Eat-Sue (ETSU)

Um....let's start with the other people first. I have to give props to Marshal for helping us out at his first ever mountain bike race, Dan for stretching his throttle muscle and getting top ten in three events, Timmay for sticking in there and having a experience in his first A race, Chaput and Trey for doing good in the B races and Chaput going another lap in the XC for extra training, all the girls for having solid results in every event, the Matt's for getting off to a rough start but settling in by the end of the weekend, and Danny for brapping the gravity competition in his sneak line.

I probably forgot somebody so nothing against you but I just can't remember. Oh yeah, props to T-had for being coach and trying to keep me in line all Saturday.

On to my races, I just did the ST and XC. I was thinking about trying the gravity events (that thing I was talking about a while back) but it's probably better for me to concentrate on just two events for now. But we shall see in the future. The short track was a definite shock to the system as the last time I've gone at true "race pace" was back in July so that was slightly uncomfortable. There was like twenty LMC guys up at the front and they ended up dominating the race so I just rode in and tried to save myself for the XC the next day.

The rest of the day went good, I talked a bunch, hung out at the downhill, pre-rode the course and ate a ton of food. So I was happy and pinned at the same time. The XC trail was good, it was nice for a on campus trail but I am in between liking it or not. It was a fast twisty trail but it was really hard to memorizes the track and get a good flow on it. There was no "fun" sections. I'm not trying to hate on ETSU, because it was a really good track but not my favorite.

I felt soo much better on Sunday for the XC. I had gotten all that nervous energy I had on Saturday out of my system and was super relaxed. I attacked hard into the single track and pulled two LMC guys out with me. We stayed together for a lap when I opened up a little bit and put 20 seconds into the two chasers. I lead for another lap and then Aaron Bradford caught me and we rode to the end of the third lap (the race was four laps) I ended up going down really hard on a rock drop after rolling my front tire and Aaron ended up winning. After I fixed my wheel and checked my self out, I finished the race. I have no idea where I ended up but it was probably out side of the teens. That really sucks because I need some good points for qualifying for nationals. Oh well.

This weekend is the Brevard home race. We've been working on the track for a while and it's not quite finished but we should have a decent course by the weekend. It should be a good time with the Short Track, Dual Slalom, and Downhill all on Saturday and the Cross Country on Sunday. You should come over and hang out, as we are trying to have the most spectator friendly race of the season even if our courses aren't the best. About 50% of the XC is with in walking distance of the Start/Finish and we've even got a sound system up for the race. Awesome.

It's about time for class so I'd better go.
Have fun doing whatever you're doing.

Lata,
T