Finally...a Muddy cross race

Today was the make-up race for the GACX series. I was orginally planning on doing this race because i wasn't making the trip to Savanah, but with my DNF, i still have a big goose egg for points in one race....shucks. Today's race was in Conyers, GA. After a beautiful day on Thanksgiving, and okay weather on Friday, it rained all day saturday. (oh, did i mention Georgia Tech beat Georgia on Saturday!!!!) It was raining this morning as Sara and I drove out to the race, so we knew it would be fun. The course had a bunch of off camber soup, with some real squishy sections, two stream crossings and some slick hills that felt like you turned the pedals twice as much as normal because the back tire was searching for traction. I finished 8th out of 17, so not too bad. I stayed upright the whole race too. :-)

Here i am making it to the top of the slick hill.

A nice after the race shot, with a close up on the muddy bike below. I finally had an excuse to wash the bike.

Oh BTW....Sara is Pregnant with Twins!!!!

GACX races 5 and 6

I feel old and tired. I think i just haven't trained as much as i have in previous years. I need to learn how to train smarter. GACX race 5 was in Blairsville, GA. It was the first hilly race, and for some reason my legs were dead. I ended up finishing 9th out of 12....OUCH. The next race was in Winder, a nice flat race with lots of tight turns on grass. 3 sets of barriers and a beach run....I thought we were only supposed to have two sets of barriers. So what if the third set were trees, if they were placed there to use as barriers, they are man made, if the tree falls across the course then they are a natural obstacle. Below are few pics that Sara took. The bottom pic is of my friend John who is trying out CX for his first time this year. GO BIG JOHN!!!

When in Rome...DNF GACX race 4

I've been pretty lucky with my cyclocross races, i haven't crashed much and i haven't had a flat in a few years...knock on wood. Today made up for lost time. The course in Rome took advantage of the only hill in the area...the Levee along the river. We went up and down the hill several times and even road along the side for some up and down off camber on grass....oh joy. I made it almost through the first lap when i hit one of the sharp down hill grass off-camber turn, rolled my front tire off the rim, the wheel dug in, i flipped over the side of the bike and the guy behind me came crashing into my bike and got tangled up in it. I jumped up to get going and realized their was a bunch of grass and dirt in between the tire and rim where it rolled, my handle bars were about 70 degrees out of wack and my right shifter was messed up. I didn't want to try and force the handlebars straight with my carbon steer tube, so i had to call it a day. Next race i'll carry a multi-tool. Live and learn. I should have some nice bruises on my calves tomorrow.

On a positive note...nothing was broken on the bike.

This is right after the start....i didn't make it this far again, where the guy is re-mounting his bike is right about where i crashed the next time around.


The first time up the hill you could ride it easy, then there was a u-turn back down and another u-turn back up, I opted to run since it was just as fast, and different muscles...litte did i know my race would be over in about 30 seconds. Not finishing sucks!!! I think i might put a mtn bike in the pits next time.

JUST ONCE, I WOULD LIKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE FOR A CANDIDATE I LIKE,

not just picking what i consider to be the lesser of two evils. It hasn't happened yet, may never happen. The problem is, when a candidate tries to please everybody...they really can't say anything. They speak in generalities and never on specifics. They also make tons of promises that they know they can't deliver on. Kind of like when you interview/accept a new job, they tell you all sorts of great things that you will be doing, and changes the company is in the process of making....only expect 20-30% of that to happen. Even though that may overly optomistic, it is usally about right.

Now we just wait and see what "CHANGES" are made and if they are good ones or bad ones. I wish there had been a candidate pushing the Fair Tax. It just doesn't get any better than that. You get all of your income and only pay taxes on what you spend, plus the government sends you a prebate each month to cover the taxes you would pay on the necessaties. Everybody wins, the poor don't pay taxes and people who don't normally pay taxes would (paying under the table, drug dealers etc) would actually end up paying taxes. Pretty sweet huh? But if we didn't have Taxes to fight about...political races would probably be dull and what would all the lobiest and IRS agents do? Oh well.

GACX Race #3, pushing it to the limit

The third race of the GACX was this past sunday. It was a beautiful day, much warmer than it was the week before. The course was a bit different from last year, they put a HUGE!! spiral of Dumb right next to the start finish, then added a steep climb through the woods, two sets of barriers and one sandy run-up with a log at the bottom. Very long laps, we only did 5 in my race.

After the race i checked my HRM to see what the Heart was doing during the race. For 49 minutes i average 171 bpm with a max of 182 bpm. I would say i was going pretty hard. I finished 7th out of 20. Not too bad, but it sure would be nice to be able to hang with the front guys.

Here are some pics that sara took. I figured Mark would appreciate them since i made an effort to smile for the camera. Also i didn't want to look cooked again.