Cohutta 100 cont.

Well, these things take time as my Dad would say.

The start is about two or three miles of pavement and went very quick probably because everyone wanted to get in the single track and out of the cold. My hands were stinging, long finger gloves would have been nice. Good position in the single track, maybe top 8 or ten. A gap opens up on the first small decent and here we go, lost site of the front group and start pushing harder. Pass and get passed by a few riders and finally catch the front chase group of Brandon D, Andy Mills, Harlan Price and a few others. We do some chatting and ride a long time together, but no one seems to be pushing too hard. Brandon and I do most of the work for a while since the other riders seem very content. The course starts to flatten out and I keep thinking to myself, we really could be making up lots of time if we could work together, why are we not- and the answer comes up just around the next corner. We just caught Tinker and Chris, they see us and Tinker takes off, not hard but enough to get out of site. Chris gets on the back of the train and we do some more work or Brandon and I do.

The Blue Whale - My hippie roots are showing.

I can't believe that we haven't taken the time to show off our newest member of the family. After a short debate, we decided to purchase an old VW bus. It's a 1989 vanagon with westfalia bench in the back that makes out into a bed.

Shey has been sneaking it from me in the mornings, so I haven't had the chance to drive it, yet.

We took it to the 12 hour race this weekend and it was so sweet! The boys and I just lounged around and stretched out our legs in the back. Super nice place to chill and it had room for all our gear, too. We loved having it there. I understand it will take me an extra 10 hours to get to any race, now and only one speaker works...but, that's okay because the stereo system is so bad that you can't understand the music anyway!

The oil light isn't buzzing at us anymore and the air conditioner isn't blowing hot air...all thanks to Shey and his dad. Thanks guys!

I am very, very excited about taking this out on road trips and hope it holds together for us. (I think it feels like one of the cool kids, now that we put some stickers on the back window.)

Kari

12 Hours of Yargo

12 Hours of Yargo

Results:

Shey - 1st Place Overall Solo Male

Lindner's and Adam - 3rd Place Co-ed


This weekend we all raced at the 12 Hours of Yargo. Shey competed in the 12 hour solo event and the boys and I entered as a co-ed team with our family friend, Adam Jones. (we seem to be able to talk him into doing all our crazy stuff with us!)

We also had a surprise visitor for the weekend. Shey's dad, Glenn, drove over from Texas and spent the weekend watching our crazy family race in the dirt! I think he had a lot of fun.

Race Report:

Man! What a beautiful trail!! I would pick the cooler weather over the heat and dust from last weekend, any day.

We had a great time and it was really a shame that there were timing difficulties because everything else was perfect.

Jansen decided that he would go out for the first lap and he laid his bike at what he thought was the far end of the lemans start (so he could run farther and hop on his bike ahead of a lot of people).....well, when I got to the start, the poor guy was way at the back of the riding start. So I moved him up a bit to mid-pack with Kate, Aimee and Rob and hoped I didn't upset anybody. I'm sure they were thinking, "Why are you putting a 12 year old in front of me."

So they took off and came around the parade lap and Shey looked like he was going to have a good day and Jansen had already moved up to a much better position.

When Shey came through the first lap I could tell by his body position up the grassy climb that something had happened and he was a little "off". Once he got closer I could see that he had fallen hard. I found out this morning that he hit a bridge pretty hard with the side of his face, was knocked out for a couple seconds and woke up on the ground. He has a pretty swollen cheek today and some decent sized gashes on his chin, that he is being very stubborn about and won't tape up. Goober.

Jansen came through just a couple minutes behind the lead group and must have flown through that first lap. It's the hair. I was so excited for him!

I was next and had a lot of fun out on the trail. Once I figured out that the trail was not as slippery as everyone thought it would be, I had a great time. Small breathing problem when I was almost finished with the lap and I forgot my inhaler (that was a little scary), but it all worked out fine and I didn't have any other issues. The roots were very slippery in the sections where the trail was holding water, but otherwise it was fast.

Adam Jones went out next and I could tell that he gave it his all when he got back in. I don't think he had ever sprinted a faster lap. Great guy. I can't tell you how cool it was to have him on our team.

Then Everett went out. He usually has lap times within a minute or two of his brother's. He was out a little longer than I thought he would be and found out that his bike was not behaving. Dropped the chain 7 times and not able to shift. Adam said it was not fixable today. So we shared my bike. "old blue" Everett still had a very strong lap.

Jansen went out again and passed the mean bean guys. I went out and they passed me. And that was how it went for most of the race.

All three of my teammates stayed very consistent.

Adam sprinted hard so that I would be able to hold our 3rd place position on the last night lap. I was laughing at times during that last night lap and I was flying down the descents, because it always amazes me that we are crazy enough to strap HID lights to our helmets and ride at race pace in the dark. Very cool!


Shey's Dad completely enjoyed the race and wants to get a mountain bike to ride around his ranch. He said he has at least 2 miles of trails that he can ride. Another Lindner on a bike!! It was nice that he could watch everyone race all at one time.

Shey and his dad, Glenn. We were so glad he came for a visit!

Nancy, Adam's wife and our very, very good friend was the pit crew for Shey's 12 hour race. I can't thank her enough for filling my shoes and doing a bang up job! Thanks so much, girlie!

Shey had an awesome first place finish with 13 laps completed in the mens pro/expert category. His light battery went dead on the last lap and he rode in behind another rider.

Again, it was really great to see everyone out there. All of our friends raced incredibly strong and we see every weekend how lucky we are to have these awesome people surrounding us.


Kari

Ol' Blue is ever faithful!