On the road again...

Liam had to go pretty bad.


Quick update on the crit racing. While Doug was here in Eugene we did a couple of crits. The legs were dead! Doug also crashed in one (see post below). The guy that crashed into him hit me first and about took me down. After the race I realized he knocked my rear tire out of alignment and I was riding the last 10 km with the brake on. This week I felt much better and actually finished 2nd in a field sprint. I think I could have caught the winner if I had a few more yards. He got a quick jump on me.

It was good to see everyone in Utah. I have a top five highlight list from my trip.

5. Utah is HOT! I forget how it is in a desert. I would be outside at 11:30 at night and it was 90 something degrees. Way hot!

4. Altitude. It is really a big factor when you don't train at altitude. My lungs were working hard to get air and my thighs were going to explode very quickly.

3. Your crits are full of kids, good racing, and well supported. There were tons of people out there racing with kids all over the place. My family of 4 is the weird exception in Eugene. The three groups was also nice as well. Everyone in the group was very competitive. I was suprised when someone got away they would hold up and wait for the group though. I kept thinking that they were going to pull away, but they would stop and wait after a couple of laps. I do have to say that the corners sucked. Not that they were too sharp (the last one is pretty sharp though) but that you don't have a lot of room to go out wide with those cones in the way. All and all the crits out there were a lot of fun. Glad to get out there. Just wish Sutt could have been behind me for the lead out.

2. The mountains. There is some great mtn biking out here, you just have to drive a long way to get there. This has put a stop to my mtn biking in Eugene. It was great fun going up with Daren and Doug to the top of Mt. Lewis. I had a blast. If you look at my knee you can see my results from my embarrassing crash (I coudln't get out of the peddle on a steep and difficult switch back). I could definitely get back into the mtn bike again.

1. Riding with family. It was good to see everyone and ride with the connection. Can't beat that!