TV and Leg Speed

The past couple of days have been interesting for TWAF. On Wednesday the TV crew from Burlington came over and shot their story on TWAF. It'll be interesting to see how that comes out. It sounded like it'll be airing next week, we'll keep you posted.

Then yesterday was race one of the Importech and Red Jersey summer series up at Bear Notch. Depite loving the course up there I've had my share of issues racing there in the past and yesterday wasn't any different. On my warmup lap I came into one of two water crossings on the course and my front wheel went out from under me and down I went- completely underwater. So my "warmup" started with a nice ice bath. Needless to say my confidence was shaken on that water crossing and I ran them for the duration of the race. I think that turned out to be a good idea as everyone I saw trying to ride them would end up falling about halfway across, or at least they'd loose traction and you'd watch them fight with their bikes and expend a lot of energy.

The fields weren't huge and TWAF was only represented by myself and NK, but we took 2nd and 3rd in our division. During the race I pretty much stayed well within myself only putting in big efforts when I was trying to pass, my first big effort came on the first lap and I was quite proud of myself as I blasted by three people on one of the logging roads. With good speed going into a piece of single track and began to set my sights on the next group ahead and putting a bit of distance on those I had just passed. A momentary lapse in concentration and I blew a corner and slammed into a tree. As I was pulling myself out of the weeds the three I had passed a couple more that must have been just behind me when I made the past sailed by me. One of them was NK himself. I got myself put back together and chased back to that group and sat at the back until we got to another passing zone. I was able to move up the group slowly, finally reaching the rear wheel of A1's old hard tail (Dr. Laracy)- that SOB is strong and that was effort #2 staying on his wheel. I rode behind him for the rest of the first lap and part of the second before he began to fade a bit on the climb. It was then off in pursuit of Mike Geldermann. He took a while to catch up to but soon he and I were trading off on who would take a pull. Some of the roots were getting a bit slick and Mike was having a tough time keeping the bike upright, but every time I'd get in front of him he'd crush himself to pass me on the logging roads. On the final lap I put in big effort #3 and passed him for good and tried to get enough of a gap that he wouldn't come back. It was then off to see if I could catch Jean. I was slowly pulling her back and knew that I should be able to get her on the final climb but that I'd have to catch and drop or else I'd risk towing her in and we'd have to duke it out in the finish sprint (did I mention Jean is damn strong and I'm pretty sure all she does is ride and workout in the gym- sign me up for that deal!) Effort #4 hurt the most as it was a good 400 meter all out uphill sprint, but it worked and I rode the remainder of the lap easily and came in 2nd in my catagory. We then hung out for the good wraps from Grind'n'Gears and the awards. In the raffle I won $25 to Shannon Door and a new pair of shades- it was worth the quart of blood I lost to the mosquitos (remember to not only look to see if you have bug dope- but check to see if there's anything left in the bottle!) NK won some goods as well, and once our numbers had been drawn we bailed to the safety of the car.

Next up will be the first race of the GGTOC series on July 6th. The season is here, and Jay is just over a month away- yahoo.


DEA