Joe Martin Women's 3-4 crit race

My good friend Aubree Dock raced in Joe Martin's women's stage race. Last Sunday I was able to come watch her race in her crit. Before the Crit she was fighting to be in the top 10 GC and she was currently 14th in the GC. During the crit (the last race at Joe Martin) she was riding strong, always riding in the top 5 positions of the pack. She was looking strong until the last lap where I was waiting for her to finish. I saw the pack come over the hill in the final 200 meters to the finish when I did not see her. I never saw her finish, so I started walking the course and fearing the worst. I saw her walking up the hill with her bike with her leg dripping in blood. Despite crashing in the last lap and unable to finish with the pack, she was smiling and laughing. However; she was able to move up in the GC at Joe Martin, she finished 11th in the GC!!! Awesome job Aubree!!! Your such a bad ass.

The pics below are from Aubree's crit. While she was getting bandaged up she discovered some road rash in an odd place, but I'll let Aubree talk about that one.

Aubree during the crit race


In front of the pack, ready to make a move




Raise your hand if your a bad ass!




Where else did you get road rash?!?!



Music Video pick for the day:

Boston Mountains - Thats right MOUNTAINS!!!

Here are some of the sites I saw when I got to travel through during the Joe Martin Stage race in Arkansas. Most of the race was in the region of the Boston Mountains, Northwest Arkansas. Thats right, MOUNTAINS! They're no rockies but they do climb to an elevation of 2500+ feet. The area I was in are consider the "Low Mountains," just west of the 'high mountains."

Arkansas is a beautiful state, that I am sure that I'll come back to visit. Don't let the bad publicity of Arkansas prevent you to visit the 'natural state.' If you ever come visit Arkansas just a few things to remember:

1) Bring your own beer; many counties are dry
2) Don't stay in Bentonville AR, Walmart has destroyed the soul of that town
3) bring a bicycle, after all it is the 'natural state'
4) DONT LITTER! Arkansas has a strict policy for littering, that encourage people to report any violators and with fines that reach over $2000 + community services.
5) Bring your iPod, unless you want to listen to the radio that has nothing but Christian, and country stations.

Sorry about the whole set up. I'm trying to figure out how to work HTML. If you click on the photo, you can see the whole photo on my flickr.

The Boston Mountains (low mountains)



On Highway 540, just south of Fayetteville AR


At Mount Gaylor, AR


In Devil's Den State Park, AR:


One more thing before I go.
I had this song stuck in my head all week:

Joe Martin pics are up on flickr!

Stage 3_0250.jpg
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Check out the pics from Joe Martin on my flickr. Just click on the photo on this blog post and once you get to the site click on the "Joe Martin" set.

Another Video from stage 3

Stage 3 finish
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Stage 3 sprint finish won by Jonathion Cantwell of Fly V Australia.

Video - In the feed zone with Team Bissell

Stage 3 Feed Zone
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Joe Martin - Stage 3 - feed zone

I was taking pictures with my Nikon D200 as I used my Canon Powershot S90 to take some video as the peloton rode through the feed zoon, you can hear my D200's shutter going.

I thought I would post this video before I post the rest of the photos from Joe Martin.

Enjoy!

Joe Martin: Stage 1 - Time Trial

Stage 1 TT_0101.jpg
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Thursday was the first stage of the NRC race Joe Martin. It was a 2.5 mile route with an average grade of 6.8%. The weather was hot (high temp of 88 F) and the climb was steep. It was Andrew Talansky of California Giant Berry Farms that finished with the fastest time of 7m54s followed by Benjamin Day (Fly V Australia) and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell). Other big names in the race: Floyd Landis (OUCH Bahati Foundation) was +43 sec; Ivan Dominguez (Jamis Sutter Home pb Colavita) was +1m3s; Brian Jensen (Tradewind) was 1m9s; and Steve Tilford (Tradewind) was +1m28s.

I'm having a blast here in the beautiful state of Arkansas and I'm taking lots of photos that I will soon post on blogger and Flickr. Take a look at my photos on my flickr just by clicking on the photo that is linked to this post. I'm really looking forward to travel to more of these NRC races across the country this season!

Hope everybody enjoys these photos. Please feel free to comment and share these photos with friends!