VEGAS + Bikes

Sort of. Not that I'm actually taking a bike out there. Interbike is pretty much a perfect excuse to go to Vegas, get way too excited about bike stuff and then control the enthusiasm with a bit 'O volatile beverages.

Interbike. The perfect excuse.

And I'm off!

Hurry up and... Wait!

Woke up at a fine hour this morning with the motivation and determination to respect my check-up appointment time at the UVA hospital. I sped. I ran. I stressed. I obsessed. I was late. And just like last time, none of it mattered as I sat for unreasonable amounts of time waiting to be seen. The first part of the appointment was an ankle/brachial pressure test to compare the pressures in my legs from an earlier test I did before the surgery. Hippie John who recorded the first test back in June passed the reins over to another women who, like my previous experience with Hippie John, proceeded to confuse and slightly depress me with her take on the test results. Basically, the results showed that I was way out of shape (which I fully expected) and so pressures in both legs dropped compared to the peak form I was carrying during the last test. "They both dropped", she said. "Hmmmm, well of course", I countered, "That's the hardest I've pedaled in two months and my body is freaked out". I hate it when someone who is there for the sole purpose of "data gathering" and knows little about a situation feels obligated to bleed negative opinions. It's like mental terrorism. Back in June Hippie John tried to convince me that surgery wasn't necessary. It's all a bunch of noise as far as I'm concerned until I get Dr. Cherries opinion. When that time finally came hours later, it was reassuring and positive. No, wait, it was human. He was psyched about the prospects of what close to 50% more blood flow in my left could mean for my career and so am I. He's the doctor and he gave me the "all clear" for a build back into training so on your mark, get set, frickin' go!

I'm off to Minneapolis tomorrow morning for some promotional charity tours for my Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast Pro Cycling Team. Larry (our team soigneur) and I are planning to hit the Minneapolis bike film festival plus the shequamegon race in WI so it should be a good trip. Not to mention all the java bliss ever morning from downstairs at One on One bike/art/coffee shop.

I'm already back in action somewhat, I suppose, after hitting the tour again with the team last Friday in Delaware for more public displays of our program. Always nice to ride with a group protected by the man from the man in this police state.That evening as I continued my pursuit of the Teapot the rest of the guys were topping off the Kilojoules for Saturday's Univest Grand Prix in Souderton, PA. Ryan was second and Johnny Sundt (aka: El Gato) stole the Sprinter's Jersey. With a fifth in the following day's Crit the team took the overall for the weekend and I think that's rad. I'm aching to be back in the game...

Joey Riddle, a good WVMBA friend of mine, had a terrible crash this past weekend at the Dirt Derby race in Huntington and is now home recovering. I'm thinking of you guys. Check out this benefit for Joey and Mandi Riddle.

Push. pull.

This reminds me of my last six weeks. Belgian Ardennes 2005


And here we are. Or here I am anyway. Tomorrow is 6 weeks post-opp. A pathetic little loop around town awaits me and I can't seem to curb my enthusiasm about it...

Don't worry, please. The last 10 or so blog-free day's are all part of the plan. The same plan as last time the words disappeared only to reappear with new found meaning and energy. Just like bio-rhythms. When some are up, others are down. Controlled chaos on the screen? Perhaps. If it gets that far.

I've been working for SMT man, Chris Scott for the last week or so before and during the SM100. So much work goes into that event ! I feel guilty and lazy having just been a racer all these years. Volunteers are the reason events work. Thanks for all the suffering on our spandex wearin', leg-shaving behalf! Jeff Roommate Schalk pulled a Floyd Landis on Floyd Landis (insane solo win) this past weekend and he hasn't rinsed the grin off his face since. Not to mention a pretty big record fell and is now smoldering out at the stokesville camp ground.

Floyd was in town and I was stoked to tie on more than one buzz with him. That guy knows how to party! Anyway, some boycotted his presence and others embraced it. After all, he's a former local mountain biker and apparently human as well.

