Every Thursday the Wilson team does a local group ride. We meet up after classes at about 4:15 and head out for a couple hours or so. It's always fun to get in a good ride with some friends, and then you have an excuse to stand in the Cowpie line with spandex on. This week we rode some nearby Forest Service trails. The woods were downright beautiful. Spring has definitely come to NC (in fact, maybe we should just call it summer now).





After climbing for 45 minutes or so, we all rewarded ourselves with a dip underneath a waterfall. I couldn't help but think, this is what mountain biking is all about. And, after cooling off, we got to go back down. 15 minutes of super-sweet single track descending. Log crossings, rock gardens, some flowy sections, we got it all.
























Mmmm, mmm, mmmm. Waterfalls are nice.
























After a little more climbing we hit up one more big descent. Vanessa ripped it up. Near the bottom someone had chainsawed an opening through this tree. It must have been an old one.

Can't I detach the trailer and go riding in Pisgah?

Even though Matt was out tearing up the local race scene with David, the Warren Wilson mountain bike team managed to get in a great group ride in Dupont this weekend. This proves that we actually will be able to survive next year after Matt has graduated.
That said the ride almost didn't happen. At 9:00am (the agreed upon meeting time) there was only a small group of hard corps riders at the bike trailer behind the gym. Hanna had business to attend to and Tallula was waffling, leaving only Phil, Aaron, and myself as perspective riders. Art called, and after talking over the possibilities with me it looked as though no ride would occur, however Phil was there to save the day. "Art," Phil cried plaintively into the phone, "my ride just left, can't I detach the trailer and go riding in Pisgah?" Well some hardened souls could say no to that, but not Art. He agreed to meet us at Green Life and we immediately set to work ridding ourselves of the trailer and loading our bikes into the bus. When we reached Green Life we were happy to see Warren Wilson grad and 2007 national champion Kylie Krass chatting with Art waiting to go riding with us.
From Green Life we drove to Dupont and had a fantastic time riding four 4+ hours on the not really all that muddy trails there.
So, four hours of amazing riding with Art, Kylie, Phil, and Aaron on a day that started in a wet bus full of insecurity about wether a ride would even happen. Not bad.

Grinding for Six Hours

Yesterday David Bishop and I (Matt Williams) cruised down south to do some six hour racing outside of Charlotte. You can only do so many intervals and silly workouts before you need to do a race, so we teamed up to race to duo class at the Grind on the Greenway. David woke up in the morning to find one of his cables was frayed, so we got a late start. Then we got lost and couldn't find the start because I had messed up the directions. Eventually we found the race, about ten minutes before the start, which was about enough time for me to attach my number plate and put on a jersey and helmet. The course was 9.5 miles of sweet single track, super rooty, muddy, and twisty. An on the gas off the gas all day sorta thing. David and I were switching off laps, trying to get some good hard training in.






After two laps we were getting into our groove. We had a decent gap to the second placed team, but there were a couple of solo riders ahead of us. No good. I caught Erik on the third lap and past him for good, but Jeremy was rocking all day. After four laps he still had five or six minutes on us. We had the duo class locked up, but didn't want to get punked by a solo rider (way too competative for that). Finally, on lap five, David caught up to Jeremy. The rode the whole lap together, but Jeremy put in a last ditch attack and came through a few seconds ahead.




David passed the timing chip off to me and that was it. We both in super strong last laps to finish with eight (76 miles total). Mission accomplished. We got the win (final results to to the left), some sweet trophies and swag, some uber sweet single track riding, found some good little on the trail, and had a whole lot of fun. All in all a really good day.
There's no racing for a couple weeks, but stay tuned for some updates from the upcoming Serc Series races. This weekend proved that the form is there, so hopefully David and I can make something happen in the Sercs and US Cups this spring.


A couple of Photos of the Scene at the race. Laid back, fun, and well run. The Grind on the Greenway is an awesome race.

Are those I9's?

We all lost.



Because that guy won bikes.

More Pictures

Found a couple more pictures from Sunday's ride in Alexander Park. I think the smiles in this one say it all (is that too cheesy? Probably, but oh well).























Phil being Phil on top of the bike trailer.
























A bunch of kids are headed to do a six hour race this weekend, so stay tuned for an update on that one. Should be interesting.

Trail Work in Alexander Park

We did a trail work day in Alexander Park last Sunday. It's actually a pretty sweet spot, despite being part of the Asheville landfill. It's almost all wooded (the part with trails), and drops down steeply to the French Broad river. The trails are really flowy, some of them ride almost like a pump track. Anyway, we built some new single track in the morning, then rode it in the afternoon, then stuffed ourselves full of tasty pizza. It was warm and sunny all day, pretty awesome. Below are a bunch of pictures (I forgot to bring my camera up to the trails with me in the morning, so there are no trail work shots, but I swear we really did do a bunch of work).








Some Pictures:




Here Vanessa leads Art through a section of pines.
























After the ride, Caleb helped Phil drink some Pepsi.
























Tallulah loading some bikes into the trailer.


















The team hanging out after the ride, ready for some serious pizza eating.

-Matt