Jennifer Dilworth Hynes — mtbchk

Thursday, May 1 and Friday, May 2:

(written May 5 after we got back in town)

Thursday, we ended up touring the Colorado National Monument and taking bunches of pictures.  It was REALLY cold and windy.  We had snow flurries on and off all day.  From what we could see, the Bookcliffs trails were probably snow-covered, and much of the higher elevations were snowed in, too.  So, we did the “tourist-thing”.
 
Friday we headed over to Moab.  The drive down scenic Hwy 128 was absolutely beautiful.  The highway follows the Colorado River down in the canyon.  We also enjoyed a great blues show on the local radio station while we drove…
 
We rented bikes at Poison Spider in Moab.  They had some cool stuff on super-duper sale, so we also got t-shirts, stickers and socks there.  (Yes, we’re cheesy tourists).  Instead of renting another bike rack or taking the shuttle, we decided to ride to Slickrock from the shop.  It was a HUGE warm-up ride, through town, UP, UP, UP a road for a few miles (did I mention all UP?)
 
We hit the Slickrock.  It was fun.  VERY steep, but fun.  It was a mostly smoothe ride, but the downs were straight down, and the ups were straight up.  I wouldn’t say it’s a “Beginner trail”, but there were a BUNCH of newbies out there trying.  The weather was absolutely beautiful — mid sixties, the sun was warm and there was a cool breeze.  We met a bunch of nice folks from all over.  We ran into Perry Lee (local racer) who noticed Brian’s Trailblazer jersey.  That was pretty random.
 
It was a fun ride, about 13 miles of trail, plus the ride to/from town.  You really have to pay attention to the white blazes on the slickrock.  If you aren’t looking, it would be REALLY easy to go off the side of a cliff.
 
We headed back to Hot Tomato’s in Fruita for dinner.  I got another T-shirt, and we got some stickers.  They were out of the sticker I really wanted, so if anyone heads out there, get me the one that says “Ride Bikes, Eat Pizza”.
 
We left town yesterday afternoon.  Our takeoff from Grand Junction was aborted due to a Coyote that ran across the runway as we were getting up to speed to take off…  wierd.

Other observations about Moab:
 
I’m glad we don’t share our local trails with ORVs, Jeeps, dirtbikes and ATVs.
 
Sidis are NOT a good choice on slickrock.
 
While Moab is fun, I think I prefer singletrack.
 
There are no shade trees in the desert.
 
Slickrock is FAST and it’s amazing how well tires will grip it.
 
Riding STRAIGHT down a STEEP drop is FUN.
 
My husband can climb some steeeeeeep rock.
 
I can’t.  (More of a fear of stalling out and falling backwards down a steep rock).
 
Deep sand will stop your bike very quickly.
 
The climbs out there are WAY steeper and longer than the carpet climb and goat hill put together.
 
Renting different bikes is a great way to demo new bikes, and it saves the hassle of shipping or flying with your own bike.

Wednesday, April 30:

(Written Thursday Morning, May 1)

Yesterday we headed over to do “Lunch Loops”.  It’s just outside Grand Junction, and is more of a “local” ride.  The books say that they are more technical.  They are.  We figured we’d start from Monument Road, ride up the Tabegauche Trail and then back down Andy’s trail (since that looked like one of the longer routes and wasn’t a freeride trail) and then maybe hit some other loops.  
 
Well, we chose the Tabegauche Trail to ride up because it looked like the easiest way up, and was a “road”.  Yeah, right.  Let me also point out that we had GALE FORCE WINDS yesterday as a front came through.  I got blown OFF the double track at least twice.  So, this “road” has a section in it called “Widowmaker’s Hill”.  Looks like it could be fun for the DH guys.  Not so fun to try to push your bike up.  After that, it leveled out and I could ride small sections.  I rode some cool rock gardens, and Brian is a witness that I cleaned them.   .  
 
At the top, we turned down the road at the upper trailhead and headed down to Andy’s.  It’s rated (at least most of it is) as one of the milder trails in this fairly technical area, as an M+, which seems to be right where I belong — it’s technical enough to really challenge me, but not so much that I’m walking everything. (E=easy, M=Moderate, M+=Moderate to Difficult, D=Difficult, DD=Unridable for most, Extreme).
 
