When the door gets slammed in your face...

Look around for an open window of opportunity to sneak in undetected.

So what if I didn't get into the Team Topeak Ergon Basecamp? Here's another chance for you to help me make the blog more interesting. This contest is (as far as I know) only based on votes and not the size of one's head accessories, so you can feel like your vote counts this time.

What will I win if you vote for me? A free entry to the Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race. What will you get?

I'll have to blog about my Pisgah Stage Race training & preparations once in each of the months preceding the race. I'll also be expected to recount my adventures each day after racing a stage of the Pisgah Stage Race. Finally, I'll need to write a retrospective in October wrapping up the whole experience.

So for you that will mean ten PMBSR oriented posts including daily race reports during a time of the year when I currently have nothing planned. You might remember that I missed the first year of the PMBSR when I helped my mother move to Charlotte, and I took a pass on last year's event when I had the chance to travel to Canada for the Crank the Shield stage race. Let me explain that one.

The best part about stage races to me (other than hanging out after the stages) is riding new trails at a quicker-than-touring pace. Although PMBSR is held on some of the best trails in the country, I know most of them like the back of a close friend's hand, but not quite like my own. Last year as I languished in the muck of Eastern Canada the entire field of the PMBSR was enjoying pristine Pisgah conditions and weather. I felt like I missed out just a little, especially when I got home and had to replace most of the bearings on my bike.

Meh.

The powers that be are still taking applications for the contest. Why would I let you know that? Because although I want to win, I want PMBSR to stay on the calender forever. If someone wins this contest that can do more than I can to help put it on "the map", so be it. The more quality stage races that there are in North America highlighting a region's best trails the better. So if you want in, go ahead and take the time to fill out the application and get started with the vote collecting today.

But for those of you that want me to win over anybody else that might possibly enter, go ahead and check out my profile.

Of course, I wrote that some time ago, before my bike was assembled, ridden, and raced to a spot just off the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek podium.

You can skip reading the others entries if you like and go straight to the voting (assuming I'm not posting a broken link that only takes you to the voting page from my computer). You may also go read them, say "Awww, that's nice," and then go vote for me.

Either way... vote for me.

Voting ends May 31st, so expect to get hammered with this topic for the next month and a half, right until the final countdown.



Sorry, that's a PMBAR related tune.