ALIVE

Its been a while and I've realized that I'm "un dun." It's time to end the blogging off season. Not to be alarmed though, the proper "off season" is still in full effect. No use in doing a full backtrack of the last month. A boat load of radness has happened as well as a few roundhouse kicks to my face, the main one of those being the return to school. Should be my last semester though and overall it has been going alright. I've managed to dabble in a bit of colleigate mountain biking and that has been great for the sanity levels. Road racing in Europe to Mountain biking witha bunch of college kids. Biggest contrast ever but one of the best if you ask me. Last weekends collegiate nats in NM was likely my last. Can't help but being a little sad and bummed about that, but it is about time to take another step. Its great knowing that the team is headed in a dominating direction and has a hot set of young, up and coming riders to throw it down and turn heads.

Sheedys bday. he got beat up by a girl ...................Saxton rockin with fine style

Get ready. 18 miles. 5000 ft. of climbing Kevin H. MVP

scott got a concusion in Florida.
The LMC convoy starting the 30 hr. drive back to NC
Jesse pooped his pants
not my best race. but a fun one. scope the new kit.


ciao for now

D U N

All done. game over. Not a great ride, but threw down what i had. Good write up and a few quotes at Velonews.
Congrats to the US ladies!! Amazing riding and an honor to be on the team with such top notch competitors. In other news, I had my first "competition" blood test yesterday. Vampires showed up at about 8am and i was one of the lucky ones to give them some of my blood. A few south americans weren't allowed to race because there hematocrit was too high from their blood tests, but mine was nowhere near that point. actually over 3 points lower then what it usually is. guess i need some rest.

Doing what i can to help out the team over the next few days, as well as trying to enjoy myself a bit before i head back to the gauntlet of schoolwork which awaits me. US Elite TT'ers baldwin and Zabriski roll out in a few hours so be sure to send them a tailwind!!

Thanks to all for the thoughts, prayers, love and support!

Ciao for now

10

i suppose 10 comments on my previous post warrants a new update. no recap on the recent haps, just the here, just the now.

Arrived in Salzburg, Austria today for the road world championships. I race the TT on wed. no RR for me. I've had a little flare up with my knee over the past week and there are 3 other great guys slotted in for it. Steve Cozza and I are the crew for the U23 tt and John Devine, Craig Lewis and Tom Peterson will be reppin the red, white and blue for the RR.

I flew my first "Ryan Air" flight today. a sweet euro budget airline that i've heard much about. not bad though. So far things here are rolling along. I'd say about half the American team has showed up and i'm sure the rest will be rolling in over the next few days. i'll take a gander at the course tomorrow.

the door to our bathroom has a big window in it. there is a cupid painted above our beds, and there is also a rotating mirror which allows you to look into the bathroom (through the door) from the bed. weird.
Goodnight

what time is it?

A fine picture to display what is happening around here.
Racing this weekend. Wish me luck and leave me some love.

gopher510 (1:48:36 PM): update your blog you tool

guess I'm a bit overdue.

Its getting quiet around here. Earlier this week a bunch of guys escaped the clutches of Izegem. Tomorrow 2 more get out, and the rest of the crew besides myself and John are racing at a race in France. Just the two of us for the weekend, and even to the rest of the season its a minimal team.

GP tell was a slick race. Hills, mountains and hills on some rad twisty cart path roads. Unlike anything I've ever done before and super exciting to race in that kind of terrain. The prologue was my best results of the race. 7th place, and just a second or so off the podium, but the main thing was that i got to rip this sweet "video game" course. check out this pic, this was probably the widest part of the entire prologue course. So once again, no out of this world performances from me, but not horendous either. I think thats kinda indicative of my form right now. Still able to hit a good level, but a little tired and not as consistent. From here on out the formula is simple. maximize rest, keep the body tuned and focus when the race days come. I think 4 or so race days until worlds. then the TT and i'll find out about the road race soon.
Going to switzerland made me once again think, "why can't the national team be based somewhere else?" I think this area would do.

Lots of hard thinking on deciding which direction to head teamwise next year. Fortunate and lucky to be in my current situation though.

