New Jersey

All smiles before but.....IT hurts that much to Finish 11th at a USGP-Photo by Jan Skafa-

So we headed back to NJ to visit our friends Neal and Sharron and their children Jack and Benjamin. The weather was rather somber Friday, so we set the trainers up in the garage for a little spin.

Saturday Tasha said she felt a little feverish, and she said she was sweating a little at night.
She looked fine so we didn't pay it much attention. She started her race and then just didn't feel right, not like herself. It was a little bizarre cause she was a little confused after her race and couldn't find her bike. Like I said she looked ok, but I knew something wasn't right cause she was not nervous and super relaxed, almost too much. Same thing Sunday, just not feeling right and she decided to call it a day.

So she'll take a few days off cause her body is telling her it is trying to fight off infection and would rather get better than pedal right now.

I had an ok race Saturday in the sloppy mud. Finished off 16th, not bad. I wouldn't call that mud my specialty, but it's a t least to the point where I love riding in the mud. The cool thing is I feel like I get about 1% better every mud race, so as long as no one else is getting better I'll win one for sure. THere were about 3 sections of the course in which I just couldn't quite master and probably cost me about 15 seconds per lap. Other than that I went as hard as I could.

Sunday I was a little bit more at homeon the course as it was a little faster, got to run "regular" tires with 22 psi so that's a little more my style. I was in a good spot off the start but took myself out twice in the first lap and lost some spots, fought back hard and got to top ten but just fell short on the last lap batteling with 5 guys or so, and I was able to drill it enough to beat all but Jones. SO I was happy as 11th at a GP in which everyone is there is an awesome result for me, especially on a muddy course...ok it wasn't as muddy as the day before, but hey it wasn't bone dry. I could say I wanted a top ten...I was actually aiming for top 5 which would have been rediculously great, but a few mistakes here and there, I figure every bobble costs a few seconds so every mistake just puts you a little bit further...so even on a perfect day for me a top 5 would have been almost too good to be true. But hey I was in for top ten on course that wasn't 100% geared to my abilites and it is about 30% better than my best GP result last year, so I just keep on hacking away.

Although it was a little bit of a wash for Tash, once again she kept her head on her shoulders, she didn't pout, she talk shit, she just accepted the circumstances and acted like a professional. Anyone who knows her would know how hard it was for her this weekend, she obviously had potential to really excel, but she kept her composure the best she could. She probably could have finished the races but honestly she is not there to participate, she is there to compete and she would have just drilled bad habits into her head..so you won't hear me say it is usually a good idea to withdraw, but good call her, rest up get better and then throttle it.

WE are off to the Hamptons this weekend and I'm pretty sure I'll be "in the race" a little more as usually this is a great course for me. We're still on the fence for the next couple weeks as we need Tasha to get better, I'm still trying to convince her to let me go to Spain to do a "crit" style World cup in the sun...but there's no womens race there, so it's not really that realistic. A boy can dream though.

Thanks again to the Stoeckles again for hosting us, nice to see them and the kids are great, they always put a smile on our faces and you can't help but be happy around them.

DSJ