Nocturnal Potatoes, Saying Goodbye, and Granogue Mtb Race

Welcome back!  Glad to see you, how have you been?  Good I hope!  Well well, where to begin.  Let's start off with last Saturday, April 25th.  I received an urgent message from one of my closest friends as I was getting ready to sleep the night before the Greenbrier AMBC mountain bike race.  I called him and got the shock of the year.  His father had passed away a few hour earlier.  I sat there, stunned.  I wasn't sure what to say, but there wasn't anything really to say.  I thanked him for calling and told him I'd call him tomorrow after the race.  That man, my friend's father, was like a second father for me.  I respected him and cared deeply for him, and will miss him.  I wish I could say that I pulled out a big 'W' the next day in his honor (and believe me, I wanted to), but unfortunately two rear flats caused me to have to pull out after a lap, having no more CO2 and no hand pump available.  The entire week was hard to get through emotionally, as I spent much of it with my friend and his family.  The funeral was nice, held at a V.A. cemetery where his coffin lay draped with the flag of his country.  The ceremony ended with a 21 gun salute (7 rifles fired in 3 volleys) and the folding and presenting of the flag to his wife, my friend's mother.  It is a day I will remember always.

Upon returning home, I swing by my Aunt's to 

see if she needed help at the family farm.  I seemed to be just in time, as she was in the middle of tilling the fields and planting vegetables to be sold at the farmer's market come June.  I put my shoes on, and strapped on my headlamp (it was late and getting dark at this point) and hopped on the tractor for some night-time potato planting.  I drove, she sat on the planter placing the potatoes as we went.  It was harder than I though trying to keep the rows straight in the dark, but I managed pretty well.  This picture was taken from my phone with a hiking headlamp while I drove the tractor at 2mph.

So, let's wrap up our discussion with this past weekend's race reports.  First, we'll discuss Saturday's Turkey Hill road race.  I lined for the 125k Pro-1-2-3 race and  despite not riding my bike during the week, I felt pretty good after loosening up.  We had 12 laps, the last 5 of which would climb the short and steep Gamber Road hill, which on occasion has made a difference in the race, but on this day wouldn't have too much of an affect.  Unfortunately, I never made it to Gamber Road, as I found myself riding into a road-side ditch on the third lap.  As I passed the pack on the right-hand side to re-position into the front after dropping my arm-warmers, another rider had the same idea at the same time I was passing and sort of 'hip-checked' me.  I know this wasn't done on purpose, but careless nonetheless.  I was a little shaken, but luckily did not fall.  I got back on the road surface and still had a possibility of rejoining, but hesitated too much and road back in on my own.  The race car behind me also came up pretty quick and asked that I wait for the Cat 3/4 race to come by, which solidified my decision.  Bummer, but it ended up being a good decision as I later found that my rear skewer was completely loose from the incident.  Guess bad-luck turned out good in this case.  

Now for granogue!  I pulled up to the race with the Joe Reynold's Foundation and found a parking spot on a relatively flat part of the field in which we had to park in.  This field ended up being a muddy slippery mess by the time we left, and it was entertaining watching so many cars flail about trying to maneuver their way onto pavement and home.  We lined up for the Elite/Open race ready for a battle, 

but not really knowing what we were in for.  At the start, we headed up pavement and made a wide sweeping right hand turn in to a small section of woods to a grassy open climb.  While making the turn, some riders touched in front of me and knocked the course tape off a post.  I decided to take an inside line to avoid them and make some quick passes to better my position but was riding in the rough and my front wheel snagged the stubbles of whatever had been weed-whacked the previous day and my bike was pulled out from under me.  Not falling down myself, I quickly remounted and set up in the rear of the pack, passing riders on the grassy climb to descend through the fields mid-pack.  As the race wore on, I steadily passed riders as the course steadily deteriorated more and more.  Eventually, there was no option to ride and walking or carrying your bike was the only option.  I made the mistake of trying to ride too much and my bike got attacked and eaten by mud, which made it extremely difficult to push and almost impossible to carry.  Anyone who knows me well will tell you I can ride through poor conditions, and often ride well, but I have a limit for how much I will push/carry my bike in a mtb race and this race far exceeded that.  After 1 lap I abandoned for the bike-wash line with no regrets.  Better to keep bike and body in-tact for the next race then suffer possible injury and mechanical failure for a local race.  Picture is of the Joe Reynold's Foundation chairman after his 11th place Elite/Open finish.