So, we get onto Andy’s and the wind is whipping around, sand is blasting us, and the trail is exposed on the side of a mountain.  What I would have ridden otherwise, I walked because I was scared the wind was going to blow me off the trail and down the mountain (yes, it was THAT strong).  Then, the trail headed up.  Into large boulders.  Like, Triple-D kind of stuff that was hard enough for me to climb up, and even harder to lug a bike up.  It felt like we were going on a long, very windy rock climb with our bikes.  I looked at Brian and said, “This isn’t fun anymore”.  He was up ahead and said “It gets better from here”.  It did.  
 
The ride down was fun.  I guess the good side of all that unridable “trail” is that if it looked like singletrack, I was going to try to ride it after all that bike-carrying frustration.  I rode a bunch of technical rock gardens and drops that I probably wouldn’t have on Monday.  We rode Andy’s to Eagle’s Tail and then back to the trailhead.  That was fun.  Short, but fun.  
 
At that point, I was tired.  It seems silly, but pushing your bike and rock climbing with it is hard work!  So, we did 7.7 miles in 3 hours!!!!!!
 
It was 80+ degrees Tuesday.  It was snowing sideways this morning.  We’re waiting for it to warm up and hopefully dry out and we’ll probably head over to do the trails in the Kokopellis area that we missed the other day.

Oh, and we went to Hot Tomatos for dinner last night (that’s the place you were talking about, Tom).
 
Four thumbs up for the dee-lish-ous pizza and mountain bike atmosphere!

Tuesday, April 29:

We rode the Kokopelli’s trail systems today.  Started out Mary’s Loop to Rustler’s Loop.  Rustler’s is a “Practice Loop” and considered beginner, but it is fast and fun in its own right.  Back onto Mary’s, then onto Horsethief Bench.  The entrance/exit to Horsethief is GNARLY rock drops.  I’d love to see someone actually ride it clean.  Horsethief was awesome — great views of the Colorado River, riding on the edge, rocks, ledges, both up and down.  Then it was back onto Mary’s and then Steve’s Loop and Handcuffs.  More rocks and ledges.  Some portage.  Back on Mary’s, we passed the bottom of Lion’s loop and went on up to Mack Ridge.  Mack would have been MUCH better as a downhill run (for future reference, I think we should have taken the left onto Lions and connected to Mack in the other direction).  About halfway up Mack’s, I bonked.  Pushed a bunch of climbs that I would normally ride.  Rode down the other half of Lions at the top of Mack’s for a fast, loose, rocky double-track downhill.  Then back onto the gravel frontage road back to the trailhead. 

Horsethief:

Up close:

I’m not sure how far we rode, but we stopped a lot to take pictures and try technical sections a few times.  We probably rode for about 6 hours.  It was very hot. 

 
Things that would have been good on this ride:  More sunblock.  Butt’r.  More water. 

 

I surprised myself and did a few technical rocky sections that pushed my skills.  No falls.  The trails today were tighter, fast (in most sections), some portage over rocky sections that I’m guessing aren’t ridable for ANYONE.  Overall, the trails were nice and rocky and most of it ridable.  Some areas reminded me of a technical Dupont. 

 
I think Brian and I both agreed that we liked this area better than Bookcliffs.
 
I got the “right” bike this time.  Pivot Mach 5….  It was AWESOME!
 
Tom — we tried to go to Hot Tomato for dinner (the place across from OTE).  They were closed “for cleaning”?  We ended up at the El Tapatio next to the hotel.  Typical Mexican food.

Here are the posts I made from our trip to Fruita, Colorado back in April…

Sunday, April 27:
Woo!  We’re here, weather is beautiful.  Suddenly, my allergies are GONE, and I finally got a good night’s sleep!  
Off to ride once the bike shop opens and we can get our bikes! 
We ate Pablo’s Pizza last night and watched prarie dogs run around.  It was our very own “Meerkat Manor”.  
(p.s., I’m renting a SA-WEEEET bike, so I’ll give a report later)

Monday, April 28:
We got to the bike shop (OTE) this morning to pick up the bikes and the rack for the rental car.  They didn’t have the bike I had reserved  , someone rented it out from under me… (maybe tomorrow?).  So, I ended up with a Blur LT and Brian has a Kona Dawg.  We headed out to 18 Road (The Bookcliffs riding area).  On an ambitious whim, we rode up Prime Cut and 18 road to the trailhead, took Frontside to Joe’s Ridge, then cut over to Zippety Doo Da to take us back down to the car.  Whoa.  It’s just like what you see in the video, but steeper.  There were a couple of climbs that I pushed.  The trails aren’t overly technical, but when you add the “pucker factor”, it really makes you think twice.  We crested the first ridge and it was a steep descent with high-consequence drops on either side.  Really, the descent wasn’t that steep, but it was so loose and sandy that it was hard to not slide at the smallest turn of the wheel or lightest tap of the brake.  So, the sliding and potential for laying the bike down with not much room on either side of a sheer drop is a little frightening. 

