Midwest Racing

They're already talking about mid-September! This was a teleconference I did about the Tour of Missouri the other day. Some of the dialogue was muddled a little in the transcript (maybe b/c I mumble at times?) but it turned out okay. I certainly didn't throw out that many "ums" and "well you know"s did I???

Weekend Getaway

This isn't exactly cycling related but there was some cross training(?) involved and it served as a good reset button for me. Rebecca and I hit the Great Sand Dune National Park before checking out Taos and Santa Fe for a 4 day holiday. The sand dunes are pretty amazing really. There are these 600ft high sand dunes abutting the Sangre de Cristo mountains on one side and desert plains on the other. Pretty cool phenomenon.
This is the view from High Dune. It took a solid 45 min. of exhausting hiking to get up there. Ever tried to hike uphill in sand?
We camped about 10 miles away from the dunes at a little tent site. You can see a bit of the dune field at the base of the mountains.


I really like this picture taken by Dean Hanson of the last corner at the Stillwater crit in NVGP. This is only the tail end of the Bissell train as there were 5 guys in front of me.
Next up for me is the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic out east. Special thank you to the riders from the Bike & Sport team in Santa Fe for taking me out on a ride...and letting me win the city limit sprint! :)
Thanks for reading.

Wow.

What an exciting end to the Nature Valley Grand Prix! That's what bike racing is all about: 5 days of racing comes down to the last 2 laps at Stillwater. There were 1000s of people lining that incredible venue screaming their lungs out for their favorites. It's taken me 2 days to put a positive spin on it being as we were on the short end of the stick, but I think I'll take a lot of good things away from that race. I am so proud of the way the team rode that Stillwater course. I've replayed the last 2 laps in my head somewhere in the vicinity of 100 times (which isn't healthy) but I know the things I did wrong and I just have to make sure I ride differently if ever in a similar situation. One cool thing about this sport is the strongest person doesn't always win. There are a lot of a tactics and technical aspects to this sport that I need to improve on and this race may be the impetus for me to take the next step in my progression.
Plus, being as NVGP is fairly close to my old stomping grounds of Clear Lake, IA - I had a pretty kick ass fan club: Mom, dad, brother, 4 aunts/uncles, 3 cousins, 8 family friends, 3 HS friends (w/ personalized Bissell/Zirbel Tees on of course) and the biggest surprise was that my sister flew out from New Hampshire to see the race! I was loving it. What a cool experience for me. As much as it sucks to lose a leader's jersey on the last day of a stage race by 3 seconds, sometimes you have to just take a step back and say "Wow" and remember to enjoy the ride.
Thanks for all the support!!! Oh, and I lost my phone Wed. night June 10, so if you called or texted since then I didn't get it. I'm not ignoring you. :) Hopefully I'll have it replaced sometime today.

1/2 way

3 down, 3 to go here at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. The team is riding most excellent and is helping me every step (pedal stroke?) of the way. We have a hella hard circuit coming up in Mankato tomorrow and I'm excited to see how I respond to the pressure and attacks that are headed my way. But first, we have to get thru the Minneapolis crit tonight! 75 min. of nail-biting, white-knuckled fun! I can't think of anything else I'd rather do...
Thanks for the support thus far!