hmmmmmm

I refuse to talk about Redlands. I'm actually gonna pretend the trip never happened.

Training has been going well and I'm getting really excited for my Europe trip. If i haven't mentioned it before, I go over May 3rd this year and come back June 28th. Congrats to the guys over there now who are tearing it up. This year I'm lucky to have a really nice calendar or races, mostly stage races and plenty of climbing and time trialing. So very well suited to me. I'll also get to travel a bit more of Europe which is always great.

What's with the crazy weather? It's been darn cold in Georgia for April. With less than four weeks until I go to Europe, it's looking like the warm clothes are staying in circulation until I get home at the end of June....just think, it's gonna be July before I can put the warm stuff away for awhile. I don't mind too much though, and our Hincapie stuff is wicked nice so it's almost good to get an excuse to wear it!

Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully I can keep the updates rolling a little more consistently.



check the sweet kits.



Blair creeping into my headshot at our last team camp

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.

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!

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!"

counting down!!!

I was back in Greenville this weekend for the first of three straight weekends up there. No racing, but I did get my bike situation fixed and do some great training.

Saturday was one of the coolest rides I've ever done. only 5 hours, so not especially epic, but still incredible. My brand new scott addict and I headed out of Greenville northwards into the mountains. Probably half the ride was on roads I've never done before, yet somehow I managed to not get lost and turn it into a 7 hour ride. Don't laugh, it's happened before. The bike is incredible and I'm really lucky to be on such great equipment.

Anyway, back to the title-four days until my first race of the year! I'll be racing both days the next two weekends in Greenville at the Hincapie spring series. I'm planning on mostly using it for good race-effort type training, and learning to race with my teammates. I think even without much focus we can pull out at least some decent results though.

Here's a tentative schedule for the first half of the Season if anyone's interested:

February 28/March 1st-Greenville
March 7th/8th-Greenville
March 14th/15th-Rome GeorgiaCup
March 21st/22nd-Union City GaCup
March 26-30-Redlands Stage Race
April 4/5-Chattanooga GaCup or Rock Hill
April 18/18th-Chattanooga Scenic City Velo weekend

and the biggie:

May 3rd-June 28th: Europe

hmmmm

So some of you are probably visiting the blog to see what I think of the new ride; others have probably heard of the weekends events and are looking for the details.

Short Version: The bike was incredible, for the day it lasted.

Long Version: Saturday I headed out on the new ride for a few hours of breaking the bike in, along with two of my teammates doing the same. 5 minutes from the house, at the end of the ride, we had a nasty crash. Blair missed it but Strad and myself went down pretty hard. I'm fine, but cracked my frame. Strad's bike is fine,(we hit the ground HARD, so it's a testament to the bike's durability that only one cracked) however, he came off a little worse. Luckily nothing is broken, but he does have a concussion. He's tough as nails and will be back on the bike in a few days, unless his mom forgot to confiscate it, in which case he's probably been skipping school and riding Caesar's Head the past couple days. I'm not going into the reasons for the crash on a public site-if you feel you need the full story, feel free to contact me.

Good news: When bad stuff happens, you learn a lot about the people you've got on your side. I owe a big thanks to all the Hincapie staff, and especially Rich. He barely batted an eye before getting to work on the situation. I'll be back on a Scott Addict soon and can't tell you how thrilled I am about that. It's easily the nicest bike I've ever ridden, stiff, light and very stable. Also, thanks to John James from Sunshine Cycles for checking on me after the wreck. And of course, thanks to all the friends and teammates who were calling or emailing to check on Strad and I.

Bikes are in!!!!

Our new Scott Addicts outfitted with Sram Red have arrived at team headquarters in Greenville. Looks like I am making my return to the republic of greenville to get the bike fit and break it in some. Rumor has it they are sub 15 lbs built up and crazy nice, so I'm pretty giddy right now. Here's a picture of the frame and also one of our new kit design, which should also be here in a couple weeks.