I posted what amounts to a personal ad on the MTBR and TransRockies forums looking for a potential TR teammate and I'm having flashbacks to when I used to help a friend in graduate school weed through the replies her personal ad would get. Granted, the replies to my ad aren't necessarily flooding in (nor do they contain the occasional photo of frontal male nudity, thank God!), but they are an odd bunch. I got one from somebody who also has a team reserved and is apparently having a tougher time than he expected in finding a teammate -- I expect his rather tough performance last year has something to do with this (6 hour time penalties for being dropped by his teammate and a DNF on day 3) . I'm also getting replies from folks who see no reason to write more than one or two sentences. Not even to my questions asking for more info. Considering everyone that does this thing says that you and your partner are basically "married" for a week, I would hope to get a little more than the textual equivalent of the cold shoulder -- especially since they contacted me first.
Fortunately I finally did get a reply from a well-spoken Canuck who is 40 years old and a former Cat 1 cyclist who has 6 24-hour solo races under his belt. Sounds like a really nice guy and is even willing to come down to the Seattle area for a lengthy training weekend if I return the favor and make the trip to Banff to train with him on his turf. Getting me to have to go to Banff for a long weekend of mountain biking will require zero arm-twisting, I assure you. Even if it is 11-12 hours away.
I still have a couple more local irons in the fire though -- one of whom I'm really hoping says yes -- but it's definitely good to potentially have found a contingency teammate. The money is due in full by May 1st, so time is running out. Hopefully, I get this sorted out in the next 1-2 weeks.
In the meantime, I'm beginning to grow impatient with Mr. Moots.
EDIT: My TR teammate needn't be white as the title of this thread implies. I don't care if you're a purple double-amputee with red hair, freckles, and a lisp as long as you are a skilled mountain biker, committed to training hard, and have a good attitude.
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