We got back to the car, adjusted my brakes, and then headed back up the road.  We went next for “Chutes and Ladders”.  It’s exactly what the name says.  Tough pushes up hills, and then fun descents.  It levels out into a field, and is slightly downhill and fast all the way to the parking lot.  It felt like a slalom course in some places.  We came upon several cows on the trail.  One was VERY upset that we were there. Moooooo!

Tonight we went into Grand Junction for a “nice” dinner to celebrate our anniversary.  We found a microbrewery right in downtown and walked around a little.  They have cool art and metal sculptures everywhere.  Lots of “Bike art”, too.

I’ve been working some seriously long hours lately.  For those that don’t know, I’m working for our local utility.  Every so often, a plant has a big “outage” when a turbine-generator is down for maintenance.  I got volunteered to go to another plant for their (originally-scheduled) 10-week major outage and fill the engineering slot temporarily when their engineer transferred.  So, even though we just moved, I’m now driving an hour each way (again).  Well, the outage is well into its 11th week, and I haven’t had a full day off since February.  I worked 96 hours last week and have already put in two twenty-hour days this week (and it’s only Wednesday).  On the late nights, I just get a hotel room.  Last night, I went to my hotel and they told me they sold my room to someone else.  I was REALLY mad, but could hardly stand up at that point, so I didn’t have the energy to argue.  I considered sleeping in my car, but I’m renting a Jeep and didn’t think that would be very comfy.  They eventually called the Holiday Inn and got me a room there.  Since it was so late (or early, depending on how you look at it — 3:30 am), the Holiday Inn didn’t charge me for Tuesday night and had me down as an “early check-in” for Wednesday.  So, I slept in AND I have a place to stay tonight when I leave work — all for one night’s price.

I’ve been noticing funny signs around the plant.  Here are a few.  (The contents and/or “suggestions” these signs make do not necessarily reflect my beliefs or way of life — they are just funny to me, especially at 2am)

The first one is one that I pass every time I go through the door.  It’s funny in a wierd “oops,-I-might-spill-my-coffee-and-someone-could-slip-and-fall” kind of way.  There are many more hazards in a power plant than the dreaded “cube farm”…  I somehow find this one especially ironic late at night.

 

Here’s another good one:

Maybe the inspiration for a new Austin Powers movie character?:

And this last one has a story.  A friend of mine (Nikki) says that every time she sees my email signature with the plant name where I’m temporarily assigned, she thinks it sounds like a “Cheesy 70s Movie Star” name.  I told her she watched too many of “those type” movies (hint, hint, nudge, nudge):

It’s pretty bad when your family, including your 80-some-odd-old great Uncle starts getting on you about updating your blog…

So, I’ll attach the “New Years Letter” we just got around to sending out.  It is an update of the very busy year we’ve had…

 

Happy New Year from the Hynes’!

Yes, we missed our Christmas cards this year, but we’ve been really busy and figured we’d start a “New Year’s Card” fad. 

2007 has been an eventful year for Brian and Jennifer.  We got married April 28th in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains, an hour west of Asheville.  It was a beautiful weekend and a perfect wedding.  We held the festivities at Lakeview Lodge — a retreat we’ve stayed at several times in the past on mountain bike trips to Tsali.  The owners were very gracious hosts, and guests stayed in the cottages and enjoyed the hiking trail, day spa and coffee house on site.

Lakeview at night

Friday, the day before the wedding, we rode with a small group of friends, including our minister, “Preacher Rick” Hoffarth.  “Preacher Rick” performed a mock ceremony at an overlook on Tsali’s left loop, overlooking Fontana Lake.  Brian wore his Tarheel Trailblazers jersey while Jennifer rode in her Dirt Divas jersey and a veil.

Many guests also got to ride Saturday.  Brian hosted a group of about 25 riders on Mouse and Thomson loops while Jennifer was busy with wedding preparations and a bridesmaids’ brunch. 

