Jonez World

Seconds needed to move into 3rd: 8
Seconds ahead of Alejandro (2nd on GC) today: 120+

Finial Results:
1st: Columbian
2nd: Dan Bowman
3rd: Christopher Jones

…more details to come.

1 Javier Zapata (Caico) 15.41.07
2 Alejandro Borrajo (Rite Aid Pro Cycling) 0.09
3. Dan Bowman (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast) 1.04
4. Christopher Jones (VMG Racing) 1.12

A handy little time bonus earned during the crit last night has brought me within 8 seconds of the podium. I figure that people ride bulls for eight seconds at a time, so I should be able to make that much time up in today’s stage.

Today was advertised as an easy day, but with the combination of rain, wind, and aggressive riding, it was anything but easy. Kevin and Scott rode awesome again today. No change on GC. Crit tomorrow.

So most of you have seen the results are probably thinking what the heck is VMG and what happened to NERAC. VMG (Velocity Made Good) is the name the United States National team races under in non-uci races. I have the privilege of guest riding for them this week since NERAC chose to focus on the South East Crits instead. Anyways, this week has so far been awesome. I haven’t laughed this much in a long time. It’s soooooo nice to have some good clean humor. The team is very well run and when I showed up they had a ton of clothes and two of these waiting for me:Chann McRae is the DS and is a wealth of knowledge and humor. The guy is full good tactical advice, which is what I have needed for a long time. I can’t even begin to explain what a difference it makes in my riding with him guiding me through the race, I guess the results speak for themselves. Yesterday he was explaining to us that the Cat. 3 climb coming up was an easy one because, “there are a lot of trees and trees produce oxygen, so we shouldn’t have a hard time breathing.”

The team is the next generation of American cyclist and are all good guys. They have been working their butt’s off for me and I owe them many thanks. Today two of the guys were chasing back a break for us. Each time we would hit a roller they would shoot backwards. Then as we hit the descent they would come flying back to the front and repeat. Kevin and Scott killed it today, oh and they brought the break back too.

The support staff is top notch too. It reminds me of the TARGETRAINING days, when I didn’t have to worry about anything. The bike is clean, they take us to the race and I do my job and mine only (which is race my bike well), and they do theirs. Novel concept and it seems to work!

Thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement. 3 stages left and only about 8 seconds to the podium.

I invited Cass for a bike ride to the coffee shop today… I didn’t realize that she was going to attack and drop me:

Yep, those are pegs…lucky.

While watching Bowling for Columbine tonight I had a random reflection of the last two weeks, which included my first trip to The South and my first run in with Hooptie Bling. “Hooptie bling would include but is not limited to: $4000 wheels on a 1980 Honda Civic; $2500 in dash DVD player in a ‘95 GEO Metro…” so apparently I had some hooptie bling! Man was I cool, I need to post some pictures of the Geo. I would have fit right in, the only thing I was missing were the 24’s.

These cars were all over the south, kind of like seeing a lifted truck in nor-cal. Here are some pictures of hoopties:

Throw some Mickey D’s on it:

#1 Fan passed her NCLEX exam! Look how happy she is: