We had a fun extended Memorial Day weekend up in Tennessee with four days of racing. Check out my full race report below as well as some cool pictures from the race thanks to Kristine’s friend, Cheryl, from Murfreesboro.

In a promising two-man breakaway that led to a half-lap advantage on the field before getting caught.
Photo Credit: Cheryl Womack

Race Report – Edgar Soto Memorial Stage Race, May 25-28, 2007, Nashville Tennessee

May 25 Time Trial: 53^rd out of 96 finishers

6.9 miles of fun is how I would describe this course. Hilly, fast, twisty roads, awesome! I borrowed Richard McBee’s TT bike which was perfect for this course with the compact gearing. The organizers decided to start us at 20 second intervals because of the huge racer turnout, but the guy who was supposed to start 20 seconds in front of me didn’t show up so I only had a “40 second man” to try to catch. I felt good and strong with a high heart rate and not terrible burning in my legs through the first 2 miles of the rolling uphill climb. I caught my 40 second man at the turnaround, but then didn’t put much time into him after that. I felt like I may have eased up once I passed him. Also shortly after the turnaround, the guy who started 20 seconds behind me caught and passed me. I was able to keep him just a few seconds in front of me on the hills, but as soon as the course started to head back downhill to the finish, he pulled away and finished 20-30 seconds in front of me.

May 26 Circuit Race: 17^th out of 83 finishers  (2^nd in field sprint)

This 11 mile circuit was extremely hilly with very little flat sections. We did 6 laps making for a somewhat grueling 66 miles in VERY HOT weather. None of the climbs were that steep or long, but the varied terrain led to a very weird race where an 8 man breakaway ended up putting 4 minutes into the field. The 8 man break was formed by a couple riders attacking here and a couple more attacking there and next thing you know there are 8 men up the road. I was off the front of the field when Dirk Pohlman (Team Krystal) came flying by to bridge up to the break. I knew that he would make it, but I didn’t have the legs to go with him as I had just put in a hard effort to try to bridge to one of the Healthnet riders who had attacked. In retrospect, I should have waited for a strong rider like Dirk to try to make the bridge but I just felt like the race was slipping away. So I was very disappointed to miss the break, but I rode hard and fought for good position at the front at the end and took 2^nd in the field sprint. 

May 27 Criterium: 18^th out of 80 finishers

Challenging 1k course with a hill after the start/finish area. We raced for 70 minutes, which worked out to about 60 laps I believe. I had a fairly good starting position and fought to stay at the front the whole race. I was in a very early breakaway with Trent Wilson (Jittery Joe’s) that got caught after half a lap. Then I was in another more promising break of about 6 or 7 riders that got caught after maybe a lap. Somewhere in between the winning two-man break of Karl Menzies (Healthnet) and Cesar Grajales (Jittery Joe’s) got away. I’m not sure how I missed it but I was either too tired or too far back to try to go with them. About 20 laps into the race, I was bumped hard by somebody on the hill and that knocked me off course taking my rear wheel directly into the front wheel of John Murphy who was at the time wearing the yellow jersey as GC leader. He went down breaking a spoke in my rear wheel. Somehow I stayed upright and pulled into the pit on the next lap. Maybe 10 laps later I attacked hard with Oscar Henao (Clinica Union) and we immediately got a great gap on the field. We worked well together with me pulling the entire front side of the course up the hill and him pulling across the top and backside of the course which was all downhill. We had a half-lap advantage on the field (about 30 seconds) when he attacked me to go for the sprint points. I couldn’t respond and he didn’t wait up for me after taking the points. I sat up and waited for the field to catch me not sure what I would still have left in my legs. Oscar, to his credit, made it about 10 more laps on his own before getting caught with about 10 laps to go. I can’t help but wonder if we could have stayed away working together. Jittery Joe’s and Healthnet had strong trains at the front of the race pulling back Oscar and I fought to try to take position immediately behind their train. I was disappointed with the sprint finish even though I did manage to place in the top 20.

