Friday, April 28, 2006

My thoughts are with MW and the rest of the TransIowegians...

I'm wishing for the best for the weekend, both for us and our chances of racing at 'ol Swanny, and for my best GB MW and the rest of the crazies participating in TransIowa.

CVO and I got in on MW's final shake-down ride last night through Wilderness. He was carrying exactly the load (on the bike at least) that he'll be racing with. And even though he had at least five extra pounds hanging from his bike, he was ripping the corners on his 1.8 Jones XRs. If anybody's ready, both physically, and perhaps more importantly, mentally, it's MW. He's totally focused on doing what he needs to do to finish.

I'm going to make this official too (for all three of my readers) -- on the ride last night, MW asked me if I'd do TransIowa with him next year if he finished this year's race. Much to my own horror, I almost immediately said "yes." Many of you have heard me speak about how insane I think TransIowa and races like it are -- I didn't start racing mountain bikes 16 years ago to race on gravel roads -- but the fact is that if me committing to tackling TransIowa next year in any way helps MW finish the race this year, I think that's worth it.

His response to my "yes" was

"oh now I'm definitely gonna' finish."

So it looks like I'll need a ride to the start in 2007. Keep your fingers crossed. Mine are.

MW... you're The Man. Just ride like you ride and keep your dogged determination intact. However it shakes out, we'll be proud of you... we already are.

Happy Friday!
MG

4 comments:

debaser said...

duh nuh nuh nuh!

He should hold you to doing it single too.

I'm stoked to hear all about this.

MG said...

we were talking about a rigging up a magnetic device that mw could attach to passing pickup trucks.

"dar, hey bubba... that guy on a bike is followin' us."

"sheeeot daaaaryl -- he aint even peadlin'!! speed up ya' bastard! drop that skinny homa..."

"uuuuhhh... bubba? he 'aint droppin' off..."

i can almost see it now.

mw said...

yeah. thanks for the nice words. i was ready. i felt great at the beginning. i was never out of the top 12 the entire race. i would not change a thing bike set up or gear or anything.

i knew i needed to make 75-80 miles by 11am. when i had 52 at 11 i knew i was f-ed. i thought, i'll just call it when i see the eurovan again. but by the time i made it to peterson i was way off the back of the group and done. oh well. maybe next year.

MG said...

you made it a lot further than most, and given the conditions, it's amazing you guys got as far as you did.

... so you never really got to try out that super magnet thingie, did you?
:-}

good work buddy,
mg