I thought I was in a good place concering my late arrival to school. Until now my advisor hadn't really expressed much concern about me being fashionably late, but all of a sudden its a last minute scramble to get things sorted out. can we please just do our job? also streaming out of the "brent bookwalter complaining network" is my current predicament of not having a place to live when i get back to school. my roomate jesse has been a total champ in the hunt for a decent place, but it seems the banner elk scene is not prime territory at the moment for a place to our liking. The specialized tt bike is just not doing me right so i'm doing my dangdest to get the Ridley over here. Wow, I almost forgot how nice those bikes were.



kieth jennings
mr. bolian. mvp for teamate and overall good guy. he broke is arm a week or so again. speedy recovery bolian!wish me luck. with.... everything. thanks for the comments. keep em rollin.

ciao for now.

both dishwashers are broke

Whew! back to blogging. The usual excuses for the recent lapse... France, no internet, hard racing. Since my last post, I've wrapped up Tour de Namur and a few 1 day races on the west coast of France. Just a quick summary since I'm not feelin a full race report.

Namur...Ok but not great. Body seemed to be a bit angery with me after removing those large chunks of skin in the days leading up. Had a couple decent days and a couple bad days. TT was dissapointing and by the last day I was feelin kinda whacked so Noel decided it was best I not start and save my mathces for the coming weeks. Props to Nick and Andy who both made it through the last day with strong rides.

Bretagne Races...First observe the pick to the left... me modeling our fashionable "team" casual gear in our plush accomidations. Different crowd in France and I have to say I wasn't feeling any love. Each of us did 3 of the 4 races over the 4 days and overall it went alright. The drive was absolutley bogus though! Its not often we have to travel 8 hours to a race in Europe, and i can't say i enjoyed any part of it. It was nice to check some new scenery though. Why can't the national team be based in an area like this??? The races were all circuit races and a few of them had a good bit of climbing. Day 1 I ended up 12th after picking my way through a pretty destroyed field. Day 2 Nick rocked out the field sprint for a bon 5th place. Day 3 we botched it big and missed the first group of 17, but did what we could to limit the damage as I snagged the field spring for 18th. Last day was tough. I think Nick was our top dog somewhere in the top 20.

So there's the rundown. I'm almost inside the "1 month to go" window till the end of the road season. Giddy up! Lots of laying low and a good bit of rest for another couple days, then its off to Switzerland for a 5 day stage race called GP Tell.

School starts in less then a week. oh wait, I won't be back there for over a month! I know, sounds a bit excessive, even by cycling standards but I'm hoping I can pull out one more semester of a late arrival and graduate in December. So far the teachers I've been able to get a hold of have been alright to work with so lets hope for more of that. Anyone back in MI should be sure to check out the Priority Health Rockford Criterium NEXT weekend. A big prize list, action packed course and a great crew of helpers putting the race together are sure to guarantee an awesome show.

Best of luck to my Priority Health boys and Clara along with her fellow Cheerwiners for this weekend at the U.S. crit championships!!!

ciao for now

butt surfing

yesterday was rough. it looked like it was gonna be a rad race. cloudy skies, strong winds and a few solid climbs on the route were sure to make a selective race. unfortuantley, i didn't really get to give it a go. top 30 wheels, I make the first left hand turn into cross wind. Of course the field kinda panics and eveyone smashes their way to the gutter. They must have missed the memo that most bike races are in fact, not transparent and when you hit one, you bounce off eachother.

A pretty good pileup ensued. I went crashing down and even manged to hook my jersey on a riders bike who was still moving at a good speed. After dragging me across the ground for 20 meters or so he finally stopped and I calmly released myself from his bike as he flipped out yelling and jumping up and down like a circus monkey. i don't know what this dude was freakin about. yea, he was watching the race ride away but at least he had his skin, somthing i couldn't say for myself. After using a saftey pin to close the giant hole in my shorts, I got a new set of wheels and began to chase. At first i couldn't even see the last follow car for the race, but eventually I began to make up some ground and finally caught on to the last group on the road, seeing the field had already been shattered into bits. I just from group to group, and made some solid ground up but finally pulled the plug as i rode throught he feedzone and got the "cut it" sign from chris. ugh! damage? right side. butt cheek, skinless. arm, patchy skin loss. back, scrapped and bruised.

so that was that. Murphy and Sheldon ended up riding great, both making the front group of 12. Murph dieseled his way in for a sweet 5th place, Sheldon just out of the top 10. Awesome to see those guys put in a good ride, but also tough to watch as i was wishing i coulda been in there throwing down with them. I guess mass quantities of chamois cream do not make the shorts invincible.

More dissapointment this morning as Noel told us the teamd Did NOT get an invite to Tour de L'Avenir, also known as the Tour de France for young riders. stinger! i got my first taste of L'Avenir last year and its a bit dissapointing to think I won't get another shot at it this year. Why you ask? deponds who you talk to. mainly because the organizers can make whatever decision they want, but i can't help but think the recent crap with Floyd didn't play into their heads.