May 28 Road Race: 17^th out of 63 finishers

Hilly 75 mile loop followed by an additional shorter 35 mile loop taking us up the finishing 3.5 mile climb twice. This race felt like a stage of the Tour de France. First, a small breakaway got away just a couple miles from the start and stayed away for 100 miles before the last survivor of the break, Matt Winstead (Juris/morepartnerincome.com) got caught. Second, the climb on the course broke the race into smaller groups the first time up and then splintered the peloton the second time up. Lastly, the second time up the climb I was shelled from the front group and then had to work my way back onto the group before getting shelled a second time for good. How many times have you seen that with the long mountain climbs where some rider gets shelled, works his way back up to the group, then another attack goes and the rider is shelled again. Also, in the main part of the course, there were several short, steep hills were the group would bunch up and you felt like you were riding in a wall-to-wall group of riders like you see on some of the postcards.  The breakaway didn’t have any pro-team representation so they stayed at the front almost the entire race setting the pace to ever-so-slowly reel in the breakaway. How crazy that they could time their work to bring the last survivor of the break back with only a few miles left in the race. The course had some crazy 50+ mph descents with switchbacks, hairpin turns, gravel, and all kinds of things to make the entire day feel like an epic. It was awesome!!! I fought again to stay near the front of the pack and never moved farther back than about 30^th position. I did have to spend some time in the wind to stay near the front and I wonder if I spent too much energy doing that. The first time up the 3.5 mile climb I was surprised that it wasn’t too steep and I was able to stay with the front group of about 15-20 riders. The second time up the climb, however, I started just a few positions farther back and the two riders right in front of me got gapped off shortly after the climb started. I had to chase around to bridge the small gap to the front group of about 10 riders. I rode at the back of the front group for the next half mile before the first attack came from that group. I was shelled by that attack, but managed to bridge back up to the group on a flatter section of the climb. I was praying that nobody would attack for at least another half mile, but it was not to be. When the next attack came from Cesar Grajales (Jittery Joe’s), I was shelled right off the back. At this point I was somewhat demotivated with 3k left to go on the climb and terrible burning in my legs so I cracked and was passed by Dirk, Bain Foote (Herring Gas) and a couple other riders. I tried to ease up and settle into a rhythm when a group of 3 caught up to me. I was able to pick up my pace and stay with that small group the rest of the way to the top for a 17^th place finish.  With the peloton completely splintered and coming in one or two riders at a time, my finish was enough to move me up to 17^th overall in the GC and 5^th place in the Cat 2 bonus competition. 

That’s all from the Pro-1-2 field!

Brian Toone

Here are some more pictures all from Sunday’s criterium.

On the wheel of the current yellow jersey holder, John Murphy (Healthnet)
Photo Credit: Cheryl Womack

In an early unsuccessful breakaway.
Photo Credit: Cheryl Womack

Off the front.
Photo Credit: Cheryl Womack

Off the front, again.
Photo Credit: Cheryl Womack

Climbing the hill at the front with the pros.
Photo Credit: Bob-e, http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=326454

Another fun part of last weekend was our friend, Darryl’s crawfish boil.  Now, I spent a year and a half in Louisiana when I was in elementary school, so I know about crawfish.  And I used to eat them.  But Brian had never experienced this.  And of course, neither had Analise or Josiah. 

Analise loves seeing lobsters in tanks at the grocery store, so seeing big tubs of crawfish squirming around was really exciting.  There was another little girl about her age who had absolutely no fear, and she kept reaching in and bringing them out.  They don’t bite hard enough to hurt, and Analise was so excited to see them up close and personal.  Sadly, we didn’t get a picture of that.  Maybe next year!

Then they got boiled with potatoes, corn, sausage and cajun seasoning. 

I tasted one crawfish, and it was too fishy for my taste.  Brian didn’t end up tasting them.  But I pulled the meat out for Analise, and she loved them.  She loves shrimp, so I think these were just as tasty.  In the end, she probably ate 15 crawfish or so!  My girl must be part crawfish!  The last picture is of the crawfish remains, all eaten by Analise.  Crazy cajun girl!

Sunday afternoon our neighbors invited us over to play in their slip ‘n slide.  What a treat!  I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, Analise or Josiah.  It was his first experience playing in the water, and he LOVED it.  Analise was disconcerted by the sprinklers, and she didn’t want to run through them to slide.  Josiah was intrigued by the sprinkler, and watched fascinated as we turned it off and the water trickled down.  I’m sure we’ll have lots more hot, fun days in the water this summer!

Hoping the water comes back… Jordan would step on the sprinkler and
make the water left in the hose squirt up a little, just enough to keep Josiah on alert and giggling every time.

The super soaker was almost bigger than Analise, and it was too hard for her to work.  Still, she felt very cool carrying it around. 

Keeping watch over her brother…

Sorry you haven’t heard from me recently! I’m just checking in with a few pictures… We had a busy weekend and we’re gearing up for another one. But last weekend, we bought a big plastic playset from our neighbor’s garage sale. Analise and Josiah have been well entertained by it! Enjoy!

Josiah’s decided he is going to climb up the slide to play with his sister.

He got about 1/3 of the way up!

Notice how Josiah looks a little grumpy not be making progress on the slide…

On the small playset on our porch… after playing in the vegetable pots with Analise.

We’re leaving Friday to race four days over Memorial Day weekend in Nashville. It’s an exciting race and there has already been some good coverage in the Nashville papers of the race. Click on the image below to read the articles from the Nashville paper … I’ll be racing against people who have competed in the Giro de Italia and possibly even the Tour de France!

Nashville News Coverage

Check out this video on abc3340, one of our local TV Stations. Click on the picture to see the video.
This footage is from last year when I did the ride. There was only three of us then. This year there were about 30 cyclists.
Maybe they’ll have the interview with me from today posted later?

(Click the picture to watch Josiah bounce!)

