Cross-Eyed Classic

     I rested my legs Saturday morning rather than going for a spin. We watched the Men's Road Race at the Rio Olympics before it was time to head to Asheboro, NC for day three of the Crossroads Cycling Classic.

     It was a hot day to say the least. I lasted longer today in a group that was again around 65 riders strong. This course suits me better as it provides for a little bit of rest. But there is still a climb through Turn 3 and a gradual uphill drag from turn 4 to the finish line. I was aggressive in cornering and fighting for my spot in the middle of the pack where I was most sheltered from the wind. Again, my legs felt good. I was fine until the gaps began to open at 10 minutes. I could close one, but then I needed a break. I was running 182 heart rate into turn 1 and recovering to 172 by turn 3 early in the race. After closing a few gaps I saw 185 going into turn 1 and still holding 182 at turn 3. I wasn't able to recover so the clock started ticking on my physiological time bomb. I made about eight minutes in the red zone before blowing up. I was off the back at 18 minutes and I was spent. I felt sick to my stomach and way overheated. Soft-pedaling did not help me recover. For once, they didn't pull me even though I got lapped. I spun around slowly and still couldn't get the sick feeling to go away so I pulled myself. I don't like taking a DNF, but I felt like I was getting way too hot. It was a combo of the temperature and another very intense race that did me in.

Constant attacks off the front of the Pro/1/2

Back of the group. I'm in the red First Endurance kit.

A new set of attackers

Me in red trying to hang on to the tail of the group 

Another break

Me on the left pulling myself as I'm getting lapped for the second time

The group is strung out

    Winston David broke up Ben Renkema's streak by taking a solo win after he jumped ahead from a breakaway in the Pro/1/2. Renkema was second and still leads the overall. Rachel McKinnon grabbed the hat trick with yet another victory in the Women's event. We have some video posted below if you want to check it out.

The break that finally got clear

A tired group about to get one lap to go

Winston David had time to celebrate with a solo victory in Asheboro

Video: Pro/1/2 clips from Asheboro

     It may have been a hot sufferfest in Asheboro, but I was glad to be here. Not only did I have fun getting cross-eyed and dizzy on small city streets I was grateful to be dry. It rained a lot at home while we were here and they got some nasty storms that even spun off a few clouds that appeared to be small tornadoes. Thankfully, they were just some swirling clouds. I know I have talked a lot about rain this year. It feels like we have had way more than normal. I finally have some confirmation of that as Montgomery County, which is one county west of where we live, recorded more rainfall in July than they have ever had. We shattered the old record which was set around 37 years ago, so before my time. We had more rainfall in July than Seattle!

Dangling clouds scared people back home. Glad we missed out on these storms.

Photo by The Tennessean

     Sunday was the day I was looking forward to the most. The course around the Salisbury City Park has always been good to me. It's the only place I have ever finished at on our previous Crossroads trips. The course is longer and has one big climb on it. The climb is tough, but the rest of the course is open and flat, making for a more packed-up race.

     I feel the differences in ability level among the Pro/1/2 bunch was much higher this year than in previous Crossroads races. There were some Pro-level Cat. 1s and a whole lot of Cat 2s like me, which made for some hard attacks and a lot of gaps in the back. You could see it all four days, but it was most apparent on this last day. My hopes for a packed-up race were dashed by this difference in speeds.

Pro/1/2 start line

     It started to rain on the first lap, but it only rained on the first half of the course. It was kind of funny to race up the hill in the dry, then enter into rain at the line, easing through two slick corners, then emerging from the rain again halfway down the flat backstretch. That happened for 20 minutes until the rain stopped and the part of the course that was wet began to dry.

Strung out again

     After the first lap, it was constant attacks up front and the pack became a long line of suffering riders. I felt good yet again and was stronger than a lot of the guys in the field as I had ridden much less the past three days. But gaps got to me again. I got behind some really big ones on the climb in the first 10 minutes, but I was able to chase my way back on. I needed to rest on the backstretch, but I was chasing there most laps. After 22 minutes of the yo-yo, I finally got behind a gap I couldn't close and that was it for me. I was pulled at 27 minutes. It was a disappointing way to end the weekend. I didn't even complete half of a race the whole weekend. I wanted to work on my intensity the next month or so. Guess I got my wish. My stomach was still hurting after this effort even though it was much cooler today with the rain.

