9 hours of Rocky Gap

Dear True Believer,

Friday afternoon, about an hour before the Amy Farrah Fowler Fan Club was scheduled to leave for Rocky Gap State Park, Diane charged into the room and said to me, "I have to run to the grocery store." I was surprised and looked at her puzzled. She responded  "the dogs got into your race food while you were loading up, they ate all of it. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Sneaking my way to the front row...

Another Awesome Picture of me running badly !

Somewhat of an ominous, foreshadowing of events I would say....

The Amy Farrah Fowler Fan Club made up of Buddy Briggs (twin six), Travis Sapsford (Guys), and Fatme (C3: twenty 20) headed to the 9 hours of Rocky Gap expecting a challenging race, and at least 7 teams that were capable of pulling off the win. We had developed a plan, and frankly having raced together for a long time were felt good about our chances.

But then, then the shit storm hit. I've been doing team relay races for a long time, and frankly we've been really lucky over the years. In all those years, we always seem to have good luck, seemed to things break our way. Today, not so much...

Profile of the 9 hours of Rocky Gap

That said, I don't want to write an excuse filled blog with why we didn't win or do better. That's bike racing, sometimes things all fall together, and sometimes you face some unexpected challenges. That was us today. In the end, I'm proud as hell that we were able to fight back and make the top 5. While we certainly didn't land where we had hoped, we battled, we and resilant and had some great racing. On my second lap, catching Root, and riding his wheel through the first section of single track was so much fun. Perhaps even more fun was ripping the same section with Scott form Haymarket. At one point I wasn't sure we'd end up in the top 10 on the day, but we just kept fighting, kept charging and battling. It was it's own reward in the end.

Cheers to Travis Harnish, Scott Roberts, and Chris Jackson on their 2nd place finish. They rode a really tough race, and came through strongly.  Scott Bridged back to me on the steppest climb and I had to throw everything I had at him to finally get some space on that lap. Good on you guys.

Our little compound- Scott Roberts not pictured.

I can't say that I wasn't frustrated with some of the trouble I ran into today. I didn't keep my cool as I like to, but I am grateful for my teammates, and my wife who all kept me calm and moving forward.

hard fought 4th place

Rocky Gap is a beautiful venue, and frankly the course is one of my all time favorites. The Cranky Monkey folks did a great job promoting this one, and frankly if you told me I could line up and take another crack at it today, I would... Only 364 days until the next 9 hours of Cranky Monkey...

This poor guy lost a bet with his teammates and had to drink the Natty  Daddy.
Travis, Buddy and I agreed that no bet ending with someone drinking the Natty Daddy was worth it.

thanks for reading.

respect
Fatmarc