Celebrity Classic

Saturday was the first of two days of crits in downtown Van Buren, AR. The course was a large "L" shape. I will give you the race stories in the order for which they occurred.
We arrived to the race course about 1.5hrs prior to the start of our race. I had ridden down from the hotel earlier in the day to spin out my legs and see the course at the same time. Shannon was in the midst of her race not to mention she just about to lap the field when I arrived. I did not get a chance to see her breakaway catch the field but I heard it on the speaks a block away, I thought to myself, that has got to be an awsome feeling. She ended up finishing 3rd on the day.
Now for the guys race. The clouds were looming while we were warming up. I did not think too much of this because there have been plenty of training days where the clouds showed up yet the rain never fell. We rode the course a few times before the race was officially stages.
The pace was quick from the gun and I was able to get towards the front from the gun. After about 20 minutes or so of the 90 minute race it began to rain and a large number a racers began to exit due to the speed and the wet roads. I got a message from Nathan over the radio to just take my own line and sit on the back, because the race was not a priority. This is exactly what I did, then when we came to the front side straight with about 35 minutes left the group bunched up and I kept rolling along with three other guys and then I put the hammer down and got our break off. I know I was supposed to sit on the back but I wanted to race. This four man break was sticking then a small group bridged up to us and we were now about 8 strong. Coming into the final straight my whole bike slid to one side due to the wet road so I decided since I wanted to be upright across the line I would not contest the sprint and take my top 20 placing.
When the day was said and done I was happy with my racing.

Check back for the second day of the Celebrity Classic

Arkansas

First I would like let Mrs. Rogut know that Nathan was in Arkansas with us and is now back in Dallas.
The racing started on Friday with the cavanal hill climb. This is a 5mile climb with some of the climb at 15% grade. We arrived at 4:30 thinking the race began at 6pm, well this was incorrect and it started at 5pm. Yes, we were in a hurry to get warmed up and ready to go. When it was all said and done I finished 3rd overall behind Scott Moniger and another rider from Oklahoma.

Georgia #3

The 100K Classic race report and other interesting happenings will be posted in the next day or so. So check back on the blog. Maybe I can dig up some pictures from the race.


Matt

Georgia #2

Ok, so the next morning we did not have to race until 11a.m., which is good since we did not get done racing until 10p.m. and off the bikes until 10:30 or so. This way we could sleep in a little bit and actually take advantage of the hotels breakfast. Instead of having to leave before they begin serving. As you probably guessed, no we did not get much sleep at all, since after getting back from the race, taking a shower, getting food and everything ready for the next days race we did not get to bed until around 1a.m., that right no need to rub your eyes and look at the time again, I typed 1a.m. This race was a 110km race, which meant that we had to do 10 laps of the course (whoo hoo!) Those you know me, know that I do not enjoy multiple loop coursed except for crits, because after a bit of time on a crit course everything runs together, but on a road course this is not so much. Well in the race we were working for Joe Miller because he was sitting the highest in the Omnium. That did not exactly exist, which we found out later on in the day when it came time to pick up race winnings. During the race I got myself into a break that lasted about 40-50 miles or so. This way Joe could sit in and not work so much. This worked and he was able to keep his legs fresh for the end of the day.

Check back

Matt

Georgia #1

We left for Atlanta on Thursday and drove straight through arriving around 2:30 in the morning and then slept for quite a while. Because the drive took about 15 hours instead of the usual 10-12 hours. You are probably asking yourself. Why did it take so long to get to Atlanta. Well, when you are driving through parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama where they are on a gasoline shortage it takes just a little longer. This is because when you do find a gas station that has gas we had to wait in line for at least 30 minutes just to get to the pump, then we had to cross our fingers that that pump was working correctly. We you got to the pump the limit was $25. When driving a Suburban $25 dollars worth of gas at $2.49 a gallon is not going to get you down the road very far. So this ended up happening a few times when trying to get to Atlanta. Now I am not saying this was negative part of our trip. No this was very entertaining, because you got a chance to see and be apart of something I thought I would not see for a very long time. That is having to ration gasoline. There was once when a couple of people pulled up to the pump after having waited a good while and then said had no money for gas. So the people next to them reached into their pockets and handed them money almost as fast as they could say they needed help. This was pretty cool to see.
Ok, well we finally made our way to Atlanta and the next day we had a twilight crit, with Shannon racing at 7:30pm and Nate, Joe and myself racing at 9pm. The races went well. Shannon put in some good attacks to try and breakup the field and get something going. While in the mens race Nathan took a flyer early on and I later in the race tried a couple time to get off with no real success. The last break a made was sticking for a while then my partner in the break broke himself. Joes was able to keep himself safe and came across the line in 8th for the evening.
One more little story and I will stop for the day. At the end of the crit I was very hungry and needed something to eat. Joe went to check results Nate later went and followed to check them out also. I was on my way to the same area when I found a very large Submarine sandwich that someone did not want. So I grabbed it and rolled off to check on the guys. I see Nate talking to someone so I roll up and don't say a word. Just sitting on my top tube eating my newly found sandwich.

Check back later

Matt "Can I have some of your sandwich" Seagrave

Georgia and Florida

Well, we are back from racing in Georgia and visiting Nathans family in Florida. I have some good stories from the race and everthing that went on around the racing. I will be filling you guys in over the next few days.

Matt