Saturday morning, the weather was cloudy and looked like it might rain, but by the afternoon, the skies cleared and provided the perfect backdrop for an outdoor wedding overlooking Fontana Lake.  We were honored to have Preacher Rick as our officiant, with Lesley Sifford as maid of honor and Laura (Martin) Volpe and Melanie Smith as bridesmaids.  Shawn Hynes was Brian’s best man, and Doug Dilworth and Tom Mathews were groomsmen.  Brian’s niece Bridget was the ever-popular flower girl. We are so thankful to all our friends and family who made the weekend so special.

Once the ceremony and pictures were complete, everyone gathered in the tents for the reception and DJ Brian Hines (yes, that was really his name!)  Dinner, music and dancing, cake, microbrews and wine…. the evening wasn’t complete until Brian and Jennifer rode off on a pink cruiser bike decorated by our friends, the Rank Riders.

After the wedding, we honeymooned for a week on the island of St. John, in the US Virgin Islands.  We spent the week snorkeling and hiking, while also enjoying the view from the house we rented — the “Castle”.  It was a gorgeous home, with mostly outdoor living spaces and spectacular views from the top of a mountain.  It backed up to the national park, so there were no other structures around.  It was like living in a castle on your own private mountain.

In June, Jennifer started a new job as an Engineer with Duke Energy at their plant in Mt. Holly, NC.  Since Jennifer’s new job is on the other side of Charlotte and Brian is still with Azdel in Shelby (about 40 miles west of Charlotte and 60 miles away from Jennifer’s house), we decided it was time to sell Jennifer’s house in Indian Trail and move closer to both jobs.  We finally closed on the sale of Jennifer’s house and the purchase of our new home on December 14th — just in time for the holidays!  We’ve been moving in ever since, although we did take a break to go to Atlanta to visit with Jennifer’s family for Christmas.  We were happy to see Jen’s parents Bryan and Joann along with her brother Doug, Grandmother Mason and “Grandma” Marge.  We also saw the Groves (Jen’s great Aunt Fran and Uncle Bill and 2nd cousin Mimi) and the Douglass family (Jen’s Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Kirk), cousins Heather and Lisa and both their growing families.  It was nice to see family during our break from our stressful move.  After moving ourselves (with the help of a few friends), we now know that we should never take it for granted when a company pays to hire someone to move your household.

We are happy to announce that we finally live together in Huntersville, just northwest of Charlotte, in a great established neighborhood that seems like it’s close to everything!

We hope the New Year brings you much joy!

Brian and Jennifer Hynes

Well, I didn’t race at all on Sunday.  We went up Saturday for our day trip to Uwharrie.  It was a great group of 17, with four very patient guys.  (Tom Mathews is a saint).  As much as I love Uwharrie, I wasn’t feeling it.  I certainly don’t have my climbing legs like I normally do this time of year.

Earlier in the week, I was talking about going out to dinner with the “girls” from the former Corning plant.  Since the place shut down, we’ve kept in touch and Renee happened to be in town.  So, it was girls’ night out Saturday.  However, with the day trip (Brian didn’t go) and girls’ night out and last weekend’s trip to Myrtle Beach, I realized I hadn’t really seen my fiance in two weeks.  Then, he says he’s not racing Uwharrie.  Now what am I going to do?  I went out to dinner, and it took THREE hours.  We didn’t do anything special, the service was terrible.  By the time I got home (late, for me), I knew I wouldn’t race Sunday.  So Sunday was a relaxing day with Brian.

I got a call this morning about interviewing for a job I’d really want.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Also, I’ve been obsessing over the honeymoon.  Brian has made all those plans, but for some reason I’m suddenly transfixed by St. John.  Here’s the house we’re renting:

Yes, it’s a little castle.  I’m so stoked.

Cory came through with the goods.  He called yesterday to tell me that the bearing kit I bought (labeled as a kit for a Titus Switchblade) was all wrong.  But he happened to have bearings that would work.  The only thing in the kit that was right was the horst bushings.  We traded bearings and he got me fixed up and on my way today, so no worries about riding the SS at Uwharrie.  That’s good, since during my ride yesterday at Catawba I noticed something is loose in the back end of the Misfit.  It could just be the cassette lock ring, but it might be the rear hub.  I need to take a closer look.

