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