"Road Trip"

This weekend was the first road trip of the mountain bike season...well sort of if you do not count the Snake Creek Gap TT and oh yeah the 6 hour race we did in GA. Ok so it is not the first road trip of the year.Anyway the race(chickasaw classic) was held in Columbia Tennessee which is a 5 hour drive.Nate and I decided to drive down Saturday pre ride the course and stay the night and race on Sunday.

The trip down went well, no issues just a little rain. Once there we checked into the hotel and decided to head on out and preride the course. The course was ~ 15 minutes from the hotel which meant we could sleep on Sunday. Nate and I arrived at the venue picked up our race packets and went to check out the course. We decided not to preride after seeing other riders coming off the course caked with mud.We did not want to clean our bikes and ourselves twice. So back to the hotel where boredom and rain sat in. We could not connect to the wireless internet so we switched to a room with a hard wired connection. Nathan surfed the Net while I channel surfed. I was going nuts being cooped up in a hotel room with nothing to do.

Dinner time finally roled around and we were able to escape the confines of our room to go out and eat some great Mexican cusine. The best Mexican food I have had in some time. I believe the name of the restaurant was "Panchos". After dinner it was back to the room and prep the bikes.I put lithium grease on my chain and switched the rear tire to a Michelin "Wildgripper".

Sunday dawned gray and gloomy. We packed up, stopped at the Waffle House for breakfast and on to the race we went. The course was awesome, slightly damp but a well designed course with good flow. This was the first race I was at a disadvantage with running a single front chain ring. The start was ~ 1/2 mile of flat smooth double track and pavement. The guys that finished 1st and 2nd simply rode away from me at the start while I spun fevershly with my 32 tooth front ring trying to stay in contact. My tire choice was spot on. I only wish I could have found my other Michelin Wildgripper Mud tire. I put the one I had on the rear. The front tire was a 2.1 and it floated a bit in the mud where as the 1.9 wild gripper punched through to the hard surface and hooked up great. I also sprayed the drive train with lithium grease and had no shifting issues...Muddy conditions = Michelin Mud tire and lithium grease!!

I finished 3rd in the Masters 50+ expert/sport category.After finishing I clean up and went to watch Nates race. Watching a mtn bike race is rather boring, the lap times were ~ 50 mins and you see the racers ~2 mins. I tend to become rather fidgety during this time and usually call and bug people (diana,amber cycling buds etc) to relieve my boredom.Nate finished 3rd in the pro category and received a nice payout.

The trip home was uneventful and we arrived back at the house @ 11:30 pm. I have Monday off and will hopefullt get a ride in a some chores done.
I hope everyone has a great week and next weekend is Tsali!!!!!!!!
I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!