When in Rome (or Belgium)

So, I'm at the tour of Atlanta, and I ask John Murphy (aka the manchild - from his Krystal days) to give Chris Butler some advice on Belgium......among a couple other things I won't actually write on this blog, he says "you have to drink the beer, because it's fantastic" that messagae must have been passed along to young David as well----
have one for me bro....

carp

Hincapie-Barkley tearing up the dirty south....

Another Great Weekend for the Hincapie-Barkley Team 5 wins in 2 Days!!!!
After about a month of watching Chris work his magic the rest of the guys have come alive (with Chris hitting it strong!). It started with Nick finishing a very strong second in the Athens Twilight amateur finals race and has exploded from there.

Saturday May 3rd.
Sunny King Crit- Anniston, Al. 3 guys, 3 races, 3 wins! This is a great race with an NRC pro race later that night, the coverage is unbelievable with news papers, TV and a Diamond vision screen to see all the action. Ben got us rolling with a win in the junior event in solo fashion. I took the hint and took care of a masters race I have been trying to win for 3 years, lapping the field in a 5 man break and taking the sprint. Then AJ sealed the deal with a fantastic field sprint win in the 2/3 crit after Ben softened up the field with a 10 lap solo break.

Dilworth Criterium, Charlotte, NC While the guys were taking care of business in Alabama I got word that Chris had won solo in the 2/3 race in NC. He got in a 2 man break on the third lap and attacked his partner with 2 to go to take the solo win.

Sunday May 4th.
Nalley Historic Roswell Crit, Roswell, GaWith the results from saturday still fresh on our minds, and now a more complete team with 5 guys (Chris, David T, AJ, Tyler and Nick) in the 2/3 event our plan was to be aggressive and make every move. We represented very well being the aggressor and working announcer David Towle into a frenzy with him calling out us as the eventual winners half way through the event. We almost had a hiccup in the weekend as 4 of our 5 went down in a mass pile up half way through but it all came back together and we had 4 guys left in the race at eh end. Tyler made a move late to keep things together, David (our 120 pound climber!!!) lead out the last lap stringing out the entire field single file, Nick took over on the back side hill and deposited AJet into the last corner where he sealed the deal to come from behind a kid who got the jump and win by 2-3 lengths. It's amazing to see a true junior sprinter with the leg speed of a hummingbird take a win! all in all a very positive weekend both from the standpoint of results and the learning curve that was applied to our kids.

5 wins in 3 races across 3 states!

what's been up........

pulled in different directions that's what- that's my life- sometimes I have all the time in the world, sometimes I'm doing 3 things at the same time and thinking of 10 minre I need to be doing at that moment.

so, the past month was up and down training- 17 hour weeks and a few 8 's as well. but that'wasnt' too bad. The bad part was the stomach bug that hit the family last week- I lost 8 (yes eight) poinds in less then a day- actually one night- that's like 5% of my body weight. No wonder I was crawling on the floor for mobility for a day later. And tehn I stop and think about how poor the little man felt- being only 18 pounds himself I'm sure he lost a pound or more as much as he filled our bed with fluids...........as far me, My legs still feel like crap and I can just hope they come around saturday morning. The last time I had s bug the week before a race was soto last year- it took me 3 days of racing to feel good again, unfortunately in that time I had missed countless breaks and turned a horendous TT in the process- hopefully that won't happen again. The positive is this is a home town race adn I'm in better condition then last year even in late may so I hope to feel fine.....

until next time....

Todays ride-

Rain, wind, sunshine, clouds, today had everything except cold and snow-

at times it was difficult to keep the bike on the road.......

TY

Yes, Ty is THE man on one wheel. I wish I could pull wheelies off like this.

Coming soon to a race near you......

The Road Less Traveled Series (the full pull)

So I convinced AJ to join me for the full loop of the ride I started in december. The one up Pigeon mountain on the Crockford preserve climb. It was just as cool as I thought it would be but not quite as long (72 miles total). The top of the mountian wasn't too bad- 8 miles of dirt and gravel, a bit rolling but not bad. One downhill actually had Moguls on it- it was a potential clavicle day but we survived (with ony 2 flats).

I am thinking on beggining a "hell of the south" ride series. It may require a medical waiver to participate though........