TT is done. It was hot. Upper 80’s. Windy. Tailwind most the way. That didn’t help me. I thought I warmed up good. Rode an hour this morning and twice up the climb before the start. But, no. I never really got going very fast and then fell apart anyway. Michael Creed (Team Type 1) took the 30 seconds he started behind me out after about a mile and a half. I tried to match his pace, but completely lost it somewhere the last 500 meters. He took at least 20 more seconds out of me then. I rode around 9:23 I think. Slower than last year. I couldn’t of done it much worse. Whatever. ( I think I still would of won the women’s race, as if that something to brag about. )

Word (Twitter) has it that Andrew Talansky,(California Giant Strawberries), won the stage. That would be pretty impressive. I don’t want to start a bad rumor here, but when we left the TT, after the women’s finish, Andrew and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) hadn’t been located by USADA for dope control. Since there was no cell service in Devil’s Den State Park, I have no idea how they would be contacted. At that point, there is virtually no way that they were going to be able to report within the hour time limit. Hopefully that works out well for both of them.

I guess by Andrew’s comment below, it was all fine. It seems that he was at the top of the course and they were looking for him still at the bottom.

More later.

Sent by iPhone

Like I said below, I sucked. I knew I sucked. At least there were 55 guys behind me. Still, pitiful. But, I’m not riding that badly. At least I hope not. We’ll see in the next couple days I guess. Or maybe not. Kind of depends how the racing goes. Andrew Talansky went real fast. There is a pretty high chance that the race tomorrow might be interesting. I think that the Cal-Giant guys only have 5 guys on their team here. Including him. I’m pretty sure that isn’t enough to contain the field on this 110 mile stage tomorrow. It is only supposed to be in the upper 60’s, but the wind isn’t going to be calm. Maybe the 5 years of field sprinting on Dickson St. is over. Hopefully. The finish is pretty hard tomorrow. A left, right combination and then uphill for a km to the finish. There are usually pretty good time gaps inserted even though it’s a field sprint.

I got the video camera delivered to the hotel tonight. I’m charging it right now on my computer, but I’m not sure I’m going to have it figured out for the stage tomorrow. I couldn’t find a 16gb micrsd card that would do the whole 4 hours on HD. So, I’m going to use a 8gb card and turn it on and off. Hopefully by the criterium on Sunday I’ll have it figured out.

It’s good to see that Ben Day seems to have recovered nicely from his tapeworm experience. Finishing 2nd, it is a pretty good progression from his Gila ride. I guess we’re lucky it’s not next week already. If he improves the next three days as he has the last three days, it could be ugly by the weekend.

Okay, until tomorrow.

Check out the statement after C. in the race bible about not having to wear helmets while riding trainers. Wow - Brain surgery.

I told Amanda (Miller) this. She had her helmet hanging on her bars. She decided that maybe it would be better not to take any chances and put it on.

The photo below is of Jeff Bradley riding a trainer in Arkansas. I would have bet a million dollars that photo would never exist.

Here is Jeff on a trainer at nearly 90 degrees before the 1-2 race. Jeff came out of stage race retirement here at Joe Martin in 2010. The last stage race Jeff rode was the 1987 Tour de France. Pretty similar events.