Still planning on Tour Namur starting saturday. 5 days, 6 stages of tough racing in the hills of belgium. Last year, i finished top 20 GC there so hopefully I can get recovered from this spill and put in a solid ride over the 5 days. monday has a TT, after a RR in the morning of course, but the TT will be cool. my first one flyin the stars and bars! I can pretty much guarantee i won't have internet access from saturday through tuesday or wed, but i'll keep my fingers crossed and roll out another update when i can.


down the street. wanna come visit?
ciao

2 weeks

Its saturday, which probably means very few people are spending their summer weekend reading "this", but even less people are emailing me! I was on a good roll until today with incoming and outgoing emails which seem to roll the boring belgian day along, but today I've hit a cyper stump. maybe its because i've been here for 2 weeks now and the simplicity of our days is finally sinking in. I'm not complaining, nor am i yet officially "bored" because i know i need to stock as many of these easy going restful days as possible. The coming weeks of brutal raciing and living in some abandoned belgian dorm are sure to make an uneventful day in izegem highly appealing. Here's a fresh action shot of me today.

Floyd eh? not good. I say wait for that B sample to be tested and go from there, but its still a roundhouse kick to the face of the cycling world. Plenty of people already ranting about it so I'll just say that it really bums me out and leave it at that.

Raced a couple days ago. Reninelst, a 1.2 uci race. It went ok, but not great. Beleive me, I know this already seems like a reaccuring theme over here but I'm gonna do my dangdest to fix it. Anyway, 185km of belgian small roads and wind. a few uphill rises but nothing i would call i climb. We only had 4 starters from our team, but Andy and I stayed strong and finished. maybe around 30th for me. I gave it my all trying to get into one of the small groups that stayed away off the front but it just wouldn't happen. The good news is that i did this race last year and can honestly say i felt improvment since then. lets hope the improvment will materialize into somthing one of these days.

Other big news includes that I'm actually reading a book! yea, i know surprising and terrifying at the same time considering I'm still a month or two out of the academic season. It hasn't been half bad though, and I think I might actually finish this one. "Cloud Garden" by a couple backpackers who were kidnapped in the Darien Gap of South American. Keeping me entertained so far.

not sure if you've had a chance to scope it yet, but Team Priority Health has updated their website with a TeamBlog section. posts are sure to be flowing in from all the PH guys so give er a gander every now and then.

Riding has been mellow for the past 2 days, some good exploring but no leg thrashing. that will come soon enough. here's a couple shots from one of my recent rides in one of the few nearby wooded areas.

US national Team; 1 Liege dorm; 0

We may not have won the race we did last week, but we did outsmart the hotbox, garbage dorm that we stayed in. take a look....


that is state of the art "full moveable blanket curtain", as well as a handy "fan stand". what makes it even better is none of the euros down the hall thought of anything even half as cool. you woulda been psyched too if you coulda felt how miserable and hot this dumpster we stayed in was.

Another noteworthy part of the 5 day, 500+ mile race through the hills of Liege was the rediculous amounts of skin being ripped off my rear end by the shorts we had to wear. wow, i hope these things break in. until then, massive amounts of chamois cream.....So how did the race go? ok. 3 of us made it to the finish. the first day i snagged a top 10 in record belgian highs. 103 f or so? sick to say the least. the next day i rode terrible, missed a feed and was without water, in the gutter for over an hour in some bad crosswinds. that whacked me pretty good and i basically spent the next couple days trying to recover from that heat exhaustion experience and hoping my legs would come around. The last day was pretty epic with some gnarly climbs from liege-bastonge-liege.

The past couple days have been spent trying to heal the legs a bit. Surprisingly I haven't been really bored since i've been here, for belgian standards at least. I've been able to chat with clara just about everyday and that of course helps a bunch.

Here's a pic of my belgian ride. i miss the Ridley but this one is pretty smooth too. check out this diddy. lets hope i get to do some time trials in the coming weeks!
One day 1.2 race in a nearby town tomorrow. Noel said he won't be surprised if we all get dropped. confidence inspiring eh? well, he just wants us to know it will be tough. thats ok, thats how we like it right?

ciao till then

goo and poo

my head is stuffed with goo and i kinda feel like poo. that sums it up.

it seems that my head has recently been invaded my mass quantities of mucous. it started as a bit of sneezy and itchy eyes and now has progressed to full congestion. not cool. rather frusterating really. i'm starting my first euro race of the season tomorrow. you would think my head would be filled with race thoughts and excitment. well it is sorta, but mostly just filled with snot. legs feel alright. rested for sure. maybe that will make up for it.

