Greetings from Oregon

It's been a while but I'm back for a while.

Chuck, baker and I are in Hood River Oregon for the Mt Hood classic. This place is pretty cool and we're all looking forward to some good racing. We did the Prologue today and are currently waiting for results.

For now let's Recap:

Last day of gila= Horrible
Wheels of Thunder= Still pretty bad
Storage Wreck= Much better.
RMO= hoping I'm rested enough to race for 8 out of 9 days.

I've done a block like this before but have never done really big races in the time frame. We should know on Friday. It's a pretty long, hard day and it's supposed to rain. Tomorrow will be tense as there's a lot of guys and it seems like there's a wide variety of skill levels. Would be nice to see a race this big be pro-1 with a seperate cat 2 field.

I'm still waiting to find out how Whitey ended up with off the bike activities last weekend in Utah. Anyone?

I'd Like a Gila Wrap

Gila was definitely a roller coaster for me. I managed to make the main break in the crit the day after the inner-loop. Some more not so well planned Cref tactics had our break caught at 6 laps to go. They did luck out with their sprinter nipping the win from an already celebrating Gord Fraser. Ouch, that got to hurt.

I felt pretty bad at the start the next day and it only got worse. I found myself getting dropped by the guy who won the crit on the gila monster. It was pretty much an embarassment. Baker crashed hard on the next decent after climbing like a bad-ass and almost taking the big prize at the top of the gila monster. I stopped to get the story and then start figuring out how we were going to get home on the 20 mile death crawl to the finish. To make matter worse the group I was with took off when I got flicked from a hand hold spot on the "aussie express" tow-ya-to-the-finish-mate car. one second they were there, I don't a spot and then they were gone.

Baker ended up being ok, but not after having four emergency vomit stops on the way home. Perckocet and MacDonalds don't mix very well alone, we also decided to drive one of the most twisty roads in Nem Mexico to add to the fun. He's had a very rough few days.

Bagel Boy Donald won the last day at the race with a superb lead out from wing man Garcia. Now that Oak Glen is gone I think the Gila Monster is probably the hardest non-UCI day of stage racing in the country. There's no easy way to the finish. A big hats off to that team for a very impressive win.

Lucky Day... Almost

Made the first break yesterday which Toyota/United thought was too strong. They brought it back at the base of the climb where a Sierra Nevada guy attacked. The Toyota guys were spread across the whole road and when a hole opened up I shot through it to see if anyone would react. No one did and Dietrich waited for me. I caught him, completely redlined and we rode up the climb. I was finally able to get my legs and lungs back on the decent and we slowly built time. We knew were in luck when our gap was still over 4 minutes at the last feed zone. Toyota/United seemed content to let us take the stage and time bonuses. Things looked real good until TIAA-Cref decided they wanted to bring us back so their sprinter could try for the win. They succeeded in bringing us back, about 25 meters from the line, but it played into Moninger's benefit as he got another small time bonus on Baldwin. No Cref guys made the top ten. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Crit today, I like the course and have ridden well there before. Might be a bit cooked from yesterday though. CC is looking good and should be the man today.

In Reverse

Had a good TT yesterday, I knew I was off pace from my ride last year. I was to conservative on the way out and as a result was 20 seconds slower than last year.

Today was a different story. I was feeling REALLY good from the gun. Made it through the loops around Cliff with ease and then proceeded to get a flat on the way to the climb. Baker and I switched wheels and chased back on, I felt even better after that effort. I was set up perfectly going into the climb. We hit the climb and my legs were all of a sudden not good. I couldn't really go hard at all. Made it over the mesa in the 3rd group and then my body decided to shift into reverse. Guys were flying by me like I was standing still. The worst part was I had NOTHING, couldn't get my HR or Watts up. BAD day for me.

CC Rider made the break for like the 5 th year in a row and produced a 5000Kcal day. Hats off to Coyle for another great ride.

The Cat 2 guys are RIPPING and making up for our GC shortfalls.

More fun tomorrow.

Onto Gila

Had some good races last weekend and was happy with my form by the end of the day on Sunday. Baker and I drove to Las Vegas, NM on Monday night and continued down to Silver City yesterday. Nothing to eventful, except I got real Kick out of watching Baker chase this cat around our front yard with his phone, apparently to take it's photo to send his wife... Here kitty kitty kitty!

My TT start is in about 90 minutes so I'd better get rolling!

More later.