roadtrip.

After a whirlwind journey to Sea Otter, my time home was short but sweet. I packed up the bike and clean kits and met up with Chris to head South (insert obnoxious, sitting on the front porch just strummin' my banjo twang here).

Thursday was spent in the car with a rest overnight at Ma and Pa Peariso's in way, way southern Illinois. Really you could just say Kentucky, it was that close.

We picked up where we left off on Friday and finished the drive to Ocoee, Tennessee and site of the Cohutta 100 and Big Frog 65.


After arriving later than planned we picked up our packets and did a little rippin' off the start to see what we were in for. A 3 mile road climb lead to the above deliciousness for miles. Oh, and I forgot to mention the weather for the entire trip was phenomenal, nothing lower than 80!

Keeping this short and to the point, post preride we dropped drop bags, ate at a local Italian joint (Tennesseans aren't known for their Italian food), checked into the hotel, prepped bikes, showered, stretched and to were in bed at roughly 11pm, bare in mind this is eastern time now. Sleep was one of those nervous sleeps, like "man tomorrow is gonna rough," kinda sleeps. Our race dreams were punctuated around 1am when the knuckle head next room over thought it a good idea to make the loudest phone call in the history of phone calls. Not only were we able to hear clearly every word he was saying but we were able to hear the women on the other line. What the hell!!!! Finally he shut up after working both the microwave and tv and we were able to go back to our beauty sleep.

Our 4:30 wake up call was early. With nothing seemingly open in the raging metropolis of Ocoee we settle for Waffle House. At this point everything was still blurry but we made it to the start and prepped while it was still dark.

Chris was off first for the 100 miler at 7:00am and my start was 15 minutes later for the 65 miler.

When the gun went off I sat in comfortably not knowing what to really expect other than the first few miles. I was extremely surprised that by the top of the 3 miled paved climb the selection had already been made. 5 of us rode away into the next 10 or so miles of single track and never looked back. The middle of the course consisted of gravel fire roads that went either up or down. The climbs were long and the downhills sketchy. That selection of 5 was whittled slowly down to just myself and a German from Kentucky by the midway point. On the climb out after stopping at the bag drop the German just slowly slipped further and further back. I was now on my own. What seemed like hours more I rolled back into the single track for another 15 miles of fun and called it a day. Crazy way to get my first win of the season, but gee, it sure felt good! Time ended up being 4:40 with roughly 11,000ft of climbing.

I'll let Chris tell his story but I know his day was rough. 3 flats and a long hike back to one of the feeds took him out of what was going to be a top 6. He ended 13th on the day.


With racing and pody shots complete we once again were on the road again back to Ma and Pa Peariso's for another overnight stay. Thanks to them for there kind hospitality. Sunday we woke up took a light spin, ate breakfast and were on our way back to 'ol Wisco.

With the 65 miler behind me, doing 100 looks to be the next type of goal. But first there some racing at home to be done...