Ultima Dia

Starting the last day of the Vuelta gave some perspective on how I felt, everyone had the same tired, worn out, and beaten look to them. This sort of made me feel a little better than how mentally and physically I actually felt. I woke up a few times in the middle of the night still battling some stomach illness and had a few fun adventures in the morning as well. It seemed no matter how much Imodium I took, my stomach was not agreeing with me. Regardless I was going to finish the last stage and see if I could give it a go in the end.

After a much needed coffee and breakfast, the remaining three riders got kitted up and rolled to the start. Our bottle supply was virtually nothing, so we pretty much had to conserve for feeds and make sure to drink what we needed. Once we got our bearings, a few other teams joined us for the 20km ride to the stage start. Thankfully the day was just a circuit race and only 121km, which included a nice hill back up from the coast every lap. It was not going to be an easy day by any means, especially with teams still hungry for a stage win.

As the race started, it seemed by lap 3 or 4 the main break was solidified for the day. Most teams seemed content with the break being away and the gap grew to about 2:10 before anyone had interest in chasing. At this time in the race while bunny-hopping a manhole cover at breakneck speed, I donated a bottle to the course and had to be really conscious about my fluid intake.

As the laps counted down till about 5 to go the Dominican National Team made some alliances and for the next two laps it was very fast. Coming up the hill with 4 to go, the field split and it seemed that we started to shed riders left and right. Finally with 3 to go Spidertech took control, their man in the break had fallen out and they were looking to assert some dominance on the field.

It was nice that they controlled things quiet well to add some organization to the crazy finishes. As we crested the hill the final time the full out sprint started. Coming into the last corner there was about 1.5 km to go and I made sure to stay at the front. The sprint was full of blown up riders and I seemed to have to navigate through them. I was glad to cross the line in the top 15 to 20 and have another solid finish in the Vuelta.

After a calm ride back to the hotel and a halfway decent shower, we are looking forward to some rest and maybe exploring some of the beaches tomorrow, as most of us rewarded ourselves with a “vacation day” I am very happy to have finished the race and more so to have a decent result on the last day. With racing there is always ups and downs, so it makes it even more important to enjoy the small victories because they will get you through all of the setbacks you get along the way.

Thanks for reading….

Death March to Bani

Holy Independence DAY Dominican Republic! Today marked not only the holiday but the “other mountain” stage. This also meant that we had to take an hour long bus ride to San Christobal in the morning. I opted to stay in bed a little longer, since I woke up with a stomach bug. My appetite was completely gone, but multiple rounds to the bathroom were plentiful. This was really about the last thing I needed to get through the day.

Based on the information given to us, the climbs were at 70km and 125km. As other riders referred to the stage as somewhat of a Death March, due to the fact we were riding through the very windy and arid desert area of the Island. I was doing the best I could to stay positive with all of this awesome insight.

We actually got to the start about an hour and half early and started the wait for our bikes. Thankfully they showed up 30 minutes before our start. Since we had a town start, this meant a neutral roll until the real start 4km later. Typically the start was aggressive from the gun, but only lasted about 40 minutes this time. The neutral start helped the legs feel a little better, but my stomach was in knots. As we started to hit the rolling hills before the 1st climb the group seemed to get smaller and smaller. After going over the first climb the group had shed 30 or so riders.

As we made a virtual U-turn through town, and hit the slew of speed bumps I heard a crash behind me and not but 10km later, Justin had rode up to me and said Josh had gone down. There was nothing we really could do for him at this point and the speed had already picked back up. As we headed into the last climb I felt ok and made sure to stay at the front, but as soon as we hit 1km to go I completely blew up, I did everything I could to stay within the caravan, hoping to get back at the top. I found myself in a group of 4 riders for the last 20km. It was super hot and I was just happy to make it in. Once we hit the finishing town of Bani, we had 3 gnarly corners and then a finishing straight that had speed bumps and metal drainage systems every cross street. It was almost safer to be in that group.

Jaime and Justin finished a few minutes in front of me, and we later saw josh jump out of an ambulance. He told us that bunny hopping over one of the speed bumps his fork had sheared off at the steerer tube. He walked away with only a few patches of road rash. He was very lucky.

After we calmed down after the finish, finding our lunch was more than a task. We wondered around a plaza for 10 minutes trying to find the building and kept getting the same “general” directions like “oh its right on the other side of the road” or “just that way”. We opted to pay for a meal and have some American pizza and coke. The cold liquid was amazing after a super hot day.

