The weekend. Rides and Races

The crew post race at some place in New Braunfels. Andrew's meal was wrong but none of us cared cause we were too hungry...he has great team mates! Our ritualistic Buc-ee's stop. Luling at 7:00 am. Two Rice Treats, 1 bag of Beaver Nuggets, 1 cinnamon roll, 1 gallon of water, 2 cookies, 1 apple lattice, 1 blueberry scone. ALL gone by 3pm.
Above is some friends on a ride Saturday morning, 60miles was not in my "pre race schedule" but whatever. Beautiful day with great friends.


What a weekend! Great longish ride on Saturday, great day at the shop with some business and race prep for the team. Relaxing evening. Then 4:00am wake up Sunday morning for a team trip to New Braunfels for a road race/races. Some of us raced twice...or started two races at least. We roll out of Houston at 5am 8 deep for some fun on the road. My first race and the majority of the guys as well, was the Cat4 race which was 45 miles. Not too cold and 80 guys starting. I have been rolling ok lately and wanted to see how I really was doing, plus its my first race in the Shama Cycles kit on a brand new custom Guru Geneo tricked out to the max with Edge rims. Just a totally nuts bike that got lots of looks. So the pressure was on to do something. If nothing else....a REALLY good photo!!! haha No seriously...
4miles into the race two guys jump off the front into the wind. The field does not react and I am in the back looking at this and realizing on these crappy roads and wind the back is NOT the place to hide. So I jump around the field bridge up to the two guys infront. A three man break. We roll for two miles and hit the last hill that is kinda steep and with a photographer at the top. Time to suck it up and pull out my Zoolander "Blue Steel" pose. With that done I am feeling pretty good. The other two guys start fading and the pack is closing. I look back and here comes two guys charging up and as they get to me I see my friend Andrew Ennis from Team Bikesport. Excited (cause this little Scottsman is strong) to see my friend I jump on with the two and the break of three is rolling again. The wind was brutal and the road surface made a carbon bike worthless. I lasted with these two guys for about 20 miles before I kinda blew up and fell back to the chase group. The Guru was floating flawlessly, just those two sub 150lbs guys hit those hills like I can't...which broke me down. So I am back in and not a minute later I seem to have recovered and on the front of that group taking turns with some team mates and others chasing down the two who I just couldn't stay with. Not that I was bitter or anything. LOL Just racing.
We caught them and then it was on again. More work in to the wind and just plain pain. In that last lap I lost the lead group and fell back to a chase group. Thankfully my team mates stuck up in the lead group. I pushed myself pretty hard and realized how far I can go. It was awesome to have this kinda day. Oh wait...then I had to finish and reload and get re pinned for the second race. To keep it short....everything hurt from the first one and I only completed one 15mile lap. Still happy with my performance and test in the first race. I sat in to watch the finish of my team mates in that race and the Cat3 race that was going on. Very happy overall. Now, then I left New Braunfels and made a trip into Austin...to Kirklee. My frame was finished and ready to be picked up. Wow...just beautiful! Better than I would have thought! I can't believe it. Its 1400grams with the headset, fork and Seat clamp. I just can't wait to build it and more importantly ride it. Now I am tired and time to retire for the night. Or at least log off for now.
I would like to thank my team mates who raced today.
Andrew Strong, Trent Stephens, John Cascio, Jason VanLoo, Jose Caballero, Ahmed King, and Jeff Gardner.
Your support for me and Shama Cycles is humbling and very appreciated.