Road Atlanta and Gwinnett Bike Fest

On Thursday afternoon, Jafer reassembled his road bike after unpacking it from the tattered and beaten bike box, courtesy of FedEx. Luckily, nothing was broken or fell out of the box (he knew from prior experience that there would be holes in the box by the time it reached its destination) as everything was in a bag. The box weighed in at a hefty 61 pounds, a good 20 pounds heavier than a normal bike shipment, as he stuffed a soft suitcase in the box so he wouldn't have to check luggage on Wednesday's flight home.

Jafer's dad used to take him to watch car races at Road Atlanta so he was excited about the opportunity to race on it. The course ran in the opposite direction that it is normally raced which meant that there was a steep hill about 1k from the start/finish. The hill was pretty decisive as most of the attacks occurred there splitting the race apart. Unfortunately, Jafer wasn't feeling the best for the first few laps and sat in hoping that his legs would come around. By the time that he got the green light a move of about 20 riders was up the road (there was an initial break then riders kept bridging in groups). With about 5 laps to go, Jafer attacked up the steep hill riding away from the remaining peloton without looking back. A few minutes later he was joined by Toshiba-Santo rider Frank Travieso and Darren Comer of PaceSetter Steel Service. For the next 4 laps they worked to bridge the gap ahead of them and came very close to bridging (if there were a couple more laps they would have made it). The pace was so high that Darren pulled off with 2 laps to go. Jafer finished a disappointing 24th place but remains hopeful about his chances at nationals. Tomorrow, Joey will try his luck in the 100K road race, a distance he is very familiar with as all the Super Week races were 100K.