really?

Did I ever mention Gwinnett Bike Fest? I did the Norcross crit Friday before last. Not riding or sleeping all week isn't the way to have the best form, but I had an effing blast flying around a super fast and really, really dark course (as in, immediately after the race you couldn't see the final turn looking back along the finish stretch). Hadn't raced a crit in a looong while so I embarassd myself in the corners. Used the little bit of legs I had to try and help my teammate Matt Winstead who grabbed a nice 3rd behind Cesar Grajales of Rock Racing and a Team type 1 rider. Honestly, I didn't do much for him, he's so damn strong not much I need to do.

The road race was a bust, got reaaaallllly sick nasty dehydrated by not drinking post-90 minute crit in the heat, or drinking while hanging out in the sun before the road race. Lasted all of 20 minutes before I found my car and considered dying.

Sooo, these past few days I went up to the mountains and goofed off there followed by ga tech orientation, which was about as big a waste of time as I've ever experienced.

Casa Mcginnis

One of the coolest parts of being a bike racer is the lifestyle you get to live. Lots of time away from home is normal. It's sort of like going on vacation a lot, except you don't actually see or do very much outside of ride a bike and eat and sleep a lot. Anyway, the residents of Casa Mcginnis see me so often that they must think it's my second home. I would actually argue it's my fourth home, after my real house, the belgium house, and all the random hotels and houses in random towns where bike races are held.

But, this post is an ode to the Casa Mcginnis. It's where I go when I want to ride up mountains, when I'm bored, tired of the heat in Macon, or just get the itch.


There's a really steep driveway...

Some really steep mountains...

Sometimes we go fishing.

Sometimes we do nothing.

And sometimes, thomas tries to kill us.

yes

This guy...

(nick savadellis)

is my hero.

Because he's sending me the $30 I earned at French Broad for 4th in the tt.

$30, exactly $2.58 less than entry fee. Also, a few cents more than what I would have earned if mph=$.

(not that i'm complaining about the race, the french broad tt is one of the coolest I've done.)

Happenings

I've been home almost two weeks now and life has stayed fairly interesting. I've enjoyed some bad food, slept a lot, hung out doing nothing, and thought about things other than bike races.

After just a few days at home I headed up to the Mountains to spend a week with some friends, most of whom were doing some last minute training for the Tour de l'abitibi in Canada. I had fun riding in the mountains, we did some solid training rides and the temperatures didn't make me want to die like Macon does this time of year. More importantly, we saw a bear, almost died off-roading, and soaked our legs in an icy creek as tourists snapped pictures of the idiots with tan lines ruining their waterfall shot.

Oh, and I also raced the time trial at French Broad in asheville. I was by no means feeling amazing, but I had a solid ride to get 4th with a 25:24 20k, 30 seconds faster than I road at Nats last year. Some of the best regional tt'ers were there so 4th was a decent result.

Home...

Feels nice to be home. It's damn hot in Georgia though. My last race wasn't much to write home about, I was still a bit sick and riding my bike slowly. I got shelled about 100k in during a pretty ridiculous crosswind section. I really need to learn how to ride crosswinds better. It was a pretty ridiculous race and even with good legs finishing would have been the best I could hope for; it was 190k with legit, big time Pro teams like Landbowkredit and P3-Batavus Transfer (both of whom road some of the spring classics like flanders and amstel).

Winding down

I'm in the midst of my last days in Belgium this trip. Since Dinant I haven't been up to much in the way of pedaling. I took the two days after off and spent Monday in Roeselare. Tuesday we made the trip to Brugge. For those of you who don't know, Brugge is a medieval city about 50k from here. The very newest buidlings are from the 1300s and no new building is allowed within city walls. It's a pretty big tourist destination with plenty of shopping along with canals and old cathedrals to see. We had a fun day although the walking was getting to us.

I also managed to catch a bit of a cold and have felt awful on the bike since then. We pre-rode a race I was scheduled to do Saturday. But I've been moved to racing Sunday, if I race at all. I'm hoping to feel better by then. The race is 187 kilomters and sounds hard, although flat. After that I come home tuesday.