Tour De Tots – Concord NC – Nov. 1st 2008

The Carolina Medical Center-NorthEast is hosting the 3rd annual Tour De Tots on Nov. 1st 2008. This ride benefits the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital in Concord, NC. The event has a 62 mile Metric route, a 31 mile half metric route and also a Bike rodeo as well as a Wheels on Parade for the entire family.

The Tour De Tots will also be a memorable event for me. It just so happens that this was my first ever cycling event two years ago during the inaugral Tour De Tots ride. This is a great countryside route with some intermediate but challenging hills. Unfortunatey I will miss this ride due to being out of town at another event.

If you want to attend this ride, be sure to register early and save yourself $5 ahead of time. The registrations are done online thru Active.com. Have a great ride!

JFinn

Tour De Leaves – Bike Tour Tryon, NC

Tour De leaves – Saturday Oct 18th, 2008 Rain or Shine.

If you want some hill action this is the ride for you. The metric route includes some heavy climbing and starts at 9:00am.  There is also a half metric and a family fun ride as well. The ride is fully supported and there will be plenty of rest stops and sags.

I look forward to this event because it allows me the opportunity to spend a night with my little sister who lives in Hendersonville. I’ll be joining a few of her cycling friends on the Tour De Leaves ride.

Look out Saluda Grade, the Cycling Guy is on his way to try and conquer you.

JFinn

Finney Wins Series Championship at Lowes Time Trials

2008 Lowes Time Trials Champion

Hard training and consistent riding pays off. This year was a great season out at Lowes Motor Speedway for the CarolinaTT.org Time Trials. It seems like it rained almost every time out. In fact I recall at least four events of riding in the rain or just after. All in all it was still a good season with a lot of competitive cyclist having a great time.

This was my first full season riding in the Lowe’s Time Trials. I competed in the Mens 40 – 44 age group. There were several nights where we had almost 30 riders in this group alone. During the season I was able to capture two 1st place and two 2nd place finishes. I started off the season sorta of slow while trying to get used to my bike. Fortunately I was able to finish strong and finish near the top of the list for the remainder of the events. Ultimately this allowed me to to finish in 1st place with 100 points to capture the Gold medal and the series championship for the season.

We had some very competitive riders in our group. A couple of guys, when they showed up, smoked the rest of the riders. Thankfully for me, they didn’t show up at every event. When you don’t show, you don’t accumulate points. In fact, it wouldn’t be fair to not mention the fact that the main rider I was tied with going into the final event didn’t show up. I feel pretty sure he would have beat me to the line if he had been there. But hey, he didn’t show and I did. So I will take the Gold and go on to next year.

I would like to take time to thank all of the CarolinaTT.org volunteers for coming out to each event and working hard to host the events. Without their efforts, the events wouldn’t be possible. Maybe next year we will have more sunshine and less rain. Thanks to all!

JFinn