Roy Roy

Wrong Way Roy!

That was the theme during the epic at Lake Hope today. Beautiful weather greated the largest Gravel Rouser field ever as we rolled out of Athens towards Lake Hope. We witnessed some classic growling dogs and some red neck local flare on the way to the race course as we roused the gravel for the XC race of the year.

After close to 2 hoursin the saddle we lined up and we were off....I sat second wheel on a brutal first climb to the top of the ridge and when I saw the leader botch a corner I took the lead. I was followed closely by local favorite Ryan Curtis who had just missed out on the victory Thursday night. I slowly gapped him, but continually was getting lost. I had to wait for him a couple times just to make sure I was on track, and at one point in time stood in the middle of the trail for a while completely clueless....Ryan caught me and I thought it might be a good idea to follow the local for a while....soon after he took a wrong turn that took us close to 15 minutes out of the way! Needless to say I didn't win the 50 minute long race after a 15 minute delay! I had a blast though....as we screamed back down the trail we noticed close to 15 other riders had taken the same wrong turn including Andrea who was leading the womens race!

Either way it was a blast and great to be back on some awesome mountain bike trails. We ended up with close to 55 miles off-road! Tomorrow is another 20 mile mtb race, but not sure if we are driving home or not???

After the race we had some bbq'd pork sandwiches with the Athens Bicycle / Gravel Rouser crew and then went home to watch the NCAA Wrestling Championships....this came up in conversation while watching the heavyweights!!!!!!