Looking forward to Walla Walla I had arranged everything. I had a carpool lined up, host housing lined up, the bikes were ready to go, I was all set. Except I forgot to register. It was three days past the deadline, the TT start times were posted andI was SOL. I tried calling Steve Rapp to get an exception (despite the web site clearly stating No late registrations. No day-of-race registrations. No exceptions.). Steve stuck to his guns and I was SOL with no-one to blame but myself.

I really hate that, it's so much more satisfying to blame someone else. As a last ditch effort I emailed Gina Kavesh and asked her to appeal to Steve on my behalf. She agreed to but By Thursday evening I hadn't heard anything. I was in an exceptionally bitter mood over my stupidity so after riding ~55 miles I raced Seward. I don't really plan on doing Seward much this year so I just went for the first couple of primes (got 'em) and tried to keep it together for a sprint finish (didn't manage that, Richter and someone got away to take first and second). Rode home that night with a stiff knee and blown legs from that and the prior weeks training. Next day at work I get an email me telling me I'm in for Walla Walla. I'm psyched that I get to race this weekend but further pissed for trashing my legs the night before.

That's OK but now I have to get ahold of Angelo to make sure that I've still got a ride, get a bunch of work off my desk, attend this SNAFU emergency meeting, then bike from Everett back home to Seattle and pack everything. Sweet.

Well it all got done one way or another and Saturday I was in Waitsburg warming up for the TT. My first run with my new (to me) disk wheel. The course was out and back 5.3 miles total. Slightly uphill on the way out with a light head wind and the opposite on the way back. I knew that the way back would be fast no matter what I did so I front ended the piece substantially. I had made a fake attempt to mess with Ian's TT. My teammate Angelo was Ian's 30 second man so I wrote "IAN pass me on the LEFT!" on his race number. I figured if Ian was laughing hard enough it might throw his game off.

At the turn around I was feeling pretty blown but the wind and the slight hill made a huge difference. After a few pedal strokes I was in the 55-11 and cruising. The legs were loaded but I was rolling and the finish line arrived quickly. It was a very solo effort as I was the last one off and my 30 second man (Russell Stevenson) never showed. I saw my minute man at the turnaround, but that was it. Finished with no idea how I had done then went and snagged some pancakes and eggs for breakfast. The funny thing was while I was eating I was chatting with Ian Tubbs and Andrew McDirmid about how good/bad the TT had felt and the three of us made up the top three. I thought that I had done mediocre at best given the way my legs felt but I won, just goes to show, never believe what your body is telling you. Your body lies--punish it.

The road race was another story altogether. Anton summed it up before the race when he rolled up to me and said "I don't envy your position at all." Yea...

The "neutral" rollout was defined as the lead car going 18 miles an hour up a 3k climb. I don't know what world 18mph uphill is neutral on but the leadcar just walked away from us. Well the lead car and Johnny Sundt. Classic Johnny just sitting on the bumper, he couldn't have gotten any closer if they had a roller on there. It was pretty funny. Over the top the lead car finally made Johnny wait (after the neutral rollout which seemed wrong, but whatever). Hone then put in his obligatory early attack. He was off for a while but it was all back together for the first real time up the finishing climb. There the wheels started to come off. Ian didn't make the initial group over the top as people were sprinting for the KOM points. I was working with Emde, Sundt, and Richter to try and hold him off, but Ian isn't the kind of guy that you drop on a fast downhill. He fought back on and when we got onto the backstretch the attacks started. They didn't stop until the race was over. On the last lap Ian and Emde got away and stayed away. The field was down to just over 10 people, at least three of them were Broadmark riders, I'm out of water, and cramping. Almost enough to make you want to curl up in a corner and die. Fortunately for me there are no corners in Eastern Washington, just lots of rolling hills, and I was too dehydrated and tired to curl up and die. On the final climb Sam Johnson went off the front while Anton and Andrew set a slower pace up front. My legs were seizing up and I didn't have the juice to go chase him. He finished 21 seconds ahead of me, fortunately I had 24 on him from the TT.

Heading into the crit Ian and Emde were untouchable in first and second respectively but I was a very vulnerable third. Fourth and Fifth place were Sam Johnson and Andrew Mcdirmid, 3 and 13 seconds behind me respectively. With two, two-second time bonus primes and 10, 5, and 3 second bonuses for first second and third anything was possible. Despite an inauspicious start (massive blowout on my rear wheel in lap two or three), I had a really good race. Before the crit Johnny had some really good advice for me. He told me to bring the fight to Broadmark, don't wait for them to do it to you. That strategy wouldn't have worked if it was only me doing it, but what was left of the other teams realized that if we all didn't work to put Broadmark on the defensive they were going to own us again like they did in the road race. In the crit I made a conscious effort to attack Broadmark just after they had reeled someone in, particularly when it was Andrew or Sam who had done the work. Johnny was right, everyone started keying in on it and Broadmark was suddenly on the defensive. Don't get me wrong, Broadmark had a good race with Anton collecting more primes than anyone else but they were definitely knocked onto their heels a bit and it felt good to see the tables turned. There were a couple of times late in the race were I let Broadmark put me in a bad position. I had won the first two second time bonus, just out-sprinting Sam for it and then turning that into an attack as I saw that he was pretty gassed from the effort and wanting to make him work to get back on. Fortunately enough the next time around they rang the bell for a $20 prime and I was able to stay off the front to collect that too. When the second time prime came around I was caught resting in the back when Sam managed to get off in a break of three without me noticing. Bad race awareness on my part. He took the time prime and the three were in danger of opening up a big gap. Two guys from the Garage were working on the front but they were getting tired and the gap was growing. I got Angelo to go up front and help out. He put in a blowout effort for half a lap and coming into the start finish stretch I made my move to bridge up. I managed to do so without pulling anyone along with me, but Broadmark quickly chased us down now that I was with the lead group. That was fine by me, I just wanted to make sure that every time that I was working they were too. No free rides.

The second time that I let myself get into trouble was at the end of the race (somewhere around 5 or 8 laps to go) when Andrew McDirmid, Johnny Sundt and a third rider were off the front. I made my move with four laps to go (again on the start finish stretch which now had not just a head wind, but a brutally strong head wind). Once again I was (through a fortuitous combination of luck and skill) able to get off solo. It took me an entire lap to bridge up to the break, but I made it. When I arrived people started to sit up and Johnny attacked. The third unknown rider said "I'm not working with that guy" and dropped back and I sat on Andrew's wheel as he chased Johnny down. With two to go it was Andrew, Johnny and myself. Andrew and I traded pulls and coming into the last lap Broadmark had finally started to chase us back in the main pack but we still had a pretty good gap. I was feeling pretty strong so I pulled most of the last lap not really caring if I got 1st, 2nd, or 3rd just so long as Sam didn't and Andrew didn't finish with a time gap on me. Coming into the last corner I had a little gap on Andrew so I started my sprint long and had a good gap on him coming into the final straight away with it's wicked head wind. Unwilling to blow it at the last second I kept the hands on the bar and waited until I was actually crossing the line for a victory salute.

Final GC standings were pretty much the way they were before the crit, but I walked away with my first crit win. Afterwards Johnny came up to me and said "Look at you, you just won a crit."

My response was (and is) yea...go figure.


As it turns out I was a little excited by my victory. Hence the yell.

So two stage wins and third GC. I would have obviously liked to do better in the GC, but given the caliber of the Broadmark riders coming after me in the road race and the limited support that I had that was about as good as I could have reasonably expected. Next week I'll be racing with some of those guys (as a guest rider on Broadmark's elite squad) down at Bisbee and Gila. It will be nice to work with them for a change.