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.

US Open

The beginning of this week was unreal for riding around here. I Drove into a beautiful Harrisonburg afternoon on Monday. On Tuesday I napped in the sun and made sun-tea followed by burger night @ the Bishops. Wednesday was a super "race winning" interval day with JB while the temperature was easily in 70's. However, the ride did greet us with a few insane pollen and white petal filled wind gusts. An allergenic whiteout. I even got burned over my California tan??

That brings us to Thursday where the bottom dropped out and Harrisonburg awoke to cloudy skies and 30 degrees. Chris Scott and I went out for a "mellow" super rolling loop to check out some of the key turns and gravel sections for this weekend's Hell of the North... Harri-Roubaix. As it was windy and generally miserable we didn't see much and instead opted to ride the wind home to escape the cruel joke that nature is apparently playing on us. It's Spring! Relax! And just as you let down your guard... mother nature blows in an icy "just kidding!". Tomorrow is going to be brutal. Not because I haven't managed to wake up before nine since returning east and tomorrow's start being 8:10 am. And not because the race is 112 miles long. It's because it's going to be freakin' 30 degrees and snowing!

I'm actually really psyched. I've got the French-press packed for the 6am departure and the pace is going to heat things up fast. No worries.

Delayed coverage on NBC Sports tomorrow from 2:30-5:00 PM.

I'm back. Feed me, please.

Nick and Karl (and Karl's giant truck). Brothers.


Just got back from a nice little home visit up in Davis, WV. Touched base with the crew that pretty much makes what I do happen...or at least enjoyable. Hung out with Matt, Jason and Roger @ Blackwater bikes and witnessed one of the new WV 29'er team bikes get built and weigh in under 21 pounds! BWB seems to be cranking up nicely for '07 with bikes and other retail stuff starting to disappear at the quicker Spring rate. Ran into most of the locals including Gary Berti who always seems to be sawing or building something in his backyard that he shares with the bike shop. The Cyrs cheffed up an amazing SUPER-steak dinner for Matt and I - the second welcome back dinner since we returned from our trips ( the first being from Saundra Goss at Sirianni's on Friday night). The roll continued with an awesome Turkey dinner at my parent's house in Aurora on Sunday night with both the Cyrs and Matt. Matt told a bunch of really cool stories of his epic bike adventure in South America and the harsh reality of having to once again shop at the local Shop N' Save... You get the idea if you've ever been to Europe or S. America. The freshness and variety of produce and baked-goods just doesn't compare. At least we have lots of colorful packages with nice pictures on them that in no way portray what's actually inside. Anyway, thanks to all those that fed me while I was home! Matt and Roger contemplating their big order.

The New Team WV 29'er bike. Jason Cyr:"Hey, check this out". No way! CRAZY!!

And finally the big ride of the weekend to complete a tired and jet-lagged week. In the rain and nothing short of a WV style mountain throw down. A 90 mile, five hour and ten minute tour of the gritty mountain roads that built me! A flat tire from a roofing nail in hour five had me arriving home just before dinner.

On Monday morning I miraculously was able to make it to BWB before 10am and met Jason and Matt for Breakfast at the "new" Bright Morning cafe. I give it four out of five stars. I'm going to say the fifth star is for "originality" and one look at the menu will explain why they didn't get it...

Rolled into town last night. Got a visit from the Bishops on their way back from the airport. JB had a solid weekend @ NORBA # 1 in AZ. Congrats.

Today was a rest day.

Headin' to the mountains.

Pre-Stage 4 last Sunday in CA.

Man, I was wondering when my recent blog update-string was going to end... That was pretty intense. I needed a break for sure. The last few days have been completely packed with solo jet-lagged training. Basically, I didn't manage to make it out of bed before before eleven a.m. everyday and training took up the rest of the daylight hours. I finished each of the last three days after seven p.m. Finally a mellow day today with an easy couple hours with Andy Mac and his buddy Grant.

