Epic mountain bike ride

With the temperatures being in the high 20's and the low 30's myself, Adam Penny, Josh Whitmore, and David Forkner decided to do a mountain bike ride instead of riding on the road. We went riding in Dupont State Forest. This was the second time I had been there so I did not know any of the trails, which made it exciting for me since I usually ride in Pisgah. When we departed the temperature was 27. The first hour was spent climbing with some good tempo and a little bit of downhill. We climbed slick rock which is a sweet climb on a big rock. Josh flatted at the top, so the rest of us decided to keep riding to keep warm. This resulted in David getting a flat. After they got there flats fixed we continued on only to come to a river crossing. This is where the ride turned epic. I figured since it was so cold outside we would turn around and find another way across. Nope not the case. Time to take of the shoe covers, shoes, and socks off and cross the river! The water was fridgid. Probably 34 degress, there was ice along the bank. The crossing was made even crazier by the bottom of it being a flat rock surface that was super slick and the current was swift. Halfway across I felt myself sliding down the river. That was pretty scary because I did not want to fall and get wet. My feet were so cold after crossing I could not even feel them. They would stay that way for the next 3.5 hours. I wont bore you with the rest of the ride except we climb some insane climb, so steep indeed we had to push the bike up the top section. With a couple miles to go after the climb, David got another flat. Our ride time for the day was 5 hours. 6,500 feet of climbing and 32 miles. Im thinking we did a little extra miles than that but im not sure. My foot is still numb as I type this up. I will try and get some pictures of the ride loaded when I recieve them from Adam.

Slick Rock
there was ton of ice on this rock. I did not take this picture though. Got it from google images just to show what it looks like.

Crazy climb

Yesterday I went on a ride with my good friend Adam Penny. Toward the end of the ride we saw an interesting hill, little did we know this climb would gain 650 feet in under a mile!

More to come later

I will post about Christmas in a couple of days. In the meantime here is something to keep you entertained.

This past weekend

So this past weekend was pretty good. I got out of school for Christmas break on Thursday morning, got a good ride in on Friday and the real excitement started on Saturday. On Saturday I met two of my teammates and we rode down to Greenville SC to do the Sulivan charity ride. The charity ride was in place of the Winter bike league. The ride was 63 miles and included Craig Lewis and George Hincapie. After the ride about 4 of my new teammates and I went out for another 20 miles which included a climb over Paris Mountain. Sunday included a one hour recovery ride and another dinner at my girlfriends grandparents house. I am headed for Shreveport Louisiana on Thursday to spend a week with my mom, stepdad, brother, and my grandpa for Christmas. Also next year I will be riding a Specialized Tarmac SL Pro. Thats all I have for now.

Front

Back

The bike I will be riding next year

New Team and having fun while riding

So I thought I would let you guys know that for 2009 I will be racing for Globalbike presented by Catoma outdoors. The team is made up of 10 cat 1,2 riders and is based out of Greenville, SC. I am very excited about next year and being part of a great program. You can check out what Globalbike is all about by going here. So be looking out for us all over the southeast and more in the 2009 racing season! I also went on a pretty cool ride today. I decided I would climb one of of my favorite mountains, Barewallow. The climb is 2.5 miles long and averages 7%. I took some pictures of todays ride and also some video climbing up the mountain. So here they are:

Wearing the jersey I won from Dilworth Crit








The start of the climb



The top of the climb.

UWBL

Yesterday was the first Upstate Winter Bike League. There were about 140 people riding in the A's. It was a fun day riding with the new team and meeting some new people. After the ride about 25 people went to Barleys for some pizza.  If you have not done the UWBL before I highly recomend it. Its a great way to get a good ride in and practice skills for bike racing. Starting in January the rides will be 90-100 miles and there will be attack zones. Points will be awarded from the placing in the attack zones. There will be a points leader vest and an overall leader vest. The rides are every Saturday and they start at 10a.m. at Carolina triathlon. Thats all I have for now but I leave you with this funny video. I will also be posting about my new team in the near future.

MARIO KART (REMI GAILLARD)
by nqtv

Off Season

Its been a while since I have updated this blog. I find it hard to sit down and come up with something entertaining to write about. I ended the season in October on a high note by getting 4th place in the Greenville Spring Series and took about 2 weeks off the bike. Lately I have been riding 3 times a week and running 1 or 2 times. Last night I went to The Orange Peel to see one of my faovrite bands Puddle of Mudd. It was amazing! It was the 3rd time I had seen them and it was by far the best show they have done. Sadly I forgot my camera and was unable to get any photos. Thats all I have to talk about now but keep checking back because I will be posting about the new team  I will be riding for next year in the coming weeks.

-Andre

One of my favorite songs from Puddle of Mudd