Oh, the teapot! Yeah, sleepy time tea is exactly what I'm reaching for right now. It makes me happy.


Ready, set, go.

Yessss...

USA Cycling Professional Criterium Championship
Downers Grove, Illinois
1. Martin Gilbert (Can), Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast
2. Kirk O'Bee, Health Net-Maxxis
3. Shawn Milne, Health Net-Maxxis
4. Alex Candelario, Jelly Belly
5. Tony Cruz, Discovery Channel

Suzie Q

Nice work.


2007 TransRockies Challenge
August 12-18
British Columbia, Canada
Final overall

Women open
1. Trek-Volkswagen/Giant (Susan Haywood, Hillary Harrison), 32:26:35
2. Canwi Girls (Jenny Hillman, Jo Turnbull, at 0:45:20
3. Minx-Extreme Endurance (Fi Spotswood, Meggie Bichard), at 2:50:07
4. Team Hilly Hell (Hilary Bloor, Helen Lambert), at 8:04:52
5. Guidi-up (Amy Guidinger, Josee Hull), at 8:59:48

Well said, Billy.

Speaks as loudly today as it did then. Enjoy.

That's 'fessional, man.

Passing bottles.

Went to the Black Bear 40k down in Kanawa State Forest with Matt M. yesterday. The course was way dry this year. At least what I saw of it... It seems the Black Bear, which has a long history as part of the WVMBA Series, is either up or down as far as attendance and promotion is concerned from year to year. With less than 100 racers this year and the course being packed with dry singletrack, it's easy to question what WV mountain biker's August priorities are. Perhaps it's the event's branding as "WV's Scariest" mtb race, fear of Black Bears, memories of last years rain soaked gravel road fest or any number of other things. I know I've enjoyed the event over the years with it's history of one of the most impressive prize tables on the circuit. Ah, regardless of the missing 50 racers or so it looked and felt like a typical WV Mtb race with practically all the weekend regulars, tons of well groomed singletrack and a nice post race BBQ spread.

I experienced the perspective difference of competing to spectating and bottle passing and I can tell you I understand and appreciate all those on the sidelines cheering and waiting hours for the next glimpse of the riders.

Post race, Matt and I met Steve Thaxton at his healing compound in Sissonville for some much needed tuneups. Once again we were styled out to the max with adjustments + an emotional and physical post-surgery detox for me. I'm walking a bit more up right now. Thanks Steve.

JB had a pretty decent weekend.

And so did my KBS/Medifast teammates...

WV. August. Hangin' out.

The last two weeks have been slow. The first week post-opp I felt like a junkie from all the pain candy I was on. Still, not a bad time. Just a bit hunched over with no use of my stomach muscles and thoroughly spun in the head. Heard some great music two Wednesdays ago at the Fiddle in the form of Lindy Cyr's little sister's band, Hogzilla. Check'm out. It's good shite. That was one of the three outing highlights over the last couple week besides, of course, being home mid-summer. I definitely have a tendency to drift towards idleness when not constantly stimulated by being on the move. However, I've passed the 2+week mark. Things are fine and I've been eating unbelievably well with the garden being the central theme. Multiple night's of Blueberry cobbler definitely confirm this.



My stomach wounds are healing nicely but still have "dissolving" sutures sticking out of them. It's going to be a project dealing with the scare tissue that is clinging to my stomach muscle fascia at the moment. Feels like I'm sticking to myself. At this point I'm almost able to walk normal and stand somewhat up right. It seems this is the condition of choice in the domestic peloton this year.

This weekend marks the end of the '07 NORBA series, with the finals in Aspen Colorado. Jeremiah won it last year and he's on form to do it again this year. Also this weekend is the BIG money Tour of Elk Grove stage race for my KBS/Medifast team. Good luck, boys. $$!

I'm rolling down to Charleston tomorrow with Matt for the BlackBear WVMBA Points series race. Should be fun limping around cheering and passing bottles... Ahh, just good to get out.

All patched up.