We made our voyage back into Santo Domingo and showered up. Now just kicking back and writing this while things are still fresh in my mind. Tonight is “Carnival” and I think we may explore since we need to relieve some stress after everything adding up over the past 9 days here. Tomorrow we have our final circuit race and hopefully I can find my legs for the sprint again.

Double The Fun - 6a and 6b

Finally we are hitting the last double day of the Vuelta and counting down the days until our final stage. Today’s festivities included a 115km morning stage from La Vega back into Santo Domingo and a 10km afternoon TT. Everyone seemed to be feeling the effects of the race, since most of us slept in past the 6:30am wake up call. The stage also called for another hour long bus ride from our stay in Jarabacoa to La Vega.

Fortunately luck was on our side because with our late wake up, the main bus had filled up, but we were able to take a smaller charter which was more comfortable. We made it to sign in right as we started to get a little sprinkle and it was nice to know that the day wasn’t going to be so hot. It wasn’t too thrilling that our team was running out of wheels, since I flatted as did two other teammates. We were able to salvage one tube but I was stuck riding a time trial front wheel, because every other team was in the same boat and the neutral support was thin.

The stage itself wasn’t set to be hard minus a 12km climb at the start and a climb at 68km, everything else seemed to be downhill. To our luck the race was ballistic from the gun again. We rode over 50km the first hour. We were going over the 12km climb at 27mph. I was on the rivet for sure and actually was a victim at the top when Spidertech and the Ecuadorian teams decided to exchange some blows. Thankfully I was able to work my way through the caravan on the way down and made it back in about 10 minutes.

Eventually by the second climb things started to go in the fan and it got ballistic again. I was in no point to cover any moves, and was just hoping to make it in the field. Our rider Josh made the 2nd split and then once I realized that our GC rider Justin was still in the main field with me, I knew I had to try and launch him across. I was able to take him to a group of 4, but eventually the Dominican National Team decided to pull them back and string out the race for the next 25 minutes. They lost interest when they realized they weren’t going to bring the split back without burning too many riders. This was a relief since we were on pace to ride the stage at an average speed of over 50km per hour.

For some reason the other US team, Metro Volkswagen decided to gingerly pull us along. As we hit the 1.5 km mark we hit a traffic jam. Seriously, a traffic jam. So we came around a corner and there were cars blocking all lanes. It seemed like we were going to roll easy through and just walk it to the finish, but as we got closer to the cars the Dominican teams attacked right into the traffic. So I found myself sprinting through stopped cars. It was absolute chaos. I am sure that I came in somewhere in the top 40 and was about 4th or 5th in the field sprint. I was actually more happy about not flatting and dying in the finish. We heard the same story from Josh, who was a minute up the road from us.

As we waited for the team car, it seemed like it was taking forever. Eventually we saw Pavel, who was in the front break but had crashed out of the race. He destroyed both wheels and finished the day in the medical vehicle. He was our first casualty.

We headed to lunch and had a nice meal and then rode back to the hotel. After a shower and the return of our car we had about 15 minutes to get ready and ride the 20km to the afternoon TT. Jaime and I were some of the first riders to go off, so it was pretty imperative that we were on time. We had to leave Josh behind. Riding out to the TT in afternoon traffic was horrible. It was like anarchy and eternal game of chicken. There are no words to describe how people drive here. I was high fiving myself for making it through every section of cars without getting clipped or hitting a motorcycle who was trying to do the same thing.

We finally made it to the TT and saw what was to be a pretty flat course. At a distance of 10km, I knew the winning time would be mid to low 13 minutes. I rolled out and may have posted an early best time around 14:30ish. It wasn’t a bad ride for 8 stages of racing. I caught the guy in front of me in the first 3 km and was gaining ground on the next rider.

Jaime and I decided to both ride back since our TT start times were within 10 minutes of each other. We faced some more gridlocked traffic and horrible drivers. All I wanted after this day was a beer. It was well earned.

We found out that Josh had been hit by a Bus on the way to the TT and the bus claimed his saddle and front wheel. Amazingly he managed to not go down or get injured at all. The stressors of this environment are adding up on all of us. The crazy drivers, the bad roads, and the crazy riding from the islanders, these things create such a taxing toll on your body. It never allows your mind to go on autopilot, you are always riding with your head up waiting for what is coming next.

Tomorrow is the last road stage, with 134km. There will be two mountain passes, so it should be pretty interesting to see how the legs will hold up with over 600 miles in them already.

Holy Jarabacoa!