I sneaked into my room and took this pic. Its Mr. Mucous, fresh off one of used kleenex and waiting to be reunited with his relatives which i've been blowing outa my nose all day. not sure if you've seen the u23 national team kits for this year? well they look like spiderman. I'll do my best to get a pic or two from the next few days so i have blog worthy images to post. in the meantime, if your looking for eye candy. head to to www.clarabeard.blogspot.com not only does she look beautiful, but she recently did some cool races and saw some rad scenery which will likely be on another level to the belgium pics i could be taking.

Today I met Johan, the guy who will be our director for this weeks race. He seems like a decent guy. not Johan brunyeel, but if your name is Johan and you are belgian, you must know a thing or two about bikes and bike racing.

thats all for now. web access during this race is unlikely at best, but i will give you all the good word when i return.

ciao

i'm back

the house i left just over a year ago in lovely Izegem, Belgium hasn't changed much. Its been a quiet place since i got here yesterday. There are only 6 guys here right now, and Noel and Els are in France running a Tour De France camp for the heads of state at usacycling. The weather here is insane right now. warm, sunny, unlike the norm.

I made it through my travels without any major hickups, although my upper body is wrecked from hauling around the ridiculous amount of crap that i decided to bring. what was i thinking?? I'm pretty sure what sealed the deal on that one was my 20 min. walk from the train station in Izegem to the house. Apparantly there was some dude to pick me up at the aiport, but he definitley wasn't where my flight came in because i scanned that place to the max before i finally accepted defeat and hopped on the train. turns out this dude even had a sign labeled "BOOKWALTERS" ("S" inclueded. thats how you know its good). anyway, luckily the rad train skills that i aquired last summer were still somewhat intact and i made all my train hops without too much mad dashing up and down stairs.

2 mellow pace rides so far. good to just get out, stretch the legs, recover a bit from last weekend and slowly let the body adapt to the new environment. probably the same recipe for the coming days since we start the Tour of Liege on wed. supposed to be a 5 day stage race with hilly road races everyday. I'm sure that will kick our bodies into gear.

until we start racing, and in between all the races I'll be an internet fanatic since there are limited things to do here. shoot me an email or leave me some love in the comments section to keep me in touch with the homelands. i'm up for suggestions as far as post topics too.

until next time.

I feel dirty

First of, a few pics.....

diggin deep in the closing meters
how do i look?
close but not quite.
can you see me?? solo bridging to the break. ouch!!
i wonder if scott new he was gonna see a bear during the race?

traveling and large amounts of it has been the recipe for yesterday, today and will be as well for tomorrow. Yesterday was wack. my dad and i drove to Philly to get my passport sorted out. A big Thank you to Harry Bookwalter for that one!! well, after about 12 hours of driving, 2 hours waiting in line and another 2 hours waiting in a coffee shop I came away with a new passport. i think next time i will skip the "leaving my passport in storage at school part" and just bring it with me so we can skip that saga of trying to get it back which has occured over the past few weeks.

I didn't make it back in time for the crit yesterday, but sven, scott and grahmo all rode well. Graham bridged up to the winning move, then with about 3 laps to go, put all his marbles into another 3 man move which looked likely to stick but unfortunatley was brought back. he still ended up 9th though, and scrappy scott pulled down a solid 15th. Wait till these kids show back up in PA for U23 nats next year with another year of experience under their belt. I think they'll be turning some heads.

so now i'm in New York, at the airport. about another hour or so here and then I'm off. I feel like a dirtball, and i'm sure its only gonna get worse between now and when i arrive in brussels tomorrow morning. Its almost time to turn off my phone to let it hibernate for the next couple months. i don't know about you, but i think verizon should put a tower in Izegem, Belgium.

maybe in my next post i will type in flemish!!!!

a GREAT day

Seven Springs, PA. I have to say I've really takin a liking to this place since its been so kinda to me over the past couple years. Starting with collegiate mtb nats in '04, then again in '05 and now with the U23 road National Championships.