All went well with my surgery on July 26th at University of Virginia hospital in Charlottesville and I'm back home - Sooner than expected- recovering in WV. For those that have no clue what I'm talking about, I just had a procedure to repair the iliac artery in my left leg that had narrowed and was restricting blood-flow. When I rode any harder than tempo my left leg would lose power and burn a whole lot more than my right leg. Not to mention swelling up and being tight almost all the time. Not a comfortable thing to deal with when your job is doing what provokes the symptoms on a daily basis.

Round 1:

In June, after the Nature valley grand Prix, I underwent a diagnostic test called an arteriogram to investigate the inner structure and function of my iliac artery. During the test, Which I was wide awake for (not a problem with the wonder-drug verset coursing through my system), the doctors inserted guide wires through a catheter in my groin to access the artery. Contrast dye was released (felt like I was peeing down both my legs) so x-rays could be taken of the arterial structure and nitroglycerin was released for pressure measurements. It was pretty wild being wheeled into a full blown operating room with stainless steel torture-devices, music in the background and plasma screens for watching the movie of my artery system. It's funny to think back at how nervous I was beforehand only to become the epitome of mellow after I was given the Vercet (Magical dissociative). I actually had fun and was in a great mood throughout the two hour procedure. Although I did ask, the doctors wouldn't burn me a copy of artery show they just taped.

Round 2:

Almost a month after the Arteriogram, I finally had things in order to go ahead with the big day. Through a bizarre twist of fate no one could have predicted, my brother and I were both admitted into a hospital on the same day. This would be the first time either Waite brother checked into any sort of medical establishment. My brother for a Staph infection (which he is recovering from just fine) and my self for a Patch Angioplasty on my Iliac Artery. Karl was in Maryland and I was in Charlottesville. With my brothers situation being more acute than mine, my mom stayed with him while my good friend Matt Marcus clocked out of Blackwater bikes for a couple days to accompany me.

The night before surgery was a bit unnerving having to deal with the news of serious turmoil in this year's Tour De France. Not to mention the expulsion of Micheal Rasmussen. I was starting to wonder if the sport's top level would still exist when I came out of the following day's planned anesthesia. Nonetheless, my alarm hit at 4:30 A.M and Matt and I cruised through the quiet streets of Harrisonburg on our way to my 6A.M. check-in for surgery. Once we arrived at the hospital the anxiety of what lay ahead began to creep into my system causing me to shake. Luckily Matt and I tend to look at strange situations with cynical humor so most of my tension gave way to laughing with an extremely high heart rate. My mood continued to rise as Matt and I hung out in the pre-opp room where I had to trade in my KBS Pro Cycling casual wear for this ridiculously huge moo moo surgical robe. The thing had to be tied in the back and I was completely naked so the site from the rear must have been frightening! After I was changed, the nurse came in to start my IV and since I was super tense she had a difficult time finding my normally impressive arm veins. The first try was a miss enticing Matt and I to label her the "needle Nazi". After a little hot towel therapy she managed to find suitable entry point in the top of my hand. After that the anesthesiologist came in and things started to get fuzzy. I remember shaking Matt's hand on my way out the door, climbing from the roller bed to the cold operating table and nestling my head onto a cupped rest of some sort. The next thing I remember is looking up at nurses in the recovery room asking me to rate my level of pain from one to ten. I think I said eight after which I was given a mega hit of morphine. I also remember reaching down to my right side and checking for a bandage since I had to remind the docs to do the Inguinal release on the right leg as well. It was there and so were the two other bandages on my left side. For what seemed like a short while in the recovery room, was actually like four or five hours while nurses secured me a room for the overnight stay.

