Tommy Nankervis

US Open was Freezing!

// April 10th, 2007 // A Day Down Under

Howdy dudes,

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend, and that y’all got to eat heaps of chocolate, like i did!
Some of you may have heard about our US Open race in Virginia over the weekend, and how cold it was, but i don’t think you actually realise how cold it really was! The photos don’t really justify how freezing it was! I have only been in the actual “snowing” snow maybe once in my life, so it was super exciting to be getting ready in it, that’s for sure! I took so many photos because i was so excited about it.

This is what the start area looked like when we rocked up! Wicked!
I should say though, that all of my excitement wore off pretty quickly after the race started, and i realised i had NO feeling in my hands whatsoever! I was actually freaking out that if we had a big crash in the field there was absolutely no way i would be able to stop, because i couldn’t feel my brakes. I also kept it in the same gear for the first hour too, till my hands worked enough to be able to function! The surgical gloves underneath the winter gloves didn’t really help a great deal in keeping the hands warm…

HealthNet were parked beside us, and their bikes looked cold. Everyone’s bikes were cold though, but their’s just came up best on my camera.
It was pretty funny riding in the bunch as the race started, because heaps of riders were sitting upright, clapping their hands, or swinging them, or shaking them, trying to get feeling in their fingers. I find that smacking my hands on the bars repeatedly is the best way to do it!

Our camera man Myles has been traveling around with us for a while now, and has been taking footage for a show about us. I don’t think he was expecting it to be this cold either, and his camera needed a special blanket over it to keep it from catching a chill.

Here is what the cobbled climb we raced up nine times. Fairly hard with a couple of switchbacks, but all the same, it was so much fun to race over cobbles. The race was awesome, and hopefully it will be a regular on the calendar now, and we can do it every year. Willo was our best finisher in seventh, with big Elk not far behind. I had a bit of bad luck with punctures, the first time i have ever had two in a race, and also had the slowest wheel change in history with my second one, that ended my race.

After the race we trekked home in a crowded van, and got in around 2 am! It was worth it though, as i got to wake up to these Easter goodies! Keally really spoiled me! It was also nice to be back in time to have Easter with her, and her oldies came to Athens and we had a nice lunch downtown too.

Those who know me well know that i love cereal, and here is my latest collection! I actually forgot one box for the photo too. I think the cereal cupboard has about 8 or 9 pounds of cereal in it! Its pretty much the best thing ever!

Georgia has also been covered in pollen lately, which is just great for me with my hay fever! This is how much there is, if you can see it on this car! The levels are pretty high, they say if the count per whatever is around 200, it is dangerously high, and we had 2000 the other day!

I will be racing in the Tour de Georgia next week, so this week we have a bit of publicity stuff and things with our sponsors, including our team launch, so hopefully i get some cool photos of that for my next update. Here is a picture of me doing an ergo, and if the picture is clear enough, you may be able to see the puddle of sweat under me! Wicked! Training is going well, so i hope the tour goes well, and then the crit series after it.

Well dudes, happy Easter, and i hope everyone is well. Thanks to the people who made comments on the last post; i think the Pieman, and Dad’s comments had more words than my last post! Everyone else should comment too though, as last time the four comments were well down on the fourteen record!

Laters…