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Wow... What do you say after skating for 24 hours? Well, first off I want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to our AWESOME support team! Andrea, Maria, Renee, and Dawn -- YOU ROCK! In fact, we need to create a whole new verb that adequately describes how much you rock. And another BIG THANKS to Brian Shicoff for organizing everything, and to Lawrence for really making me earn that silver medal, and to Bryan McKenney for rounding out our team of Americans determined to fulfill Brian's dream of sweeping the podium... (lol)

We saw more guys out today in skinsuits and on bikes than usual, and I wondered what was up. The funny thing was there were road and mtb types, and some of them seemed to be checking out particular parts of the course with special attention. I forgot all of this until I started looking at ride calendars for the weekend, and in addition to Blood, Sweat and Gears (50 mile/100 mile) in the mountains, I found out that the State Games of NC take place in Greensboro Country Park this weekend.

After several years of seeing the Tour de Kale flyers and jerseys out and about in Greensboro, I had the pleasure this year of finally taking part in this very well-run event. Denton, NC is a little town out in the country, Southwest of Greensboro, and a few miles southwest of Tour de Lions country, i.e., slightly more mountain-side, i.e., slightly hillier. Distance options this year were 120k, 110k, 60k (which Blake and I skated), and 25k (which Andy skated). Tour de Kale offers cash prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd male and female, spread over 4 categories for the 'Summit Challenge', which includes a Bubba division (male over 200lbs). Price is $35 for pre-reg., $40 the day of, plus a $10 deposit on the timing-chip, to be reimbursed after you turn it back in again. For this you get a bib #, meal ticket, event T-shirt & sponsor goodie bag, 120k of support vehicles & rest stops, and a beautiful country course.  

 While waiting for news of his fate, after a very strange hearing including threats, firings, secrets unveiled, and lots more mental gymnastics, Floyd Landis made his way back on the bike in Vail, Colorado for a mountain bike race. He made 48 people very happy by placing 49th. Imagine finishing ahead of the "then current" Tour de France champion in any kind of bike race!

Hello to all after a few days away when even RSN2.com took a day or two off! I'm sitting in Greensboro's Center City Park using the Wifi connection, and I must say this is nice. At about 8pm, the light is fading and the temperature is cooling a bit from a nice warm day. I decided against skating for several reasons, one being the orange level air quality warning, a very late schedule of sleeping and waking, and some work that needed to be done.

Please register for my Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser...

Roadskater.net's Marcia Woodfield Inline Speed Skating Workshop, June 2, 2007 in Greensboro, NC.

From Derrick at the tour:

Hey! This is just a reminder that Monday is your last chance to receive the 2007 Alumni baseball cap featuring the brand new "Start to Finish MS Bike Ride" logo. Alumni Registration Prize Deadline The Alumni Prize Deadline is April 30, so please don't miss out on this offer. If you have ridden in the Tour to Tanglewood during previous years and you sign up for the Tour before the deadline, you will receive the 2007 Alumni baseball cap featuring our brand new "Start to Finish MS Bike Ride" logo. Not registered yet? http://bikencc.nationalmssociety.org

It looks like a blast and I wish I could have been there. I found some photos and think I see Artem in some of them, but wasn't sure as I didn't know if he was going to this event...

http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2578809320054477580GGhCtF

I saw pics of Brian and Andrea, too.

And I love this one of deep, meaningful tunes in front of the porta-potties:

Does anybody know of any? I tried sctrails.net, which is very informative, just very inconsistent regarding info on whether the trails are actually paved or not. I also tried many, many other places-to-skate type websites, SC trail websites etc. So now I'm specifically asking for anything anybody out there actually either GOES to or KNOWS about regarding places to skate in or near Gaffney, Spartanburg or Greenville - i.e. a really long, paved trail, or skater-friendly roadroute.