chapter 81: stockhouse14

When you return from an event such as the 2006 Cyclocross National Championships you are filled with an enormous rush of memories, experiences and emotion. In one weekend you experience suffering, defeat, pride, glory, comedy, gratefulness, and love.

(morgan ripping the jelly belly bowl... Rode a very nice race)

No not the kind of love someone finds at the Crank Brothers after party, but the kind of love that permeates a community. In this blog, I will try to convey some of my experiences from the past weekend.

Thursday afternoon the DccoD, C3, Fort Frames Team, and lots of members of other Mid-Atlantic teams lead by the pure love of Suzy Gerlach, and the logistical genius of Tom (papa smurf) and Spot Paul, convened and erected what would become our tent city, warm up hub

(tammy- one of the founders of cross in our region)

and sanctuary for the weekend. Set up concluded around 1:30, and everyone began to kit up. We were tired from travel, anxious about racing, and super
excited to taste what Tom Stevens had cooked up for us.

This moment, might be the memory that sticks most closely to my heart.
1:45pm:
A huge group of the Mid-Atlantic rallies together as we talked smack, and joke about the

(monkey and mega)

warm weather. We were ready to ride, and no way, no how would we wait until 2:00 for the course to open. With a yell, “Mid Atlantic Attack!” we jumped onto the course and took off. We were flying, ripping through the corners, and a group of say 30 of us. Despite being in the car my legs felt great, the course was wicked fast, nice technical sections incredibly fun. I looked around me, and saw my peers, Morgan, Zach, Harshman, Nystrom; I saw Hebe, Long, Auer, Fred, Stephen, Lisa, Paul, Greg, Yozell, Stephen, Bernie it was awesome. The course at this point was still empty, except for us, flying around tougher, enjoying our bikes, ripping. As we cruised through the start finish and the first corner, someone asked “is the course open?” Auer defiantly responded, “who’s gonna stop us !?”
(Dieter give E-town some racing stripes, no hebe is not pooping)

In front of us the course was clear, but behind us, more and more people filled in and began to ride. After two laps of ripping around the course I stopped to look up. People were everywhere, hundreds of

(Mark and Katie )

them all riding the course. It was awesome. I’m not sure that any posse rode with the vigor, and passion that we did.

(spike product's number 1 fan, Zach Adams; very nice race for zach)

And for me that moment of community, or fun of riding was the best. For me this is memory I will cherish from this weekend.