When I finally made it to my room the first thing I did was call my mom since Matt and my Grandmother hadn't yet made it in. While I was talking to her I fell off my morphine induced "cloud 9" and sort of emotionally fell apart. Along with the tear jerker the pain was coming on full tilt as well. I told mom I had to go and proceeded to slam the nurse call button until someone answered,"May I help you?". I answered back with, "I need a nurse and my pain killers now!!". I was so frustrated that I had been dumped in a room all by myself in pain and without my family being told they could come up. Once that fiasco ended things were great and I was really happy to see Matt and my grandmother. That night I was rewarded with this angelic nurse named Wendy. She was beautiful and gentle. Exactly what I needed after suffering through the not so gentle nurse before her. Wendy even brought Matt a cot to sleep on. Even though I did not get much sleep that night, it was a pleasure to be woken up by Wendy when she made her rounds. I think Matt would agree. The next day Dr. Cherry came in for a visit and explain that my artery was the size of a pencil where it was damaged. To fix it he cut the artery down the middle and stitched an oval shaped patch of dacron (a woven polyester material kind of like gore-tex) over the open segment to enlarge it. He also trimmed my Inguinal ligament which stretches over the External Iliac Artery to allow more space for the artery to move while I pedal and to prevent further damage.

Thanks to all who helped me get through this including: Dr. Cherry, Tracey Lea, Beth Leasure, Hunter Allen, my family and friends. And of course Matt Marcus for dropping everything to come hang out with me at the hospital making me laugh so hard my wounds almost came apart. That freakin' hurt but it was worth it!

It was a pretty liberating feeling when "They" finally let me out of the matrix that is a hospital. Who are they? Well, that's what Matt and I were asking ourselves every time we asked a nurse about when I could go home. "I'll see what they tell me", she would say...

Ryan Cox

Yesterday was an extremely scary and sad day for me. Around 10a.m. I heard the news of Barloworld's Ryan Cox's death following a surgical procedure he had three weeks ago to fix the same blood-flow problem in his leg that I just had last Thursday. This is a tragedy and I send my heart felt condolances to his family and friends.

I spoke to my surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Cherry, yesterday and he was able to calm my fears of a similar disaster happening to me. Needless to say, I'm going to follow the rehabilitation plan to a T.

Rest In Peace, Ryan.

-Nick

AAAnd it's over!

Today was the last stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Dan Bowman brought the team it's top result and only finisher in the final crit with a super steep climb to the finish. The past five days have been pretty fun since most of the stages were short and within 100 miles of the "Warehouse" (a.k.a: Our soigneur Larry's loft apartment. It's actually pretty funny because all the riders are set up on inflatable mattresses in this huge storage room with a 15+foot ceiling. Most of the guys in town for the event, my self included, have been racing and traveling a ton over the last few months so it made for pretty relaxed racing on our part. Minneapolis is also the headquarters for Circuit Global Sports, the company that manages the KBS/Medifast Pro Cycling Team. The days have been really busy for the team not only racing but meeting with all the sponsors that are in town to check in on their team. Friday's downtown criterium was a big hit for the team with our mega crit rider Dave MCcook rolling across the line for fourth right in front of the VIP tent Presented by one of our sponsors MPC.

Our teammate Ried Mumford, who is recovering from his broken knee from our tour of Virginia recon, drove from Chicago with his wife to hang out with the team for the last couple days. Good to see him riding a bike again. However, he's still on crutches when not on the bike.

The race is over and now I'm just resting a bit before Larry's post race super party dubbed "Rally in the Ally". It's going to be quite large. Luckily my flight home isn't until 2P.M. tomorrow afternoon.

Nature Valley Grand Prix

Just a quick note since it's been, well, a long frickin' time. I'm here in Minneapolis at the NVGP. It is a five day stage race that started yesterday with a tight little 60minute crit. I was active and gave what I had to the team. Today was a really flat with a few rollers 65 mile road race. Of course with no trees or embankments it made for lots 'O wind. I actually survived quite well through the bad sections and was very close to making the main breakaway of the day (I was in it then had my left leg decide otherwise forcing me to fall back to the group). The course even had a half mile of dirt road in it so that made me feel a little better. Anyway, I've got to do a TV interview tomorrow at 8A.M. before the TT so I'm rolling to bed.

Pots of gold? Cold Showers.

