Basking...

both in the glory of a Bissell GC win and the Colorado sunshine! Aaron Olson took home an impressive come-from-behind GC victory at the Tour de Nez last week. It was an awesome team effort to help him pull off the win but don't let his post-race quotes fool ya. He'll have you think that he let Graham and myself do all the work driving the race winning break on Sun. but that is far from the truth. Aaron pulled as much as Graham and I combined and when he came to the front, it was all we could do just to hang on to the wheel! Boys and girls, PT has found himself some form!! As for me....not so much. I was passed in a TT for the first time in my entire cycling career at Nez. Race winner Ian McKissick took 30s out of me in what seemed like about 3 min. (no lie) into my race. Wow. Talk about a morale killer. I think I'm coming around, but boy! does this racing business hurt when you haven't done it for awhile!!! I'm letting my body heal from Nature Valley and Nez and soon I'll be smashing it up the canyons around here in preps for Cascade which starts in 2 weeks. Cascade is one of my favorite races and I can't wait to be reunited with my lil' 4 year old girlfriend Kayla! (w/ the Sheasby host family)
Nature Valley was also an awesome experience for me. The racing I could have done without but the friends and family who showed up to see me race were amazing. Dad, Mom, Karen, Don, Doreen, Doris, Wellsy and Miller - THANKS FOR COMING AND CHEERING!!!

This 5 min. sunset was the highlight of the 6 hour drive through Nebraska. ugh.


Stillwater was by far the coolest thing about Nature Valley. It is an epic race and I was little disappointed to race it on sub-par form, but maybe next year?


CLHS baby!!


View of "The Biggest Little City in the World" from our 11th floor 'suite' in the casino.


Presenting: your 2008 Tour de Nez race winner! PT Aaron Olson!!!


We're close on this team. Sometimes too close (Joao). Donner Lake back drop - beautiful area near Lake Tahoe.

Vacation O-vah!

Time to get back to this racin business. Nature Valley starts today and it sounds like I will have a strong family and friend contingency at the races, being so close to my roots. I have some requests for my family & friends making the trip to MN to watch: no streaking. no throwing objects at or in front of my opponents. and no pushing me...unless there is a really steep hill that I don't know about and it looks like I need it.
Speaking of pushes, I could have used a little help in my "warmup" race that I did on Sunday. I'm not sure why I did it b/c in no way did it resemble the racing at Nature Valley, but it was still fun to get out there. The race took about 70min. and about 60 min. of that was climbing - some of which was upwards of 15% gradient. Ouch. I lost count of how many times I called myself fat under my breath during that one. I finished 4th on the day which was about as good as I could have done considering how I was climbing. Shortly after, I jumped in the car with mi madre and headed for the homeland of Iowa where I've been the last 2 days. Kinda reminds me of swamp land around here. This rain and flooding has hit this area pretty hard.
Okay, let's hope this rain forecast fizzles out and we can race our bikes this weekend and the midwest can dry out a little.