Monday, April 27, 2009

Athens Twilight


There were record crowds at Athens of more than 40,000 fans and they were ready to watch us suffer. The race started 30 minutes late, while my friend was relieving himself prior to the race. The race started with 150 riders. I lined up almost dead last, and remained in the position until 6 laps to go. Heckman was in the 3 man break when I came to the front of the field. I remained up there for 3 laps with my legs hurting. My legs never felt good the entire race, hopefully it was due to my wreck that sent me to the ER on Thursday. The best part of the night was finishing with no crashes! After finishing the race several thousands wanted us to slap hands congratulating us. I felt like a pro, even though I didn't race like one. People were yelling Go Panther and the chicks were growling!

Friday, April 24, 2009

53 Hours Before Athens

Went to the ER last night. Had the worst wreck ever. My steering tube broke above the headset when I stood up to sprint last night on my way home from work. My body went into shock on the way to the ER. After they put 3 stitches in my elbow I rode my bike with Dad for 1.5 hours to loosen up. Excited to be alive, not my time yet thank you Lord. I will still race Athens but not at 100% of course.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Caylin's Icecream Shop


I opened up an icecream shop at my house today. I have banana, strawberry, pink, brown, and chocolate chip green. My icecream just costs one dollar. I have two employee's, me and Super Man.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Race at the Lake


Friday night I found out I was accepted to race at Athens, GA. It was perfect timing. I knew that night I had to ride as hard as I could Saturday at RATL. Panther/RGF pb Felt was well represented at RATL. It was so awesome to see how strong our team was. We took the top 3 places and I enjoyed winning thanks to my team, and the winner of the cat 4 race Greg Fletcher. If Greg wouldn't have given me his wheel I would have been done.


Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter!


I woke up Easter morning to find that the Easter bunny brought me lots of goodies! In the morning, we went to church to celebrate Jesus' resurrection! We then went to Granny's house for Easter lunch! It was yummy!

Silly Girls!


Mommy and I figured we would waste some time at the bike race by taking silly pictures of ourselves!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Deer Creek Bike Race


I had Good Friday off of work, so I spent all day playing with Caylin. I had such a great time! I told Becky she had to take me to the race so Caylin and I could spend more time together. Becky drove us to the race with her really bad cold, yes I am an awful husband. I still had a cold too, but it was no where close to her Niagara Falls. I would have been over my cold if I would have stayed at home instead of racing! Well time passed by too fast and I warmed up for about 5 mins instead of 30. I gave Becky directions to go shopping, yes she felt good enough so stop feeling bad for her, and prayed she would have no problems. She was going to be ok with the directions, Caylin knows her right from her left. The race was ready to start without me and I had to go to the restroom, but the restrooms were the woods or down the road a mile, more to come later on that. We had 6 Panther/RGF pb Felt riders, all with our new white uniforms on so no one would know who we were. We had an awesome group of what looked like 60 total racers, best numbers I have seen yet at a race. Before we headed out of the parking lot area 4 riders slipped away and I was on front warming up my legs until we hit the head wind. The 4 riders were brought back and some little attacks were made. We made it through one lap and yes I still had to go pee. For racers they know it is not fun to hold it during a race that will take over 2.5 hours to finsh. The only way I knew how was to just go pee while on the bike or ride harder. I have yet to pee all over myself in public, that people know of, so my choice was ride harder. Plus I had on my Team issued rear wheel, 808 Zipp with a Tufo tubeless tire, and didn't want to go all over it. I tried to make a break with my Teammate Greg up the road and no one wanted that to happen. It was into the head wind section of the course and it was a good time to check the legs. My legs felt great so I went with my other teammate Dan at a point that I saw all 6 of my teammates up front. Our team is awesome can't wait till I have another shot at racing with them, hope they will give me another crack at it. We ended up having Dan and I in a 8 man break ahead of the other 50+ riders for the rest of the 70 mile race that was now down to 50 miles. All 8 of us worked together and grew a big gap fast and one that I hoped wouldn't have worked. I thought negative about the race and I even brought that on to my teammates. I didn't trust that The Lord would provide the legs I needed. He gave me the legs to do anything I wanted, but I used them in the wrong way causing us to lose the race. When one of the riders jumped ahead I jumped up to him which took some effort and drafted him instead of working with him, big mistake! I rolled through giving him a short half hearted pull twice and by then another rider joined us and so on. Then that same rider I decided not to work with, took off again and Dan closed the gap on him. I then didn't trust in my legs to have anything for the sprint so I took off with 1 km to go with a rider 10 sec ahead. I blew up with 300 mters to go as I passed the rider ahead of me. I then got passed by the winner and the guy I just passed. I came across the line suffering for 3rd. Dan took 4th and Paul took 9th. Next time I will trust in my sprint more, even if I feel I have tired legs. I really feel bad that I made poor choices and they all came at the most important time of the race. I have been praying for a more positive attitude and focus more on what God would want me to do. Not what I would do. I talked it over with my teammates and know what needs to be done so this won't happen again.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Yummy Ginger Cookies!









Mommy and I made my favorite cookie today, ginger cookies! Yummy! I put in all the ingredients after carefully helping mommy measure everything. I then used the mixer all by myself to mix the dough. (Don't tell anyone, but I snuck in a bite of cookie dough when I was all done!) I then rolled the dough into balls, rolled them in sugar, and placed the dough on the cookie sheet. I tried carrying the cookies sheets over to the oven, but the balls rolled all over the cookie sheet. I think they rolled everywhere because the cookie sheet was too heavy! The cookies turned out so GOOD! Between Mommy and I, we have ate almost a half a dozen by ourselves. We know that when Daddy gets home, they will ALL be gone! Just kidding, Daddy! We know that you ARE the Cookie Monster in our house!

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Zansfield Bike Race


I wanted to sit in the field today since I had a little bit of a cold. I was praying that I could race the cold out of me. This race course Greg Lemond once did back in the 80's. It was a very hilly course and with the wind it made it seem even longer. I am so tired of hills already this year. I can't wait for a flat course, I guess a crit would be ok. I just like the open road with no hills or a couple of small hills, not 1 mile climbs. I am praying these hills will make me better though. Thanks to Tym Tyler putting on these great races that are so hard and with very little traffic to keep us safe. Tym also had help on every corner to keep us safe. I had tried several times to get away from the others but I could not get away until the last mile. The Hammer products came through better than I thought they would even with my cold. My legs were crampy Friday night and Saturday morning. My legs felt good during the warm up and also through the last effort of the race. I thank the Lord for a very good day and keeping me safe as my Felt sprint took off at every attack perfectly, as well as the down hill at 60 mph.