Another MD

Yo, I'm getting really good at the whole blog thing. Now I have a video from the race. What now?!?!? Am I cool or what?

Anyway, the longer version of my tale is still to come as I don't really feel like typing a whole lot tonight. But I am posting some pictures for you.


Only two more weeks until we are out for the summer and I have much work to do before then. My bike is still dirty from MD so that will be one of the things I need to do before then. Probably before this weekend too, as I'm driving over to Ducktown for the fourth round of the SERC calendar. I also forgot to mention that the Saint won his race by a very tight margin. Congrats bro.


Anyway on to the pictures.

White Squirrel making sure everything is in order.

Tamer getting excited about something, note the Venti Starbucks cups in the dash (race fuel).

A very happy horse; he won't tell anybody, but I gave him an extra serving of oats the night before.

The Jockey's life is now complete. The idea was to get the golf ball on to the tee but it was really hard.




Awesome people on the interstate on the way home.

Medical Doctor (MD) Update

Yo, it's pretty late so this post is going to be pretty short.
T-had decided not drvie the whole way back to the 828 so we're holed up in a hotel some where in VA.
The race went ok, to make a long story short, I flatted on the first lap and had to throw a tube in my rear wheel. I got passed by the entire Pro and half of the Semi-Pro fields. So the rest of the race was spent chasing the leaders. I was about to pack it on the 2nd lap, but I figured it would be good training so I stuck in. Picked off a few more riders and ended up 8th out of 15 ish. Not bad, but think of what I could have done if I was in the front.

I got a little bit of money so that made me happy but the fact that the UCI status was only for the junior race did not. (more on that later).

Anyway I do have some pictures, they mostly suck but whatever. The Saint is brushing his teeth so I'd better sign off.

Tiger Rage

Oops almost forgot to write this one. I was trying to decide on what to start the whole thing off with. The week end was simple, woke up on Saturday and cleaned the bike a bit. Hung out at the bike shop a bit and road my bike for a bit. So the day was made out of bits.

It rained a little bit Sat afternoon so I waited around until it stopped and went out for a quickie. It was fun, but somewhat cold. Didn’t really do anything that night, just stuck myself and went to sleep. It was nice not having to wake up super early in the morning either.

Since race preparation is not the most exciting thing in the world, I’ll skip over a bit. The race was good; they had changed the course some from the regular one. They cut out the long gravel descent and climb and everything around the lake. They had also cut a new section of trail around the start finish, it kinda sucked though as it was a new trail and everything and it was really bumpy. It would have been ok, but not really at the very start of the race. I’m nit picking though.

The race was good, a group of three rolled off the front early on. Mike, me and Zed. We swapped pulls for a lap and then Zed fell off the pace. Mike and I road together for another lap and he put in a pretty good digger up the climb. I wasn’t feeling fresh as a peach so it took me a whole another lap to close it down. I took a pull and Mike fell off the pace, so I rode the rest of the race by myself.

I was hoping I would do good at the Tiger because it is a good warm up for Greenbrier next week end. Greenbrier is a UCI race in Maryland; I went last year to pick up some extra points for the World’s race. They ended up changing the rules of the selection so it didn’t really help me. 2008 comes around and I going back up because it was a really fun, well organized race.

So since this post is pretty lame I’m adding some pictures for you folks. Hope you like ‘em.

Soggy Tsali

Once again I’m passing up on a great opportunity to finish my homework to write another blog entry. I have to say that I’m the most dedicated person I know. I mean who would do homework over blogging? Probably St. Marie…

Ha-ha, sorry buddy. I had to take a shot. Last Sunday we scooted over Bryson City for my first cross country race of the year. I was soooo excited. You can read about it on the Saint’s blog . I ended up missing the exit for Tsali multiple times. Everyone thought it was awesome, except me that is.

As someone once told me and as I have said before: “the better you get at cycling, the worse you get at everything else.” My life is not very exciting, I get up and go to class and get out and ride my bike. I have a new habit, if you can call it a habit. I time how long it takes to eat the Popsicles from the cafe. It usually takes me until the door of my room to finish the Popsicle. However, if I get an ice cream sandwich, I can finish it before I walk past all the cars by Beam Hall. Apples and Ice Cream cones are a little harder, I can walk all the way up to Tim and Danny’s room before it’s finished. I do have a little note book that I’m not using so I figured that I should start writing down how long it takes me to eat certain things on certain days. What do ya think?

Oh yeah, I should probably get back to the race. The week end was similar to a normal race weekend which is pretty much every weekend. Highlights of the weekend were: watching a huge Vandy frat party at Fontana village, watching Nor Kackilacy get beat up on in the final four, discovering the day of the race that my rear brake pads were worn down to the metal, fixing the pads, and eating some awesome muffins from our super cool sponsor, the Braken Mountain Bakery (that does not happen every race weekend by the way).

Well, we were a little late leaving the cabin, but everybody made it to the race on time. After arguing with the car parker dude about where we could park we were able to park in the Sycamore Cycles team area. Sick. Set up shop and sat around catching up with some old friends. Little E wanted to watch some awesome racing action in the new release: Stars & Bars, so I cracked open my laptop and we sat down and watched it.

I’ll skip some of the racing action, because that’s probably the most boring part. On second thought, this whole blog is pretty boring, but whatever. I got in a good warm up but was still kind of hesitant about the race. My brake pads were worn out, I was really nervous, and my shoes felt a little uncomfortable. I kept on reminding myself that some of my races came when everything didn’t seem to be working out. I got a good start, and followed Andy and Mike into the woods. By the top of the climb Sam came by and Andy fell off the pace. For another hour it was just Mike, Sam Korber, and myself. Nothing major happened after that, Mike was dropped on the climb; I hit a tree and broke my rear break line which allowed Sam to get a gap. I spent the rest of the race chasing but it was no use. I kind of fell apart in the final five miles but I was still able to keep the gap to Sam around 40 seconds.

The rest if the team did very well, as Wes got his first podium in a Pro race and St. Marie got his first podium in an expert race. Watch out for those two, as pretty soon they will have their first wins in their respective classes. Julia also won her race earlier on in the day. Pinnett, Jimy, and Gattis all put in solid performances in their races too.

I was pretty happy about how I raced, but not super stoked. This is just a small regional race and it looks like I’m doing the right thing but I really won’t find that out until July. I tell you what though; getting a good performance at the first race does wonders for your confidence. I am going to change my race schedule too, I will not be going to the GSC race in Columbus, it’s a pretty far of a drive and finals are coming up so I’m going to skip it. I might be at the Tiger Rag the weekend of the 20th. If not then the next race will be the Greenbrier challenge in Maryland. Here are some pictures of the race for you folks too. Enjoy.

Hey remember, there's one rule: everybody love everybody.


Sorry St. Marie I had to jack one of your pictures.