The Gainesville Gun down!!!

First of all, props to Chriss Redd Photography for taking the pics you saw in my last blog and this blog. This has to be one of the best pictures that I have ever seen of myself racing. It was taken in Gainesville this past weekend and it just has so much emotion and raw energy. If you look carefully, you can see my middle finger in my right hand dripping with blood. Just one of the wounds I acquired this weekend while racing to a third place finish and finally getting an even better taste of what it feels like to be a champion.

I have had a budget crunch around my house. Quickly approaching the years end, I got to tighten the dollars to make sure I can have a fantastic holiday. That being said, just like last race, I didn't come up the day before to ride the track, yet I still knew what to expect, cause the way the course is laid out, there are only two ways to run it. Well the way they chose to run it, was backwards from last year and it made it so that you basically had a flat run for 2 miles before you dove into an extreme rocky downhill into a pit and then a rocky climb out of the pit.

Before the race started I consulted with my team captain to get some advice on what I should do. His recommendation was to hit the track second behind someone, let them do the work thru the flats and draft off their wheel. If I have to make any passes, he added, make them on the up hills to really break the spirit of your competitors.

As the race began and I paced myself behind the rider who eventually won, heading into field two, My team mate asked for a pass and I obliged. As he continued to chase the lead rider, I did my best to keep them in sight. Just as we were entering the second of two short single tracks in the flat, I was passed by a rider, who has been gunning for me for weeks. I stayed with him and kept him close. I decided to wait till the first uphill to make my move to shatter his spirit. And my plan worked like a charm, as we started making our ascent up the steep rocky 300 ft climb, I would intentionally smack his bike with my front tire to throw off his rhythm, then I made my move next to him and past him. He jumped on my bike tire and start rubbing my rear tire with his front, I continued to put on a faster pace, crested, geared up and started to escape him. Soon thereafter another rider came up behind me. As we made ourselves down a small twisty hill that quickly led to an uphill switch back climb, I heard the rider that I just passed on the climb screaming, I looked in time to see him rolling and screamed to him to see if he was ok. Well just then BAM another rider plows right into him, crashing horrificly. Feeling the pressure to defend my third place spot, I continued the race.

Well the guy behind me, quickly makes a move and passes me, and tries to escape, but before he can mount a serious attack, I reel him in pushing my big ring, pulling him close and keeping him close till the last mile of the first lap, when I countered attack on a 50 foot steep climb to pass him. I could tell by the look on his face, he didn't have a chance to beat me and as long as I kept my pace steady, I would get third place. I made my way thru the second lap and as I approached a 500 foot climb, I geared down and lost my chain. The chain became trapped between my smallest front ring and the frame, after wrestling with it for a minute and gaining a huge ring bite on my finger, I yank it out, after being passed by the previous rider that I had battled with 30 seconds ago.

I immediately jump back on and start hammering the pedals, and in less then 25 seconds I reel him back in to put the final nail in the coffin. I spend the rest of the race riding smooth and fast and finish, victorious with a third place podium placing. I beat that guy by 30 seconds and beat all the other head hunters that are dying to see me slow down by no less then 2 minutes. As I make myself even more prepared thru this week and the next, half way thru the season I am looking to finish with the very least number 4 in the state. But in order to insure this victory for myself, I have to continue to crush the competition, stay on task, work even Harder and make every single last race count. Cause I aint lying when I say, I WANT TO WIN, FIRST PLACE before the season is done....

The Rumble @ Reddick!

There I am, proving once again, that I am bad enough to escape the pack and ride alone. All be it I made have only ridden alone for a couple of minutes I heard the silence and wondered, where did they all go.
The morning was humid, the track was slick, technical and backwards. To top it all off, I was riding into the unknown cause I didn't know what to expect since I didn't practice it the day before. All week other riders spent the best of their time talking smack to me on a MTB forum on the internet. Although I enjoyed it, I got several riders gunning for me, wanting to defeat me, wanting to beat me. What do I think about that, I think its great. I love the press and I love playing with their minds and getting them to believe who is faster, just with my words.
As I made my way to the line, I made sure to keep a straight face. I don't want to show any emotion, I want to show a poker face. Make them see how focused and intense I am. As we lined up, seconds before the horn went off, I heard a rider, making that stereotypical Indian sound you can make by smacking your lips and going OOoooooo oooO. Instead of angering me, it got me fired up to smoke up the track. As we launched from the start line, I quickly made work of 15 other people and got into second place as we hit the tight twisty track. I kept the pressure on the rider infront of me, Not bothering or worrying about the people behind me. I would intentionally run his rear tire with my front tire, putting on the pressure. As we made our way to a 12 foot tall clay climb, he didn't have enough speed to crest it, and neither did I, anticipating his dismount, I dismounted quicker, ran passed him, and made my first attempt at an escape from the group.
Well, I had a couple of over the handle bar leaps to escape the bike that was falling from under me in the off camber terrain that I was riding in, slick, rocky dangerous downs and ups, it was an adventure to continue my escape and it was not long, before three riders caught and passed me.
Soon thereafter, two more passed me, One right after I smashed my right pedal. I didn't even notice that I had damaged it beyond repair and kept riding. Shortly after the second of the most recent two had passed, we approached a muddy hill that could not be ridden and while he walked, he slipped and feel on his chest and I ran right pass him with bike in hand. Shortly after that, I caught the other guy that had passed me and ran right passed him as he faltered on a muddy climb. From that point on, I rode my hardest, and ran when I had too, eventually finishing in fourth place. The best finish of my career. What can I say. The whole thing was a sheer pleasure and the competition was exciting. But, I want more, I'm hungry to make my move to the number one spot. So we will see if before the season ends I can wind up at the front, all alone, finishing alone... Now that would be Super Sweet. One more pic, the second one, shows my team mate in the feed zone handing me a bottle. Its hard to tell from the picture, but I was going super fast!!!!