In the past 10 days, I was in VA, PA, MA, DE, NY, NJ, MD and briefly PA. First, there was a race right in New York, which was very cool and very fast. The next day, there was a race in Hoboken, NJ (an apparently historic town) that had lots-o-climbing, which is bad news for me, so I did not so good, but it was fun nonetheless. You can see Joey C's excessively humble (he did win his race) race report here.
After that, Josh, Jeff Cronin, Jeremy and myself jammed a whole bunch of stuff (including my big-ass folding mattress, which was totally worth bringing), into Jeremy's Silver-Bullet Honda Accord for a long trip south. It was a fun trip down,
especially because we had already passed the dreadfulness that is the George Washington Bridge. On the way, we ate at a Virginia IHOP, where we got our first taste of proper southern hospitality, which always takes some getting used to. In VA, we met up with Jeremy's brother Tim and a couple of other guys from Jeremy's team in Fitchburg, We stayed at an old firehouse in Lynchburg that's being rented by two guys down there. Special thanks again to David and Ashby, it was awesome. Every day would start with a 
trip to Barb's Dream Hut, where the breakfast is tasty, and real cheap. Barb was awesome too, and she gave all of us hugs before we left. Pictured at Barb's, this is (L-R) Brad, Jeff L., Jeremy, Barb, Tim, myself, and Jeff C.After Barb's, we would go out for a short ride in the morning, eat at the firehouse, go for a long ride in the afternoon, eat again, watch a movie, and go to sleep. It was awesome.
One of the coolest things about riding down there (apart from the excellent weather) was the fact that the Blue Ridge Parkway was right near us, and it's a breathtaking ride. Quite literally so with a 12 mile climb on Wednesday.
There was ample mountain-biking down there too, so I think Bryan would have had a good time too.
The next weekend, we raced in Delaware, and it's a pretty small state, so the road race actually went into Maryland a few miles in. Also, we went the wrong way for a few miles on the way there and we went to PA, which was cool. My legs were quite beat from the week's riding, so it wasn't great. I wasn't last or first, and I suppose that's what counts. The next day, there was a 5.1 mile TT, which I actually felt really good for, and I passed everyone ahead of me, which gave me a false sense of security in a top 10 spot, as I had only started 3rd or 4th in line. I got 14th of 39, just out of the points. Drat. The crit was a DNF as between spent legs and a fear-of-god inducing-rise-before-a-fast-left-that-sends-the-bike-airborne on the course I
packed it in after a few laps.I rode back to the house I was staying at, we packed up the Honda, and headed back up north. Jeff was crammed into the back (with a bunch of things). We stopped at a BK in dirty Jersey, and I got a BK Veggie. Thom is right, they are good.
We got back to Umass on Sunday night, and I woke up the next day to 31° weather. I can now say I've had the distinct displeasure of frostbite on a sunburn.
This week's video is from Dailymotion, because YouTube's being silly, but it's a good one, Remi Gaillard in real-life Mario Kart!
Race soon.......
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