I though I would have tomes to write about last weekends race at Greenbrier (not Greenbriar), but I really don't. I had a good race. There's not much to say other than that. I hit the opening climb in 4th, with teammate Consorto and another guy in the lead, and a guy from Joe's Bike Shop (is it fair to call anyone from that team a nemesis?) a short distance up the trail. Things started to split on the descent as I began to reel the Joe's guy in. In the "hard" rocky switchbacks, "Joe" (we'll call him that) crashed and I blew by him. The other guy had gapped Consorto, so I bridged up to him on the false flat gravel road. We traded pulls up the next two climbs, but I had a small gap on him by the top of the main climb. We finished out that lap with him pulling me through the transition area. At the start of the next lap, he told me that he wasn't going to be able to hang on my wheel, so I pressed on alone. I was alone for the next two laps, not know when, or even if, I would catch the guy ahead of me. At the beginning of my 4th and final lap, Aaron Snyder passed me with a "Why if it isn't Mr. Davidson! How are you going today?" while standing and flying up the short climb. Looks like moving to State College has paid off...
At the top of the short climb before the main one "Joe," who had crashed on lap one, surged by me. I stuck on his wheel as quickly as I could and we hit the main climb. After a short time, he just sat up, and I came around and attacked. Not really attacked though; I more just upped my tempo and held a small gap. That gap grew to the top of the climb. When I hit the false flat ridge section, I kicked it into the big ring and dropped the biggest hammer I could find. On the next descent, were it not for having to pass one of the Pro women, I don't think I even touched my brakes. I rode as hard as I could for the rest of the lap and finished a number of minutes ahead of "Joe" to take my second second place ever at the Greenbrier Challenge. The winner of my class finished a whopping 14 minutes ahead of me.
Mr. Landes, always a good source for fantastic pictures, was in attendance on Sunday and put some pics up here. There are a few of me sprinkled in there...
Next weekend I'm heading to Race #2 of the MARC series/Race #1 of the MASS series, a.k.a. Iron Hill. We'll see how that goes as I'll most likely be mixing it up with the Pro field...