I've been officially "guttered" since stage 3 and it seems to only have gotten worse. Yesterday's stage five marked a return for typical Irish Ras weather... A ridiculous amount of wind and rain hit the peloton from the start along the coast and it shattered the field up the first climb. Normally this would not be a problem for me but I started in a rather precarious mood and that meant not dealing with raging cross winds and cold very well. I ended up relegated to the last group within about 20k or so. The roads were absolutely brilliant, though. They were picturesque Ireland - rolling and narrow through the hills and fields with with stone-wall fences spanning the vibrantly green landscape. The last 50 kilometers actually took us over some large exposed climbs. At that point my group was thoroughly drenched and miserable just pushing it's way up and over the misty mountains heading towards the coast which also meant plowing through a stiff headwind. The penultimate climb of the day was a narrow and roughly paved goat-path of a road. It was a Category 1 climb with a 20 percent grade (think the steepest part of Sugarlands road by the cemetery) for two kilometers. The guys running 11/23's were quickly spit out the back as well as anyone without extra soft compound rain tires. The caravan vehicles were spinning tires around all the switchbacks.

On my way up, many minutes out of contention, I noticed all the trickling streams flowing down the mountain beside me and thought, "Oh, I get the whole Irish Spring Clean thing now". Yeah, product of commercial brainwashing I suppose but I'll probably think about that stream every time I see a bar of Irish Spring soap. Over the top of the Cat one sent us sailing down an unbelievably sketchy decent. The road was narrow, strait and windy as hell. I must have hit close to 60k an hour. Luckily I was alone as the deep dish carbon wheels I was running were all but stable in the crosswind.

I finished the day soaked, cold and sore dreaming of a hot shower. Since foreign countries are rife with inconvenience that dream was quickly dashed as I was greeted with 30 seconds of luke warm followed by cold.

Today was an easy and beautiful 97k stage that took us almost all the way North.

Two to go. 167k tomorrow and 177k for stage eight on Sunday. I'm feeling rough but I'm still in it...

Hey Matt Marcus and Jason Cyr! Flipping good work at Tour de Lake last Sunday!

Time to roll into bed for me. There are a bunch of drunk Irish couples getting crooked in the lobby. I've found it tough and a bit funny just trying to understand the Irish accent since I've been here but when they're drunk, which seems to be often you can forget about even trying to understand them! Ok, I'm really out now. The hotel pub just started blaring Garth Brook's "achy breaky heart". You can only imagine what the people singing along sound like...

Counting Kilometers, lads...

Alright, so now I have finally landed in a B&B with Wifi. So far my first visit to Ireland has been greeted with unusually good weather. In fact the locals have said this is the best weather they've seen in the past 57 years of the Irish Tour.

The style of racing is pretty chaotic since the teams are so small, only 5 riders, and the routes lack hugely decisive climbs. The other mind bender, at least for those of us driving/riding on the right side of the road, is constantly having to think "left, left, left". Just trying to cross the road can be dangerous since one must go against established instincts. Look right, then left. Stay alive. The passenger seat in a vehicle is just as frightening as I question the ability of others to be on the ball while going with such an unnatural flow of driving on the left.

The roads take the us through some amazing scenery but the surface is "absolute shite" as the locals would say. Riding on the side of the field while moving up can be really scary as the edge of the road seems to just crumble away.

Stage one (157k) took us from Naas, just south of Dublin, to Templemore. I felt great for the most part and was able to push it over the cat two climb called "the cut" in the front of the bunch, just behind the breakaway. A bit of a struggle over the top with my left leg deciding to play it's "shut down" trick. Over the top I was able to recover on the decent and turn my self inside out at the front of the field to reel in the breakaway, witch we did by the finish. My first tempo day at the front of the field included about 50K of work. I was shattered at the finish.

Stage Two (147K) sent us from Templemore to Loughrea during which I was suffering the effects of the previous day having to chase up through the caravan on one occasion. I came around in the final 50k and was able to ride for the team a bit.

