MEXICO

At first i thought that racing mexico was going to be scary and crazy, but in fact it was quite enjoyable. i went down to mexicali this weekend for a 3 day stage race, and i don't think that we could have seen more hospitality from the mexican people than we saw.  The people down there where awesome, from the organizers to the rival teams everyone down there was more than nice to four americans who don't speak spanish.  I would like to thank everyone associated with the vuelta mexicali 2008.

     The weekend however was plagued with bad luck for me, the first stage I had three flats and the chase  back on was into a charging head wind, not something that i would recommend for fun. then in the final 5k i created a break of 6 riders and we where fighting for 12th place or so, wining that sprint for 12th was actually very satisfying because of my other mishaps. 

     Stage 2, a long climb looms on the race profile, 12 miles and 4400 feet of climbing, the climb went well for me considering i am not a climber by any sort of the word. crossing the top 4-5 min behind the first rider over, i tried to pull back as much time as possible on the downhill.  after the downhill i tried to keep it as steady as possible but started to fade in the ruthless beating of the headwind. joining a small group of about 4 riders we took turns and crossed the line about 16th place, surprisingly still a very satisfying finish.

     Stage 3, the crit that was supposed to be shorter, we where reassured at the start line that the crit was going to be 60k well the race organization mis-measured the course and it ended up at 100k.  however i was not even able to finish and sprint against Justin Willams "rock racing" because my chain broke,  hopefully this string of bad luck has  been cleared of my system for next season, and i can get back to racing my bike!