It was raining last week.

First off, I would like to welcome London Claire Romney to FT3 Gen 2. After the long and arduous labor mom put in, I think little London is ripe for endurance sports right from the womb. Congratulations to the whole Ghost Rider family.

Secondly, or singly, it is SSFT3 today and it promises to be a great one. With rain last week (did that really happen?) the trails should be primed for S/S ripping. Maybe Bambi will make a guest appearance.

Not sure what riding took place over the weekend, aside from the Leesville Gap Road Race and the riding of rapids that NoHandle and I did. I think NoCar was out worshipping our lady of the skinny tire? Oh, speaking of Leesville, I suppose now is a good time to throw out a race report.

Leesville Gap Road race was something I chose to do based on a recommendation by our acclaimed resident roadie, Rock God with additional pressure and recommendation from Green Fro and Ghost. Rock indicated that this race is one I would enjoy given its rough roads, long climb and my affinity for cross. It is true. What a great race. It should be an FT3 requirement. B nailed it - I gave him a description of the race course and he said "Oh... so its a hard man's race." No truer words have been spoken. FT3 FYI, road racing is very different from MTB or cross. Total game of attrition, especially at this 60 mile distance. Yeah, tactics, smart riding... yeah right! I could hear NoHandle's words as we rode from the start line out about ten miles toward the rough roads and climb, 'they will ride slow, you will get frustrated and go to the front.' So me and one other guy took turns taking pulls until we got to the rough roads where I began to really push the pace. Now you guys have seen rough roads but these roads are, in the words of another local racer, "totally whacked." It is like a continuous series of potholes, filled and unfilled, for miles. Roughest roads I've ever ridden a road bike on, hands down. Totally jarring. The climb was gradual at first and that took its toll on the majority of the group. There were three of us in a tight group up and over the climb and one straggler hanging on behind about 200 yeards. I knew that I needed these guys for the trip home on the flats, so I did not attack on the downhill in spite of my desires to. Once back on the flats, and after riding a bunch more rough and dirt roads, the straggler I mentioned caught up to us! Nice work. One of the four guys in our group was in the 45+ age group, so a top three finish was looking promising. The four of us worked together for a while then the road turned upward again. I started to unravel a bit and had to let two of the guys go. The 'straggler' and I stayed back and suffered together to the water stop, which was around the 45 mile mark. After the water stop was a long and much needed decent, which was the first real rest of the whole race. Me and the straggler worked together well off the decent and into the 15 mile flat strech home. A quick word about flats. As you know we don't ride them. They require an excessive number of pedal rotations, something we are not used to up here in the hills. They also get deep inside your head and torture you. That being said, at some point the straggler and I cane around a couple turns, about 7 miles from the finish and the elastic broke. I became the straggler. I was well into survival mode by now and managed to finish on my own without being passed, taking third in my category. I kept a strong pace, but man was I suffering. I emptied the tank, 100%. Had a cramp during the last 200 meters and needed to sit down immediatly after arriving back at the start area, which... by the way was like 2-3 miles from the finish line! Green Fro was there all dressed and enjoying watermelon, he started like 10-15 minutes ahead of me. He had a great race, finishing 8th in Cat. 4, and looking pretty fresh having done that. Nice work Green Fro! FT3 needs to consider this as an event for next year, it should be a requirement for us as non-road racers. Hairy legs are welcome.

Happy SSFT3!

ONE!