More photos from this weekend

Hanging out at East Point velodrome. Too bad it had just started raining and we couldn't get on the training.

After Sunday's ride, we decided to go to the top of Brasstown Bald to enjoy the view, or what there was of it.

Breakfast of Champions

Carpe Nundinae

Carpe Nundainae (latin): Seize the Weekend

Oh, where to start when talking about this weekend!

First of all, the car ride up there. You never really know what its going to be like spending 8 hours in a car with your favorite (cough, cough) teammate. Luckily, I was prepared. The first moment Casey Braga fell asleep, I had my makeup kit out. Blue eye shadow, pink lipstick and, of course, the nail polish. Needless to say, Casey had a bit of a surprise when he woke up. The rest of the trip up though, was very uneventful.

When we started out Saturday afternoon, I was really surprised about how confident I was going up Neel’s gap. Last time we were up there, back in February, I didn’t do my best on that first climb but this weekend, it seemed to pass much quicker than before. The same held true for Wolfpen gap. Much sharper than the first, I still was going very good and kept my teammate, Casey, in sight the entire time. Woody gap passed very quickly also to my surprise and descending was extremely fun.

Before telling about the next day’s events, I’d like to add in a little note about the weather in Dahlonega GA. For those of you who have read the book Twilight, its somewhat like that of Forks, Washington. Frequently raining, and almost always overcast. The only difference is that there are no sparkling vampires who want to drink your blood. (For those who haven’t read the book, don’t bother, burn every copy you see, and just keep reading this blog in your free time) Going up every gap, I either had my rain jacket on my back or stuffed into my jersey pocket. There were a few sections of sunlight both days but the time was nowhere need equal to that of when it was overcast and/or raining.

Now on to Sunday. Our route for the day took us over Jack’s, Unicoi, and Hogpen gaps. Jack’s was long, and rather steep at points, but rather boring for the most part. My favorite gap right now is Unicoi, the second climb of the day. It passed very quickly and was not very difficult but also has an entertaining descent to accompany it. Though it started raining when we reached the top, I still kept off the brakes going down, using only my rain jacket as a parachute to slow down when needed. But as we came closer to our next and final gap, I began to dread the coming climb. Remembering my last time up Hogpen, I knew it was long, steep, and offered very little break anywhere on it. Still I climbed as best I could, reaching the top at 3,450 ft, after an excruciating dull and lengthy amount of time. Though tired, the road going down was enjoyable. At some points it was such an incline, my computer hit 48 mph, something I’ve only gotten close to riding down Sugarloaf.

I can’t believe how good I felt this weekend. I think that it was a great training experience and hope that it has helped me become more prepared for Nationals this year, in Bend, Oregon. Can’t wait until the next time we going to Dahlonega, though I still need a little bit of time to recover from this trip.

What a weekend....

Okay, so I have gotten really lazy in updating this blog because I've been writing stuff for the colavita blog as well. So in the spirit of laziness, I'm just copy an pasting the post a wrote for that blog about last weekend on to here as well.
After racing all over the state of Florida every other weekend, there comes the question of what Team Colavita does in their free time. Well this past Sunday there were no events scheduled so the wonderful Gordon family invited the team over to their lake house for a day of fun on the water.
After returning from a +30 mile ride that morning, our junior racers quickly jumped off their bikes to go cool off in the lake before changing into bathing suits and eating a tasty lunch of hamburgers and calzones prepared by Brad Gordon and Stacy Forman. Then we were off on the jet skis, motor boats, knee boards, tubes, and a whole assortment of flotsam. It was very entertaining when someone had the idea to see how many kids we could fit on a 10 foot wide raft. The tricky part was finding a hand hold when the float went flying around corners at 30 miles per hour. We manged to hold a total 8 teenagers on for a while but it was never too long before at least one person spun off.

Left to Right: Top: Casey Braga, Bradley Gordon, Brandon Forman, Jos Chalmers. Bottom: Ian McGauvran, Michelle Blake, Ashlyn Gerber, Blain Gordon.

You could hardly keep the Jack and Owen Greene and JP Russo off the jet skis. And on a dry note, Nick Blanchard commanded the four wheeler for much of the day, doing multiple laps around the house.
Some off the other kids had a fun time playing "bumper cars" in smaller rafts and a few even tried out knee boarding for the first time, with spectacular results. Briana Luthman and Zoe Mullins gave the sport a spin and looked like old pros after only a few times around the lake. Who knew bicycle racers could be so good on water as well as land?
Thanks to everyone who brought something to the party (food, toys, etc.) and a huge thank you to the Gordons and Formans who had the great idea in the first place. It was a wonderful way to spend the day

Left to right: Front Row: Casey Braga, Blain Gordon, Michelle Blake, Ashlyn Gerber, Zoe Mullins. Back Row: Jos Chalmers, Bradley Gordon, Brandon Forman, Ian McGauvran.

For an interesting video of us on the big raft and a first hand account, go to: Ashlyn Gerber's Blog