Day 2 of Nittany was at the same time, same place, different course direction. The mud had made itself at home and had only become more thick and smelly, with the lack of rain and intermittent sunshine turning into a putrid sludge

It was a rough morning at the Wawa recovering from a night of 2 Dudes, 1 King Bed and the ghosts of a 1,000 smokers past pervading our stay at the hotel.
With hopes of having a better call up today due to yesterdays ride, the UCI officials said F-you and did the same order as yesterday, causing some complaints among some of the other riders

Gracing the near back row again was a treat as always and as we got going, the notable absence of J-Pow seemed to have inspired everyone to greater efforts as we tore off. Luckily only 200 meters into the race we hit the monster mud pit, run through section, casting aside all notions that there might be a way to not eat mud somehow during this hour
After cashing in all my muscle memory from my running days in the first 1 minute of racing, I was able to move up close to the top 10. However I did not know this, and after 45 minutes of careening around and eating dirt, I started letting go of wheels, convinced I was closer to 20th than anything else. Stopping by the barriers to collect some dollars that were stuck there cost me a few spots, as well as a cool, refreshing PBR soon thereafter, and the racing fire had been quenched somewhat in that baptism of filth. The last trip through the mud pit was more of a walk and more insulting than anything I had experienced thus far, the point being more than driven home that there were no more places to be gained, only to get more dirty and smelly one last time.
I ended up 15th, not too terrible, and somewhat heartening after letting some people go, but I didn’t make as much as Ryan who answered the jeers and cries of the crowd and made a cool $100 for bunny-hopping the barriers. Its all about the fans

After clogging the locker room showers with piles of mud that had to be scraped out with shovels, we hit the road. Then hit the bottle
and the terrible truth of excess
Up next, Charm City and the waning days.




















































