A New Mexico Tour Of The Gila Update.

Finally some afternoon down time after two stages at the TOG. The SRAM TOG to be correct...Team Red is rockin' this event big time! So the racing has been super tough so far as expected when you look at the start list. Lance mania has gripped Silver City and it's pretty hard to miss the massive R.V that houses Team MJ's. Stage one was brutal, taking what seemed like forever for a break to establish. It was one acceleration after another. With so many strong teams the 'perfect' combination had to stay away and my legs got beaten with cricket bats early. Finally a break did roll away coming outta the two 18km circuits. Luckily I snuck in there and represented the big 'A' flag in 14 strong bunch of pros. At one stage we had close to 3 minutes, but with now Mellow Johnny's guys in there of course they drilled it to the base of the final 6mile climb. And what a climb it is. Brutal, just brutal stuff. With some accelerations in the break at the bottom I blew hard and completely lost contact...with reality also...creeping my way to the finish. Did I mention this stage was won 30mins faster than last year!! No result to show for it for me, but a positive day nonetheless being able to mix it in a high caliber NRC breakaway. Afternoon was spent in the loving hands of MG on the massage table....I wish I took a photo of his little belt holding the spray oils....priceless.

Today was the Inner Loop stage, with three decent climbs and one nasty descent. The legs were a little toasty after yesterday not doubt about it, but I was able to hang in there for a bunch finish but had nothing to contest the finish. Another freakishly fast day with Lance and Horner stringing it out on the climb.

25km rolling hills TT tomorrow...see how we go. Hopefully starting early again we will miss any winds...lator...cw.

The Week That Was.

Last week flew by just like that...

Played around with TT bike set up..

New kicks=happy feet

Prepped the rig for Gila this week..

And thanks to Giant I am now back on the dirt, so spent some time huckin' around on my new Anthem...so much fun..

And now I need to pack my bags before leaving for Gila later today...

Gonna be a big week...stay tuned...cw

The Otter Wrap Up.

Looking back now it was one fun weekend of racing. Definitely worth the forty hours of travel time out and back. Good weather, great people and some super quick racing. The final day was the circuit race, held on the famous Laguna Seca racing track. We had 30 laps of this bad boy so we got to know the 'cork screw' section pretty well, and man, was it rad. Talk about sudden elevation drop and increase in acceleration! The rest of the lap was pretty fun too, with some nice sweeping turns on super smooth tarmac. How'd I go? Well, okay I guess. 27th in the wash up, but not making the front split was a little disappointing, but then again I don't think I had the legs that perhaps I did in the crit. Basically the formula was every lap the bunch would stay together in the first part of the climb, leading into a false sense of security, until towards the top it was strung out and in the gutter single file hanging on for grim death. Any gaps that opened up were hard to bridge coming off the corkscrew. And when Levi got on the front and drilled the climb pretty much every lap...well you can imagine the outcome I'm sure.

So overall it was a great weekend. Staying right opposite the venue was great, not to mention our host family and their love of cooking. Pretty well matches up with cyclist's love of eating! And then there was the ping-pong challenges. Oh my. So I had a fair bit of pong time while I was teaching, things got pretty competitive down at the PE department and many a lunchtime was spent in the heat of battle with a wooden paddle. But try as I might I couldn't dethrone our host, with the closest I ever got being 18/21. Damn. Another thing that was a little rough is that we pinned the 19hr drive all the way back to CO on the Sunday morning. Having to drop Ian off for the airport shuttle at 4am, we figured we'd make a start then. Getting to the Junk by 8pm we pressed on. Needless to say the last few days have been a little fuzzy.

Cooking was a very precise task...luckily we had a good coach...

Next stop is Tour Of The Gila next week. This is going to be b-i-g. Crazy big. The start list is madness, and the rumours flying round that a certain 7 times TDF winner is going to be there are circulating all around the place. Time for some good rest this week before the onslaught...over n' out...cw

What can I say?

T-Dog Grill Master..

Much meat was consumed...thankfully post racing so no incidents of 'meat creep' were reported..

Sea Otter Road Race.

18th today, in a tough one. Levi pretty much tore it up big time. I missed the split early and hung on with the bunch and finished in the uphill sprint well. Finished the day off with some wicked home made lasagna..good times, good times...loving the CA sunshine.

New Force.

Sweet!!!

Otter Criterium.

8th place and the first amateur across the line.....good start to the week. Bissell are clearly out here to dominate, taking 1-4 yesterday, so today's road race will be interesting, especially when you have a guy called Levi in the bunch too. Legs feel good so we'll see how we go! I must say the Cali sun is nice....cheers..cw

Sea Otter.