Stage 3 (171K) Loughrea-Sligo. Suffering. I was coming apart at the seams all day. my leg is not feeling so good and that is not a good thing during an eight day stage race. The final 30k was stunning as we finished along the west coast.

Today: (Sligo-Dungloe 136k) It's raining.

Time for Ireland.

It's been a wicked long time since my last post. Something about that first big stage race of the season (TOV) I suppose. Shocking! I'm jumping on a plane for Dublin this evening with the Kelly boys. The FBD Insurance Milk Ras starts Saturday.

Tour of Virginia Stage 1

TOV began today in Natural Bridge, VA, only about an hour from my place in harrisonburg. I rolled out @ 10:29 A.M for my prologue Time Trial. 8 minutes later I ended up I believe somewhere around 90th out of about 170 or so. Since today was a double - stage day there was a bit of napping and a 45min transfer to.... I forget. Anyway, whatever town I'm in hosted the Criterium. Nice up and down course lined with Cobblestones. I enjoyed a few minutes off the front to but to no avail as no one was willing to work as a breakaway. A lap after I was gobbled up the first time my teammate DAN Bowman to the KOM and is now in the "mountains leaders" jersey. The race begins tomorrow really... 100 miles with a Category 1, 7 mile, steep switch-backed climb 10 miles before the finish.


JB made it back from Belgium yesterday and was at the TOV today. Nice. And Jeff Schalk cherry picked last weekend's Big Bear WVMBA. Nice.

Floor pizza.

Sometimes it seems that when there is little to do, things that actually need to get done get completely neglected. Taxes? On that note...my apologies for the lack of updates this week. The last couple weeks have been full of racing, training and traveling so when my teammates left for home on Tuesday I went to sleep for a few days.There's plenty of room.

Well, almost. First I rode with Andy Mac for 5 hours and hit up Mexi-night @ the Grill on Tuesday night. Since the ride with Andy marked three weeks of hard training and racing I was psyched to spend Wednesday and Thursday Slothing around the house, sleeping anytime I wasn't standing and eating in between. Hit all the rest week cuisine in the form of Five Guys Burgers and Ciro's pizza - still keepin' it real with mega doses of Jon Barron's Private Reserve Super Food to supplement. As Jon puts it in his book, Lessons from the Miracle Doctors, "you can't build strong, quality blood with pepperoni pizza and twinkies". As it turns out, rest was much need and I already felt the new "form" sensations in my legs during today's early evening paradise spin in the 'Burg. Spring is springing and the grass is looking green in the Shenandoah Valley.

Chris Scott's been up in DC the last few days so the house has been extra mellow. He rolled into town this morning to crank out a few house chores unfortunately at the price of the last sunny day of the week. I launched a few items from the bike clothing pile into the ebay matrix today. Always a tedious, mind-numbing time.

I didn't mention this in my last post but on Monday during our TOV recon my teammate Reid hit a car. He was descending a steep road, over-shot a turn and slammed himself into the side of an on-coming van. He went to the hospital via Charlottesville's warp speed emergency response crew. The crash broke Reid's knee and gave him a nasty laceration on his shin. He was released at 2a.m. the next day. This is a huge loss for our team since Reid was a major player going into the Tour of Virginia in two weeks. At this point we're all just relieved it wasn't worse.

I'm still contemplating my move for racing or not this Sunday. My mountain bike isn't exactly ready... The dirt crew is all out at Sea Otter this weekend. Looks like most people are waiting 'till the XC on Sunday unlike years past when the stage race was mandatory for all pro riders. I can see why it's not like that anymore after last year's 2 minute time trial. Hardly worth a day of prep for that. Oh, man, last year I didn't even make it to the XC because of an alien growth on my underside. While the lightning and rain was hitting the pro men start, I was eating fish 'n chips with my manager on Canary Row.

Heated up the last couple slices of pepperoni pizza from last night today for lunch. A piece fell on the floor. I still ate it.

A little tired.