OK, I know this is slightly vain, but I’m getting married in a few weeks and I want to look my best — sooooo, today I went for my first round of spray on tan.  It’s JUST like the Seinfeld episode!  (Except I don’t look like I’m from Central America).  It was actually pretty cool, and the girl at the salon in Dilworth (!) was very helpful in explaining all the steps.  I bought a package of 5 sessions, which should make me nice and evened out by the wedding day.

Tomorrow is the Dirt Divas day trip to Uwharrie.  It’s turning out to be a gorgeous weekend, so I’m definitely looking forward to it!

Off to change the fill valve on my downstairs toilet!

It’s been a long winter.  So, it’s time to update the blog, thanks to the prodding from several friends.  I actually think about it a lot, but so much has happened that it’s hard to decide where to begin!

Let’s see…. since my last blog entry (in chronological order)….

I finally did an endurance race in which I felt like I did everything right.  I did the Tree Shaker 12-hour here in Charlotte at Renaissance Park.  Minimal pit stops, and kept pace with the leader the entire time.  If memory serves me right, I ended up just 10 or 15 minutes behind 1st place.  It was funny because I kept seeing her at the same place on the course on every lap.  I’ll have to remember how I ate and replicate that again.

I started working seriously long hours, like 12-13 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, very minimal riding.  No blogging (of course).

I worked on my wedding plans.

As of January, I started looking for another job (if you want to know details, you’ll need to buy me a beer).

Since January, I’ve been looking for a job, planning a wedding, and working on my house.  The house has come a long way.  I’ve reorganized everything, and we have a storage unit now for all of our non-essential stuff until we figure out where we’ll end up.

Last weekend, the rank girls and I went to Myrtle Beach again to sell raffle tickets at the car show for the MS Society.  Same deal as last year, except this year we celebrated bachelorette-style.  Nothing too crazy — we’re all too old for that.  But it was silly nonetheless.

Today, I spent the morning painting the trim in the upstairs guest bathroom.  I hate painting, but it needed it.  I had the floor replaced in there several years ago and the flooring people never painted the new trim when they put it in.  Huh.  I’m really bad at painting, too.

So, that pretty much catches up the last few months.  Exciting, huh?

Riding and Racing for 2007:

I rode my SS yesterday at Catawba for the first time in a while.  I’ll go again today.  Man, it hurts, but I have a bad feeling that I will have to race it at Uwharrie this weekend.  I tried to change out all my pivot bearings on the Titus the other day and got frustrated.  I admitted defeat and took it over to Cory.  I don’t know that I’ll have it back in time.  So the question is, do I race SS class or the SS in the Sport Women’s class?  Either way I’ll get crushed.

We’ve decided that due to the extraordinary amount of time, travel and funds it takes to race the regional circuit, that we will only do a handful of select races this year.  I don’t have a job, we’re getting married, my car has 175,000 miles on it… yada yada.  So, it’s “local” races and a few select out-of-town races.  So far, we’ve agreed to Uwharrie and Catawba Riverfront, Burn (me), Cowbell and ORAMM (Brian).  We’ll see.  It might be nice to take some time off.

Y’all keep bugging me and I’ll keep this up. 

Last weekend was the final race of the Cane Creek series at Hobby Park in Winston Salem.  I like Hobby… it’s probably one of my favorite courses to race.  It’s not a smooth course and it somehow fits my riding style (except for the climb up the paved soapbox-derby hill).

So, I’ve been a slug most of the summer, due to work.  Not much riding.  The last race I did was at Catawba, but I raced in the SS category since I had to work later in the day.  I got killed in the category, mostly because those guys are that much faster than me, but I should mention that I did have my wheel slide a few times in the horizontal drop-outs so I stopped to fix that a few times.  I think my slowness was actually why I got slammed, though.  (I DID beat a couple of guys that DNF’ed.  Does that count?)

Two or three weeks ago, I started having more time to ride.  I’ve been making time during the day and riding the trails out here at the center.  Formerly, “Catawba”, it’s now the US National Whitewater Center.  Same trails, a bit abbreviated for now, but still the same hills.  I’ve been riding during lunch, at least 3 times during the week, or any other time during the day that I have a moment and someone here as backup.  My comment about the SS hurting here is not as valid as it once was.  I’ve been swapping between the SS and the Titus, and steadily moving toward more SS.  I rode the other day and only had to walk the first switchback on the Goat Hill.  I made the Carpet climb.  whoo-hoo.. Maybe the time off has helped.

