The ride with the bike shop guy

It took a day longer than I thought to get a call back from Specialized telling me who I was going to go ride with for their Trail Crew contest. Tan called me back and said I needed to get in touch with Jonathan at High Roller in Fayetteville. I called him within minutes, and told him that I was ready to ride with him any time in the next 24 hours. Jonathan said "how about next week?" I begged him to come up and ride the next morning and he did, despite his getting ready to race over the weekend.

Regardless of the race, we rode pretty solid for 2 hours. Jonathan knows how to ride a hardtail. He stayed right with me on the downhill sections. He said he expected a little more from me on that, but he did have an appreciation for my climbing abilities.

Jonathan then had to talk to the guys at Specialized and discuss our meeting and ride. I don't know what he said, but hopefully, it was good enough to put me on the Trail Crew.