Jonez World

Stage 5 was the longest of the tour at 133 miles. Ed’s foresight in sending vaLarry and I down to preride the courses for stages 5 & 6 paid off. Larry found his way into a break of four that lasted about 115 miles and was caught with about 1 mile to go. Moises capped of the day with a top 10 in the sprint. After the stage we were in such a hurry to get moving that I didn’t even have time to hit up my favorite ice cream shop.
Stage 6 was the granddaddy of the week with a cat 1 climb, followed by a cat 2, and finishing of with the HC rated Brasstown Bald. The team’s plan was to try to get I-mac up the road in the early break and if that didn’t work then conserve for the climbs. As we started brasstown TT1 was the only team left with atleast five guys in the 51 person group. The group just ripped to pieces as soon as the climb started. It turned into every man for himself as we all went deep into the hurt box for the next twenty minutes. The fans lining the roads were awesome and it was so loud in places that their yells almost covered up my gasping for air. We ended up putting four of us in the top 20 including a stellar ride by Moises.
Stage 7 was the circuit race in downtown Hotlanta. As we pulled into the race to sign in the skys let loose and the rain came down. As most of you know I am a serious softy from CA but for some reason racing in the rain seems to suit me well. The formula for success goes something like this, when it is raining whine and complain to teammates and enemies to psych them out. Once the race starts attack, attack, attack until the break sticks because you do not want to be in the field going around all of those wet corners. Once off the front ride and pray that you don’t flat out of the break…
Overall I was stoked on the team’s performance. We had a run of bad luck leading up to Georgia, but are on the upswing now and will be knocking off plenty of wins soon.
This was my first trip to the big show and was a big learning experience. I was suffering at the begining of the week with allergies and the speeds. Each stage I started to feel a little more comfortable and the allergy medication slowly started to work so I was able to enjoy myself more and start racing. My only real disappointment was that I didn’t break the top 10 on b-town, but that gives me some extra motivation for next year.
The amount of staff TT1 had was incredible and we couldn’t have done it without them, so thanks guys and gal.
Next up is a trip home to the Ghetto Haven followed by a race around the Pentagon and some racing in Arkansas.

Nothing much to report about the last two stages that you haven’t already read about, or maybe I’m just too tired tonight to write… I’m enjoying my first TdG and learning a ton each day. The TT1 staff is taking great care of us as always and we don’t have to anything besides ride the bike, yep we’re spoiled. Tomorrow starts the uphill fun and the finish of the stage is about two blocks from one of the best ice cream places I’ve ever been too. So based on those two facts, tomorrow is going to be a great day!

The past few years I have been intrigued by people and their sayings. Cass’ family has some great ones. They range from “A bird in the hand…” or any number of not PC logging references. My roommate for the week is our sprinter Emile, who is from Trinidad and while discussing the stage last night he said, “It is on like boiled corn!” Sure dude, it is on like boiled corn…

Time for bed.

They say that there is no such thing as bad press, but after being reported in the live coverage as flatting and crashing yesterday I would disagree. I will stand by my flat and accept that it happened. The credit for the crash however, should be given to my pint sized Type 1 diabetic teammate Fabio. Poor guy was unlucky and in position right behind a rider who’s feed bag went into his front wheel. The guy crashed, took Fabio down, and stabbed him in the leg with his shifter.
Other than that, the tour has been going well.

TT1 sent two riders and a mechanic, (vaLarry, me, and Doug) down to preview stages 5&6 of next week’s Tour of Georgia. We rode stage 5, the tour’s longest, today after summiting Brasstown yesterday. Both stages would be tough on their own, but stacked back to back they are going to hurt. Yes Brasstown is as steep as the rumors you hear and stories you read say it is. The cat. 1 prior to ascending B-town will start the fun, the cat 2 will keep the lactate flowing, and Brasstown will suck any remaining life out of our legs. Expect to see quite a few TT1 jerseys in the final selections on these stages gunning for the stage win. While the riding up here in northern GA. is awesome and reminds me of nor-cal, the people are a little…different. At the local coffee shop this morning we overheard a lady explaining to the entire coffee shop how two horses escaped her ranch yesterday. By the time she found her four legged friends the cops had aprehended them. Yes, the cops arrested/ impounded the horses and charged the lady with five different citations for each horse. Outraged the lady proclaimed to her friends that it is time they tool a stand against such injustice. We just sat there speechless. Then this afternoon I saw this in a laundry mat window:

This little 1 pint of thirst quenching goodness cost me more than 1 gallon of regular unleaded.

Someone told me that all unlucky events happen in sets of 3. I hope they were right because we now have three riders out with broken wrists…

I’ll be writing a rider diary from Redlands for a German cycling website. Check it out here.