National Championship Road Race 2011

On Memorial Day Spencer and I, with our friends Brandon and Laura, went to Greenville, South Carolina to watch the 2011 National Championship Road Race. Spencer is what I would call a cycling finatic and I also enjoy the sport. Brandon and Laura were good enough to listen to us (mostly Spencer) talk non-stop about the cycling sport.

We drove down to South Carolina on Sunday afternoon. It took about 5 and a half hours but with these wonderful folks the time flew by.

On race day we planted ourselves close to the top of Paris Mountain. Also close to what we think was George Hincapie's house. The race was a circuit race so we saw the riders go by four times. Waiting was intense but we had tons of fun!

Before the race started we saw this guy drive by and just had to take a picture.

This is the pack for the first round. Mostly the guys stayed together. There were some stragglers.

And then we saw good old GEORGE HINCAPIE!! I love him! He is such a cool guy! Not to mention one of the best road racers of all time... Go George!

Towards the end of the race we saw Taylor Phinney who is almost 21 years old. He will be an amazing pro for sure.

After the cyclists passed us for the forth time we drove to downtown Greenville to see the end of the race. It was very exciting. We were near the finish line where George Hincapie and Matthew Busche sprinted it out for the gold.

Sadly my man George did not win.... when they wizzed past us we thought for sure he had it in the bag but he lost by literally a rim width. When they crossed the line they had to wait for the photo to determine who was the champion.

It was sad but it was ok. Good for Matthew Busche. It was his first National Championship win.

The National Championship Time Trial was the day before so we did not see it but I have to give a shout out to Dave Zabriskie. He is awesome and this is his 6th National Time Trial Championship. He is pretty freakin amazing. We are sad he moved away from our home state but we still love you! Go DZ!