And now for some real racing...

So Windham was fun. I had no idea how much fun a real NMBS race could actually be. I arrived in at Windham Mountain Resort Friday night around 11:30 after almost 7hrs of driving from Carlizle. 2hrs worth of construction related traffic jams and one dinner stop turned a nice 4.5 hr drive into no fun. I set up my tent next to my parents (they got there much earlier) and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and went about completly fixing my bike to get it ready for racing. I had installed my new brakes on Thursday night, but couldn't get two bolts out of my old rear rotor. Had to have the mechanic at the free bike maintenance stand remove them with a bigger tool. Problem solved. New Rotor instaled. Avid Juicy Ultimates are by far the best brakes I have ever used. Excellent modulation, superb power. I can actually lock up my wheels!!!

Saturday I watched the Pro Men's and Women's races. That was a humlbing experience. As usual Georgia Gould won in her commanding style. In the Men's race Adam Craig and Jeremiah Bishop traded the lead for the majority of the race, but Matt Toulouse made a late race surge from around 8th place to beat out Craig by 6cm in a sprint for the line. JB rolled in third. It was sweet. Congrats go out to Ry Leech for taking 3rd in the Semi-Pro XC, to Martin Kell for taking 6th, and to Zach for 9th in the Jr. Expert XC.

Sunday morning at 8:00 was my race. I got juniored. There were only 8 (?) people in my class, one of them being a 14 yr old who was racing up. He won. Damn. I got second. We rode away from the rest of the field at the beginning of the first lap. I tried an attack on a steep road section, but he followed without much effort. By the top of the climb he had enough of a gap thatI couldn't catch him on the descent to the line. He won by about 2 min. Race over in about an hour. I really need that third lap before I can really come on strong. Hopefully the third lap will exist at Mt. Snow next week. So 2nd in my first national series race... not bad I suppose.

The big news of the day though was the Jr. Expert and Semi-Pro STXC. In the Jr. Expert race Zach rode himself to a sweet 3rd place. Leech rode to a 2nd place in Semi-Pro. But, much to everyone's surprise (including the announcer's) Martin Kell made a massive attach in the 15th minute of the race to take the lead. Once the announcer said that he was on a "suicide mission" Martin set out on a solo flier to eventually take the win (his first as Semi-Pro). It was awesome. Truely and amazing piece of riding my Martin. The Pro STXC races were interesting but not that interesting.

So now I'm in Albany,NY sitting on the couch of a friend I haven't seen since high school. I'll be here for a few days, then Wednesday I'll head up to Mt. Snow for Nationals. mmmmmmm. Hopefully I can pull out a win there. Yeah... That would be nice.

Peace...