Mud, Mud go away!

5+ hours of driving put us in Columbia, TN this past weekend. We arrived on Saturday evening and the weather was perfect! We had a fast and fun pre-ride on the Chickasaw Trace course and were grinning when we thought about racing it the next day.

Chatted with friends, then headed over to our hotel for the night. A little cable, then off to sleep.

I woke up at about 2:30-3:00am and heard the storm. Sounded like it was going to be wet, but you never know how a trail is going to handle the water, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Everett had an earlier race....9:30, so we got up in time to get him to the course and warmed up. His front tire was a little low, but off he went with a really great first lap time. When he came through for his feed, I could tell he was in pain and he said his back was killing him. But, off he went for a second lap and he finished strong and very, very, very much covered in mud. No white left on his jersey!

Next up was Jansen, Shey and me. I had warmed up a little by riding up and down the side of the trail waiting for Everett to come through, so I could cheer and grab a pic. Then it was off to get pics of the other guys and line up with my girlies. I was hoping that Everett would be able to feed us, but we had our bottles set out on a table, just in case we needed to feed ourselves.

Well, I needn't have bothered. It was muddy. Peanut butter, slick, don't bother to direct your bike at all, muddy. I started off solid, then hit the woods and wasn't prepared for the trail to be that slick. I got used to the feel of bike sliding and just concentrated on staying consistent. I then made the mistake of trying to shift on an uphill and my chain did some great gymnastic stunt into areas of the bike it shouldn't go.......so a by-stander helped me get it back out and straightened the derailleur enough to get me out of the woods. Of course I topped it off by sliding into the thorny vines before I hit the field and rode over to the feed zone.

Shey came through first and I thought both guys would be together, so I knew something had happened to Jansen, when I didn't see him for a while. I'm not sure how he finished his lap, as his chain was not where it should have been at all....not even on the pulleys or in the d. cage?, so who knows how he pedalled out of there, but he did. Yep, that left three of us there to feed Shey. That was one well watered guy, for sure!

Shey and Everett made podium, then we packed up our muddy stuff and headed home.

Camp Thunder GSC #1

All four of us raced the GSC race at Camp Thunder in Thomaston this past weekend. WHAT A BLAST!


First let me send out a HUGE THANKS to Sydney for feeding our whole family. We had brought a table to set our bottles on, but she was right there for each of us as we came through and that was awesome. Thanks again, chica!







That trail had EVERTHING!

The start was amazing. Dirt road to sand, long sections of large loose rocks, dips full of water, more sand, more rocks, short rocky climb, etc.

This trail was so much fun and had just a bit of everything out there. Lots of climbing, mucho off camber descents, climbing over loose rock, climbing over smooth trail, climbing on service roads, descending off camber, descending smooth pinhoti-like trail, descending twisty loose rocky trail, descending service road, and more. It really felt like mountain biking for sure and that made us all smile. There was more climbing out there than you thought was possible in middle Georgia.







Yes, it was a little wet and the mud got worse in a couple areas as the race went on, but I couldn't help but think that soon enough it was going to be uber dry/dusty and mega-hot and I would be begging for a cool rain......so I was pretty happy with the conditions.

**





Everett had a great time in his race and put on his usual power machine ride. He passed me early on and was smoothly gliding down that off-camber descent. He is a very consistent rider and it is a little known fact that he will do just about anything for Burger King fries.
*





*
This was Jansen's first race in the pro/expert 19-29 group. He rode very strong, but was quite upset that there were no cheeseburgers left when he finished. Evidentally, he had promised himself two cheeseburgers somewhere in the beginning of his third lap. (I forgot that normally there is no food left at the vendors by the time the yellow wave finishes their races...ooops) He was very pleased that Sven Dahlonegy was not there to knock him over at the start.......




*





Shey was happy to be out on the trail again. He rode hard and was very pleased to be racing against these strong guys.




Yep, remind me not to wear that jacket on the podium, again. Poor Angie has a picture of my blinding white tummy in her podium shot....sorry girlie.

Anyway, had a great time. It felt good to be out riding and we were not the last ones to leave the race! Yeah!

Riding with Friends

The family headed to Pinhoti to ride a couple weekends ago. When we pulled in, Jafer and Elizabeth were there waiting, so we split off into groups and had a really fun day of riding in the mountains.

*

Elizabeth and I started out on a 3+ hour ride, but we were armed with mini-snickers and granola bars, so we knew we could last all day....ha!

When we climbed to the top there was still snow on the ground. Shey and Jafer said there was deeper snow at the top of Mt Town or Potato Patch (I can't remember which) and Jafer definitely saw Sasquatch tracks.

