Looking 4 Speed at Speedweek

The trip over to Georgia for Speedweek was almost a bit too much. First from AUS to HOU to pick up Carlos, the Colombian and Ronnie, "The Rocket". Then on towards New Orleans (but through...) and over towards Mobile, Alabama with a quick overnight at one of the millions of hotels located right on I-10's.

We made it to our host house in Horchton, GA, and it was nice to stay with real, friendly people for a few days instead of being cramped up in some small-a#$ motel Athens Twilight was the first race. It was a big wash-out, torrential rainfalls all night long, delayed start, and unless you started somewhere in the 2nd row it was close-to-impossible to anywhere....well, you could always go down, though! Two Park Place crits as prep for the first NRC of the year didn't cut it for me. Only Sully managed to finish in the Top20 after taking 3rd in the CompuTrainer heats out on College St the night before (see pic). If you're ever there, make sure to stop at The Grill in downtown, great American Diner open 'til late night.

Sully smiling before CompuTrainer Final

dark + rainy S/F area Athen's around 11:30pm

Roswell Crit the day after just north of ATL went much better (thanks to dry roads) and i was actually able to race my bike. No result at the end but the legs came along and we were part of the race.

The following Tuesday we headed further SouthEast, this time to Beaufort, SC for another 3 1/2 corner crit - this time at night again. Those courses reminded a lot of Superweek except we did half the race in the dark - and besides some streetlights, and a few flash lights at the S/F area there was not much to see - at least for me and I was wearing clear lenses! You can watch "Dino" aka Sully get taken down by some unnamed rider in the below video. Happened with 2 to go so was a bit frustrating.

The Waltersboro Crit just a bit further north was a replica of the night before in terms of light but at least the streets were smooth and we got to race through a nice historic downtown with quite a few people lining the metal barriers. Everytime time your wheel would hit one of those, the crowd would go "uuuuhhh, ahhhhh". Until something happened. Than it was more like "Ouch". But it was actually pretty safe considering we raced again in the pitch-black dark at some parts of the course. I had an okay ride but nothing special to report. Trying to sprint against the Russian Alexi of TT1 was probably the hardest effort I put out all race that night.

Like the night before, we headed back to the "Rice Planters Inn", our place to stay in that area. The night ended with some fireworks in the parking lot and the morning started with a $5.99 breakfast buffet at Shoney's - budget food for hungry cyclists!

Race #5 and #6 were again a bit more north, this time in Spartanburg and Dilworth/Charlotte, NC. We stayed at a great place just outside Spartanburg which made things much easier, and Bailey, the Labradoodle kept things entertaining while not riding/racing. Spartanburg Crit was right downtown around Denny's headquarters on a Friday night and it was like riding a velodrome clockwise w/ out much light - again. The legs felt better and I was able to get in a break but yet again, a field sprint was pretty much pre-determined with the big sprinter teams looking to add V's to their winning record.

Bailey checking out our gear

I've done the Dilworth Crit back in '04 or '05 when guest-riding with OutdoorLightning on Thad Fissher's team. They have the race for 37(!) years in a row now. I really like the course: halfway up a longer hill/drag, but only 4-6% and big-chainring-material. The other half of the course is pretty much downhill and you make a 90degree left-hand turn at the bottom. Dilworth itself is a nice neighborhood and the race goes right around a park. We tried again to be in the right moves and get a result by hoping for a break would stick so we all took our turns jumping with stuff. I went from sitting at the back of the field to off the front only twice, the last time I rolled off with 5 to go to be joined by Adrian from UHC who wanted to set up his guys by having the other teams chase us down. But with 2 laps to go our little escape for primes was over and it ended up in yet another field sprint. Carlos cracked the Top20 but that was it for the day.

By the time we got to the last race, #7 in Sandy Springs just north of ATL, I was pretty worn out and had caught a the common cold somewhere along the way. After 30min I called it a day since my legs said "no mas" and that was the end of Speedweek. Thanks to family-friends Tony+Rebecca I got quick shower, dinner, and a ride to the airport to head back home. Time to get some rest + rebuilt!