SERC Reddick

OK, I'm back. Sorry it took a while, been sick and the dsl has been down. Before I get started I need to give some background. Last year I was riding my old Kona Nunu for the race because the team machines hadn't come in yet. Half way around the course I clipped a rock and ripped my whole derailleur off the frame. Luckily Andy had his old bike too so I could race that.

This year was no better, I was almost all the way around the course and my freaking crank fell off. I had to hoof it back to the car and get the tool to fix it-bad news I stripped the bolt that hold the whole thing on. Once again Andy came to the rescue, I nabbed the crank off Dustin's bike (more on that later). The legs felt good, Tasha was a little worried about this hill at the start. It was a steep 100 meter long, off camber, slippery drit climb about a half mile away from the start. I told her to run it to save time. No such luck for me, I was racing pro the next day and if you can't make it up the hill then you're going to be fed to the ravenous spectators ( in other words you'd be dropped). So FSA and all that.

Had a good meal that night at Panera and did some shopping at Publix. I was going to try the Coke trick which is taking a bottle of flat coke at the end of the race-you get enough caffeine and sugar to turbo it to the finish.

Race day started with Andy waking me up so he can have somebody to talk to-thanks Andy. Got registered, watched some of the Beginners and made fun of this kid who had his dad write his number on his calf-backwards. It was a little cool at the start so I warmed up with some arm warmers and an undershirt. The legs felt good, not great so I was a little hesitant about how my tactics would play out. It was nice being the first group to start, you just roll up and your off, no waiting around.

Got a good start, third into the woods made it up the hill the first time and I was on Andy's wheel-everything going good. Travis Livermon made it up to the very front and set the pace for the first lap. It wasn't very fast though, so I felt really good. Earl then went up the front on lap 2 and started to push the pace. He attacked Andy and got about a 10 second gap Andy was about 5 seconds ahead of us-the lead group of four: Me, Tinker, Robert, and Woodall.

Now I was in good position because Andy was ahead of me and I was blocking for him in my group. But just before the climb I hear this really soft, almost girlish voice: "On your left".
BAMM!! There goes the, what: 5 time 24 Hour National Champion, multiple World Cup winner, and has probably been RACING twice as long as I've been alive. What am I gonna do? I have to protect my team leader but I'm racing Tinker dude! Anyway, I had to get on his wheel and I tell you what, man, he was bookin. We were hauling up that climb. I stayed on his wheel for the next couple of miles until I got caught on a tree, letting Robert and Woodall go by. Just as I was trying to get caught on to those two I flatted. It was a slow fix too, probably about 2.5 minuets. Anyway I shot me back to 11th place. The worst thing about the flat was that it dropped me off in the middle of no where-there was no body coming past that I could hook up with and get a ride up the front. There was no way I could get motivated either. Bummer.

So to make a long story short, I cruised in 10th out of 16. An OK result. I was a little disappointed about flatting, but it happened just as the legs were starting to hurt. On to Dustin's bike. Dustin Broadaway is a new guy on the team. He is a Beignner racer out of Macon. We had ordered his bike with SRAM components but it came with full 2007 XTR. He only paid for SRAM so we had to swap out all the XTR stuff. In the end I got some brand new XTR brakes and a rear derailleur. Bad A dude.

So I've got to run down to the bike shop to fix both bikes up for the coming weeks (Tasha will take my FS out to AZ while I race the hardtail at Columbia). Sunday I think I'll hit the GSC race in Macon and depending on who comes out I'll be favored to win the whole shebang.
Peace
TC