This idea seemed like a really good one about 6 weeks ago, when I found that mountain touring (of Shenandoah 100 fame) was putting on a 40 mile race near Roanoke, VA the first weekend of April. First plus is that its these guys-quality courses, unbelievably well-run and secondly, Sunday races are good for bike shop guys!!!!!! Anyway, Larry said it sounded good, as did Ed but as it got closer Ed must have had a premonition and when they put a more detailed description and photos of the course on the website, Ed called Chris (organizer, creator, nut-job extrodonaire) to see what it was really gonna be like. It took a few days, but he called and said "Yeah, Ed you've done the 100 a bunch of times.....sometimes you've finished well and sometimes, well, oh, not as fast. You might not like it." That did it for Ed, and had it not been for the Tsali XC race the same day I might have talked some others into going. Anyway, Larry was still super fired up, we registered Wednesday before the race, got a hotel in nearby Salem and then just plowed through a few more days of work before our Saturday after the shop closed departure.
Left the shop at 10 after 5 on Saturday and headed north on I-81 with bikes, black jerseys, and two coolers of New Belgium Mighty Arrow. Drive was good and we made it far enough to just wait and eat dinner near where we were staying. Hotel was right off of the interstate, so we drove into historic downtown Salem to find a local, sit-down type place. Found a place called Macadoo's which apparently has other locations-Boone, NC, etc.-and has a menu filled with 800 different sandwiches. Interesting place because someone loaded the jukebox with the "best of hairbands" mix and when one of the other patrons was lip-synching Dead or Alive while eating we just had to giggle. That combined with our cute, but dumb as a rock waitress-Bless Her Heart-and Jerry Garcia watching us eat made an ordinary meal very entertaining. Luckily they had giant TVs and the final four was on.
Headed to the Team hotel-La Quinta- watched b-ball drank a beer or two and then rested up for the big race. We had no idea.............
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