yesterday was a nice way to kick off the season. 60 miles in the pouring rain on a rolling course in Ware Shoals, SC. About 40 or 50 riders lined up for the Pro/1/2 race. My teammate Chris Butler got away early with two other riders while I enjoyed hanging out in the field and playing defense. The first rider was dropped early but the field didn't organize and chase very well. Chris ended up riding away for the solo win. I flexed my legs with a couple miles to go and got away in a little move. Thad Dulin got me for 2nd, but I ended up 3rd and was just happy to get to test out the fitness a bit. So all in all, a good day for the team. Cinthia won the women's race and our Cat 3s road well and put Blair into 4th, so solid results all around.


Me: "Cinthia! Did you win?"
her: "YES!"