Here we are. I've always wanted to race the Otter. Always. And I guess I always envisioned I would but on a dirt bike, not a skinny tired one. Needless to say it's great to be here nonetheless, and I am writing this from some great host housing literally 5 minutes from Laguna Seca race track. The event seems huge, although I haven't really ventured into tent city yet, looking from a distance there is a real circus going on. Rode the RR loop today and it's a tough little bugger for sure. Only 70miles but really rolly-style climbs that will be nasty fast. Criterium this afternoon first but, so should be a good chance to open the legs and lungs after 20hrs sitting in a car the last few days. Love what you do, do what you love I say.

So the challenge is on not only racing the two wheels, but on the ping pong table also. After spending many a lunch time while teacher playing the pong, our host was super keen for some matches. Currently the score is 0-3 which sucks but I just am in stuggletown on my serve. It's just a little plain-jane and is hurting my game big time. But I'm pretty determined to win at least one game before we leave...just one...photos sometime soon...lator..cw

Friday And Completely Random

It has been a busy week coming back from St Louis, combining some post travel fatigue and work kicking up a notch which is great. Training hasn't stopped with some solid hours put in the last couple of days. Plans are almost finalized for our first big event of the year, making the 20hr odd drive out to Sea Otter Classic next week. Three days of racing with a crit, circuit race and road race so should be some fun times indeed.

The bro just confirmed he is coming out here in June which is awesome news! Can't wait to take him on some sweet training loops and smash some post ride burritos.

Here are some random photos I found on my camera....

I got this sweet scarf for my birthday...the real deal from the 6 Day event at Rotterdam..

I heart Saturdays...

This was sweet...the photo doesn't do justice on how much the car was weighed down...

So this is where Kevin Mitchell got the name from...ahhhh

Ticket To Ride!

It sure is an amazing feeling when short term goals are achieved. Goals that are within your reach, but still take an amazing amount of hard work to get the job done. So the past weekend gone, super girlfriend Kat, team-mate Tucker and I made the commitment to drive the 13hrs to St Louis for the Hillsboro-Roubaix road race. Long way to go for a bunch of Coloradans for a weekend suffer-fest, but the goal was this. The race was the second qualifier event for the Nature Valley Pro Ride, a chance for amateurs to get the complete pro package treatment in a composite team for the Nature Valley Stage Race in June. Be the first eligible amateur over the line at one of the 6 qualifying races and you get in. Hillsboro was the closest for us, and was a "Roubaix" styled race with 4 laps of a 22mile flat, hell windy and narrow road circuit...and some brick-paved streets for good measure. Add 120 hungry riders in the Pro/1/2 field you got a fun day out.

It was pretty clear that riding at the front ALL the time was the thing to do, with such narrow roads and nasty cross winds that's what I battled to do for the first couple of laps, and following a few unsuccessful breakaway attempts. Being such a flat course and packing a fair bit of scrawn I knew it would be highly unlikely for me to win in a sprint finish, so a breakaway was my best chance. Just before we started the final lap I followed a Kenda rider off the front, swapping off turns hard till we bridged to the current dwindling breakaway of 5. This was my chance and we instantly injected some life back into the break. Needless to say for me this was do or die situation and I had some words of "encouragement" to those in the break who surprisingly just sat on. I mean it's the last lap and we are up the road...why wouldn't you go for it? Feeling good and in hindsight, I was working way too hard with another 22miles to go. In a smart move, the Kenda rider attacked h-a-r-d while I was on the front doing my turn. I gave everything to try and follow but 3 of us were shelled as he took two with him. The split had been made. Coming into the finish I was running on a combination of fumes and cramps, and with the last short climbs to go, small feeble attacks became unreachable gaps. Completely drained I rolled home solo for 5th place and the last spot on the box. On any other day I would have been super stoked, but today I was looking for the big W. However there was a bigger surprise to come.

Getting cleaned up for the podium the race promoter informed me that I was confirmed the first eligible amateur rider across the line, meaning I won the spot for the Nature Valley Pro Ride Team! Needless to say I am super stoked to put in the effort and have the reward turn out. Nature Valley Grand Prix is not until June so there is plenty of time for some solid preparation, but to have my name out there on the composite pro squad is a massive plus.

http://www.velonews.com/article/88914 is some more information on the gig....

A massive shout out of thanks to Kat for the feeds and overall weekend support, making me believe that things like this are within my reach. And also to Tucker for commiting to the two man RMCEF army assault and for winning the most improved stick-shift driver of the trip...over N' Out...cw

First Racin' Road Trip O' The Year..

Tucker, highly honourable team-mate and fellow Chipotle fan is my company on the 13hr drive to St Louis right now....

Motel 6 Topeka..sleep with one eye open...