Saturday had some nice options - stay in town and get thrashed on the group rides, go to the mountains and get thrashed at the OHill Meltdown in C-Ville, or go a bit further to the heart of the Blue Ridge and train in the mountains on a road bike with a bunch of the team.

To make the decision tougher star triathlete and Olympic siver medalist Michellie Jones was in town, fresh after her victory at the Arizona Ironman, and was planning on doing our 8:30 Saturday group ride with us.

She also gave a talk at the shop


Not only a gifted athlete, but well spoken and easy to listen to. OK, not bad to look at either. :-)











I was in need of a dirt fix so the decision was made to head up to C-Ville and Meltdown. Turned out to be a good move, as it was storming bad when I left at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Finally found the edge of the front somewhere past Richmond.

Still recovering from the surgery I wasn't going to race, just ride the O-Hill trails before all the action started.




Got 2 laps in and finished up while the beginner class was racing. Some REALLY sweet single track up there. The course was 7 miles long and I'd guess 700+ feet of climbing. Actually it felt more like 1200 feet to me, but who knows. Lots of logs to hop, hills to climb (or walk), and rocks to bounce over. The race started at the bottom of a fairly steep road climb before diving into the single track. I didn't feel too too bad, but wasn't really pushing the pace much. Was great just getting out to ride. I was told the temps got up to 80 that day.

Got to watch the sport, SS and Expert/Pro. Was a really great venue, and a low key race. $15 entree fee. Definitely on the schedule for next year. Rode around the course handing up bottles and taking photos/video that I'll have up later. The only down side was that the course was very poorly marked. I missed a few turns (some twice) out in the early pre-ride. The leaders in the Expert/Pro went off course also. The race was tarnished by some allegations of course cutting, but in the end the cream always tends to rise to the top.

The fast and young JB starting his 2nd of 3 laps on the way to victory (--->).

Not only did Jeremiah ride well and win the race, but he got his report up before me. Well done on both counts.






Speaking of well done, I have to give credit where it's due. I only saw maybe 10 riders able to clean the entire powerline uphill - the hill pictured in the earlier post. BIG kudos. If I missed your picture, sorry. I went into oxygen debt just looking at it on my first lap.

After my pre-rides I told the boys that if anyone rode the last uphill rock garden (-->) I'd buy 'em a new bike. Dam good thing Paul Buschi didn't hear me 'cause JB says he did it. Man I'd of liked to have seen that.

RideOn

JB

PS - I look like such a dork.