Starting the day was just as hectic as any other, with a new twist. Our start was about an hour drive from our night stay. This meant getting all the riders on buses and packing the bikes in trucks. We made sure to get our packing done early to insure we had a secure spot on one of the buses. You never know with these kind of races and I would rather be comfortable than sardined into a car for an hour drive.

Apparently our driver didn’t get the “we’re in a rush” memo and was told to drive faster by a few race officials, yet he sort of just went his own speed. It also meant that once we got to our start town, he had no idea where we were going. So once we got into the town, we drove around for 20 minutes trying to find the start location. At one point he just stopped, and got out of the bus. Everyone just took it in stride.

Finally we got to the start area, and it looked like we took over a Texaco to park half of the vehicles. Unfortunately our team car wasn’t there. After locating our driver Paco, we were able to bottle up, grab the necessary food and helmets and shoes for the stage.

The stage itself we knew was going to be the hardest of the Vuelta¸ as it was labeled the queen stage, finishing with two category 2 climbs and 154km in length. It was the second longest stage of the Vuelta and we all were hoping to make it through as we had seen the Ecuadorian National team chomping at the bit the last few days.

The stage blew off like a rocket, we rode over 50km in the first hour. I was hoping to find my legs, because the first 10km it felt like I was pedaling bricks. Finally we made it through Santiago, and entered the main freeway, which was very rolling. After about 25km we made a U-turn and headed up the opposite direction. This meant going back up everything we had come down. The first big roller the Ecuadorians assembled and put the hammer down. They seemed set on splitting the group or making it as hard as possible for any rivals. The next hour was flat out through the rolling hills of Santiago. I was finding some legs and started to hope I could make it over the climb in the front group.

As we hit the freeway again, the pace subsided and I knew it was my time to get some water for all my teammates. Doing this took about 5 minutes to drift back to the car, and then it was pretty easy to get back through the caravan. Getting rid of my last few bottles was a little harder, navigating from our 100+ rider peloton and trying to get to the front. Finally I dumped my last bottle and we started our long decent before the finish.

So far I had made it through a stage with no mishaps, until I drilled a hole at 70km per hour. I was lucky to just get a front flat, but with 40km to go it was not the best time. So I was able to get a neutral wheel and start my chase downhill through slowed freeway traffic. I am not sure anything could be more dangerous. It was pretty intense swerving through cars at that speed trying to jump car to car. Eventually I made it to the ambulance, which I knew was the start (or end depending on your outlook) of the caravan. Then it was pretty easy to leap frog through the team cars to make it back to the peloton.

We made another U-turn and headed back up the long decent, I wasn’t sure based on the profile if this was the climb they had mentioned, and as we got to the top we made a right turn on to a rural road that kicked up at 15% for about 2km. I was near the front and started to drift half way up and then at the top had a little chain drop. I had to stop and then descended in the caravan. This was pretty nuts since the roads where very narrow, so it meant dive bombing the cars into the apex of the corner, hoping they leave you some room. I only managed to lock up my rear wheel once, making the death defying factor a little less. I finally made it back to the grouppetto right before starting the mythical Jarabacoa climb.

Being in that group made it a little easier since we were not killing each other realized that the race was up the road and our job was just to make it to the finish. As the climb started it wasn’t too bad, but after the first bend it kicked up to 15% and it seemed to never end. It was almost a cruel joke, every time we saw a corner level off, the next bend it kicked back up. I did experience water in a bag and had a motorcycle hand me the bag, which immediately went all over my head and face and back.

Our grouppetto pretty much fell apart, and I found myself riding with a few of the Metro VW guys. Finally we made it to the top and started the descent into the Village. I was so happy to see 5 Km to go and as we made it into the last 2km the organizers gave us a few presents with 3 kicker hills to make our legs feel it that much more. I was happy to cross the line and find our car.

After the race we rode to our hotel, very slowly, which happens to be a Catholic boarding school for girls. I am really wondering who thought that one through. After a meal, a cold shower, and a nap; I was finally able to find an ATM that took American cards, so now I have some cash again for cokes, water and any other items I may want to indulge in.

Tomorrow we head into our second double day, with a 113km in the morning and a 10km tt in the afternoon. Then two more days until we end our ten stage voyage!

