weekend update

The Lenoir criterium has come and gone for another year. Racer numbers appeared to be higher this year, but I think local spectator numbers were down. Seems that most people are on vacation right now, but that certainly didn't dampen the action.

There were a couple of teams of juniors this year. A vast improvement over the 3 total juniors last year. I really enjoyed helping the juniors out who came into the shop. It reminded me of when I started racing as a junior 20+ years ago.

The highlight of the day for me was riding shotgun with Chuck in the lead car during the Pro,1,2 race. I don't know the rider's name (Terry?), but on about lap 3 an All Star rider went for a prime, got a gap and held it all the way to the finish some 32 laps later. Having a front row seat for that kind of effort was truly amazing.



The fam ventured out of Caldwell County today. We headed up to Roan Mtn. to check out the rhododendron bloom. We did a couple of really cool hikes with Owen riding shotgun in the backpack. We also spotted Cecilio Cruz doing some secret squirrel training up 181. We had a great time and everything was going swimmingly until we started heading down 181. The twists and turns caught up with Owen and an epic bout of carsickness ensued. Pull over, change baby, clean car seat, all systems go...



Just read about some hinky test results from the Giro. Seems that DiLuca, Mazzolenni, Simoni and Ricco all had abnormally low hormone levels and CONI is looking into it. When will this end? Do doctors even have a good baseline of data to really understand the ongoing physiological changes that these athletes undergo over the course of a Grand Tour? AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! The Tour is days away and we have these implications, we have the "men in black" crap that the WADA is feeding to the press, when will this mess end? I just want an exciting Grand Tour with lots of attacking, no certain winner and no drug innuendo for the victor. I thought the Giro fit that bill. Well, guess 2 out of 3 ain't bad...