Charm City...

This one might be a little long. I love Charm City. One of my favorite venues for sure. My team's race and as such it's the one weekend where we can count on everyone being together...It's pretty rad to say the least. Historically I have had good rides here. The courses have 2-3 dismounts a lap, and favor good bike handlers and technical riders... that being said I have a few stories to tell..

me going half hasselholf

Episode I
First, and having nothing to do with Charm City, is my niece and nephew showing up on crossresults.com.
Taylor is there in second, and my nephew.. well Fartecus Vanderbacon is in 5th...

I'm pretty damn proud. My nephew asked his father if Uncle Marc was Fatmarc Vanderbacon, and His Dad was Skinnycraig Vanderbacon, and Aunt Diane was a Vanderbacon, if he was a Vanderbacon. To which my brother said, sure you can be a Vanderbacon, what is your first name? Carter with a straight face and a gleam in his eye answered "Fartecus Vanderbacon"... AWESOME...

Episode II
I was lucky to have a number of awesome dinner invites this weekend. Sadly, being busy with the race, exhausted from traveling... AhgH... we had to pass...  But let me say, it's pretty rad to get awesome invites.
I'll be collecting dinners soon!

Episode III
One of Monk and my responsibilities is to run the kids race at Charm City. We get close to 30 kids ranging in age from 2-12. This year we had some super rad helpers, and "sand keepers" who guarded the sandpit and made sure all the kids made it through cleanly. They were Jimmy Rock, Emily White, and Victoria Gates. All super juniors in their own rights. Day two, Monkey and had to scramble to put together some more goody bags for prizes, and when we got to the course we found Victoria and Emily waiting for us to help.  The races were rad, the kids had fun, and it was pretty awesome.

Episode IV
Let's talk about racing on Saturday. Monk got a solid start, and really pushed herself hard, battled in and out of good groups, she put together her best race since her injury. I was super proud, she was super stoked.

 It was a pretty good thing. My race followed a similar format. Got a rock star start. Hung with the group for the first two laps, then started to crack a little in the middle of lap three. I was lucky enough have my buddy Norm (MTBNJ.COM) come by and I proceeded to suck on his wheel for the next lap or so.  With 2 to go my teammate Glenn Turner came up to me, and followed him in for what I felt was my best ride of this year so far...

Monk with a little body english..

Episode V
Where this is light, there must be dark. Hard day for both of us. We both usually have our best days, day two of a weekend. This weekend not so much. Monk struggled, and just couldn't get going. She had fun, but never got it rolling. Me, I had a solid start, sat just outside of 20th in the group I like to race in (w/ Benny; Travis; Matt and Norm), laps 3-4 I started bleeding spots. I was falling back and I kept trying to grab onto a group... With two to go I finally settled into a group with of I'll say 5, and I finished 3rd out of that group... I was pleased with my effort, felt like I was working my ass off to keep going fast.. and today... I just wasn't... At the end of the day, the race was fun, and I had fun, but man, I was not fast today...

a little english of my own...

Epilogue:
The season rolls on. A fun weekend, I have prided myself in consistency in past years, and this weekend, I had one of my best rides, and by far my worst... But I walked away smiling... Got to say, I love working with my teammates, the race came off really well... And heck, even going backwards we were still racing...

thanks for reading.. heading for holy week next week!

respect
vanderbacon

ps thanks to Dennisbike.com for pictures