So, Sunday was the Hobby Park race.  I had figured out that I needed to beat Beth in order to keep my 2nd place standing for the Cane Creek series.  I was beating Beth early this year, but she tends to peak late, so she’s been beating me in the later races.  I was just barely ahead of her in the points going into the last race.  Madonna had 1st wrapped up.  All I had to do was be in front of Beth at the finish line.

At the start line, there were four of us:  Me, Madonna, Beth, and a new girl who claimed to be a roadie on her 2nd mountain bike ride and 1st mtb race.  (Or something like that).   There were four girls in the 19-29 age class and they started with us, too.  The race started us up the soap-box-derby hill (my weakness).  Beth and I in the back, me yelling at Beth, “Come ON!  Let’s GO!”  I was looking for a race.  I beat her up the hill.  Into the singletrack, I quickly passed a couple of the women in the younger age class.  I kept thinking if I stayed ahead of Beth and out of her sight, she would mentally give up.  I was riding so well.  I can’t describe it, but I was “on”.  I rode all the best lines.  Carried tons of speed.  Powered the climbs.  I wouldn’t let myself slow down and I wouldn’t let my mind wander.  I started catching and passing some of the men in the group ahead of us.  There were still four girls in front of me:  two in my age class and two younger.  I kept thinking that I could catch them. 

Then, something happened.  I don’t know exactly where or when it happened.  Somewhere about 2/3 or 3/4 through the first lap, my bike started handling erratically.  I couldn’t steer.  I looked down to make sure the quick release was tight, since the wheel felt wobbly.  I got out into the field below the slalom track and asked a spectator if my tire looked flat.  He said it was low.  I stopped and checked.  It was almost totally flat.  I got out the CO2/Pump and tried adding air.  Stupid 12 gram CO2 cartridge.  Empty.  I started pumping.  I got some air in.  I thought, “I’ll just ride it out.  It won’t be that bad”.  I got back into the singletrack and decided that was dumb after going down a small rock drop and almost losing it.   So, off the bike, changed the tube, tried a new CO2 (12 grams is NOT enough for my tire).

I figured it took Beth about 4-5 minutes to catch and pass me.  It seemed to be taking FOREVER to change the stupid tube.  As she passed she said I needed to get on it and catch her.  I informed her that I planned on finishing, but didn’t know if I’d catch her.  Oh well.  That’s racing.

I finished out the second lap, riding conservatively.  I was still “racing”, but not quite like before.  That was it.  I lose the 2nd place standing because of a flat tire.  At least I felt good!  Beth ended up beating me by 8 minutes.  Looking back at my HR monitor data, it looks like I lost a total of 12 minutes from the flat tire change, plus whatever speed losses from riding conservatively.

After the race, we’re hanging around waiting for prizes when they called me on the PA to come over to the scoring tent.  They asked me what other women I knew that raced in the SS races.  I said I only knew of myself and two others who had done any of them.  Cane Creek decided to give series prizes for the women singlespeeders.  I didn’t expect this.  I raced Catawba SS because I had to work later and I thought it would be fun.  I didn’t expect to get anything, especially since I sucked.  But lo and behold, I got 2nd place for the series in women’s SS.  (It even paid out more than 2nd place Sport Women!) 

As I was walking away after the verification of the list, I’m told, “Oh, by the way, you got 2nd in Sport Women for the series”.  It turns out Beth and I were exactly tied for points after the Hobby race.  We had done the same number of races and had the same number of points.  She turned in paydirt points, I did not.  Overall, I had beaten her more times than she beat me, so I got 2nd.  Wow.  Bonus.

Good day.  I rode well.  Flat tire.  Got 4th (last) in the race, but still won some cool 4-lens Tifosi glasses.  Got 2nd for the series in Sport Women 30-39, and the surprise, 2nd in SS Women.  Brought home some cash and a medal, too.

Cane Creek is bowing out as the title sponsor.  Thanks to Cane Creek for the series.  I’ve raced this series for the last three years and have come to really enjoy it.  It looks like Maxxis is picking it up, along with some other unnamed sponsors.  I don’t know if the format will be the same.  I think I’ll need to make some decisions on what I want to race next year.  I burnt myself out again this year physically, but I’m starting to dig the longer endurance races.  We’ll see.  I have a long time to decide.  In the meantime, I have Catawba to ride EVERY DAY!  (weather and workload dependent, of course).

Edit:  Oh yeah, and the “roadie” won the race.  Go figure.