Time to catch up

Let's see... what kind of exciting things have I been doing lately?

The AJ and I road tripped to Alabama for the Bump & Grind race, which this year was part of the UCI US Cup Mountain Bike Race Series. It's amazing that in the 9 hours it takes us to drive west to Terlingua, TX we can drive east on I-20 and leave Texas, drive through Louisiana, Mississippi and half-way through Alabama... but I digress. We are joined by Claire from Austin for the drive and weekend of racing.

This is my third trip to Oak Mountain

and my second attempt at the race, which is a twice around a measly 17 mile loop that includes 600' of climbing in about 3 miles. The first year I passed on the racing as the distance and Open Women's class didn't sound too appealing. Last year I lined up, but shamefully didn't finish the race. This year was my chance to redeem myself. Although it was still an Open class (all Cat 1 women 19+ race together), I wanted to finish what I started and get up that climb both laps.

The day before the race we did some driving around Birmingham and found a neat little neighborhood on the side of a hill. How would you like this for your driveway?
You can see the roof of the house hiding in the trees next to the trash can.

We also found a nice collection of cars in the parking lot of the mall








My race was more of a ride (Claire kicked butt, winning the Open Women race), but I did finish and did not have the slowest two lap time (hey - gotta go for the little victories). While I did have some mechanical issues with my chain (thanks to a combination of sand and water) I did ride up most of the Red Road climb. I think I could have made it to the top if the chain had not given me problems. "Proof" I was there, as was The AJ.

After our race we stayed to watch the Pro race, which was made all the more exciting as we knew 4 of the Pro men racing. To add an extra dose of excitement, two of our friends were racing single-speed bikes.

Mitch finished in the top 3rd of the Pro Men, and Will was right there with him until he flatted towards the end of the race.

As a parting note, it's important to color coordinate your polish and helmet straps

Too bad I don't have the SUV that completes the ensemble