The camera focused on me. Must have been the slowest one...

     I ended up 41st out of around 60 riders. Only about 30 finished. Ben Renkema won the day and took the overall victory as well. Rachel McKinnon swept the weekend with another victory today. Race video from the Pro/1/2 is posted below.

Video: Pro/1/2 clips from Salisbury

     Next up for me is some local racing before my target race for the end of the summer, the Tennessee Mountain Bike State Championships at Lock 4 in Gallatin, TN.

At the Crossroads

     Just a few days after ending our week-long trip in north Georgia we were back on the road heading for North Carolina to race four crits in four days at the Crossroads Cycling Classic. I've raced Crossroads twice before. Both of those times it was six days long. Last year, it was reduced to four days, but I missed out after having my knee injury just a few weeks before the race. I was excited to be coming back as it is a really fun event to be a part of.

     Traditionally, I struggle at this race. The courses are narrow and difficult. They do not allow for much rest. This tends to favor the stronger riders who can handle a really high pace for the full 60 minutes. I have never really been this type of rider and this race is always hard for me. I have only finished the final day once on each of the two occasions I have raced Crossroads. But that's part of why I go. I enjoy being challenged and this race definitely does that for me.

     I felt stronger and more prepared this year. The mountain bike has forced me to be able to go hard for two hours and I have gained more power over the course of the season. I didn't expect to be in the front of the sprint, but I did feel like I could at least last longer than I have in previous attempts, even though I have felt a bit flat the past few weeks.

     The opening race was in Mocksville, NC on Thursday evening. We decided to stay in Mocksville the first night and were delighted to find a newly renovated hotel on the edge of town. Our room was brand new. We may have been the first people to ever stay in it.

     The race was as surprising as the hotel room, but not in the same kind of way. I got absolutely destroyed. There's no other way to describe it. I felt good, but I got my teeth kicked in. I flatted just a few minutes before the start, which did not help things. I had to limp back to the car and call Shannon. She had the car keys and was on the other side of the course, but she was able to run over and help me change the tube in time to make the start.

     The course for the opening night is a tight rectangle in downtown Mocksville. There is a hill between turns 3 and 4, which made for a sprint every lap. It was my first night crit in a while. It seemed so dark in turn 1. That's a sketchy corner anyway, but this year it was extra scary. There was a shadow on the exit of the turn that made it almost impossible to distinguish the curb from the street. I said a prayer almost every time we went into that corner.

     The pace was brutally fast, maybe the fastest start to a race I have ever experienced. I couldn't recover after the hill before we were on it again. It was single-file hammering all the way around. I was not ready for that at all. I got popped at less than seven minutes and pulled at just over 10. Ouch. I saw 185 heart rate the whole race. I cannot hold that for more than a minute or two without some rest. It was disappointing, but at least I felt good! I didn't get credited with a finish position so I have no idea where I ended up, maybe around 55-60 out of 64 riders.

The Davie County Courthouse on the front stretch of the Mocksville course

     As for the people that did have a good night, Ben Renkema won the Pro/1/2 out of a break. In the Women's race, Rachel McKinnon was the winner. There is a short video below of some clips from the Pro/1/2 race.

Video: Pro/1/2 clips from Mocksville

     We were looking for a place for a morning spin on Friday and discovered that the 2016 USPRO and Masters Time Trial National Championship course was not far away. It was drizzling rain, but we had a good time on the rolling course near North Wilkesboro.

On the edge of the foothills

     The sun popped out after our ride. We drove by the old North Wilkesboro Speedway, which sadly is falling apart. That track was one of the first speedways used in NASCAR, back in the day when they actually raced stock cars and it was more grassroots racing instead of the corporate monster it has become. I couldn't believe it was just sitting there rotting. What a waste of such a great and historic facility.

Driving in to North Wilkesboro Speedway

The Winston Cup Series, back when NASCAR was great

     Statesville, NC was the site of Friday's racing. It would be another night race for me, which means we had all day to kill. With us changing hotels and our hotel being an hour in the opposite direction, we had nowhere to go to get out of the sun. Shannon has been wanting to go to a movie for a while so we went to see Jason Bourne. We got a cool seat all afternoon and saw a great movie. It's just as good as the other Bourne movies in my opinion. It seemed fitting that we see this movie while at a bike race. I can't count the number of times we have watched the other Bourne movies while sitting in a hotel at a bike race. It seems there is always a Bourne marathon going on when we are traveling. I just watched them in June at the Jackson, GA SERC race.