Anyway, I'm heading up to the Valley for the weekend. If anyone's looking for me it's almost a sure bet I'll be at Blackwater Bikes most of the day Saturday. Seeya soon, Roger!

My plan for Sunday is to spend 5 hours riding all over Tucker/Preston County before rolling back down to Harrisonburg to prepare for the US Open of Cycling on the 7th (Williamsburg-Richmond, 220k and live TV coverage on NBC Sports!).

Big trip #1 in the books.

Two relatively sleepless nights, thousands of miles and a gigantic cinnamon roll later, I have arrived back in the 'Burg. An hour or so after I walked through my front door Matt Marcus called to inform me that he had just flown into Dulles this morning from his huge cycling adventure through South America. Damn, that would've been the perfect ride home. I made it. Not a problem.

And how you ask? Well...

Jeff, sensing my concern for being "stuck" in the tower of doom (a.k.a Jeff's high rise DC apartment building), kindly offered me the use of his truck. He is leaving tomorrow for the early-season MTB trifecta of NORBA #1,2 and Sea Otter and I'll pick him up when he flies home on the 17th.

Dude, I made it through the chaos of Rhode Island, M St. and Georgetown fine. I only made one turn too early missing 66 on the first try. Made it on the second, though! I was on the highway rolling along listening to Ted Leo with the window down and feeling free when all the sudden... Ahhh, not so dramatic really. It's interesting to note that while traveling the forces seem to be generally against you.


A perfect travel day.



Ouuuch. Karl??



Wait, I can do this. I believe.

No damage, brother, other than the flat tire... Glad to see all the tools were where they were supposed to be. It's a good thing you had a pump in the back, too. The spare had about 5psi!

Enjoy the trip and watch out for the cacti in AZ.




Made it back to town in time to ride for a couple hours. I finished at seven this evening and the temp was still 77 degrees.

Almost there...

Yesterday was wicked, however, I finished and I'm now on my way toward actual form! 150 riders began yesterdays stage four sunset loop and 60-something finished. Painful, yet satisfying.

Spent the day in-transit from LAX to Dulles. Direct flight back to the homeland. Perfect.

Jeff Schalk picked me up a few hours ago and now I'm stuck in the Tower of Doom in DC.

Next step:

Find ride to Harrisonburg.

Hello? Anyone....??

Stage 4: Sunset road race

1:30 pm – Men - 12 laps, 146.5 km - Lots of steep, punchy climbing.
Start/Finish: Citrus Avenue, Downtown Redlands

This one's gonna hurt.


Yesterday's Crit was one of my best - ever. I say this because my three previous attempts to even finish in the group during this stage have all been futile. Yesterday wasn't a problem and for this I give many thanks to my teammate Reid Mumford for all the key tips he's offered over the last week.

My body hurts but it should stay together for today's grand finale.

OakGlen and Ted Leo

Tough day in the saddle and only a 60th place to show for it. I'll get ya the details but I'm tired at the moment so in the meantime check out this video of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. These guys really wail!

(click the play button on the bottom left to stay on "the blog")

116th out of 180.

Oddly enough, I'm not feeling like quiting after my result in today's stage 1 5k Time Trial. After all, this is time trialling. I plan to get better, honestly.

The course was fast and rolling with a climbing finish on rough roads. My lungs, as always here in the "clean" air of Redlands, were torched at the finish and I had that awful metallic blood taste in my mouth.

Tomorrow is the much more fitting stage 2 of Redlands to Oak Glen. 156K with a mountain top finish. Not sure exactly what my role will be but it will probably be riding in support of Reid who was 39th today.

I'll try to post some photo's of the amazing palace later tonight.

Getting ready for massage and dinner.

-Nick

The road to Redlands.

I'm pleased to announce that myself and four of my teammates have landed in the mother of all host-houses here in Redlands, CA. Our place sits up on a giant hill above the City. I'll post some pictures tomorrow that will explain the grandness of the place KBS will call home for the next four days during the Redlands Bicycle Classic.

