A date with the Black Snake

Tomorrow I get to ride Black Snake Road. See pix.

It's a tough one and a great test of my fitness. Long and hard. Yeah.

First time I ever attempted it, had to stop for a breather at the switchback. That's good, though, because now I have these pix to show you.

Next time I hit it, made it up without stopping, but it was a slow grind at the end of a 3 hour ride.

This time I'm going to hit it long and hard. Yeah. Maybe twice.

Tour de Gruene weekend

Got my name in the results next to Lance:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2008/nov08/tourdegruene08/tourdegruene081

(39th place... not bad).

Good weekend.

Let's see, highlights - got to see Hans and Helen Schneider, had a shoe cleat fall off while warming up about 10 min before my start, and luckily got Jerry to lend me one of his.

Had a good ride in the TT for 3rd in my group and a medal.

Got to see Lance, and got a couple snaps.

While Jerry and I were racing Sunday morning, LA and his partner come blowing past us like we were standing still, then a few miles up the road they're both taking a pee break. So naturally I pointed and laughed.

Also had a good ride w/ Jerry Sunday morning in the 2-up TT, we got 3rd in our group. And, more important, took more than 4 minutes off our time from last year.

At the awards ceremony, some moron had read the result sheet wrong and thought his team got 3rd place instead of us, then he got all torqued off when he found out he was wrong, so I thought Jerry was gonna have to break a beer bottle over his head. And that would've been a shame because it was still half full.

Thanks to Jerry for driving in his very coool new truck, and for pulling me the last 6 miles into Gruene.


Pix:

River Road, one of the prettiest pedals in Texas.

















The Saturday ITT start/finish area - lots of spectators for this podunk little end of season TT
















And here's why - LA launching outta there like a scalded cat.































The ITT start ramp.
















LA brings it home at warp factor 11
















Jerry on River Road

















Hans and Helen finishing up the TTT



















Jerry and Me














Me in the ITT, getting caught.

Just having fun rolling around