Local Racing and The Diamondback

It's been a while since I've been home, not on call, and not having to travel to a race. Last weekend was pretty sweet with the Town Mountain Hillclimb, and this weekend was the Mountain Sports Festival at Carrier Park in Asheville. It was pretty sweet to be able to race just 1.5mi from my house Friday night, and to ride to the Wheel Ride for Food yesterday!

Friday night was basically a version of the Ring of Fire races at Carrier Park, where instead of a points race format over 60 laps, it was a 50 lap scratch race or 'winner takes all'. Team ACE was out under threatening skies with 4 teammates - Andy Applegate (coming off a strong finish in the mountain bike race just an hour earlier!), Andrew Erskine, Chris Emory, and myself. The goal was to attack from the gun and get a move up the road with at least 2 riders in it. After Andy set a strong pace for several laps, Chris Emory and I started to exchange attacks which led to a break forming as the field began to shred. The move consolidated as Andrew Erskine bridged across and provided us with a couple of 'worker bees' and a fresh rider to sit in for the sprint. By about the 20 lap mark we lapped the field which put us in position to begin attacking again after Andy set pace for several laps. The danger man was Josh Whitmore from Globalbike who is a powerful rider from Sylva. After I softened the field with an attack, Chris, Andrew and Andy all countered and made it up the road again! I followed wheels until getting into a chase group. With about 10 laps to go we lapped the field as well, which put 3 of us +2 laps! After several strong laps behind Andy (did I mention that he's a time trial machine?) I unleashed the leadout for Chris Emory and Andrew 2 laps out. Josh chased and gave Chris and Andrew a free ride to the finish as Andrew overtook Josh and then Chris as well for 1, 2, and 4th (myself) on the night!

Saturday wasn't a race, but a charity ride benefiting Asheville's Meals on Wheels. Thanks to friends and family I hit my goal of raising $250. Andy Applegate, with his wife Cara (on the tandem!) and I set of at 8:30AM for almost 70 miles through some beautiful roads north of Asheville. About 3.5hrs later we rolled across the line, tired and happy! While is wasn't a race it was a fun event for a great cause.

Thanks to all of my supporters for the event, as well as our sponsors!

Sunday was a little bit of family time, and a ride that I've been looking forward to for a while now called "The Diamondback": 226A from Marion to Little Switzerland, NC:I rode up, and Jess drove and she and Ethan met me at the top for lunch. The awesome thing about living in Asheville is that you have a lot of rides like this up to the Parkway that let you climb for miles, much like you lived out West, but with more roads! The road surface is excellent, the weather mild, and traffic is low - I saw maybe 6 cars and about 20 motorcycles in the hour climb. As you can see, the reward was worth the climb:
I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend and thank you to all those who have devoted themselves to service to our country over the years.