Tour de GA weekend

Here I am at the third day of the Tour de Georgia sitting in a car with Chris wondering when in it is going to quit raining. Got to Brasstown Bald "early" so we could get a good 2 hour ride in but things are looking grim. Really need to be on the bike today doing a long ride today but time is running out and the sun looks like it will be hiding most of the day. Last year when i was watched this stage it was 30 degrees and freezing. I watched from the inside of a car at an intersection that day as well. The outcome needs improve drastically or this will be the last time i will come to the mountain top finish at Brasstown Bald even though it is a killer climb to watch.

The Tour so far has been pretty exciting so far. Lots of Nashvillians down here to support cycling. Yesterday we were in the town of Dahlonega. After the finish we got in a great 2.5 hour ride in the hills and valleys. My parents met at the small school North Georgia College in Dahlonega so we went to visit the campus. That took a whole 5 minutes to see. We spent Saturday night in the bustling town of Dawsonville where we went out and had some dinner at the local Mexican establishment. Not much else to do besides get to bed early and get ready for tomorrow's long stage.


The stage at Brasstown Bald got significantly better. The duel between Landis and Danielson was classic. I had my $$ on Danielson the whole time, unfortunately he didn't get the 4 seconds he needed but Landis deserved it and rode an excellent stage. After walking down that crazy hill, by the way my legs are SOOO sore today, we decided to take a quick one hour spin to get the legs moving before getting in the car. The area around Brasstown Bald was incredible. A beautiful place to ride. Very scenic with long rolling hills and it was great because by the time we rode, everyone was gone. I think we were the last people to leave the area.

After the mountain stage, we were very lucky to run into Mike and Patti Mead. They invited us to spend the night at their little hideaway cabin up in Bryson City, NC. After getting lost for several hours and not knowing where in the world we were, even with our aggravating GPS a.k.a Veronica, we finally made it to the cabin. After a short recap of getting lost we hit the hay so we could get up and do a long ride in the scenic mountains.

We woke to a beautiful morning and ready to ride. Mike, Chris and I started our ride with a 20 mile climb. 13 miles in on this road that felt like Paris Roubaix, Chris broke a spoke. This area is not exactly where you want this to happen. We debated the safest way to get back, which was me time trialing to the car and coming to get Chris while Mike finished the intended route. All turned out well but that meant i still had to get back on the bike once i got home to finish my ride. Big races coming up this weekend, Athens/Nalley, can't skip workouts just because...

Finally we made it home. What a great weekend! The Tour was a nice change of pace. Typically it's me who is stressed about racing and all the little things that come with it. Now it's back to working on a very important race, the Edgar Soto Memorial www.sotomemorial.org, and getting ready for the big weekend in Athens. If you have never watched the Athens Twilight, you are missing out. It is one of the best CRITS in America. I highly recommend coming out and seeing this race, oh yeah, and PRAY for NO RAIN!!!

Lots of driving and getting nowhere!

Since one week from today, I have logged SOO many hours in my car I have lost count! All i know is that from Sunday till this morning, I have been in my car more than i have been on my bike or anywhere else for that matter. I am in some serious need of sleep and solid bike time. I have 3 stage races coming up in the month of May, Joe Martin, Tri Peak and Edgar Soto, and ATHEN/ROSWELL next weekend. Got to get away from the car. It's bad for the form!

Yesterday was the Komen Race for the Cure crit in Macon, Ga that opened up the Tour de GA for the men's finish. I drove down to ATL monday night after just getting back from the mountains early monday morning. Got to my aunt and uncle's house late and fell asleep literally in 5 minutes. It was a good thing nobody was up because i was in no mood to be social.

I woke up at 6:30 and went out for a light spin. My coach, Dave Brown, warned me that my legs may not feel good after all the riding I did over the weekend in the mountains but I felt pretty good considering. I did a group ride Sunday afternoon that i thought would be mellow. It was far from mellow. These guys and girls were trying to kill each other. Normally that would be fine and i am all for ripping your friends legs off but since i had to race on Tues, i was getting a little freaked. You know the feeling when you KNOW you can go hard and push yourself but you know you will pay for it dearly in the days leading up. Well, there i was trying to be conservative while 2 girls were in the lead group. It was killing me, finally i decided to just sit on their wheels and make sure they weren't going anywhere without me. I hate how the bike makes you do silly things like that.

