The Road Trip Winds Down...

Everyone is boxing up bikes and packing away dirty laundry here at Oli's house, ready to head homeward early tomorrow morning. I can't exactly say that anyone is going home with extra hardware, but someone is going home with this sweet plywood plaque!!

Yup, our buddy Will Dugan took the #1 spot on the podium in the U23 race today!! The women's race for Alie and I went... well... it went! We had fun anyway. WILL on the other hand rocked it, racing in a group for 10th spot for most of the hour-long event. Eventually finishing 16th, he was the first U23 rider and was congratulated by his teammates after the real podium girl gave him nothing but the bouquet and plaque.

Homeward bound tomorrow, and we reconvene next weekend in Northampton, Massachusetts for the next UCI cyclocross races there.

Oli rides the flyover...

Nothing like a good ol' blog to post embarrassing pictures of your friends...

Also, our team sponsor SRAM asked us to promote this organization, the World Bicycle Relief group. Check out their website here.

The Bluegrass State

The final destination of the October adventure road trip has been reached – so here we are in Louisville Kentucky. Not only is this weekend the first in the USGP of Cyclocross race series, it also happens to be the home of the one and only OLI! We all caught up fast last night after checking out the race venue that afternoon, and today didn’t do a whole lot other than eat, make a couple airport runs, and ride bikes a little bit. More tomorrow, with race reports included! Richie, don’t worry, we are going to look good. Myles, we’ll check out the bridge and take some recon pictures for you!

Loveless Lunch

Today's lunch was one of the tastiest meals I've ever had:

The Loveless Cafe & Motel on the west side of town was ridiculously good. The key lime pie was nothing to scoff at either.

Thanks everyone for your "things to do in Nashville" suggestions - we're trying to fit it all in!!!

Update from the Music City

Here we are in Nashville! After a nice bike ride yesterday on the Natchez Trace Parkway, we headed downtown for the obligatory visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The visit also included a tour of RCA's famous recording Studio B, where thousands of classic country hits were recorded. I mean, we're not necessarily into classic country, but the tour was really neat! and the Hall of Fame itself was great - lots of memorabilia and paraphernalia and amyalia and whathaveyoua. 

After dinner with Freya and her parents, we all headed to Nashville's symphony hall for a bass and mandolin performance by Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile. Well... as much as Alie and I appreciated the symphony scene (and we did! they were fantastic musicians!!) we didn't feel that this was exactly what we needed to fulfill our musical requirements for the evening. After the symphony, we headed for Broadway and found more bars than you could count on two hands, all with live bands and no cover charge -- if only Boston worked this way!!  All in all, we had a fantastic time exploring Nashville's Tuesday night music scene. And we've gotta put in a plug for this guy, our band of choice for the evening - Craig Campbell was awesome!! Check out a clip of his song "the whiskeys fine".

NASHVILLE

Well, we made it... eventually. You get one shot at guessing the circumstances leading up to this event:

Yup... pair of geniuses driving along I-81 done run outta gas. OK, I can't say pair of geniuses... I've gotta take full credit/blame for that incident. Luckily it occurred right before an off-ramp, we exited, annnnd needed to go for a bike ride anyway! No harm no foul, we made it to Nashville on schedule.

Halfway to Nashville

After a little more bike racing today in Ludwig's Corner, Pennsylvania, Alie and I said goodbye to the rest of the team and hit the road.  This was the highlight of our drive:

OK, so the Exxon station tiger was pretty sweet, but this ceramic feline may not have been the weirdest part of our trip. At a small italian restaurant in Winchester, Virginia, our 25-year old server referred to Alie and I only as "lovely ladies" and "pretty princesses" when he waited on us. I feel like you're only allowed to refer to a girl as a pretty princess if she's under age 4, or mayyyybe if the guy saying pretty princess is a half blind and mostly senile old man.

"Hi. I'm in Delaware."

Imagine being magically whisked away to Delaware!

Well, it happened to us... we did in fact wake up in Delaware this morning. It's actually way cooler than you might think. Today we raced at a beautiful Dupont estate, complete with a big stone tower and random bamboo forest.

It was a beautiful day for all sorts of parking lot socializing, including baby strolling, sewing spandex, and binocular use.

Pending Road Trip... why not??

Stay tuned for updates from the road and the A-team reunion upcoming this weekend. That's right, Miss Alie Kenzer will be on the east coast this weekend to check out some cyclocross action courtesy of the Delaware Cross Coalition of Delaware, followed by a little road trip action...

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After the usual bike racing, we head south for the music city itself, Nashville, Tennessee. Do you think we're ready for it??? After soaking up a little country music and sightseeing and BBQ action, the yellow car heads back north for the USGP cyclocross race in Kentucky. Look out Louisville, here we come!!!

New England World Championships

Arguably the best weekend New England bike racing is upon us... the Gloucester gran prix!! As if they needed to do anything to attract even more spectators to Stage Fort Park, this year's race will also feature a beer tent and beautiful weather. So, check out the race preview, dig out the cowbells, and bring some sunglasses!! This race will not disappoint... and neither will the Richard Sachs team!

Seriously though - look at that face. How could that guy disappoint??