DATE: Dec.5

LOCATION: Athens,Ga.- park

DRIVING DISTANCE:  75 miles round trip 

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Fast and fairly flat. The course started on a paved section then veered onto the grass and into the first barrier section, a triple this went into the woods which were preceded by a log that had to be jumped. Then into a fast down hill section through the woods ,a quick right and left past the pavilion and back onto a paved  path which went down fast to the beach area. Next back to the grass and the next barrier section, a run up with 3 barriers. then its a fast grass section and back onto the road past the start finish line.

This week seemed to be the coldest so far, actual temperature wise anyhow. No wind to speak of, but cold. I had two weeks off because of Thanksgiving. As I have stated, good and bad. I tried to keep my riding up through this holiday, I did pretty good and actually made it out onto the road one day for a ride.

I felt pretty good today, I was worried Saturday as my legs felt pretty tight all day and there is a bad bug running through the family. So I was fighting and hoping not to catch that.

This week also saw the smallest field so far, with only about 6 or 7 of us men's "C" category lined up at the start. Since we had such a small turnout, the women and juniors decided to go out together.

I had a great start, I came out strong, made it through the first and second barriers good thought the fast woods section I was on the wheel of a guy that usually takes first or second. Bad thing about this was he showed up about 5 minutes before the race started and didn't preview the course. I got worried at one point as the paved path went into a sharp right turn at the bottom and didn't want him doing something stupid in front of me, so I was yelling to  him what was coming up.

Anyway made it through the next set of barriers, the run up and back on my bike, I was flying, went around a hairpin corner and started to go to the paved section when I heard the "sssssss" noise out of my front tire. I pulled over and was in disbelief. I had flatted. Of all the bad times this could have happened it was today. NO support of any kind. Scott hadn't showed up today. And me with no spare wheels.

I pushed the bike over to the car, walked over to the judges and informed them that I was out. I was a bit piturbed. It was only after I had loaded everything up did I think about changing the tube and rejoining the race. I didn't think about it as an option at first as I thought that I could never get back into the race enough. Stupid! there was only 6 people in the race, I could have changed the tire and still managed a 6th place finish just for finishing!

Oh well, I was upset. We'll just chalk this one up to experience for next time.

Placing DNF