USGP Wrap Up-Prepare to be underwhelmed by this post after the amazing weekend!

We'd been waiting with baited breath for the USGP. are you kidding me? A brand new course, in a brand new place and Bruce Fina's at the helm? Hell yeah we were excited!!

day 1 as always was its own unique course. short, technical and really super hard! You can see from the pictures how tough the course was. Unrideable sand(even by the pros) vertical switchbacks. you name it, Bruce threw it at us.

Heres a shot of The Mantis, pro rider for Embrocation Cycling Journal and fun guy to heckle. Note the wristband from last night's binge. Class touch, that.

Whos that behind Kennedy? Thats Ezra. Fastest Singlespeeder there. His registration for Day 1 was the best I've ever heard

First Name-Blue Bike

Last Name-Bearded

Im a big fan. He rolled up to us in the chute waiting for the SS race. We looked at the blank bike and the beard and we all knew he was fast. Nobody rolls up like that unless they are. If he'd been on platform pedals Id have gone home then!

This is Chris Jones taking a digger in the sand. You want a better picture? Go to the Rapha Contest here and vote for picture "F". Help our friend Drew at On Your Left out with this one.

And Chris, even if we say RAAA-Fa instead of RAH-FA, we're still good peeps. Pope and I pitted for him and Zack McDonald who paid us back on Sunday by doing BMX tricks off the mound leading into the barriers. Nice touch.

Here's me riding as fast as I can away from a picture of Papa John. The pink RAAAA-Fa hat must've been good luck.

Sooo dry and dusty. Whats the motivation to go on? Oh yeah, Fatty stocked the Rogue tent before he left town!

Anybody remember my bet for when the new team bikes would show up? Yep. Saturday, while we were racing. I dunno if it mattered. I'll be posting about how amazing this thing is later! Zack showed up with boxes of custom steel goodness and cupcakes. Nobody's topping that!

Heres a good shot of Zack's ass on the green monster. Im thinking stride may have been an advantage for him here? Although it freaks some folks out, the monster is probably the easiest part of the course. Gravity wins every time. Stay on her side.

Ray, or "little caeser" as he's now known, rocked the course and left his mark. He insists on eating really shitty pizza the night before a race. Im thinking natural ingredients may not be his thing. Whatever. Its working.

Heres Seiler cruising thru the barriers. You can see the huge hump leading into them. Crazy hard. You can see that he's thinking about that conversation we had that one time that meant so much. Was Segal right? Damn...ooops barrier!

Did anyone ever tell you how cool Georgia Gould is? Trust me, they undersold it. She is easily the most approachable pro athelete I've ever met. she strolled by the rogue tent and hung out, just shooting the breeze and swapping stories. Everywhere she goes, she leaves a trail of new fans. she even came back for cupcakes......Really!

She was balancing her bike and USGP trophy from kicking total ass both days. One of us asked if they could help. She was already next to us. Spooky, really. She thought she could jump tape faster than I could eat my cupcake. Listen sister, we are all big fans, but we do have our strengths. Mine were the cupcakes and the special treat that Debbie Bain brought. Chocolate chip cookies baked by Meredith Miller. They tasted as though they were baked by a woman with amazing legs. Its in the chips!! Georgia was so dominant that it was unreal. she Owned. Pure and simple.

Look at the dirt on my face. Thats what my lungs probably look like. Think about whats on the bottom of the Ohio river...thats what we were aspirating all weekend. YUCK!!!!!

doug rode strong on Saturday, or at least compared to me.
short courses w lots of dismounts are not my strong suit. Sunday's course was more my thing.

Day 2 was a longer course with more power sections and fewer dismounts. Being on Fatty's bike and not totally comfortable, this made for a better day. You can read results and rankings at the USGP site, but hopefully this little tryptich provided by TALLGIRL PHOTOGRAPHY has brought it home. We came, we raced, we drank beer and ate cupcakes. When it was all over, we were all amazed at the new venue. Sure the parking sucked and it was dry as a bone. Little things that you hae to deal with in the first year. I just got back from Wed night cross and everyone there is blown away that we have this facility! As young Mr Bain said, "there's a million courses on this course". Of course.

Thanks for all the pix TG