We had a really
good weekend. We drove on over to Greenville, NC for two crits. Saturday was
a four corner crit, we took 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 8th or 9th I think. I thought
that was pretty cool, but then on Sunday we topped that with 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
4th, 6th, and 8th.

I really never
thought anything like that was actually possible. I mean, I’ve read about it
and seen it on DVD’s, but to actually do it, that’s another thing entirely.
That’s pretty cool.

I rode hard this
weekend. I tried to attack and follow as much as I humanly could manage, cuz
I was tired of missing the break which I seem to have started doing well again…so
I rode hard…

Saturday’s race
pretty much stayed together till the very end. It was super aggressive and groups
were always going, but Scottie was there welding everything back. He’s pretty
strong like that.

I attacked going
into 2 to go through the final turn and just about killed myself because I attacked
through the turn and almost ran straight into the curb, but somehow I didn’t,
and I got almost a free half lap just on adrenaline, because I didn’t feel anything
for a little while…that was the scariest thing I’ve ever done on a bike. I
still don’t know if it was smart or dumb…

So I got a healthy
gap and went as hard as I could possibly go, made it to one to go, still had
a gap, went harder, down through turns 1 and 2, still had a gap, up the hill,
going as hard as I can now…about to get to the final 200m and the last two
turns, and zooooooooom, there goes Tiago flying by. He goes by, and I hit Turn
3 still 2nd, but I kinda sit up, cuz I’m blown, but then realize that I’m an
idiot, so I keep going and get 4th. That was pretty cool. I don’t know if this
paragraph is actually readable, but whatever. Those two laps were really, really
hard. I thought I had me a bike race won.

Sunday…yeah…Sunday
was a bit longer course in a nice L-shape…Scottie wasn’t there, so something
was going to go, and probably quick…I started attacking in the 1st lap, and
by the 2nd lap, I was off with Tiago and two others and we were off to the races.
After a prime on the 2nd or 3rd lap, Tiago got a gap, and looked like he was
going to ride away on his own, but after one of the riders made a hard pull,
I had a nice shot at making it across and making it a 2-up break for TIME, and
sure enough it worked out, and sure enough, I was privileged to enjoy an awful
hard 2-up break for the next 50 minutes or so.

It was so hard.
I was dying. BUT! I did get to lap most of the field. I’ve never done that before.
It was cool, because we could have done the whole deal, but it was better for
us NOT to lap the field, because we had 3 or 4 in the chase group of 7 I think,
so if we had done the whole deal, we would have brought another 5 or so people
back into the race and made it harder for the team to get some good placings.

So yeah, two-up
breaks…hard. I was completely out of control for awhile, head down, not looking
up, driving my bike like a drunkard, that style. It was awful. Erik yelled at
me to pay attention and I started to just focus on the turns and I started going
light years faster with less effort. It was embarrassing. I had been crushing
myself all day, when all I had to do was turn better and I could go faster and
not have to pedal as hard. Fancy that. Tiago hurt me badly. Coming into the
finish he wanted to sprint for it, but he would have crushed me, so I figured
it would look better to come across together with him just in front, rather
than me 100 meters back, tongue hanging out, about to fall over. Ha. It was
super cool to go 1-2 with a teammate. That was absolutely fantastic actually.

It was a really
great day for the team. We’re all doing what we need to do – there’s a very
simple plan for every race, and we all do our jobs, and it works. I always thought
there was something magical about getting good results, but it’s just a simple
team effort and being a part of every single move that goes and making sure
we have the numbers we want – that’s it. It’s hard, and it hurts a ton, but
it makes it a lot easier to know that it’s going to work.

I’m really looking
forward to going down to Jacksonville in two weeks for our first NRC race. It’ll
be a whole different type of racing, but hopefully I/we have the basics down
pretty well, so now it’s just about applying what we know and doing what we
know how to do…in a bigger race.

After my win at
Fork Shoals, things have gone a lot better…look:

1st, 11th, 8th,
8th, 2nd, 4th, 2nd.

7 best results
I’ve pretty much ever done. It’s almost funny now. I really like racing my bike
and riding as hard as I can. It hurts so bad, but I can’t begin to describe
how much it gets me going to know that I’m RACING.

It’s not just me,
not even close…Tiago is killing it, Chris is rollin, Duncan is getting faster
and faster and faster, and then Pat and Erik are just bad asses. Erik was 8th
on Sunday…I don’t think he rode his bike all week. He attacked a small group
at the end and took it two laps for 8th. It was cool. Pat is just Pat and he
rides his bike fast.

So there’s that…I
like writing about happy bike racing experiences.

The only bad thing
about the weekend: I lost my camera…or maybe it was stolen. I’m not sure,
but whatever actually happened, my camera is gone, and that bums me out, but
I’m ok, I’m not mad, there’s no reason to be mad, ok I’m mad.

Alright, that’s
all I’ve got.

k bye.