This is going to be mostly pictures because, well, I'm beat. The kid and I threw my bike and Barbie Barbie in the car and road tripped from Indiana down to South Carolina for the US Pro National Championships.
We started late Thursday afternoon after the kid got out of school, and stayed over in some place in Kentucky. Barbie Barbie was worried about the Mysterious Stain on the chair.
Whatever. Did you know you can still get a motel room for $63 bucks?
We lived through the night and resumed travel in the morning. Stopped in Asheville to pick up my mom, then continued on to my brother's house in Simpsonville, SC, which is Very Close to Greenville.
How close is it? Well, the time trial was in Greenville, and we decided to bike over. I was told it was 8 miles, or maybe 12. My sister in law warned me that if my brother said 12, it was likely 22. My bike computer said 13. Close enough.
This is my brother:
He has a new Pinarello, but since he was riding with me downgraded to his single-speed so he wouldn't inadvertently leave me behind by a few dozen miles.
This is me, in my Podium Cafe jersey:
We watched the TT, and I got really bad action shots. Then we moved down to the finish to watch the last few guys. This is Tejay Van Garderen finishing:
There was little suspense this year--Dave Zabriskie killed it the whole way through, and won by over 30 seconds. Here he is finishing:
We moved a little closer to the podium for the ceremony, and ended up on the right hand side of it. Here's 3rd place finisher Matt Busche crossing the street on the way to the podium:
Here's 2nd place finisher Tom Zirbel being interviewed on the podium:
And here's a couple of shots of DZ:
I like the smile in this one:
Here's DZ with the Stars and Stripes:
And the full podium--that Busche kid, remember the name...
While Tom Zirbel was waiting to ascend the podium, one of the officials? volunteers? guy behind the gate, anyway, held up a Sharpie and asked if I wanted Tom to sign my jersey. Hey, cool!
Yes, I'm grinning like an idiot. It tickled, okay? Close up of signature:
Then we cycled back to my brother's house and rested for a day before the road race, and Paris Mountain. Last year, the mountain beat me up but good. This year, I hoped to make it up without stopping...but thanks to the half-marathon I trained for all spring, I didn't spend much time on the bike. Did I make it anyway? Find out in Part 2.