*
Uh, so Elizabeth has this thing about big trees.........and so does the niner........
*

Fun day with friends.

*

Chainbuster race at Heritage Park

We decided to race the six hour race at Heritage this weekend as 2/two person teams.


This is part of a 6/12 hour race series put on by Chain Buster Racing and they are closely affiliated with Dirty Spokes Racing. These two guys seem to really support each other and their races are top notch! That means fun for everyone!


http://www.chainbusterracing.com/home.php


http://www.dirtyspokes.com/mtb.php

So Shey decided to divy up the teams like this: Shey and Kari, 2 person co-ed : Everett and Jansen 2 person male.


Here is Jansen lining up for the start. It was chilly (in the 50's I think), but we knew we would warm up fast on the course.

I think the guys were thankful that there was no Lemans start! Shey has wings from the camera he was wearing on his helmet.

Everybody getting ready for the parade lap. Nope, unfortunately there is no waving or throwing of candy......bummer!

Nathan, Andy, Jansen, Shey and Jeremy coming through on the parade lap. Fast!

We all thought the course was be very sloppy, but considering all the rain we got this past week, the course was in great condition. There was some mud and slick roots, but it was fast, fast, fast and not nearly the mess we imagined it would be!

The weather was perfect. Not too hot and not too cold. It was windy and I think that helped to dry out much of the trail. Shey coming through after his last lap. He was on a single speed. I rode my single speed last weekend, but had gears for this race, and the shifting was smooth, so no complaints.

Everett forgot his helmet, so we ran around asking if anyone had an extra, right before we were both supposed to hit our laps. A super nice guy let us borrow his "old Bell" helmet. That kept the guys from having to transfer their transponders and helmets!

The course felt fast with little recovery, so as a team, it was sprint, cool down, sprint, cool down. Tough, tough, tough.

It was loads of fun to see both boys out on the trail and also at the car, in between laps. Good times.

Seriously, when I came in from my first lap, there were no less than five good friends of ours who were there waiting to see how I was feeling and if I needed anything. That was pretty awesome! And other than being out of shape, I felt so much better than I have in a long time.

I'm just loving this helmet!

It was so great to hang out and ride with so many good friends.

Here are the Newman brothers. They just kept smiling and pedaling the whole six hours. I even got to ride with one of the guys around the field at the finish of a lap. Their bike handling skills are pretty amazing and they are a blast to ride with!


The expert guys.

Shey met Becky and Matt (on the right) at DSG and I got a chance to meet them this past weekend. Very nice!

To top it off, we could show our medals at the gate on the way out of the facility and pick up a 6 pack of New Belgium beer. Quick lap time updates, fast awards, good music, awesome course and beer.....I mean, does it get any better than that?????

Handmade Bicycle Show 2010

We were very excited to be able to go to the handmade bike show this year in Richmond, VA, this year.




Originally, Adam wanted to drive up there, but airfare was so cheap that everyone decided to fly, instead. We met up with Adam and Andy at the airport.




Jansen's hat, Shey and (his very good and most tolerant friend) Adam.





We got to the venue right after lunch and I have to say the show was VERY OVERWHELMING! There was sooo much to look at and it wasn't just like, "hey sweet ride" It was more like, "I think I'm gonna cry because that bike is so beautiful......or innovative.......or ingenious........or just totally crazy......then, you start to become numb and walk around for the next hour like a zombie....speaking of zombies, here is a zombie paint job.


Yes, we'll take one of these.....



No, not bowling shoes. Very cool leather, cycling shoes.

Yes, it has a flame thrower that shoots out the back.

Drool, drool... Dave Parrett was also there, from Thomson, and after we caught up on family news, he offered to hold on to my checkbook, in case I went on a shopping spree! (by the way Christian is headed to Wales to ride for pro road team, more news on that later!)

slobber....

Several bamboo bikes were on display.

The people watching was almost as much fun and the bike browsing. One of the first guys we saw when we walked in was someone in a Faster Mustache Squoat shirt!

Alexis was there, too and Jansen was jazzed to see the new damascus steel he had been working with.

Alexis actually worked with a guy who is a master at creating knives and they made their own damascus steel to place on this bike. Gorgeous!

Bilenky had a very cool set-up. They pulled one of their work benches out of their shop and brought it to the show. So, it was like walking into their shop, full of lots of interesting goodies.

One of the Vanilla Workshop bikes from Portland.



Ah, this was the best dessert ever, after a long hard day's work of window shopping.

An early flight home, put us back in time for a lovely ride at Dauset.

**