Savage vs Granogue

Today is WCBC's Savage Century. I'm missing it this year using John's layoff as the excuse. I don't like the ride to begin with, never have. Been riding it off and on since the late 80's. Didn't like it then, don't like it now. When I have ridden it I swear I'd never ride it again. So I'm glad I have a valid excuse this time.

This weekend is also the cyclocross race at Granogue. It's a 2-day affair this year, and it's also a UCI race. A request came out for people who would be willing to put up a rider for the weekend and we volunteered. I figured we wouldn't get anyone because we're 35-40 minutes away from the course. But almost instantly I was contacted by Nathan Wyatt. I was curious who this guy was and I looked him up on the usacycling.org site. He's a cat 1 elite rider, a young guy, 28 yrs old. He probably didn't realize he'd be staying with his "parents" for the weekend! What I really found interesting is he lives in the Asheville, NC, area. And why do I find this interesting? I lived in that general area many moons ago. His parents are both riders, and his father also races.

Just getting on the Granogue property is worth the trip. It is private land, owned, and still lived on, by the DuPont family. The entrance is very unassuming and under normal circumstances, you could ride right by it and not even realize. But once you turn into the driveway, the landscape is incredible. You can look in any direction and all you see is land. No big developments, no city skyline. It's a different world. You can feel the money.

We hung out for a couple of laps of Nathan's race before heading back to the real world.