I am home from work early today after bouncing around town on National Bike-to-Work Day. At 6AM this morning, I left to bike into downtown Birmingham to gather with other cyclists and bike commuters for a rally at Five Points South. When I got there, I saw ABC 33/40 broadcasting live and moseyed on up to the front of about 30 people where my racing buddy, Travis, and Faris, one of our Tria-Market / Two Men and a Truck bike team sponsors, were hanging out. After the news reporter stopped broadcasting, she asked for a volunteer to be interviewed. She interviewed Travis first, and Travis didn’t hold back any words about how the city (especially motorists) could do better to facilitate bike commuting — wider roads, shoulders on roads, share the road attitudes, etc… Then Travis said she should talk to me since I commute to work every day on my bike. She asked me if I found it difficult to find safe roads to ride. I told her that where I live is like an island in that I am surrounded by Old Rocky Ridge and Rocky Ridge roads, which are not very safe for cyclists. Once I make it off those roads into the neighborhoods, I can find pretty safe roads to ride on — but there is no easy way to avoid the busier roads.

After the interviews the group of about 30 went on a 7 mile tour that ended up at the Regional Planning Commission, home of CommuteSmart, which sponsored the event. They had all kinds of schwag and I got a cool reflective cover for my backpack straps. Faris and I took off back over the mountain to Homewood and then I biked on into Samford for a nice 20 mile commute into work this morning!

I finished preparing my final exam for my intro to computer science class, gave the exam, and then biked home and it’s just barely 3pm. I took this video of Josiah while Kristine was putting Analise down for a nap.

Josiah has progressed from walking to climbing quite rapidly.

Just another day in the life.  I really want to crawl in bed, but this is my pre-bedtime therapy:)  Thanks to all who commented on my sweet Mother’s Day video of Josiah walking.  I’m still beaming over my handsome little guy tettering around, and he’s still trying to walk all over.  Analise is feeling a little snubbed, and as we were ooh’ing and ahh’ing over Josiah walking, she said, “Look at me walking!”  We gave her a good clap.  Now she’s started showing off by running… circles around him as he’s trying to walk.  Poor boy.  It’s hard enough to get those little feet off the ground, let alone keep your balance while your sister is singing circles around you like a whirling dervish.

We just wrapped up another night of home church.  The evening came together pretty well, all things considered.  Josiah spiked a fever over 103 around noon, and I couldn’t get in to see the doctor until 4:30.  Tylenol only kept it down to 101.5 during his nap, and I frantically got the house in order, made a Darn Good Chocolate Cake and some Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip.  I had to pick up our babysitter, who took care of Analise while Josiah and I headed to the doctor.

His fever was 102.5 when we got there, and they gave him some tylenol and started the tests.  No definitive answer yet, but his throat is raging red (but the strep test was negative) and his blood count indicated a bacterial infection.  Hopefully, hopefully it’s not a urinary tract infection, because with his urinary reflux, it can cause damage to his kidneys.  The urine test was inconclusive, and we’ll wait for more results tomorrow.  In the meantime, he got a shot of antibiotics, and I hope I can keep his fever down tonight.  He was such a good boy during the long, painful doctor’s visit.  We got home just in time to welcome all our guests for dinner.  And Josiah took a few steps for everyone before he headed to bed.

The exciting news of the week is that my computer is back from Dell.  Amazing!  The DHL guy picked it up on Friday at 6pm, and it was back here before 11am on Tuesday!  That’s awesome service.  The screen is better than new, we installed Windows Vista, which is very fun to be using, and the computer is running like new.  I think we just gained another couple years with this computer.

‘Night, all!

Woke up grumpy, after a bad night’s sleep. Analise was pukey last night before bed, so I was up a couple times checking on her, and the obligatory time or two with Josiah. Then he was ready for the world at 6am. I stuck him in the exersaucer with Baby E while I got a shower. Brian was still sleeping, and when I got out of the shower, he greets me by rolling over and sleepily saying, "Josiah’s fussing". Seriously. I was like, "Do you know what today is?" "Oh yeah, I guess I’ll go get him." Please…just so I can have 20 minutes to myself to get ready before I start taking care of everyone.

The day did improve, though.  Analise and Brian stayed home while I went to church.  I even got to work in the nursery… how ironic!  I made lunch (frozen lasagna, not too hard) for his mom and brother, and Josiah did his stuff. Seriously made my day. And we all got naps this afternoon.

Analise has been a little more of a grump than usual, but I suppose it’s to be expected since she’s been feverish… all my trying to explain to her that it’s Mother’s Day, and she should be sweet for me hasn’t really gotten through. Brian’s taken care of them for a few little blocks of time today, but they’ve driven him a little nuts.  I feel bad, but then I feel like at least it’s not just me that they can drive crazy at times!

I was looking forward to a really nice dinner out at a great fish place, Up the Creek, but when we got to the restaurant, there was a 30 minute wait, and we just couldn’t do that with hungry little ones. So we ended up at a sandwich shop.  But at least I didn’t have to cook!

Anyway, sorry to ramble. As much as I sort of wanted a day free of taking care of people, that’s not really realistic when you’re a mom with 2 little ones.  And God tossed in some really sweet moments to make it memorable.  All in all, it was a pretty typical day of being a mom… I’m awfully lucky.

Josiah’s Mother’s Day surprise! (Click picture to watch video!)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Love Brian, Kristine, Analise, and Josiah

🙂