I had a great nights sleep last night and woke up to one of the sunnier days in a while. The house was buzzing first thing this a.m. with riders doing laundry,going for morning rides and getting equipment ready for the mechanic to pack into the team trailer. Larry, our soigneur, spent the morning putting his care-kit together with radios, musette bags, race food and of course everything for massage. He also handed out more of our gear that is still slowly trickling in. We finally have skin suits and gloves!

My morning was consumed by cleaning up the disaster zone that has been my room for the last three weeks. I had the best room in our three story beach house as I was on the second floor with the kitchen, living room and ocean view. It was supposed to be for the mechanic but he bolted shortly after team camp. Yeah, he basically just disappeared one day and we later found the team car at the train station. It's a tough job but... Anyway, we've a new guy, Brian, who has been awesome. He's from Ventura so it's worked out well but he won't be with us all year. Just through Redlands where he'll train the new full time guy. Speaking up team staff stuff, KBS is looking for another soigneur-like helper during the Tour of Virginia. Someone to do massage, fill/clean bottles and work the feed zones. Get in touch if ya know of anyone.

On the bike:

Your Workouts for Wednesday 3/21/2007:
Workout # 1: Bike, Planned duration: 1:30, Planned distance: 0

1.5hours with 3 x 1 minutes hard, with at least 5 minutes of easy riding between each. Also do 3 x 30 seconds hard sprints, with 5 minutes between. Rest is just easy and cruising.

SuperFood Green Shake for Lunch.

Drove with Larry and Reid Mumford in the Saab wagon to Redlands along a bunch of wicked mountain ranges. Ahhh, and of course a stop @ a shady little burrito shack in Pasadena. Muy rico!

Sleep intervals

It finally rained today. Oxnard has been consumed by overcast skies and fog for the last week and a half but no rain. Everywhere to the east has been sunny with temperatures in 70's and 80's the whole time. I start my rides every day with a jacket and leg warmers only to take them off fifteen minutes later after reaching the "real" So-Cal weather.

I took Johnny Sundt to the airport this morning at four A.M. Besides the lack of sleep, it was awesome to be outside during the pre-dawn stillness with the only sound coming from the crashing waves across the beach. The smell of the ocean is pretty sharp that early in the morning. The Oxnard airport is only about seven minutes away so I was back in the sack by 4:30.

My morning, witch began around 9:30, was a little rough as some of the fog from outside seemed to be sitting on my brain.

Coffee....Coffee? Coffee!! And into the rain for a ride...

I've been feeling a bit flat the last couples weeks so I had a chat with Coach Hunter yesterday and we got the plan all dialed in. Tour of Virginia at the end of April is the center piece but for now it's all about Redlands.

My Day:

Your Workouts for Tuesday 3/20/2007:
Workout # 1: Bike, Planned duration: 2:30, Planned distance: 0

WU: 20 minutes warm-up MS: Then do (6) x 2 minutes striving for 135% with 1 minute rest between each, Then 5 minutes easy, Then 6 x 1 minute, striving for 150% with 1 minute rest, Then 5 minutes easy and finish with 6 x 30 seconds ALL out with 1 minute rest... CD: Cool down for 15 minutes of easy spinning. Try for at least 200% of your threshold watts on each sprint as an average. SHOOT for 350% of threshold watts as your max in the last 6 sprints.

Nap.

Money, stitches...

Murphy's Law conspired against KBS/Medifast yesterday as our money-man, sprinter Dave McCook, hit the pavement warming up for the Visalia Criterium. He won a sweet tendon-exposing flesh wound and a broken hand. Dave was riding a lap of the course and somehow ran into a Japanese rider who was riding the opposite direction. I came around the last turn to the finishing straight seconds after the crash and saw the bike on the ground and could tell immediately by the light color of the frame that it belonged to one of my teammates. When I got there Dave was sitting quietly on the curb sweating, looking pale as a ghost and holding his crippled right hand. It's crazy how much damage low-speed wrecks can cause as apposed to high speed wrecks where the load tends to be spread over more of the body. I don't think the Japanese guy even hit the ground. As I was talking to the paramedics and Dave trying to make sure they didn't try to snare him with a $500 ambulance ride to the hospital 3 blocks a way, and they tried along with accusing us of being too concerned with the bill, the Japanese dude says "I don't think he ride today". Needless to say, Dave is out for a while. This is a huge loss for the team and an even bigger bummer for McCook.