Transitions to a New Dominican

And we’re back for Stage 4 of the Vuelta! We were so lucky to have another transfer day, and a transitional stage before tomorrow’s Mountain Stage. From the profile we had, the stage looked flat and we started with a tail wind. As we typically have done, we continued to have 2 starts. So we rode like 10km to get out of the city and then we actually started. It was very aggressive from the go and we rode the first 47km in under an hour. It seemed like the Dominican National Team had some issues getting their riders to the front to control, which meant for a very nervous stage. Most of the day a break of 4 riders staged away to take any chances for sprint points which made the bunch ride a steadier pace.

After the first hour it seemed that I was finding every pothole on the road and drilling it. At the 70km mark I decided to get bottles with another one of my teammates and noticed I was getting a flat, after a midfield crash happened, the pace slowed enough to actually stop and get a wheel, as my flat was a slow leak. Getting back through the cars was a little rough now since our team car was at the back of the peloton. I was able to get back easy since the pace was slower.

The nervousness continued as we started the final climb of the day, and there were more crashes that you could count with people overlapping wheels and people falling off the gutter. After getting to the top, we started a crazy decent. The road was like a war zone of potholes and crashes. I was lucky to not hit anything at the 50+mph we’re descending at. Also at the top we had absorbed the break of the day and it meant for a bunch gallop as we headed into San Francisco.

Once turning off the main freeway, the wind put everyone in the left gutter. It was strung out and everyone fighting for their inch of road. Here the carnage hit as people started to blow from the effort. Thankfully I was only victim to this once, but it was right after attacking so it made closing the gap that much more uncomfortable. With 20km to go a small grouppo of three riders made it off the front and managed to stay away until the end.

The last 10km were very strung out, and when someone let up from the pace another team would surge and bring up the speed. It was nonstop. As we hit the city limits we were filtered into the right lane, as stopped traffic filled the left lanes. Oddly enough people were attacking into the cars as hard as possible and at 3km to go a huge crash happened. Right before that I saw an opening on the right side of the road and moved that way and completely avoided it.

As we saw the last km, we knew there were to be 3 left turns, well there were. But there was also a 4^th turn that was unmentioned. So coming into the apex of turn three as I began to kick there was a guy directing us right. I pretty came to a skid to get around the corner and had to get my speed back up after riding at 50km/hour for the last 25km, this wasn’t an easy task. I came in a respectable 26^th…

We lost no riders and spent minimal time in the wind, so hopefully the day wasn’t as taxing. Unfortunately the heat was. It took some time in the pool and hot tub, then a cold shower to get my core temperature manageable. After 2 dinners, I am going to head to bed and look forward to the first mountain stage tomorrow.

Stage 3: Near Life Experiences

Today’s stage was listed as the longest of the Vuelta, and with the yellow jersey changing hands it was going to be interesting to see how the Kazak National team would ride to protect it. Our night in the love grotto was ok, a bit of a quick morning to have breakfast, get ready and make start time before sign in closed. We struggled to get things together as a team, which was a bit nerve racking.

Once we got on the road, it was pretty much from the gun. It seemed like the Kazak team was going to ride a good tempo in what promised to be a windy day. After the 2^nd sprint, the pace rose and the team put everyone in the gutter. The results were absolutely chaotic. Groups were everywhere, and so were people. After making the split, while in the gutter, I managed to hit a hole the size of a dog. Then had a horrible flat, my rear tire was completely shredded. I almost continued to ride the flat as I noted there were no vehicles behind our group.

Once this wasn’t an option, I had my arm up and signaled for a wheel but it took about 5 minutes to get to our team vehicle. After a change and trying to explain to our driver how to pace, he told me in his “Mos Def” esque Spanish to grab the car and he would tow me up. This was a great idea, completely illegal, but at this point worth a warning. At 70km per hour, I managed to hit a hole and my bike swerved away from the car, leaving me clutching for dear life. My bike was bouncing back and forth against the car, while I was trying to not get sucked under. Once we came to a stop, I explained I needed to be behind the car. Once we got this sorted I was able to be paced back into the third group after about a 20min pace session.

Finally, I made it into a group. There were some familiar faces, and our u-23 rider Pavel was also in the group. It was not glorious to be in the Autobus for the last 70km, and it made it even more frustrating. No one seemed to work together, and then it seemed we were riding in the gutter and no one could rotate. At 40km, I blew a fuse. I was tired of the lolly gagging and crappy riding, and attacked in the gutter. I was later joined by a group of 2 riders and we spent the next 10km rolling turns. Eventually we were caught by a leaner chase group. At the 20km to go mark things were very nervous about making the time cut and the wind was horrible. I was able to get some legs and provide all the help required of me, but it seemed like riders were not willing to work. So with 10km to go, I went aggressive again and made a group a selective 4. Finally, we made it in only losing 24 minutes.

