January brought the "Bike Extravaganza" to Charlottesville VA which I had the pleasure of helping a bit with promoting, and doing little bit of this and that. Among all the information stations was a huge crowd of folks, from urban assault hotshots to farmers with 8 foot trailers. My photos don't show but, there were a few people from the city parks and rec crew pointing out on maps where they planed to build a commuter trail around the whole city. The Mayor was seen mingling and sampling the bicycle powered made smoothies.

If anyone is interested in going Indianapolis for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, Team Member Alex Kopko is thinking about going. Get in touch with him and support the IF crew while checking out some serious bike making activities.

Tifosi Optics are sponsoring the IFRacing teams this year. Here is a sneak peak of what's available. These are the DEA's. More to come.

IF rider Greg Martin got out with the local cycling group to commemorate the new year. A few days late, due to snow. Check the pics here.

Check out the photo's of Daisuke's IF/Rapha booth at the Japanese trade show.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daisukeyano/3016338228/in/set-72157608703728510/

The first Snake Creek Gap Time Trial went off this past Saturday.
Kylie Krauss and myself were the only IF people there. Of course she doesn't have a jersey or bike yet, but still, she's part of the team.
After a long......12hr drive broken up into a couple of days I made it to the start with fog hovering heavily. Still it was North GA, a far cry from the wintery mix that has been plaguing Philadelphia, and it felt like a short sleeve day to me.

The race format is pretty unique, and in true time trial fashion we had staggered starts, but in groups of 5-8 at a time. The course is a point to point and everyone shuttles to the start, with the finish 34 miles later at the parking lot of the North Georgia convention center. The entire course follows the Pinhoti trail and is about 98% singletrack.

With Thomas Turner on my start line I knew I had some tough times ahead, and with no training regime up till this point after La Ruta, I had no idea where I was at, fitness wise. I just hoped all the backyard racing was keeping me competitive.

The biggest story about the race is how great the trail is. I started out with Thomas, but after about 20 minutes decided that I needed to back off the pace. I got the eye opener I was expecting, and decided to see how I warmed up as the day went on. Things were going pretty good. I had caught everyone who had started in the heat in front of us, including Tim Carson, who I thought could be a threat. Somehow the course just inspires one to float big rock sections and as I came up to one I decided to gap it, but coming down on the other side punctured pretty good on a rock. Since I hadn't put any fresh stan's in in the past couple months, I couldn't get the thing to seal up. On top of that my big air was sputtering at the rate of a drippy faucet.
It took forever to get enough air into the tire, and in the mean time Tim Carson came by.

After getting going again, passing Tim and starting to feel the grove, another flat hit me. This one was a total mystery, and all I could do was replace the tube and borrow a CO2 from one of the 17 miler riders. Thanks you sir. Rob? Ron? Well that did me in for catching up to Tim and in the end I came across the line in 3rd, 6 minutes back of Thomas and 30sec off of Tim.

As a time trail it's the best time overall in the three races that determines the winner. I have to admit it's a little odd to finish a race and not have an awards ceremony. That will come at the final race in March.

Kylie managed a 3rd place to keep us consistant on placing and overall we all seemed to have a good time.

Next one is first Saturday in Feb and then first Sat in March. Come on out.