I'll skip a full-on blog post, but will add a few notable items to Jeff's summary:
- Lack of smiles in Jeff's photos make more sense in light of the following quote uttered about the time those photos were taken: "I want to ride fast so this will be over as soon as possible." I don't remember which of us said that, but I'm pretty sure we were both on exactly the same page.
- Until about mile 35, I was thinking, "I feel great and everything is going awesome! I may make a sweet time on this!" At about that time, I noticed my fork was flat and my thinking turned into, "I wonder if it's safe to finish on this fork." I ended up riding through with an extra degree of caution on a rigid (and short) fork. You might think this would bother me - but only a few guys go to these races with realistic aspirations of crazy fast times. The healthy outlook for everyone else is, "I'll get through this the best/fastest I can given whatever crazy crap that luck (will) throw at me." Finishing is a demonstration of character in which you happen to be riding a bicycle. And so I am settled with how this worked out.
- There were exactly 180 pre-registered for open men, and exactly 90 finish times recorded for this field. No idea how the other 90 break out between DNS and DNF. I finished 28th in 10:14.
- I thought it was great to get a sweet pre-ride the day before where Jeff and I saw the best single track on the course in fantastic sunny weather. The views were very different on race day, but as Jeff mentioned, beautiful nonetheless.
- One of the things I love about riding a lot is eating huge amounts of great food. The places we ate in Asheville, NC and in Blue Ridge, GA definitely did not disappoint!
- When I got home, I got unpacked and cleaned up everything except the rock I took off my roof. I am pretty sure there is a fossilized bike inside. I am not looking forward to chipping it out and assessing damage!
- I can't wait for Mohican in June!
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