Let's go find some great whites

Today started off with a quick team breakfast at Casa de Cox before we got in the saddle for a long, steady ride. A few miles out we once again resigned ourselves to the wet, soggy, leaf-covered and twisty bike path before putting rubber to open road. Once we were out of congested traffic, a steady 22 mph average, nearly unimaginable back home in Indiana, was the norm for the next 75 or so miles.

While waiting for the clouds to open up an take the pain away from our legs as the weatherman had foretold, we caught up with a local club cyclist who hung with us and shared some local gossip for a few miles. According to our new friend, two great white sharks have been tagged off of the coast of Myrtle Beach recently. Better yet, Jeff told us that anyone with an iPhone can download an app to see the sharks' exact GPS locations. We feel this app may soon become the next leading cause of death for male Myrtle Beachians (behind alcohol poisoning, of course) and thus, strongly advocate it's distribution and widespread use.

Guess which floor is ours

Jeff was the only local person we befriended on the bike today, but team botanist, Andrew Capshew, did manage to form some uncomfortably close relationships with a few local trees and other assorted wildlife. After Cappie recovered from the severe laceration of his pride, the team continued home to our personal criterium loop just as the weatherman unleashed his wrath upon us. We did a few fast loops of the 1.2 mile course before calling it a day just as some other rookie got a flat or something.

We got inside, cleaned our bikes, and had a big late lunch. A few of us shot down to the local bike shop to talk to some more local cyclists. According to Aaron, the shop owner, most people here actually consider this weather too cold to ride bikes. Aaron and his friends, however, are not most people here and thus offered to meet us for a ride Wednesday morning with some more of their buddies to show us some good routes while reliving their illustrious racing careers. So, we're kind of looking forward to that.