Well, Ryan and I (Rob) loaded up Ryan's Jeep and hit the road on Thursday a little later than we wanted. We traveled most of the night and got to Knoxville, TN. Spent about five hours sleeping and got back on the road to get to Athens, GA, before our time trial. The time trial didn't go as planned, but it did get us the good start for the Athens Twilight race. I think that the twilight race was the craziest and fastest race that I've ever done. From what we were told there were over 35,000 fans to cheer for the Pro-Am. I couldn't believe how loud it got. I did good rolling in 26th place with Ryan and Josh Carter not far behind, finishing 30th and 35th.
We settled down and went back to the hotel. We got up the following morning and went for an easy ride and than traveled about 4 hours to Beaufort SC. I can not believe how nice the weather has been. Monday we hung out and went riding down to the race course. The course looked like it would be crazy. Tight corners and only one line straight away. Tuesday we got an easy ride in in the morning and the we relaxed until the race that night. As Julie Carter said, "this race will be a crap shoot." And it was, The race got split up and I missed the break, but I hung in there to finish to try and keep me up there in the overall.
Our numbers that we got showed us how we were in the overall. It was like a surprise every time that Julie Carter would come back from registration on where we all were in the standings. Well by Wed. I was 15th overall. I was excited, cause they call up the top 15 and not knowing that I was even going to get to the top 20 in the series, I was pumped and so was the rest of the team. We all had a goal and that was to get me in the top 10 and and maybe the top 5 by the ten day series with Josh, Ryan and I winning some primes on the way.
After the long nights of racing, we (Ryan, the Carter family, and I) got some food and went back to the motel to eat, get massages and talk about the race. It was almost the same routine for the whole week. We would race at night and the following day we would do a nice easy ride when we got up. We would either travel to the next location or we would just hang out till the event that night. I thought that the weather was perfect. It was in the upper 70's and mid 80's during the day and by the time we would race it would be in the middle to lower 70's.
As the nights and the days went by it was Friday morning and I have moved up to 11th overall. Like Josh said baby steps on moving up and that is what it felt like. I moved up a couple of spots everyday. As it came to race time on Friday night in Spartanburg, S.C. we were all feeling good. Josh had a rough start to the week, but his legs finally were under him. With only three of us we made ourselves known that night. With about every lap they were talking how aggressive the ABD/Geargrinder team was riding. If Ryan wasn't going off the front for the early moves and the primes it was Josh Carter. The both of them were all over the front of the field "Racing their Bikes". At the middle of the race they give out a half way prime (cash and overall points to the top five). I knew at that point that Josh was feeling good so I said lets go for it. Josh gave me an incredible fast lead for about a half of a lap and I jumped off his wheel and got the mid-race prime. After that we sat-in and waited for the end. With to laps to-go Josh got Ryan and I all the way to the front of the field, and left it up to us to finish the job. Well we were going to do that, but going into the last corner of the race we were sitting 4th and 5th wheel for Ryan to give me a lead out and someone came into the corner too hot and slid from corner to corner and took the front of the field out. Ryan went down but I caught myself and came to stop. Got going again and rolled across in 18th. We didn't win, but as a team we "Raced Our Bikes".
After a tough day on Saturday I was 7th going into Sunday. I was only 11 points out of 6th and about 100 out of 5th overall. The teams goal for the day was to cover attacks, win some primes and make sure nothing got away without me in it. The plan worked! I jumped across to a four man break early in the race after Josh just got done covering an attack. I was then in a break of seven guys, as the Toshiba team was trying to chase it down as Josh and Ryan were shutting it down with Team Inferno and Rock Racing. From what Julie said at the end of the race....Josh and Ryan rode an Awesome race. I know they did too, and all week. I won the mid-race prime and three other ones while in the break to gather up some points. When it came down to the sprint at the end I made a mental error. I finished 6th in the race and at the end of the day I was 6th overall in the Crit Series. After our cool down I talked to Josh to find out what I could of done better to win the race and he gave me some very good tips. He told me, "not to be disappointed with 6th. We rode as a team and this is a learning curve for us, our results were awesome." So I kept my head high and was happy on how well I did with my first big long stage/series Pro event. I was somewhat disappointed that the week was over. Hopefully next year we can go down there with more of our teammates.
The days seem to go by so fast. We did get the chance to go swimming in the ocean. Ryan and I couldn't believe that in just one month we saw both oceans. We are blessed with what we have. We are riding for a team (ABD/Geargrinder PDT) that can make all of this possible. We are traveling, racing our bikes and seeing parts of the south and the west coast. I would also like to thank all the other sponsors and the people that made this happen.
Thanks,
Rob White, Jr.
ABD/Geargrinder PDT
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