Storm Chasin, and Bike Racin.....

Yep- wild weekend. We set off from Chattanoooga at about noon on friday. Typical race weekend, my wife with no sleep, van full of bike stuff and kids and a caravan (spread out as it was) between Aj, our group and Strad.

We get out of the nooga" a bit later then palnned but it's ok as we will still get to Franklin early and get to pre ride the SOTO course with our juniors to get in some much needed recon.

so we're on the road and getting close to Murfreesboro, it's starting to rain but that's fine, we aren't made of sugar and will just be hard men and take the ride as it comes.

Then, I get a call from AJ- he's about 10 minutes up the road- he says, "man, we jsut saw a tornado!!!" so, at this point, I'm like "o.k. that sucks"

so we keep driving and get on 840 towards Franlin. That's when it became apparent taht things were going poorly. With STrad driving behind us we get a glimpse off to teh left of a system forming, and when we get even with it- FULL BLOWN TWISTER!!! Wide and coming towards us. There's people on the side of the road stopped, my wife asks "why ar ehtose people stopped" my response- they are stupid and want to die!

so we're hittin it up the road as fast as I think we can stay on the road and get away from the monster.

so that's the start to the weekend, it had to get better from there. AJ tells me, "seeing the tornado made this trip worth it" man, the thought pattens of a 17 year old- would be nice to have that much of a lack of concern again, I envy that attitude.

so we actually get ont eh bikes at the SOTO course int eh afternoon an dit's warm but horribly windy, we get the ride in, with the wind moving us erratically left and right but it was a good ride.

We also made it to Birmingham saturday to get in the 1/2/3 race against some pretty solid regional competition and a handful fo young pros. Cinthia got 2nd int eh womens race and the guys good expereinece- Blair, Strad and AUbrey rode hard and well, I suffered a bit but rode aggressively and feel good about the effort. ofcourse it ended in a mad dash to the line of 40 guys and without AJet or TY, it's simply a futile attempt for us to combat that.

all in all, a great weekend. But one that I won't forget soon....

carp