Clearwater and music city

I was down in Clearwater, FL for 70.3 Worlds. Nice weather and it was nice to see the triathlete gang. Within my cycling world there is the "road" scene and the "tri" scene. Both are circuses filled with great folks. The Timex team has great athletes and many of them are awesome people I call my friends. Timex posted some excellent results. 3rd and 8th in pro men. A couple of age group wins and several other podium spots.


Tristan, Erin, and I. Two weeks before this race Erin was crowned Amateur Exterra World Champion in her age group. While not exactly motivated to race the 70.3 event (she hadn't ridden the rode bike in months) she still managed a 4th place. What a great year she's had and hope to see more great things come her way.


Ian, Myself, and Hodges. While these guys may have not had the races they wanted, they still toughed it out. Hodges works at NASA so when you say things like, "It's not rocket science!", Hodges actually can say it is rocket science. Cracks me up.


Amanda, Myself, and Erin. I have a great job most of the time. Thanks for the laughs ladies!


On the drive back to Wisconsin, Tristan and I stopped in Tennesee for a mountain bike ride on the Tanasi trails which start at the Ocoee Whitewater Center, site of the whitewater events for the 1996 Olympics. Some great trails. Had a blast. Crashed a few times too. Ouch! A local joined up with us while out on the trails. With a strong southern accent and vernacular he said, "Hi, my name is Fenton Scruggs". Sounds made up but totally true.


Finally got a video to post. Not very exciting but worth it to view some moving pictures for once.




After the ride we continued driving and spent a night in Nashville. If you like music, this place has music playing in the clubs 7 nights a week. You can just walk up and down Broadway and hear what's coming out of the Honky Tonks. With 2 days until the Country Music Awards, things were getting busy.




Ernest Tubbs record shop. A piece of history right there in front of me.

Now that I'm back in the office, I've got several busy months ahead of me. This is usually the busiest time of year for me. Need to try and take it day by day and not kill myself over the eventual frustrations that arise when trying to work with deadlines and several vendors. The team will be using Shimano this year. It's nice to work with Shimano again. It's my role now to get the numbers together and get all the bikes and equipment ordered. Off the top of my head that's about 103 individual bikes that need consideration (not including the Timex team bikes). Wish me luck!

Cheers,
DJB