On a lighter note, I managed to miss the call up that Dave Towle so kindly hooked me up with. Instead of rolling easily up to the front row I was out sprinting between stop lights warming up. Tumble weeds rolled by and crickets chirped as Dave announced " The future is now! Nick Waite riding for KBS/Medifast ladies and gentlemen!". Actually the future is hangin' out at the back of the field...dang it! Sorry about that, Dave. Thanks for the love, man. I'm still working on my start line punctuality. Johnny Sundt rolled up in my place as the team's front line representative. The team road with more intent yesterday and we managed to show our selves quite a bit at the front of the race. I'm still working on being comfortable in these circuit speed festivals. From the gun it is all out efforts followed by sitting in and going again. It'll come...eventually. In the last few laps we had four guys up there with Sundt, Gilbert (the guy we're all working for), Mumford and myself. The goal was to bring Gilbert up with 4 to go and get him on the Juggernaut train of Toyota/United. We lacked a bit of horsepower with only four guys and I'm not a big help at that speed but Gilbert and Sundt stayed close landing in the money at 17th and 19th. Toyota/United's Ivan Domingez won. I finished on the tail end of that group, however, not in the money. My helper's cut was $40.00. Groceries!

I've got lot's to take care of today getting ready for a race that suits me a little better, the 4 day Redlands Cycling Classic.

The list:

Race and spare bike set-up.
insoles and shims for my cycling shoes.
easy ride
blog
nap
Chiropractor visit
foam roller/stretch

Jeremiah Bishop left me a message this morning. Sounds like he'll be pumped for some training when I get home on the 26th. When ya gonna put my link on your site, JB?

Today: Visalia Criterium (NRC)

I just found this picture of me riding in stage 2 of the Rhond L'izard in Southern France during June '05. The picture was taken with 1k to go on a mountain top finish. I was 10th over the line.

Up this foggy morning getting ready to head north for the Visalia Crit later this afternoon.

Winter again in WV. White Grass is pumped!

Chris Phillips just called me over the net. Better talk to him.

Hey Roger! Get in touch. Anyone heard from Mackie (Matt Marcus)?

Matt, get in touch unless you're being held captive @ some shady South American border.

I can't work under these conditions...

My computer is up and running finally! The last few motivated posts were due, in part, to computer-charity/pity. An hour here a charger there... In the end solving the dilemma was a simple trip to the local discount electronics store to buy a flipping charger.




I left off last week with the stage 2 Time Trial in the CVC race in Fresno. Uneventful and slow on my part. That's why I listened to fast music the whole time. Stage 3 was a criterium in downtown Fresno. The course was animated with a 180 degree "U" Turn at the end of the 500 meter start/finish drag strip. The other five corners where pretty mellow comparatively and the group was able to carry a lot of speed through them. The U Turn on the other hand had people so freaked out that there were wrecks basically every lap. Lap two was neutralized because of some random pile-up. The pack would go from 35mph down the straight to 3mph right before the death turn. The smell of burning rubber and skin completely over powered the BBQ clouds coming from the vendors lining the course.
With this being my first NRC Crit of the season and second in two years, it was an immediate struggle to sit in let alone make it to the front in order to contribute in anyway. I was pinned at the back for the first six laps at least. Once I warmed up, learned the corners and smoothed out my pack-surfing I was a little more comfortable at the highly uncomfortable speeds. The death-turn ended up being my favorite part of the course because it reminded me of the first turn the usually greets the field in the NORBA XC and Short Tracks. I just stayed off the brakes, shifted before the turn and rode the outside to avoided the carnage. This technique would be good for ten or so spots per lap. As far as how the team rode, we were all a little off the back relative to the other big teams with big representation at the front of the race. We missed all the moves but almost managed to get our main sprinter, Marten "Bam Bam" Gilbert, to the front for the sprint.
I actually used my last kick to get him up about thirty spots with three laps to go. In the last lap, however, Marten lived up to his nickname and managed to insert his rear dérailleur into someone's front wheel (sound familiar?) and destroyed his frame and carbon rear wheel. This marks Bam Bam's second complete destruction of a $7000.00 bicycle in as many weeks. All in all, Johnny Sundt still managed an 18th place on the day and $40.00 or about 8 burritos for the team. Ah, yeah.


