Fantasy Island With Bike Porn

Smiles Everyone - and yes they did - lots of good bike porn pics today. Egg will edit them and post. All I can say is - everyone road awesome. Nobody gave up and to my knowledge, nobody walked a climb. Great bunch of guys, and thanks to all of you for your time and understanding with the short guy (ok I mean AJ - haha). I am so impressed with the Cows!

Evening At Helen

This is the first picture of the weekend, more riders will arrive Thurs.

We arrived at Helen about 5:30 with pretty much uneventful day. AJ had a 3 hour nap, which made potty breaks easier. Going through the mountains our car started making a really weird sound - scary - but Jeff discovered it was probably a limb stuck in the wheel.

Egg and company arrived about 45 minutes after us and they all went out for a "limber the legs up" ride. The weather is beautiful and promises to be that way most of the weekend.

Outta Here

Bags are packed, car is almost done, cooler in the morning and WE ARE OUT OF HERE! AJ bugged the stuffing out of me today on why there was a seat missing. He told everyone he saw he was going to Helen GA. Hope to get lots of pictures - bummed that the new jerseys didn't make it. Want to make sure I get good pictures of the roads that they will be climbing.

Bellbrook Tri

First race of the year in the record books. Jeff's biggest fear was getting out of the canoe and not being able to run. It was a little cold and damp, not good for old man joints. We got there early, it was fun to see people we haven't seen in 6 months. Everybody was checking out each other - who has gained weight - who gained muscle over the winter, etc. Lots of talk and laughs, then it was crunch time. The river appeared to running fairly fast. Jeff and Shawn had a launch time of 8:06 - 7 minutes after the first boats. I sat on a log taking pictures a little down stream. The was a nice little "curve" at the start and many teams had trouble maneuvering it. Jeff and Shawn took off and seemed to be in a good groove from the beginning. Then the sky decided to open up buckets of water. Not a good time for that to happen. More on that later. At the end of the run portion they were near the front of the pack - which means they made good time between the canoe and run. Jeff seemed to get a good go on the bike - a small climb at the very beginning. The first person in on the bike was Shawn, followed by a few others. At this time I had no idea what had happened to Jeff. Of course I imagined the worst thing that could happen - he had gone down or his knees just gave out. Next thing I saw him coming in. Glad that was over. Now I finally got all the details.

Canoe went really well (they actually had the fastest canoe time of the day). One of the teams that took off earlier had returned to their car (next to our truck) soaking wet. The current was so strong and the river has many curves, they tipped and their canoe got stuck under logs in the river. They actually had to swim back to the launch (and were frozen from the cold water). Jeff said his run went well, was able to get out of the canoe and run with really no new problems. He held back a little on the down hills (which is his forte) in fear of further damaging his ankle. The bike started out fairly well. The traffic was not maintained and it was an extremely busy. Jeff got held up in traffic, threw a chain and not familiar with the route held back until another cyclist told him which way to go.

All in all - wonderful day. Second place is really good considering the team they lost to. One was a cross country star at his college, his team mate was his coach. They left Danville KY after a meet, slept in their car and raced with 3 hours sleep. I can't imagine how well they would have done on a full night sleep! That is what makes this sport fun - you never know who will show up.

Guess our weather was better than Crilli and Toler's. Talked to Crilli's mom the morning and she said their was rain, hail, thunder and lighting. But it looks like Crilli's race went "well".

HELEN GA - 4 more days - YEAH

Off and Running

Saturday officially starts Jeff's season. He has his first triathlon with Shawn at Bellbrook. I pray for a no chain day! Knees are sore, ankle hurts, but I know Jeff, he will kick it in and get it done!

Tour De Georgia

I (Noose) picked up the VeloNews today (actually it was Ezio that showed it to me). An excellent article on the Tour. It shows the stages, jerseys and what they mean - good article on Brasstown Bald. Now I will only have to ask a 1,000 questions instead of a million!

Also saw and ad for Oakley - awesome new lenses. But the cool part was the quote:

"Pain is temporary, it may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quite, however, it lasts forever." --Lance Armstrong

One Week

One week until we head for GA. Seems like yesterday everyone was planning on the trip. I have checked the weather forecast - which Wed and Thur keep changing. Looks like rain (at least today's projections show that). BUT it will not rain all day - surely Ma Nature knows there are guys with bikes to ride. At this time Fri and Sat look good.

For AJ and I - it will be good to get out of town. Goose? Hard climbing during the day - fun at night!!!