Yesterday was the day I've been looking for and thinking about for a while now, the TT nataional championships. the course was great for me and we even had a nice steady downpour of rain. I gave everything I had over the demanding 30km and came away with my first U23 national championship. It feels great after coming so close in the road race only a few days earlier, and after just missing the top spot on the podium repetadly in road, mtb and cyclocross the past couple years. Its awesome to really put your mind, heart, body and soul into somthing and then have everything come together on the day you are shooting for. Whats even better is all the great people I have to share it with. Thank you to everyone who has believed in me, not just for this goal but always, throughout my cycling career and even beyond cycling. Your comments, thoughts and prayers mean a lot!!!!I'd love to roll out more of an in detail update on the RR, TT and the week in general, but as usual I'm rippin around trying to get stuff done, last minute. I'm not gonna be able to race the crit tonight because as i type this I'm in Philly, waiting for a few passport issues I have to get sorted out. Looks like its all coming together though and I'll still be able to fly out tomorrow morning to head across the pond and join up with the U23 national team. I think my first race over there is less then a week away, but i'll be sure to keep the updates coming while i'm over there.

ciao for now

computers, ugh

well i've once again proved to myself that I'm a retard when it comes to computers and most other forms of technology. I swapped computers with my stepmom since mine is falling apart and i needed a reliable one for the europe jaunt. hers is almost new so its plush to be rollin with one that works, but i had no idea how much work it would be to get this one "brent" friendly. programs, files and all that stuff i need from my old one. I proly put 6 hours into this today and have gotten almost nowhere. boooooo.

Fitchburg ended up alright. It was a bummer to not be able to keep sheedy in the leaders jersey. in no way, shape or form was that because of how he was riding. that kinda frusterates me when people are like, "what happened to sheedy?" the better question would be, "what happened to the team" cuz after all, this is a team effort, especially when you are trying to defend the lead. We did a good job of it in the circuit race, even with little or no radio communication and no director or mechanic. the next day in the road race we went in with a good plan, with a couple options depending on how things unfolded. It went one of the ways we had anticipated and planned for, but just didn't work out in the end. The good news is that Ted and I both moved up on GC, me to 5th and Ted to 6th. We maintained the last day in the crit and came away with a respectable result. Personally, I was happy to score a top 5 at a NRC race. With a little more experience, a little more form and a little more luck I know I can be right there for that top spot. The team came away from the race with some good momentum and excited to head into the rest of the summer. The guys are lookin sharp so look out!

The past 2 days have been spent trying to recover a bit and looking ahead to the rest of my summer which is rapidly approaching. saturday i leave for Seven Springs, PA for U23 road nats. then on July 14th i head over to Europe to join the national team. I also have to have all my stuf in order for my fall semester at school since i likely won't be coming back to MI before school starts. Whew! that is a bit to think about.

I better get my butt in gear. i should have some pics on this computer sometime in the next year or so. keep checkin back though, i could sprout a few computer friendly brain cells.

ciao

Sheedy Wins!

day 1 of Fitchburg today. 6 mile TT, kinda rolling but mostly uphill. my teamate and good friend Brian Sheedy SMOKED it! he was starting to really look lean and mean at tour de beauce and it appears he's got that last extra bit he needed after a few days of rest and then winning the MI state time trial championships this past weekend. Great win for the team and really awesome to see Brian put in a good ride. 8th place for me. felt alright out there, but definitley some solid room for improvment. Today made me realize how much Mark and Ben help us at races. We're all pulling mechanic/director duties this week as well as racing our bikes. Good thing we're all such great teamates :) Circuit race tomorrow. word on the streets is that its a toughy. wish us luck!

the next one

on the road again today. out of MI, through canada, across the wiiiiide state of New York and into Massachussetts. Made good time but it was still a full day. Fitchburg starts thrusday with the TT. no, mechanic or director for us at this one so we are on our own. host housing for the week as well, nice quiet place about 45 min. from the race. Good job to our young guns at the Tour of Ohio. Grammo kicked off the first stage with a nice 5th place. Also a big congrats to Thor for getting the team its first NRC win of the season at the Tour de Nez last week by winning the TT.

The past week or so since Beauce has been filled with a good bit of rest and enjoyable time at home. I hit the local mtb trails a couple days last week for my first dose of much needed singletrack riding in a long time. swell times as always. gotta try to open the legs up a bit tomorrow which may be hard after a week of couch time, but hopefully this weekend will kick me back into gear and ready me for U23 nats and my upcoming europe trip. Looks like the national team guys are putting in some good rides over there so i'm psyched to join em in a few weeks.

no fresh pics, but i have been missing Clara in very large quanities. i'll share this one which i have been looking at rather frequently.

