Rampaging

For some reason, I wasn't too excited about making the trip down South and the drive through a white-out snow storm didn't help. I thought we were going to be in a 2 semi, 10 car pile up at one point. It's amazing there are not more crashes on the freeway. There are lots of really bad drivers when conditions get dicey.

We finally did make it to my neighbor's condo and I fell into bed. When I looked out the window in the morning to see blue sky and red rock, my mood improved dramatically. By the time we made to the venue and started talking with old friends, I was down right happy.

The race went much better than expected. I was a little faster than last year with much less time on the trainer, no structured workouts and taking up Nordic skiing. Darrell promised the Nega-Coach would work and he was right.

The front group was quickly out of sight and I had a good time duking it out with Tim, Carl, Red Rock Dave, Bob and Darrell. Bob was kind enough to pull is annual March last lap blow up, Carl was kind enough to flat on the last descent, and Tim was kind enough to cramp on the last climb so I got by all three. Darrell put the hurt on me on the last climbs and I didn't get back to him until the last corner. He was not kind enough to let me out sprint him. As we went into the chute, I decided 7th place was not worth putting the Doc into the barrier, but I thought about it. RMR was going on at the same time after all.

Tanner had some good and bad. He lead the first climb but crashed on the second descent pretty hard. He re-grouped enough to finish 5th in his first shot at the 19 - 19 Expert. He was a little disappointed, but happy to be able to put the hurt on guys on the climbs. He'll just get better. The old man was proud.

Some friends had good showings. Reed Topham was 4th in the 40 + Sport again, but took 5 minutes off last year's time. Nice job. I had to talk Mike Luper into racing Expert because he hadn't ridden an MTB in a couple years and only started riding with any regularity last year. He finished 4th in the a stacked 30 - 39 field and put something like 4 minutes on me. Remember you heard his name here first. The guy can motor.

I "borrowed" some photo's to show off the new kit design. It got lots of good reviews. I'm happy with how it turned out. Dave put it to good use by easily winning RMR in the oval. There's certainly more of that to come. He set a record for crit wins last year and he's looking for more.

Tanner without blood.

Tanner with blood.

I didn't get the arm warmers pulled up all the way for the picture.

Congrats to BK on his close 2nd (1st Utahn). He and Kenny showed once again that single speeders maybe crazy, but they sure go fast.

T and I have survived a day and a half without JoAnn. We're just taking it day by day. The first thing JoAnn said when she heard it's snowing was "You two better not skip work and school to go ski!". How could she think we'd do such a thing? The girls enjoyed 70 degree weather while hitting the National Mall, Arlington National Cemetery, Erin's desk in Kennedy's office and much more.