Off to a rough start my friends.....

My week started off pretty rough. Tara and I caught our flight out of Columbus and headed down south. Was hoping to have a nice easy flight down Friday evening, get down there and relax and have all day Saturday to chill before the race. Well, that was far from what happened. We made it to Charlotte easy peasy and then that’s when it all went south. A handful of flights got cancelled and our final option was blown to bits as well finally at 10:30pm. They cancelled the last flight to Atlanta so we were stuck in Charlotte. We shacked up in a nice roach motel that the airline suggested and finally got to bed around 2am. Up bright and early on Saturday to get back to the airport and we finally got out of Charlotte and into Atlanta around noon. Another hour car ride back to our host housing and we finally arrived for the race with a good 7 hours to spare. Yikes.

Tara and I stuck at the Charlotte airport.

Was hoping my crazy travel didn’t take effect on my legs but I was so wrong about that. Warming up I knew my legs were rough but I was just hoping they would come around.

Twilight was twilight with crazy crashes all over the place. I came pretty close to dying at the beginning of the race when a handful of guys decided to cuddle up on the pavement. The field split like the red sea and as I tried to make it around on the right side I quickly realized there was no way I was gonna make it and my only option was up and over. So I braced myself and pulled off the best bunny hop of my life. After just knicking the front wheel and handlebars that were stuck straight up in the air I smashed back down and somehow was still riding straight and not on the pavement.. shhhwwew! That could have ended ugly. Needless to say I made it through that, but jacked my carbon handlebars. I got stuck in a couple other crashes and my legs just would not get going so my night was cut short.

Pretty bummed but that’s twilight. The team rode strong and Hoppy did what Hoppy does putting himself right in the mix for the win. It was close in the end but Hoppy ended up 5th in a great ride with my good friend Rahsaan Bahati taking the win (congrats my ninga!).

With a couple days off we chilled at my old friend Brian DeRose’s house. Brian and his wife Kim put us up last year and were generous enough to have us back again this year. They have a beautiful house in Atlanta and apparently don’t mind filthy bike racers. They also have a beautiful new baby Emmy that I got to see for the 1st time. Thanks guys for putting up with us for another year!

Sunday night we were pretty bored so we headed out to a nice little place called Taco Mac. Sounds like a Mexican joint but ended up being a sweet sports type bar with over 100 beers on tap! Yes Baldy, I know you are jealous…. You would have loved this place. This was Tara’s last night with us too so we had some fun with the highlight of the night being B2D2 doing a famous shot called a buffalo fart (you don’t wanna know whats in it). Had some good beers and called it a night.

nice selection of beers....

me and T

B2D2 looking the part...

True athletes downing some chicken wings...

A nice little bike ride down to the damn on Monday and then onto our next city. We are in the car as we speak heading to Beaufort, SC where we kick of 5 days of racing tomorrow night. Hopefully I will find my legs by then! Till next time…