beauce pics

R and R

back to the blogging world for me. this will be a long one so bear with me. After a rough philly week in which i crashed 3 times in just over a week, i wasn't exactly psyched to write and once again explain what happened; however, i feel like my luck and racing has turned around a bit since then and I'm back on the up instead of on the down.

aside from my crash in the final 200 meters, philly was actually a pretty good day. Last year I didn't makethe final selection there, for a number of reasons, just not having "i"t being one of them. This year though was different and it gave me a new appreciation for the race. Its definitley different then any other race we do all year, especially making it to the 6th hour of racing. I know all those big pros like julich, horner and even pate always say the race isn't hard enough to force a really small selection, and that very well may be the case because we still had 30 or so guys at the finish, but for me, racing the full distance of 250km, and still being there to actually "race" at the end was a tough feat. anyway, the team rode solid throughout the day with Glen and I made the final group. It was great to have a guy like Glen by my side to keep me going and give me all those pointers that only a veteran like him could share. unfortunatley, i took a hard spill in the closing meters of the race as everyone was blurry eyed and diving for wheels. It really sucked to be that close to finishing that race strong and with a good result, but the positive is that i was there and now i know what it takes.

post race was also a bit of a sad time because i had to say my goodbyes to Clara. she's off to Italy to spend a good part of the summer with her parents and rip some legs off over there. I'm already missin her like crazy but at least now I am home and able to have plenty of phone and computer contact with her.

on to the next race.... right after philly we had to drive up to Quebec for the Tour De Beauce which started on tuesday! 250km of racing, a travel day and then a 6 day stage race. ouch!!! upon arriving in quebec i felt like i had been hit my a truck and then trampled by a heard of bulls. i really wasn't sure how i was gonna bring my body to race, but brian and glen convinced me that my body would come around once we got racing again. well, eventually my body did begin to come around, but not before 2 of the most horrific days on the bike i've had in a long time. the first two stages were absolute misery, filled with constant suffering and pretty much total mental and physical breakdown by the finish. i lost time both days and also had begun to watch the best young rider jersey slip out of my reach which was tough to see, knowing that had i come to this race fresh and at my best, these races would have been near perfect for me. on the 3rd day, things began to turn around. Glen, Brian and Tom rode like maniacs all day keeping Teddy and I up front and out of the wind. i can't say how crucial and helpful this was since the day would end on the beast of a climb, Mount Megantic and serious time gaps were sure to happen. The climb was insane. only the 2nd mtn top finish i've ever done and also one of the hardest climbs i've ever raced on, but I rode alright and ended up 15th on the day, putting time into the columbian kid who was leading the best young rider competition. It wasn't a massive result in itself, but the team had finally got things to click a bit and set us up for a good stage 4.

Stage 4 was a double day. 15km TT in the morning and a crit that didn't count for GC in the afternoon. Once again i wasn't sure what to expect out of my smashed legs, but it went quite well. I ended up 8th on the day and also was able to take over the red jersey as new leader of the best young rider classification. Zirbel crushed the course, holding a top 3 time for almost the entire day until that last few heads of state took the the course. still, Tom ended up with a highly impressive 6th place.

The next 2 days were a brutal set of circuit races. rad courses with wacky amounts of climbing and all kinds of leg breaking attacks throughout the days. stage 5 got whittled down to a select front group of 30 in which both sheedy and I found ourselves in. brian rode like a hauss once again making sure i was up at the front ready for any more splits that would happen. The last stage was more of the same and also the hottest of the days at a blistering 95 degrees! a long drag of a climb that was popping guys off the back from lap one and then a roller coaster decent back to the start finish. with our reduced team, we played it safe and stayed out of trouble all day to finish in the whittled down bunch and clinch the red jersey for Priority health, ending a hard week of racing.

doing this from my bros computer so pics are n/a but i will see what i can do in the next day or two.

Back in MI now for a few days of R and R. hope the summer is treating you all nicely!

ciao ciao

and another one

a quick update to report some not so good news.

i crashed again. last lap. glen pulls an amazing effort and brings me and robbie in the top 10 wheels coming into the final and crucial climb with only maybe 2 miles to go. then BAM! someone sprints up my right side, hooking the back of my handelbars and sending me into a disco spin. game over. not cool. one of these days it will come together though.

heading to philly tomorrow. wish i was there today. wish me luck and no crashing. comments are fun too.

ciao for now.

BB

take a gander....

i realized today that i have my camera and battery charger but no batteries. Luckily Tom Z was nice enough to sponsor me with a pair of AA's for the coming days, as well as these dandy pics. thanks Tom!

if your looking for carnage pics, headhere.