A Good Idea at the Time

My blogging seems to have fallen off a cliff lately... Just go with the usual excuse of busy or work or being tired or family or exhaustion or friends or riding. Choose your favorite.

Since my last posts, I've been up to a little bit of everything. Some racing, some spectating, fun rides, night rides, work, home improvements, animal rescuing, etc...

I ran the Ocho 8 Hour Race back on October 17th, which went really well. Not a huge turnout, but everything went smoothly and everybody seemed to have a great time. I think having beer and pizza makes everybody forget they rode for 8 hours on a wet and super windy day with a high of 45 degrees... Some new races are in store for next year, more details on that later.

I threw in some long training rides to get back in the lap race mentality before the local Haw Ridge 12 Hour race, but that ended up being a bust. We had downpours the three days before the race, and all morning before the race and as it started.

As people were looking like this after one lap [although, Phillipe doesn't seem to mind], I decided that paying money for the privilege of completely destroying every moving part on my bike and getting to buy a new drivetrain didn't sound so fun. That and riding 12 hours in that muck... No thanks.

To make up for it, Elizabeth, Ed, and I headed west to the Lock 4 6 Hour Challenge in Gallatin TN. I had heard of Lock 4, but never ridden there. I guessed that the SS with a 32x18 would be good since it was relatively flat. We couldn't have asked for better weather, as it was bone dry, and nearly 70 degrees... In the middle of November! The race went pretty well, and I started well. Having never ridden the course, a few rocky sections and dropoffs caught me off guard, but after a couple laps,I had it down. I rode decently, but was playing catchup all day. I managed to slot into 2nd with a lap or two left and held it to the end... SS was the tough class of the day, with SSers taking 3 of the top 5 overall solo spots.

The course was tons of fun, fairly flat, but with enough rocks, jumps, and techy sections to keep it interesting. It was really really twisty, requiring you to constantly accelerate. I think a 19 would have been a bit nicer gear since you had to spin it back up every 30 seconds... Overall a good fun day, 3 podiums for the car, and the longest day ever... We got up at 5:30 am, and made it home at 11:30 pm...