     Even with the movie, we still got to the race course before the first races began. I enjoyed sitting back watching the other races play out. The Women's race was filled with attacks until the final laps. Then they did some of the slowest laps I have ever seen in a bike race, which left them all rested for an exciting last lap. Rachel McKinnon took the win again just like in Mocksville.

Blue of the Women on turn 3

     The Cat. 4/5 race was exciting as well, with a stray rain shower coming over during the race. That caused a few crashes and split up the group. Before the race I noticed Ben Schiermeyer in staging. Ben is the mechanic for pro motocross rider Justin Barcia. You can't miss Ben as he has one of the biggest, most recognizable beards out there. I knew he and Barcia rode bikes, but I didn't know Ben was racing. He put in some big efforts in the race at Statesville, leading the group on many laps and ending up with a top five in Cat. 5. Ben raced the whole weekend and was top five in every race. I love to see sports crossing paths and people not being afraid to get involved more than one sport. The rain left a rainbow over town, which was appropriate for a memorial following the Cat. 4/5 race for a local shop owner who was recently killed by a car while riding.

Ben Schiermeyer and his beard

Ben on the front doing work

Cat. 4/5s on the hill

Faint rainbow hanging over Statesville during the Cat. 4/5 race

Ben hammering the climb

     During my warm-up spin on the trainer I watched one of my old teammates, Dan Underwood, win the Masters race. I have not talked to Dan in many years. He used to live near me in Clarksville when I was a Junior, then he moved to the D.C. area. I have seen him a few times at this race, but I only seem to see him during the race, never before or after. I was hoping to talk to him and catch up, but again this year I only saw him while he was inflicting pain on people.

     The race result for me was pretty much the same in Statesville as in Mocksville. I was more ready for the start this time and got a better position the first lap, but I still ended up off the back at seven minutes and pulled at 12. This time it was other people that got me dropped. I felt much better and rode the corners well. Again, it was hard to see the curbs. They had painted the gutter and curbs black, which made them very difficult to make out in the dark. The start was fast again and guys were getting gapped on lap 3. I closed a few gaps before getting my heart rate pegged out of my throat again. I held it for a minute then went pop. There were some strange gaps tonight. I was far enough up to the front that there shouldn't have been so many gaps, but guys were sitting up everywhere. What was most irritating was that when I popped, most of the guys that had caused those gaps came back past me still on the back of the group. Maybe that's a new tactic to split up the group. If so, it worked. Out of 65 riders, only about 25 finished. I ended up 50th. Ben Renkema won again in a super close finish after he broke a bike after free laps were over. He took a bike from a teammate and was able to chase back on, move up and then take the sprint win. That's pretty impressive on such a fast, tight course. Moving up is hard to do when you are fresh!

Super close finish for the Pro/1/2

     A video from Statesville is posted below, which includes clips from several of the races. Next up is Asheboro, then on to Salisbury for the finale.

Video: Clips from Statesville

Fungus Among Us

     This post is only about mushrooms. If you don't like fungus this probably won't be a post for you. We saw so many interesting types of mushrooms on our recent trip to northeast Georgia that we had to snap pictures and share. Below you will see all colors, shapes and sizes. Most of these I have never seen before. There's a lot of pictures here, but there were so, so many more that we didn't take the time to photograph.

     This first set comes from our mountain bike ride on the Stonewall Falls Trail. There were more mushrooms in every tenth of a mile than I have seen in my entire life combined.

Like a pancake on a stick

Very interesting red trim and center on these bright white mushrooms

Green mushroom

These looked like orange packing peanuts

Growing out of a hole in a tree

Looks like an old peach core

Tall and skinny

     The second set below is from Black Rock Mountain State Park. The north slope of the mountain on the Tennessee Rock Trail was heavily populated with mushrooms and fungus. The campground also had strange 'shrooms growing every place you looked.

Shredded cheddar cheese fungus

 Donuts

This one was pretty big

    That does it for mushrooms. If you ever visit that area, be sure to pay attention to the small things. Like most things in life, they are much more amazing in person.