Reagan Park TT

Trying to get back into the swing of blogging.



The Reagan Park TT has come and gone another year.

I went for a little course recon on Friday with Chip Meek and Jeff Pendlebury, and the trails were ripping fast. Chip had the lines down, and following him through a few laps definitely helped a ton.

Come raceday, the trails were a bit greasy at spots from the previous night's rain, but all things considered, weren't too bad.

I had maybe ten riders start before me, within maybe 10 minutes I started picking people off one by one. Staying smooth in the corners and jumping hard at every opportunity. For once in my life I felt good.

All was going well, until I ran into a slower vet open expert. Being the considerate mountain biker I am, I tried to politely ask for a pass when he got the chance to slide out of my way.

No response...

Getting a bit less patient, I started demanding a pass: "Yo man coming through... move it!"

Still nothing. I started looking for a split second in which the twisty trail would allow me to pass without crashing into a tree. Lo-and-behold I got a little too ahead of myself and washed my front wheel out on a stick outside the trail. Fucking splendid. Note to everyone, if you're getting passed in a TT by someone who started like 5 minutes after you, get the hell out the way.

Back on the horse. I saw Chip gaining on me through the switchbacks. It was now my goal to not get passed by him. About 2 seconds after thinking this, I ate shit. Whoops.

He went by me like I was standing still. Impressive.

Motoring back to the finish, I ended up in third place with a time of 43:29. That's like 4 minutes faster than when I did the race in 2009, so not complaining.

Expert turnout was weak with 5 people. I got 3rd, which rules, but out of 4 finishers, it could be a lot better. Where's everyone at?

Home Free

Made it back to the 'burbs last night at about 11. 12 hours to get home. Ouch.

23 hours of riding in the last 5 days = tired me.

Tired me = no blog updates.

Now that I'm at home and near the coffee machine I'll put some updates together!

On Failure

The Cohutta 100 was a fucking disaster. No questions about it.

I started off the race tactically stupid and got worked over position wise. After that it was a nightmare from there.

The heat was something I was aware of and cautious about, but it still took its toll. Some days you have it and some you don't. I didn't have it, and short of pulling the plug, I decided to just treat it as a training race (albeit an insanely expensive one) and trudge on through. Finished in 8:27, which is about an hour off of my goal. I'll write about it a bit more later on this week.

On the non depressing front...

A buddy of mine is letting me use his cabin in North Georgia for the week. Holy carp it's awesome up here.

Rode a slow recovery loop over Burnt Mountain on Sunday, got 3 hours in on the MTB in Elijay in the Bear Creek and Pinhoti trails today and am waking up ass-early tomorrow to do Brasstown Bald.

All sorts of sweet power data and photos and ride reports to come. I'm getting a phatty suntan too.

Whoa! Blogger Battle Update

BIG CHANGES IN THE BLOGGER BATTLE!

Due to some technical snafu, Blue Ridge Adventures is now moving the blogger battle voting to facebook.

Thanks to everyone who voted from the get-go, but those votes are now void :-(

THE NEW LINK TO VOTE IS HERE. Thanks for your support everyone.

- John

RATL #1 aka I finally won a road race!

Quick reminder / plea for mercy...

Everyone vote for me for the Pisgah Stage Race Blogger Battle! Currently sitting in fifth. I know my dedicated friends / enemies can help me get into the top 2 spots and win this free entry!

Ok on to the race report.



I put carbon wheels on my bike, so you know I wasn't fuckin' around.

The race started super easy as every cat 4 race does. We noodled around for a few laps, then a few people started to get into the argy bargy side of things.

Team memember extraordinare Roberto went with a few moves early, but nothing stuck.

Weston Flick and another dude got feisty and went for a prime, and were brought back right at the line with myself and 2 other dudes countering the move.

Sweet baby ray, me and the other two dudes were clear.

Now we had maybe 5 seconds. Time to do some work to stay away. We actually worked together as a cohesive unit to get away. I might have been doing a little too much work, but I felt strong and I was determined to keep us away.

We eventually stretched our gap to about a minute, and then the cat and mouse games started. The Ride-On dude in the break with me was skipping pulls and when he was on the front he was not in the wind for two long. So either he was hurting or saving his energy for the sprint.

Funk dat. I went with maybe 2k to go, figuring if they wanted to win this race, they had to get by me first. I was brought back somewhat quickly, and that let me get on the Ride-On dude's wheel.

Game time.

I jumped right after we went over the bridge, and sprinted as fast as my little legs could take me. Saw the ride on dude out of the corner of my eye, so I got scared and had to throw my bike, bummer as I couldn't do my double flip-off salute I had planned. There's always next time.

First freaking place!



That's it.

Cohutta 100 this week then a week in N. Georgia to get some heavy duty miles in the legs.

Oh yeah... VOTE FOR ME!

The Big News... Pisgah Stage Race Best Blogger Contest!

I figured my blog needed a bit of a shot in the ass as the race season was upon us and I'm sitting here with a broken hand.

What better way to do that to enter the Pisgah Stage Race Blogger Battle!

I don't know why they made it seem like I entered to take out Team Dicky aka Rich Dillen, but needless to say I plan on taking everyone down in a hail of 1's and 0's.

The top two vote-getters win, so I'd love any/everyone's help!

You can view the Pisgah Stage Race website here: http://www.blueridgeadventures.net/stage/

And you can vote for me here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3Q8WNCK

If you'd like to vote and share this, I'd be forever indebted to you! Might make you cookies or something.

Not sure why I look so mopey in my photo either, but that's the face I'll be making if I don't win this!

On Deck

Recovering from the broken hand quite nicely, and have been getting some good miles in on the road bike.

Cohutta 100 is in a little under 2 weeks, and I'm looking to cut some time off my finish last year. Here's my race report from last year if you're so inclined.

RATL this weekend so hopefully I'll be feeling good for that.

Some big news soon to come on the blogger front, hopefully this is the spark I need to return this thing to its former glory. Heh.