They practiced and I just tried to stay alive

Matthew about to bank the curve

ShawDawg, JBar and Jenn Shaw banking the curve

Jenn feeling the pace around the curve

And try as I may to get a close range shot of ShawDawg. The man just goes way to fast! I have a lot of shots like this of him. Uhhh, he's not in the photo ... already zoomed by.

Taking of the Hill!

Thursday night at 6 we'll take a ride up Ft Roots for possibly the last time. They are closing the gate at the top but we still get to ride the hill.

Tonight was crit race practice. I rode over to the start point and almost made it there before they left. They were coming right at me so all I had to do was turn around. Part of the course was chained off so we practiced on the short version. I should rephrase that... THEY practiced and I just tried to hang on for dear life. I rode several laps then stopped and shot some bad photos. I've really got to get better at these action shots! I jumped back in after about 8 minutes so they were tired but still moving at 23 mph. The wind was blowing head on at the back stretch so I tucked behind JBar behind Chris. Matthew had shot off the front at the start and stayed up there for a long time.

It was really awesome watching the guys in action. Even though they are considered "newbies" to racing they are very strong and it's great to be out there with them. After the 20 minutes then 2 laps which is considered a CAT 5 crit race we all rode around the course and Matthew and I ended up riding together for a bit and Icut one of the corners and he said that's what he did and to swing out instead. When you cut the corner you slow down and the others will fly past you. It was great talking to him while we were out there. After we finished doing that we started riding toward Gator's. Jen asked me, "So whadda ya think?" My reply was, "If they have a CAT for old overweight people then I'm start there." We had a great ride to Gator's and back. On the way back we had that headwind and Jen "I know Tom Danielson likes chicks with road rash legs" Shaw pulled us at 21mph for a long time. That, my friends, was a tough pull!

As my friends rode off into the sunset I load gear and bike into the car and watched a couple of families with young kids riding for a moment. Don't ya just love summer evenings!