The picture of me in the creek is post group ride COLD MOUNTAIN Creek. I figured the only way to make sure i would be good to go for Tues was to take an ice bath O'NATURAL...it worked.

Tuesday in the warm up, I felt great. The race started fast. I actually attacked on the first lap. Sometimes i just love doing that to get everybody in the red zone in the first few minutes, including me! Aaron's had a decent number of girls there along with Victory Brewing having a few girls. Kenda, my team, had 4 so we were looking good. Attack after attack went but nothing stuck. I tried several times to get in something but Aaron's had a plan for their big sprinter and it worked. Everytime a break went they would shut it down. The last few laps were fast with the pace picking up. I knew where the attack was coming on the last lap. Backside on a little rise. Sure enough i saw it and jumped out to the side. Should have gone earlier since i am not known as the best sprinter, or for sprinting at all. So i caught a wheel sitting very nice, maybe 12 deep. Came around the last corner into a small downhill finish and passed a couple more riders within the last 200 meters. Finished with a strong 10th. Not great but not bad considering most everyone in front of me was a sprinter. Man, if I could just learn to get up out of the saddle at the end of the race, I am almost certain I could have picked up a few more.

If anyone gives lessons on sucessful sprinting and would like to teach me...you know how to reach me!!!

Sunny outside and I don't want to be sitting in this office!

Another weekend of racing goes by, except this one was a little disappointing. Raccoon Mtn is typically one of the bigger regional women's fields in early spring. This year we had a whopping 15 in the women's 1/2/3 field and it wasn't b/c there was a lack of prize $$. This race is what i like to call a bad sorority meeting. A bunch of girls out for a sunday afternoon stroll. My power tap will attest to that. You gotta hate when the numbers won't lie. The race drug on. A few attacks nothing substantial. One lap down, tried to tire the field out a little by setting a decent pace up the climb. Guess we dropped a few. By the end of the 1st lap there were only about 8 of us left, 4 of those girls were from BMW Bianchi. There were 2 of us from kenda and 2 from random teams. One would think this is not a good situation to be in and that this lap could get a little hard. But with numbers, sometimes bring laziness and that's exactly what happened. On the stair stepper climb, we were basically crawling. I had enough, with one more step to go, I attacked and left everyone back. One bianchi girl finally bridged and we kept the break for about 10-15 minutes, right before the finishing climb. It was just enough time to sit back in for a couple of minutes and recover. With a little less than 1km to go i picked up the speed again. Should have attacked with more committment but was a little tired. Lori from Moab made a jump and i stuck her wheel. The finish was literally right around the corner into a small decline. Who the heck picked this for the finish. DOWNHILL. I was sure we had about 100 meters to go with a slight uphill so i just sat on her wheel. Wrong answer, I literally sat back and watched her win...I hate it when i make stupid mistakes but i guess that is all about learning the sport.

It's tuesday and since the race was SO SLOW, now i have a SCARY workout waiting for me when i finish work. Thanks COACH, appreciate it...Sandy, one of my athletes is coming into town to do the workout with me. She is gonna freak when she finds out what we get to do! So that leads me back to it's beautiful outside and I am sitting here working on the Edgar Soto Memorial Stage race, which is one of 3 stage races in 3 consecutive weekends for me. First Joe Martin, then Tri-Peaks and back to Nashville to do Edgar Soto, www.sotomemorial.org,. Which will all have some major climbing in them. Luckily i get to go to Boone this weekend and climb until my legs want to fall off. Sounds like fun, huh? But ya gotta be ready to climb or else be ready to CHASE for 3 weekends in a row. NO THANKS!


Here is a picture where all the day dreaming happens.

Full on Racing

Monday after a long weekend of racing and an ever longer drive from South Carolina, the most important task at hand was to build my new Blue Bike (www.rideblue.com) and get the Power Tap Pro to work with the bike. Have i told you just how excited i am to be using a power tap? There is no guessing and no cheating on the power tap. You are either generating the watts or you are not. This afternoon as soon as i can get out of this office, I am headed out on the road on my new bike to do a field test. It will only be 30 minutes of all out HELL to see what i can hold.

Anyone looking for a good race this weekend should do the annual Raccoon Mountain RR. It's this sunday. I love this race. It's got a nice little climb in it and a break can get away. Not to mention the women's purse is HUGE for a regional event. Check it out at www.tbra.org.