Mad Era

Man, what a cool stage race... well except maybe for the pain and all.

Ben Hur Hillclimb TT:
PAINCAVE. I had a decent time (beat DER VIPER by about 7sec) and finished 27th - 4min down on BJM. Yes, that's right- 4min down after a 10mile TT. It was 6miles rolling and finished on a 4mile climb. I had a difficult time finding my rhythm on the rollers, but settled in on the climb. I caught my min man, who definitely mailed it in, fairly early. My two min man came into sight at the bottom of the climb and I reeled him in by the summit. It was a nice mental boost.

Flat TT:
Not my event, but I'm working on it. I improved my time by a minute and a half, which is awesome. Der Viper redeemed himself and placed 6th on the stage! Noice. Russ also did a good time and put around 30sec into me I think... I lost another min and a half on BJM. Man, what a beast.

Crit:
Barely got recharged in time for this one, and let me tell ya, it was very very painful for the first half of the race. The pace wasn't too bad, but the legs were screaming at me to stop turning over the peddles. A large group went up the road with everyone represented except for DBC and Metromint. Greg, Zach and Charlie took a few efforts with some Minty boys but it wasn't helping too much because Cal Giant and Bissell decided to line up 5 guys each starting from 2nd or 3rd wheel. Once the Safeway guy fell out of the break, they got on the front and helped us to bring the break back. With two laps to go the break was about 3sec up the road and everyone sat up with Cal Giant creating a sort of wall at the front of the field. I barely got around it and saw Charlie Avis launch on my right. I hopped on his wheel going into turn one and by turn two we blew through the break and reestablished their advantage by turn three. With one to go we had a slight advantage, but I was sort of doubtful about the outcome. Now that I think back there really wasn't anyone in the pack besides metromint to bring us back, because a Safeway guy made it across to us with one to go.
Coming around the last corner I went under the safeway guy on the inside and prepared for the sprint. I gave it all i had and barely nipped a Webcore guy for third! Keith Miller from Cal Giant won with BJM taking second. Scott Z from Kelly Benefits was also in the break. They gave our group 3sec over the field, sweet!! ... as if that helped me any, i actually lost time because Ben got second and got a better time bonus then me haha.

RR:
Zach went into beast mode to make up for his busted pedal in the TT and broken spoke in the crit with 2 to go, not allowing him to finish either.
I felt like garbage all day and coming through the bumpy section when we were about to see 1 to go I was too far back when the crosswind hit. I was just closing the door of the hurt locker, after climbing in, when some gaps started opening in front of me. BOGUS!
Big ol' Z got across to the lead group and finished in the pack that dropped down to about 30 or 40 riders! Nice ride bro!
I DNFd, Chuckleberry's dropout busted which made him crash (He is ok, just scraped up), Russ and der Viper flatted, and Greg finished just off the back of the lead group.

FYI- Chuckleberry is Charlie Alexander. Keep that in mind.
-Der Viper... you all probably already know this one, but if not it is Jim Wingert.

I have some video that I will piece together and post on here as soon as I have time.

San Dimas next week, I'm looking forward to this one!