On the road again...

Monday I zipped out from home to Kentucky for Masters Nats. I can end the suspense now, I did not win the tt...

But on the way I did manage to break out my handy dandy magic coupon book to score some good hotel deals. El Cheapo Delux here... not paying 130 or whatever it was to stay at the race headquarters. Especially when said race headquarters really didn't seem to offer anything to the racers. My newest find... Microtel. There was a coupon for every stop I made and I don't think I paid over $40 for a room. The rooms were pretty new, clean and quiet. I cant ask for much more than that.

I lived out of the cooler, funny how with free continental breakfast, and a cooler you can do that. I did stop at my other go to place though... Tamarac- the tourist trap in Beckley, WVA. The Greenbrier has a cafeteria there, and you can eat like a Queen for about $8. No kidding. Pan fried trout, fresh green beans and mushroom, roast potatoes. Yum.

After the race I went over to the Kentucky Horse Park to pal around with Cigar and Funnycide. I had a day to kill, and thought that I might as well do something fun. If you are ever in Lexington, its a well spent $15, and next year, they get the World Equestrian Games, the first time that they have ever been held outside of Europe.

Ok, the highlights of the race... getting to hang with all my friends who decided to come out and ride with the best of the best. Dennis, Tony, Marc & Marnie, Mimi.. yeah they were all there. Thank God that Tony had at least brought stuff as I ended up using his trainer. I'm not the only one... Dennis did, too. And Tony did TRY to give me a heads up on both the turn around and how short the course was. Too bad I really wasn't letting stuff sink in!

Tuesday I rode the course about 11:30 am. Yeah, during the high wind warning. Too say that there were points that I really thought I should get off my bike... understatement. And right there I decided to not use the tri-spoke and just use a regular wheel. With the wind, and the bridges over gorges... it was scary. So scary that I only rode the course one time, not the two that I had planned. And to be honest, I really wasn't paying attention to markings, I was trying to stay on the bike.

Tuesday night I went in to Louisville early to get my bike measured. I knew that it wouldn't pass, but was very confident of a morphological exemption. First ref, the not official measurer, agreed... I was about 1-2 cm off with the saddle. So I waited, but never fear, I had my shoes for the exemption.

Uh, next ref... said I was fine. So I made him measure the bike again. Nope, fine. I told him, that when I measured it it wasn't fine, when the other guy measured it, it wasn't fine. Nope, fine.

Now the Natures Pearl guys had to zip out to Lowes to buy a hacksaw for their handlebar extensions... I was worried for them.

Get to the race on Wed and the wind has died down, but there is a good chance for tstorms later in the day. Oh, and the race is delayed, rumor being that no one figured on the amount of traffic on the HIGHWAY that they were using. Oh, I'd be sooo embarrassed. Not nearly as embarrassed as if the other rumor I was hearing came to pass, that they were going to have to cancel the tt. Yeah, cancel the Masters National TT. Yeah, that would be bad.

But the race went off. And when it was my turn to go, the same ref who measured me twice the night before did not pass my bike. But yes, I did get the morph exemption, and then I rode like crap. 1000 miles, multiple days in hotels, and I stunk.

I did get to see Cigar the next day though.

So now we're in Roanoke, and the girls just got here for the Mill Mt Hill Climb tonight. If I didn't like the hills on the tt course, I'm really not going to like Mill Mt. I'll get up though, and maybe with the girlies around me I'll actually sleep tonight.

Onward and upward!