Shedding my Summer Skin
Things have cooled off around here. Both literally and figuratively. The air is crisp in the morning and warming during the afternoons. Good sleeping weather, as its nice to have the windows open in the evening. Racing has been on the down-low. Bunch of fun riding and making preparations for The Shenandoah 100 (2009 Race Report, can’t find my 2008 but I think it’s on the 29er Crew somewhere?). Anyways, looking forward to heading down there with Mark and Suzanne Hartman, fun few days of riding and camping!
With the chance to hit some trails and have some fun and the nice weather, August/September is some of the best time to ride in Naples. I headed down this past Thursday night, but forgot my lights, DOH! Managed to rip up Parish Hill, rip through Hi-Tor and down the DEC in about 50 minutes, plenty of daylight. But not enough to do it all again. So I did some hill repeats on Parish Hill in the dark. Want to really sharpen your skills? Descend a dirt road at 35mph in the pitch black, that will give you some confidence 
This past Saturday, headed back down to get what I was really looking for. A good 4 hour tear with some good climbing. Felt great to rip the trails and have some fun
hardpack
All in all was a great day of riding. Going to head back out there tonight (with my lights and get some more ripping in! Then this weekend, gonna take the Lake monster down to Windham to see the World Cup Finals!! First time World Cup in the US in 5 years, and it looks like they have the finals for 3 more years. He’s super pumped (as am I) to see Julien Absalon and Nino Schurter mix it up Live! It’s been super cool to watch the races on Freecaster.tv with him in the am, but will be even cooler to watch in person!
Thx for the most recent bunch of HighTor pics, good stuff! Missed ya at S6, but your bike will be happy for that (the heavy rain and mud cost mine all its brake pads as well as a rear der snapped in two). Enjoy Windham, maybe we’ll cross paths. i’ll be working the feed zone for saturday morning’s race then spectating up on the hill for the afternoon’s, finally getting in a race myself Sunday. great weather forecast, should be a great weekend at Windahm.
Cheers-
t
Terry, was happy to have missed S6 this year, due to all that mud! I had a wedding to attend to in PA. Hopefully I’ll catch you at Windham. Is Brynna racing in the am? I’ll be there for the womens/mens xc races, but not hanging around to race on sunday. Would love to line up and race, but I have to head back Sat afterwards as I’m bringing the little one down to watch the event. Hope to catch up with you there…
Yep, she and her buddy from saratoga Aleksandra both traveled around to the big races this season and got the points required for Windham’s UCI Women’s XC – exciting stuff.
Safe travels, cross paths with you on the hill Saturday…
t