My week has been a bit foggy for some reason. I've been sleeping a lot since the house is empty of all but three of us. Monday and Tuesday were both super mellow and I managed two decent training rides on Wed/Thurs. A bit of early season energy-lull, perhaps.

A few of the guys on the team are doing a Time Trial today up in Visalia. Only the tall guys on the team since we are still waiting for the midget TT bikes. So, that means I'm still here in OXnard wasting time on the beach, watching a lot of E! and getting educated on all my celebrity neighbors down in Malibu. According to E!, Christina Agulara lost all her "baby fat" running on the beach in Malibu with Pam Anderson. I need to talk to the team about moving camp down the PCH about 30miles next year.

Looks like the Team USA MTB'ers rocked it for the most part down in Argentina during the Pan-America championships last weekend. A medal or two in each event. Kickin'.

Ryan Trebon, '06 US XC National Champion and '07 National Cyclo-Cross Champion, stopped by the KBS/Medifast house the other night for some desert.



Hey, chocolate pudding is delicious!

Rock and Roll Time Trial

Just got back from stage 2, a 16 mile Individual Time Trial, and now I'm blogging it up in the hotel room with a California burrito in my stomach. No pressure in today's TT for me since I finished a ways back yesterday and was not riding a TT bike. The TT bikes are apparently in-transit so the team should be all set for next weekend in Vasalia. Without the pressure of crushing myself on today's flat course for a top 50 result I instead used the day for a training effort and even manage to smuggle my ipod past the officials at the start. Nice to see my good announcer friend Dave Towle at the start which meant I got a little attention amongst all the accomplished road racer guys. The course went straight through an orange grove and was completely flat with a head-wind for the most part. It was pretty funny to see guys in full TT gear going by 5mph faster than me while I'm riding the hoods, cranking out a nice Lt-tempo effort and rockin' out to Green Day's live "Foot in Mouth" album on my ipod.

Talked to my old LSV/KBS teammate Matt Cooke at the finish. He's looking lean and all Euro-styled out in his new Navigators kit. Apparently most of the climbers are getting the same treatment by their teams in the Time Trial with Cooke's road bike set up with crooked TT bars that he installed himself and me with my lone piece of "Aero" equipment being a set of KBS Shoe covers.

Tomorrow: 100k 5 corner Critierium with a a crazy "U" turn in it.

Groupetto!

That was tough. I Felt pretty good during today's 102 mile stage and was assigned to mark moves (riders trying to escape) and try get into the main breakaway. I succeeded in doing both and then floating right out of the back of the main field on the last climb in the last lap. This is not a bad thing since I absolutely sacrificed myself for the team. Today felt like one of Hunter's "Monster Gear" interval workouts. The first lap was smooth but on the a cross-wind section in the second lap someone hooked my derailleur with their front wheel. Neither of us went down but I ended up with a severely wrenched rear derailleur relegating me to a few high gears hence the "Monster Gear". I was so destroyed when Jonas (team director) came by in the Saab that I could barely pace my way up through the race caravan to make it back up to the main field. Actually, I didn't make it up at all.

I'm not sure what my result was but I know my group finished a ways back from the main field.

Tomorrow: 35K Time Trial