I was absolutely trashed after riding 174km, and the last 40km pretty much flat out. It seemed like we had three guys in the main group, so our team gc improved. After receiving the official results from yesterday, we filed a protest for stage 2a. Josh and I were in the top 15 riders and were listed at quiet a distance back.

I hope tomorrow goes better, as we have had 10 abandons and 3 expulsions from the race. The hills will start tomorrow, so it will be a good test of legs and fitness.

Until then….

Stage 2: A tale of Two Stages

Welcome to day two of racing which contained two fun filled stages of racing and a transfer to a new part of the Dominican Republic. We faced a morning stage of 104 km and an afternoon jaunt of 54km. Just to fill you in, I officially finished stage 1 in 12^th, so was very excited for the next day of racing.We also found out that the transfer would only be for one night, so we had to move all items that we wanted to leave in Santo Domingo into one room. So not only did we have to pack for two stages of racing, but also all our personal items and valuables and clothing, food and water for the next 48 hours. We actually managed to handle things pretty flawlessly and were able to pack the car to the brim.

As we started our ride to the start, we rolled out a little later than all the other teams and the directions were not clear at all. As we made it to the main avenue we did see a Guadeloupian team on their way and let them lead us there. Sign in went rather flawless, but the start was delayed by about 45 minutes. Once we got rolling it seemed we had a neutral zone the whole city and as we were heading to the highway, we got red flagged and had a nice 10 minute break about 5km into the stage and then we started for real.

We rolled on to the ocean highway and were battled by a brutal cross/head wind the entire way. This meant a lot of single file riding in the gutter and trying to avoid any sort of crazy pot holes and obstructions. As the kilometers counted down, the early break was caught with about 20km to go and almost instantly it started to rain. As if the stage was not nervous enough in the wind, we now had to face rain.

When we hit about 15 km to go, the road shifted and we were riding on rocks and dirt. It was unreal, being strung out, raining and the end of the stage with everyone fighting for wheels. The chaos continued as no team took responsibility. With 10km, Josh attacked and was in a small break until 7km to go. In the last 5km it felt like a war zone, with the crazy roads, crazy riders and crazy roads. The sound of crashes behind me gave me motivation to stay near the front. With 2km to go the sprint initiated and I managed to come across right behind Josh. I believe we were both inside the top 12. It was the most chaotic and nervous finish I have ever been a part of.

Immediately after a change we headed to a plaza for our race provided lunch, which was amazing! The beef and chicken were amazing. After stuffing our faces, we had about 25 minutes of down time before getting ready for the next stage. Heading to the start, I was sure my GC spot was solidified and was really worried about the length of the second stage of the day. I felt like it was so short that it would be very dangerous and had no idea how it would turn out.

When we got rolling, we had another two part start and right after the second start it was single file. I knew position was going to be beyond important at this juncture and made it imperative to stay in the front 20. As we continued on a the highway from La Romana to Huguey, the road was beyond horrible. It was like someone dropped grenades off their car.

About 20ish km into the race as we hit the first climb I managed to hit something and had not one but two flats. With my arm in the air, it took me over a minute to get to the back of the bunch and then actually stop and wave my arms screaming until I got some wheel support. Half way up the climb, my replaced rear wheel went flat. I got a change and put my head down for what seemed to be the worst 40km in a race I have ever had.

Being super upset and making the time cut where my main objectives. With a stage so short, the window of opportunity is nothing. It was a full out effort. I passed lots of dropped riders and found myself weaving through traffic most of the time. The funny thing was that every small city I would roll through, the Vuelta Theme song reigned supreme, as did the spectators cheers. Seeing 5km to go was breath taking and even more exciting to hit Huguey with 3km to go and hear everyone scream for you. The most annoying thing was that I was getting a front flat. I managed to make it to the finish as best I could, only losing 10 minutes (estimated). Getting to the car I was full of emotion, but my teammates had a fresh coconut ready to go for me. I did get my wheels back and it seemed that for flatting, they decided to take my skewer as penance. It seemed to keep piling up

I know with that distance, you are on your own with mishaps. The best thing you can do is take it on the chin. I know I will be contending for the stages that suit me and will work my teeth to the bone for our GC riders.

As we transferred to our new hotel, it was a complete love grotto, which is hilarious putting a bunch of 20 something cyclists into a couples retreat. The rooms were quiet the upgrade, our only drawback was a 2 hr late dinner, but it was nothing a few Presidente’s didn’t cure…

Hope tomorrow my luck is a little better.

