Epic rides

Put in two epic rides today and yesterday. I headed down to see my old roomate from Virginia Tech since he just bought a new apartment, in Baltimore. We made plans to hang out on Tuesday night, meaning I would make the trip down there right after classes on Tuesday afternoon, spend the night, and ride back the next morning in time for my 5pm class on Wednesday. The ride down, a distance just shy of 90 miles each way, went perfect. I picked out an awesome route to get there, with only about 7 miles of sketchy roads between Gettysburg and Hanover. I made it just across the Maryland/PA state line by nightfall and installed the headlamp to finish out the ride. Made it there safe and sound, changed into the only clothes I was able to stuff into my Camelback, gym shorts and a t-shirt and went out for some grub to try to lessen the calorie deficit of the day. Bryan works at the restaurant we ate at so the bill got comped 50%. Sweet! Slept in, ate more food in the morning, and then busted out to pound out another 90 miles back to Ship. The weather forecast for the day called for snow in the later hours of the afternoon, so I figured that would leave me plenty of time to get back before the snow really hit. Not even close. The snow and sleet started slamming me in the face as soon as I hit the Mason-Dixon. No worries, its not laying, just making the roads wet, I'll be fine. Ten miles later, 'Ahh, its starting to lay, and snowing harder. No worries, not critical yet.' Another ten miles and it was unbearable, I stopped a store and grabbed some Tastykakes and a hot chocolate until I could feel my hands, feet, and face again. Back into the cold. I made it almost all the way back to Ship, only about 4 or 5 miles shy, slipping and sliding all the while. The ice and slush and snow kept pilling up on the bike, leaving me in the big ring, with occasional shifting in the rear, and no brakes. This is getting too extreme, the bike is all over the road, I'm shivering so much. Call Brandon for the emergency rescue pickup and thaw out on the car ride back to town.

Overall, both days were sweet rides. 170 miles in a 24 hour period. Half those miles were either at night, or in a blizzard. Not too shabby.

That is so much ice

Not much to slow me down

No shifting up front

Sometimes in the back

Looks like I picked up some Kysrium wheels on the way home

Flushing quarters down the toilet

The race at Santos wasn't that great. I'm trying to convince myself that it never even happened and instead I spent the weekend in PA playing in the snow and rain. It started out awesome, Jed and I spent Thursday cruising the I-95 corridor to Tampa to stay with some of his friend who moved there a few years ago. Friday morning we scoped out Tarpon Springs, a old Greek sponging town right on the coast and had a 'Greek' breakfast. The 'Greek French Toast' was not unlike the French French Toast most of us are accustom to. Thus the dissapointment of the weekend began.

Friday morning we drove an hour and a half north, to Santos, set up our campsite, and put some time in on the course. The trails were great, and conditions were perfect. We met up with xrobx and did a lap on the course and enjoyed the 80 degree temps. My motivation and focus were 100%. I was there the take the win and the dough home, along with a massive trophy.
Saturday morning started at 6:30am by eating some breakfast and setting up the pit table. Mixing bottles, filling cups with creme pies and PBJs, lining up tanlines, checklist after checklist to make sure everything was in the right place so I wouldn't have to unclip more than one foot all day. Racers meeting, butterflies, anxiousness, peeing, thoughts of strategy, and chamios butter filled the next 30 minutes until the LeMan***(see footer below) start at 10am. The start was smooth, I was sitting right around 10th overall, behind all the teams riders, and first of the solo guys buy about 7 spots. The tight twisty course made passing pretty tough for the first two laps so I did my best to get around people and put bodies between me and second place. I held a solid pace for the first two laps, the kind of pace that just makes you smile because it feels so damn good. Dave Wood made some time up on me towards the end of lap 2 so we teamed up to keep IF rider Harvey Minton chasing about 3 or 4 minutes back. The next 4 hours stayed just like that, taking turns pulling and talking about '08 race plans until lap 6 or 7 when it all came apart. Sometime during the 5th hour of the day, the legs shut down and said no. I lost my appetite, and my all-time favorite race food, the always invigorating PB&J now only made me gag and I watched as my speeds dropped from 13-14mph downt to 8-9mph. I knew something wasn't right so I slowed down to try and get my rhythm back again. Another lap didn't help and the legs weren't coming back. Sit out for a lap, get some food, and get back into the thing was option number two, but I felt even worse, the body just wasn't having it today. Pack it up and call it a day.

I can't help but be dissapointed about the race, other than getting a chance to ride in warm weather, it was a waste of money. I think I would have been better off if I would have cashed $200 in for quarters and sat in front of the toilet flushing them one by one. At least then there's a chance the toilet would back up and I'd feel like a winner.
I guess I should try to be optimistic here, the season hasn't really even started yet. The other good thing was how I felt during the time I could ride. It was like I had punched in the NES cheat code for 'Unlimited Speed'...Up, Down, Left, Right, A, B, Select, Start. Bring on Mt. Snow.

Congrats to Harvey for takin home the win, the guy can still roll fast. To Dave Wood for killin his first 12 Hour ever, and to Rob for coming back after a first lap flat to take home third. Jed stuck it out for a top 5 as well.


***LeMans Start- (noun) a style in which many bicycle races begin. It requires participants to run from a designated starting position to their bicycles, where the racing may commence. Often times this type of start leads to large amounts of confusion, lost bicycles, and unhappy times. They should be done away with. It also accelerates cleat wear and has no effect the outcome of the event.

Headin' South: again

The first race of the season is on tap for next weekend. I'll be heading down to Florida again with fellow riders Jed Schoeber and Harlan Price to race the 12 Hours of Santos. Man, I'm psyhed up. Just the other month while I was down there riding at Santos all I could think was, 'Man, this would make an awesome endurance race. Well what do you know, a few weeks later, 12 Hours of Razorback is relocated to Santos. Sign me up! Other guys who will make an appearance, or at least are rumored to, include Roberto Lich. Matt Miller, and Ryan Woodall. I just hope Tinker sticks with his post race schedule and hangs out in AZ for the weekend. Or else we'd all be in trouble.

I've been looking in to obtaining a sweet set of race wheels for the season. The Crossmax SLR's are sitting on Ebay right now looking for a new home. Hopefully by selling them I'll cover the cost of a new Stan's Olympic 347 wheels on some DT 240 hubs.

Later,