I was down to a dry fit tee shirt and opened the zippers on the legs of my pants to let some cool air in so I would not overheat. With in about 15 mins we had to stop and start shedding layers. The snow was pretty packed down for the most part on the first trail. We got all dressed and signed in and hit the trail up to the summit. On the way there it was pretty nice outside with temps in the low 30s and little wind. Well with an early rise on Wed we got in the car and dove about 25 mins to the mountain. We must have spent 3 hours in Eastern Mountain Sports just checking everything out. Pretty killer town with 3 ski resorts almost on top of each other. We got our rental car and drove up to North Conway. After flying into Manchester, NH with no problems. Probley on of the most difficult climbs due to the weather changes that can occur. Last week James Goyet, Mike Tamayo went up to New Hampshire to climb Mount Washington. I just need to work on my aero position and hopefully move up in the results. Not bad since I am only weighing in at 157lbs. I had pretty good numbers my average power was 276.

My time was 29:47 was was a min faster then last year. I did have my personal best at the Conquer Canal TT earlier this month. Hopefully it will kick start the engine and keep me going for the rest of the season. So for the past 7 weeks that is what I have been doing. So I figured that I really need to improve my threshold. We did not win but the team rode really aggressive and strong, just not strong enough. After the previous crits I was like wow is this how my season is going to go.

Smithfield Hammer Fest was the same way but I was gaped and could not close the gap with 3 bike lengths. Went to Greenville,NC for a crit and was destroyed again. The second crit I attacked and could not get back on. I tested my legs and lungs and had no success with it. So it was not a productive winter on the bike. So in the day before Thanksgiving I had surgery(3pins put in my left hand). That was when we got blown off the trail due to the nor' easter, mad rain and cold temps was not fun. I started a 7 day hike from Front Royal to Waynesboro. I crashed at Bryan Park CX race last Oct. Well this year was off to a slow start due to a broken hand. I was hoping to be in the 40's but ended up with a 50:47 for the 6.75 miles and average of 9%grade. How sick of a climb that last mile was 15% grade. But they just did not want to turn over the pedals. Then the legs were still feeling pretty good. Right at the guard shack it was pretty nasty and then the heart rate was up and never came back down. I was feeling good but knew that this was the easiest part of the race.(first 3miles) Then the turn into Wintergreen. Not trying to go to hard but keep the power right below my threshold. Got to the start line with about 5 mins before I was to go off. Made it to the bottom of the mountain at the start line. The next thing I know it is time to head down to the bottom via the shuttle. The warm up went well, go some good intervals in. Saturday morning we drove up to the top of the mountain. We drove up on Friday, scoped out the course and went to Afton Mountain Winery. The family and I went up to Wintergreen Ascent Hill Climb this year. But I'm very pleased with my result in the Cat 123. I was sprinting but not like I should have since I thought there was still a couple riders away. I held on the wheel in front of me and sprinted around for a 5 th place finish. The last lap guys were ramping it up some I was still in great position. Then with about 5 laps to go teams were starting to get organized to set up there sprinters. I did bridge a couple gaps and chase down a couple breakaways. I went with a couple attacks but nothing really stuck. They stayed out for a couple laps before they were brought back in. The race started pretty steady with attacks starting from the gun. It was a hot one so I was trying to keep hydrated as much as possible. There was no Cat 3 field so we raced the Cat 123 field. Yesterday my teammate Josh and I went out to the Cause for Paws crit.

Fire man pants