Mississippi Gran Prix

The Race of the South or MSGP was my first foray into stage racing and only my second road race (the first being the Rouge Roubaix).  I wasn’t too nervous with the exception of the criterium.  Watching the 1,2,3’s on Friday night navigate 90 degree turns at speeds in excess of 30mph and hitting bumps on the road causing there wheels to leave the safety of the road wasn’t helping my confidence either.  There race wasn’t much different then a NASCAR or F1 formula event with the sounds of motors being replaced by the sound of deep dish carbon rims.  The ability of Glenn, Jacob, Jeb, and Brian to hang on to World and National champions wheels gave me a new found respect for the type of athlete’s these guys are. While not all of our team was able to hang on for the full 60 minutes there ability to compete with guys of this caliber is nothing short of spectacular.

From Road Biking in the South East

Saturday morning was the beginning of my race weekend beginning with a 25-mile road race on a rolling hills course.  The CAT 5’s were the last to start and I tried to go over in my head all of the advise and tips that everyone in the team had given me especially Jonathan Falgout and Matt Billeaud who had gone one, two in this road race the previous year.  As I pulled up to the line I saw a group of about 10 guys from Absolute Racing at the front all looking pretty strong.  I settled near the back of the group but wasn’t planning on being there very long as I was hoping to avoid any crashes that I have heard are prevalent in CAT 5 races.  The race actually started pretty mellow and I quickly worked my way to the front of the peloton.  My teammate Tony Morrow was just in front of me when someone clipped his front wheel and I thought for sure he was going down taking me with him.  He was able to keep himself vertical luckily for me and I thought to myself not bad for a roadie and especially a tri-geek.  Soon after Tony moved to the front and pushed the pace for a while, after he dropped back I didn’t see him for the remainder of the race, as come to find out he flatted shortly after.  The rest of the race was spent covering attacks made by Absolute Racing by myself and 5 others.  With 5 miles to go Absolute Racing made there way up to the front and we all knew what was going to happen next.  They launched an attack with three of there guys on the second to last hill and I tried to follow the rider’s wheel in front of me but he was unable to hold the person’s wheel in front of him and I wasn’t strong enough to bridge the gap.  I stayed with a group of three riders all the way until the finish line beating them in the final sprint for a 9^th place finish.

From Road Biking in the South East

From Road Biking in the South East

Later that day was the time trial and would be only my third time on a time trial bike.  Don Kent let me borrow his bike for the event so a special thanks goes out to him.  I knew that my chances for a good placing in the TT wasn’t going to be easy as the guy who won the road race was some big shot triathlete (Ben Hall).  Luckily it was only 4 miles long so the suffering was hopefully going to last less the 10 minutes.  I knew my teammate Tony Morrow would have a strong showing as he spends most of his time on his TT bike.  I ended up with a time of 9:39 for a 10^th place finish and Tony ended up beating me by 10 seconds giving him a top ten placing as well.

From Road Biking in the South East

From Road Biking in the South East

Sunday was the last day of racing being in the form of a 30 minute criterium.  The rain from the previous night left the streets wet with a few puddles under the overhanging trees.  The race started off pretty fast and I stayed in the middle of the pack trying to stay out of the wind and from taking any pulls.  After a lap or two the pace picked up and when I looked up to see who the culprit was low and behold its my teammate Tony pulling us around the course.  I stayed with the lead group a few more laps until someone attacked and I was unable to go with them and settled into a chase group of 4.  We were never able to catch back up with the lead group and I ended up winning the sprint out of the other 4 in my chase group to end up with 8^th place.

Oak Mountain

While on spring break I decided to head to Oak Mountain State Park with Peter, Philip and James for some mountain biking.  I had the MSGP coming up so I wasn't going to push it this trip but decided to bring the Rig since my next big mountain bike race is Syllamo.  Peter and I headed up Tuesday afternoon to camp do a quick ride Wednesday morning then head back.  James and Phillip were already in Hunstville so they just drove down in the morning to meet us.  I cooked up some breakfast burritos in the morning and go ready to ride.

From South East Mountain Biking

We got on the trail about nine and started on the North Trailhead where the fire road climb is.  This was the first time I had done any extended climbing on the Rig and it did a fairly good job even though I felt faster climbing it on the Merlin the last time I rode this trail.  We hit the bmx track for a while too which was a ton of fun especially when I locked out the fork.

From South East Mountain Biking

Ouachita Callenge -80 Miler

From South East Mountain Biking

I had originally planned on doing the 60 mile version until the Cohutta fell through due to my FE or EIT test was scheduled for the same day.  I was pretty bummed about this as I was hoping to do something big this year being my last semester of undergrad.  Luckily one of the guys on my road team had signed up to the 80 miler but due to conflicts was unable to go.  I took his spot and was able to find Phil who I was car pooling with someone to transfer with.  I knew the OC 80 was going to be harder then Cohutta as the OC has about 10-15 miles of roads with the rest being singletrack as where the Cohutta has about 65 miles of road and 35 miles of singletrack. 

We arrived in Mena, AR Saturday afternoon and explored the Talimena Scenic Drive something I had been on before on my bike camping trip but not the section we explored.  The race had quite a few pros coming out from Colorado as the race is making quite a name for itself.  The hotel parking lot was littered with Texas license plates as a bunch of Texans come up to do this race also.  

Sunday morning on the way to the race a little drizzle started to fall and the winds started picking up.  Looking at the weather forecast a front was moving in and going to cause the temperatures to drop considerably.  I picked up my number and packet and got my bike ready.  I setup near the back of the pack so as to not go out to hard as we were starting the same time as the 60 milers.  When we started I rode up to the middle of the pack and stayed there for most of the road.

I moved up on the initial singletrack climbing as 20 or so riders were on the side with flats already.  I tried to climb smooth and easy as I knew I would be in for a long day of riding.  When we first hit the Womble we had a bottleneck and I was forced to get off my bike and walk a bit, but everyone was very cordial and the road did a much better job of separating everyone as compared to Syllamo.  Checkpoint one was 20 miles into the ride and I stopped and notice my QR rear skewer was loose which has been a common theme with the Ellsworth skewers.  I tightened it down again ate some of my energy bars and started back up on the Womble.  This is where the 60 miler's turned off and took the road skipping the best part of the Womble.

From South East Mountain Biking

I started feeling cramps coming on just before the second checkpoint so I slammed some Endurolytes and kept on moving along.  I got my first and only flat and had about 10 riders pass me while changing it.  It was great to see the second checkpoint at roughly the 40 mile mark and the volunteers there were great filling my camelback and waterbottles.  While I tried to down some food and stretch out my legs.  

A few miles into the checkpoint we came up on Reed mountain that I don't believe anyone could bike up.  The hike up it about did me in as my legs were feeling like jello at this point and I was starting to get foggy upstairs.  It was slow going at this point and had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn't going to make the cutoff for the next checkpoint.  I was completely wasted physically at this point and made it to the 3rd checkpoint with 5 minutes to spare but didnt want to continue as the 4th checkpoint was 10 miles away and I had an hour to get there.  I decided to take to road back which was tough with the 20-30 mph winds.  About 5 miles out somebody in a truck picked me up with two other riders and gave us a lift back.

According to the results 100 people started the 80 and only 33 finished which means 66 people DNF'd including me.