Homeskillet Visit

Hello, Dear Readers. Boy, what a busy few weeks. As usual, I’ll start my latest post with an apology for not posting more as of late, but I really just haven’t either had the time or even thought about it. So here is the first of many updates:

A few weeks ago, my boy Jeremy “Homeskillet AKA Cap’n Hardqore” Mucha’ was on the East Coast for the U.S. Crits racing series, the mother of all bike races in the USA. Homeskillet arrived on April 26th, stayed the night and hung out the next day before heading off to Atlanta that Friday. He showed up again the following Tuesday after the first leg of the races were done, and stayed at our place until EARLY Friday morning.

Bike racers fall into categories: in the Crits, Category 2’s, Cat 1’s and the Pros come out to compete for cash and prestige. The Cap’n is currently a Cat 2, and this is his second time to compete in these races. I don’t know much about bike racing, but the little bit that I have gleaned from the few races I’ve been to is very interesting. It is an exact science. You plow forward strong and steady, and if you tap your brake for just a second at the wrong time, the race could be over for you. Once you lose just a modicum of momentum at a critical moment, you could find yourself struggling too keep up when just one lap before you were in the top third. (I’ve also learned that bike racing is evidently a lot like a Shoney’s buffet full of paperclips and rubberbands, but I digress…)



This year it worked out that I could attend two races in the series, one in Waltersboro and one in Greenwood. I enjoyed pallin’ around with Jeremy and his mom, who was his bike-race groupie and made it too all four of the Crit races. And Jeremy did much better this year than last year. Definite improvement. He actually won some money at a time-trial “race” and plowed through a good chunk of the last two races. The above photo is from the time trial, and is swiped from the Cap’n’s website, and I assume it was taken by his mom, Jean Brudevold. Jeremy is on the right- WINNING it, btw.) And these races are tough: The Greenwood race is 70 laps, which translates into about 2 hours of solid racing at approximately 30 miles an hour. Many folks, pros and amateurs alike, don’t make it to the end. So Big-Ups to Jeremy for his most excellent performance.

As a side note, this fall I will have known Jeremy for 22 years (or is it 23?!!). First day of Second Grade, y’all! Yowza.