NATE.....

yes, that is Nate Brown invading the Hincapie-Barkley Bus-------he needs to spend alot more time in it next year. Forget that Hot Tubes stuff Nate- know where your roots are and come back to teh southeast.......

River Gorge-

so it was a good weekend of racing in Chattanooga this weekend- not necessarily for the Hincapie-Barkley boys.....atleast until sunday.

We had a good plan going into saturdays 100K 6000+ feet climb fest, but just didn't have the legs left to pull it off- so all 5 of us DNF'd and then skipped the TT.

But on sunday it was a bit different- just 4 of us lined up (me, AJet, Ben and Talbott)- we had no real plan- it's been a long eyar so far and if the guys don't know how to race their bikes by now then I have not done my job- so pre race was "everyone has a long leash, do what you want, and help me finish ahead of that weak little lamb peters if you can.

We missed the brea, but were active in the race trying to get other things started. Ben puked himself mid race but ws still able to lead out AJet for teh field sprint- they said he got 2nd int eh sprint but I thin he won it- her'es a pick...

And I did finish ahead of peters for the 'Nooga bragging rights........

Update- Nats......

so here is the lowdown- 9 kids; junior guys, U23 and a really fast girl- 4 podiums, 9 top 10 finishes....... not a bad week at all........we are on the map now, and things are looking great.

PODIUMS!!!!!!!

so it was a good day for the Hincapie-Barkley Devo kids.

Ben got us rolling with a 5th in the 15/16 crit

Cinthia held on and finished a fine 4th in a field spirnt where she was completely boxed in with 200 to go

Ty crossed a huge gap to tag onto the back of the break right at the finish to get 4th as well. It was a truely impressive effort. AJ then won the field sprint for 9th-

all great results yesterday and more to come

podiums and scorpion zip ties.......

so, my tt went as expected, slow, hurt, no legs, but it was good to see the course at speed so I could better relate it to the kids. My boty Olheiser did end up second with a good ride, I asked him what it feels like to be the bridesmaid again........

It seems my advice didn't pay off for anyone except....CINTHIA!!!!! the girl rode her heart out and it was a national unveiling for her with a fine 3rd place.........

now, onto the deadly zip tie........I was helping swap out casettes for Cinthia, I found a zip tie and was going to put it on my cassette. It was then when I made the mistake......a moment I wish I had back. A small end of a cut tie was in the zip end of another. One that was too small for me to grab by my fingers, so I pinched it with my teeth and pulled......OUCH! it was then that the "tail" of this tie cocked back and snapped me in the right eye just like the tail of a scorpion. Damn, that hurt. And now, I have a HUGE hematom enveloping about 60% of my sclera and creeping into more area hour by hour. It hurts when I blink, but if I don't blink it dries out and scratches horribly. I tried to get by a opthamologist but everyone was closed, will get up in the a.m. and if it's no better I'll try again.

so, word to the wise, beware of the scoripn zip ties.......

carp

update......day 5

DAy 5- so we goet htere right at noon, not bad when You can plan a 2,200 mile trip and arrive at exactly the time you said- pat myself on the back......we got everyone registered, went to the course and started our thought patterns on how we coupld approach it.

pretty uneventful day, just glad to get to LA'

Day 4.......

another day, another time zone......sitting here in Lake Havasu, Az. Interresting place, a bit of a ghost town right now, peters told me something about a parasite in the water so maybe that's the deal.

today was actually a good drive. Drove over the continental divide and atleast 7,500 feet in elevation- the highest I had ever been so that was cool.

the ride was great as well- we only got out for an hour but it was good. I could have ridden that road for 4-5 today I think. We were in Grant's, New Mexico, 6450 feet of elevation, real scenic, tons of high peaks all around.

tomorrow we get to LA.......

day 3.........

arkansas, oklahoma, texas, new mexico.........750 miles.........11 hours in a bus...........

here is my take on oklahoma, texas and most of new mexico- lots of windfarms, gentlemens clubs right next to bingo parlors and speed limits that SHOULD be 100mph.......


carp

I'm goin back to cali.........

atleast that's what LL said......

day 1 and day 2 of the trip to Nats......

it started out poor and looked very bleak for a while as the bus once again had some issues in route from the homebase in Greenville to the secondary base in the 'nooga. It seems that we had lost our transmission and had some bad U-joints. I was numb for a while yesterday but Bill Joslin came through and got us hoked up with a shop in nooga that fixed us up.

so, today we leave the homestead at around 10:15 and roll into Fort Smith, Ar at around 8:30- not bad time for the bus. Along the way we stopped to get downtown johnny brown's bike in memphis and me some extra strong java.......I'm starting to think this is going to be a long trip, but it will all be good, I am expecting good things from our kids..........

TN STATE TT

So, our TN state tt was last weekend- OUCH!!!!!

I can pretty much sum up my performance by saying the 8 pounds I gained over vacation really, really affected me on that hilly course.

The promoter did a real good job with organization and execution of the event, but personally, I hated the course. Absolutely no area to get any sort of a steady rythm on it. But it is what it is and I won't rationalize my underperformance as I was 2nd in my age gorup and 9th overall.

Props to Tatum for the win. Good ride. I'll be better prepared next year........