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Thursday, September 04, 2008
Seven Springs and the Cross

Seven Springs and the Cross

 
...and by no means do I mean anything to do with church. Cyclo-cross kids, Cyclo-cross....as sick and mental as it is....it's started.

So I hit most of the highlights on Seven Springs in my first post, but here's a little more.

As the norm for any endurance race you had the questionable attire...
...lucky the Wife did not get a shot of the dude wearing the paisley dress, some form of fake boobs and a pink wig....sadly I thought dude was pulling it off pretty well. Thou I'm not sure why she missed getting a picture of the all female team rocking the schoolgirl look...plaid skirts, knee high socks...one even had pigtails, not that I really noticed.

Just past the two mile mark on my first lap I plowed my right pedal into something on a super fast downhill singletrack section...I saw on later laps it was a rock about the size of a cider block. Needless to say I went down HARD, and I truly thought I'd broken my leg. I knew a first aid station was at the bottom of the hill so I thought I'd just one leg it down the rest of the way.

After a minute or so I was able to start moving it and by the aid station I rode. I'd mostly forgotten about the leg when I came flying in for pass off to the next rider on my team. As they she took off two women came over to me freaking out..."come with us, just leave your bike and come with us." My brains not really working after red lining it the past hour so I stagger with them as another teammate grabs my bike and gear.

They sit me in a chair and now I see what they were freaking on, my left leg from my knee to my ankle is covered in blood. Long story short, the sweat made things look much worse then they really were...just some cuts and two really good impact points.

The night laps were cool, nothing like doing a MTB race and hearing the Ted Nugent concert at the bottom of the resort most of the course.

My fourth and last lap was just about riding safe and burning up time. At that point we knew we had a fifty minute lead on the second place team with just over two hours to go. After my lap I took a couple shots of the resort on my way back down....this was about halfway the mountain.

The area reminded me of western NC alot, a sea of rolling green "east coast" mountains.

Proof that I can't get dressed without Wifey...

I've also got to thank the guys from Lupine Lighting System for the lighting system they raffled off....and I won. This thing is pimping and will gets LOTS of use....a huge thank you.

Now on to this Cross thing. Lastnight was the first cross practice here in Doylestown and I have to say that guys/gals that do this are a sick, sadistic group...really. I mean who in there right mind sprints for 40 minutes on a fat tired "road bike" thru grassy fields, rocky dirt roads, dismounts to run over barriers (put there on purpose) just to come to a hill so steep it's not ridable...therefore you throw the bike of your shoulder and run up it.

I know, like I said sadistic......and yeah, don't even ask...I'll be back next week.

Monday, September 01, 2008
24 hours of Seven Springs: mini

Mini Seven...

 
Here's a snap shot of the weekend. But we warned, the brain's only running about 50% of normal right now.....and when "normal" is about 50% of where it should...well, you get the point.

Late Friday afternoon easy pre ride of the course....atleast it was nice and flat:
 
....result. Seeing the kickass course firsthand and a destroyed rear rim...on the paved road heading back down the mountain to the villa no less. More on that once Bikwrench does his "CSI" investigation, good thing for back up wheelsets.

Friday night brought a Team carb load.....one part pasta, three parts beer. Three plus cases of beer over 14 racers is good hydration right? After a LATE night and an EARLY morning (ie two hours of "sleep") it was more bike love time....a big thanks to our neighbors:
 
....not sure who these guys were, but they seam to be good riders. If you're not a local these guys are STUDS on bikes, hands down some of the best riders on the east coast.
 
Back up top to watch the releasing of the hounds at noon
It was a awesome clear day....if you have three drinks and close one eye you may be able to make out the runners on the back side of the lake heading to there bikes.
Jump 24 plus hours ahead of racing with about an hour of sleep and what do you get:

A win of the five person Expert class and victory 'gift' from the second place team.

Will fill in the blanks later today or tomorrow, after I regain full motor control. But a way to man up award goes out to Jason on throwing down nine laps in the Solo class...huge props man.

Travis Sapsford is: 

Recovering from the 24 hour this weekend...