I made it back from the Monster on Saturday and Roubaix'd it up on Sunday with a nice turnout of 40 or so renegade cyclists in town for the Classic gravel road throttle fest. Matty Marcus and Jason Cyr both made appearances as well as Sparky and Big Matt from the snowy mountains of WV. JB rocketed into the lead after taking advantage of the multiple misfortunes of my KBS team. Guess I could have just chased instead of stopping to help my teammates. C'est la vie I suppose. Nice work Bishop. If there is one thing I've learned from this whole road racing thing, it'd be that when it's three on one the solo guy shouldn't feel obligated to do anything. I almost froze on the 10 mile ride home afterwards. I don't think my body temperature was quite normalized from the previous day's arctic march.

Chris and I had a huge crew at the house with my KBS teammates, Matt and Jason. For dinner we all went to the JMU cafeteria and had an amazing all-you-could-eat feast for $7.20. A nice (and cheap) change to the typical out on the town spots we would normally hit. As a group of professional athletes and mountain men we certainly stuck out in the college crowd. Even managed to smuggle out enough bagels for breakfast this morning.

Today Team KBS did a little Tour of Virginia reconnaissance of the two major climbs in Stage 4, Douthat to Waynesboro. I'm beginning to feel the wear of three major weeks of good training and racing building towards TOV. Rest is next up but first:

Tuesday 4/10/2007:
Planned duration: 5:00

Final day of the block!!!!!!! GO NICK!!!!!!!! WU: 30 minutes MS: Just get out there and get in at least 5 hours today. The goal's are: Get in 3 x 30 minutes at BP and do this starting in hour 3(last one is in the last 30 minutes of the ride) . Also get in a bunch of little hills and make sure to push it up them at threshold(not at anaerobic capacity, but hold back a bit). Finally, make that last 30 minutes STRONG tempo pace. Smooth and steady and motoring. I want you to finish strong! CD: 15 minutes

Fantastic weather.

Absolutely brutal, today was... 5am alarm followed by 1hr transfer in a raging snow storm that didn't stop until two hours into the race. You get the idea. The start of today's US Open was delayed because the helicopters wouldn't fly in a blizzard, not for saving the riders from hypothermia. The lone coffee shop in town made a killing off the Caffeine-starved racers awaiting the star, myself included. It was pretty wild hanging out at the Java hut with the entire US Pro peloton.

Getting dressed was a huge challenge today. Since most teams arrived in VA with minimal cold weather gear we were forced to get creative to keep the wind, snow and icy road spray at bay. The Kelly team rocked the toilet scrubber yellow rubber gloves to keep the gloves dry and Zip-Lock bags for our shoes, knee's and hips. Can't get much more water proof than cheap plastic and rubber. We stayed in the Saabs with the heat cranked until the pack was actually rolling down the road. The day started with the entire peloton/caravan taking a wrong turn. We flipped it, made the "right" turn and we were off on our frozen journey. Almost every time we rolled under trees the pack would get pelted by frozen chunks rainy down on us.

I Almost got dropped a couple times during the cross-wind sections. I was taking back some clothing to the team car and when I got back to the pack it was in the gutter and I was forced to dangle at the back which is practically THE most difficult position to be in when it's windy. Felt really good on the Circuits in Richmond and climb near the front on the first 5 laps (look close in the coverage, you'll see my red gloves). Johnny, Reid and Ryan justified our sponsor's investment today with some nice NBC breakaway airtime. My good friend Dr. B(onk) visited me on laps 6 and 7. I hate that cruel bastard. GEL gel gel. I will not race without that sticky slime ever again. The bars I had in my pocket were frozen and it was extremely difficult to find the time the mess with them during wicked fast circuits. I finished. Bla bla bla.... and bla! Surprisingly there were only a few crashes today. I narrowly missed being a part of the big one again. There were these train tracks on the left side of the road on part of the circuit and a guy rolled into one at the perfect angle and BOOM, quarter of the pack tasted the sterile Richmond pavement.

I'm worked and I've got a beverage in me so to bed to bed tobed tooobed. Harri-Roubaix Tomorrow! I'm bringin' some teammates.