Welcome to the Dominican

Welcome Back!

It's been a long time since I have posted and faced a rather busy winter with training and personal life that I really didn't have the motivation to write anything exciting here

But now is another story. Since November, my team was invited to race in the UCI 2.2 Vuelta Independencia Nacional. It has been a whole winter planning for this race, and hoping that are team would be organized enough to make all the items happen.

Once all the things lined up after about 500 emails. The packing and the madness begun. I really had to wait the night before to pack a majority of the things, most of the team's food and water bottles were fed ex'd to my house along with a new set of race "clincher" wheels. Gladly the package arrived Thursday afternoon and I was able to avoid going to the post office pre-flight.

As the day of the flight started, it was a morning of packing and chaos that brought me right to the airport. No things forgotten and I made it through check in, security and my gate in 15 minutes. It was quiet the joy of speaking spanish.

As I had a small layover in the Ft. Lauderdale international airport, I was able to spend a few amazing moments with my girlfriend, who works at an office for one of the airlines there. A quick $10 dollar wrap and water and then off to the Dominican.

The flight was jammed full,surprisingly a lot of people trying to get to Haiti. After having to buy my way into the country with a "tourist" pass. I waited for my bags, and they never came. Now I am here, with my carry on, full of clothes and laptop bag. None of the teams food or bottles, no cycling clothing and no bike. It felt archaic filling out hand written forms and a bit nerve racking.

After getting to our pick up, we found out from another American team that the transporter was told no one else was coming in for the day and was sitting an hour away. In the mean time Spider-tech showed up with all their bikes. Eventually, a taxi bus, an suv and two pick up trucks managed to pack 18 people with bikes and drive them into the city. Pictures will be soon to follow, as the pack job looked like the leaning tower and the people crammed to the brim in the cars.

Once on the freeway, I found out fast that there are no driving laws in the Dominican. You can pretty much do whatever you want. Once we made it to the hotel, caught our breath, we were lost as to where we were staying. It seemed like an old 50's hotel. The rooms seemed more military than anything else. But we are here to race. Not for vacation.

As Saturday started, my first concern was finding my luggage. After finally being able to reach someone on the phone, the hotel bellman showed his weight in gold and was able to get my bike and bag to the hotel by 1pm. This left time for some exploring, and our quest to find drinking water. First we had to buy jugs to fill and some grocery items and then we could find an exchange for water. After we got the bikes sorted and built, it was time to get the legs going.

Riding in the crazy traffic was a whole other adventure, it was like the crazy finish of a crit until we got to the beach highway. After about 45 minutes of riding, we stopped for some fresh coconuts and drank them on the side of the road. We headed back and fought some crazy traffic, but made it back in one piece after roughing up some cars and petty carts.

We had not a lot of time to get ready and head to the managers meeting, we snagged off a quick ride to the olympic training center. We managed to be the first team that showed up and had all our paperwork in line. The meeting was seemingly fast and we were rewarded by our efforts by getting the 6th car in the caravan for stage 1.

It was a little rough to find out it was almost 10, we hadn't had dinner and we were racing at 10am, but had to be at the start for introductions at 8:40 am. This meant at least a 6am wake up. So after making it to bed around 11, the alarm sounded and it was time to eat our sponsored breakfast which included two slices of white bread, 2 slices of some ham or hamesque meat, eggs and some actually amazing rice puddingish oats.

We kitted up, packed the cars and headed and started to ride to the stage start. It paid off to find a team on the road, as they knew exactly where the start was. We arrived a little early, but soon after things started to get underway. Our team was interviewed by a news station prior to our introduction, so that was an experience. As was finding a restroom, it consisted of a bathroom with no water and no toilet paper, I'll let your imaginations run wild. Then we all were able to sign in and have a few introductions from dignitaries, then the race was the way.

It was a windy and rapid start, and actually pretty hot most of the day. I made sure to stay at the front and use the larger teams to my advantage. I also wanted to make the splits when they happened and try to contend for the green jersey. As the race progressed I felt better and better, but my seatpost was not holding and with the speeds there would be no way to fix it. So I just fought through and tried to pedal normally. I was in contention for the bonus sprints and had the confidence to finish at the front. As the last lap started, the Kazak National team flexed their muscle and made the finish very fast. As the sprint came down, a fast chaos is the only thing that could describe it. I was able to finish around 12th.

It was an effort to find internet and I am going to do my best to get you photos and updates so be patient.

Until tomorrow I hope