RR: The last weekend before Master nats. We raced this morning in the nice cool weather here in Memphis. The group was small, I think 17 of us. It proved to be a race of attrition. Everybody was attacking from the gun, but the cream will rise to the top. 2K before the last lap Nate Brown went flying up a small climb, Curtis Gunn (Fly V) and I quickly joined the attack and we were off. The three of us worked great together splitting pulls. The finish was a sprint with me edging out the other two. Yes, believe, I won my first sprint of the year. Did I mention, the heat index was at 100 degres by the finish? Pat also had a great effort winning the field sprint for fourth.
TT and Crit: First thank you to Gary for the picture. Great weekend. Thank you Warp 9, Tristar, Two Men, and everybody else, we could not make it from city to city to city w/o you, by the way I think I am in Loiusville. Smith and Barney and Marx and Bensdorf did a great job with the race. The TT was a TT and the crit was fast, with attack after attack, if I did not know better, I would have thought Curtis and Nate were trying to wear me out. It was great though, the field whittled down to 7 guys I think. I lead out the last 8 laps giving or new sprinter, Pat Allison, a clean shot at the finish line, which he took advantage of. Pat also took 3 of the 5 cash preems. What a great weekend for him. It is good to have him on the squad.
Monday: Hopefully a day to relax and finish traveling. We hope to head to Hood River late this morning or early afternoon. I am hoping to ride Friday's TT course today, get some food and get some sleep. The weather is looking very good and I like my chances at this race. We are hoping to have a good team showing, recaharge the batteries, and come back to the south flying.
If you missed it, the junior trials in Nashville were very cool. Congrats to the winners and thank you to the promoters. Check back regularly for updates on the race, we start racing Wednesday night.
Wednesday: Prolgue, Fun and fast. I have not told Jon yet, but I think I destroyed his trainer. It smelled a little funny and started to make some funny noises. The 3.1 mile course went very well with me grabbing the win by 2 seconds. No time to celebrate the win, it is going to be a hard day tomorrow and our team has its work cut out for them.
Thursday: Today, I think. The team was great and rode on the front for a good 45 miles, setting tempo and not letting the break get too far up the road. We climbed 10,000 and covered 85 miles, the result was not as good as yesterday, but ok. I finished 14th and lost 17 seconds, not counting time bonuses. I am now sitting in 5th place overall. All the guys did awesome, killing themselves in the first 45 miles and beating the time cut in, even with Travis's stop at the cabin for a coke and a fresh bottle, ok Jonny Mac.
 
Friday: TT, 18.1 miles, the pressure was on, day to shine or a day to fall. Have you heard about the gorge winds, let me tell you, Hood River is the wind sailing Capital of the USA, this was the fourth time on this TT course, and I have never seen the winds this bad. I had to unload my chamois when I finished. I had my front wheel wash on me about 10 times at 40 mph. All that said, I finished 4th to 3 pro riders, later this will provebto be my first mistake in losing my spot on the podium, I should have dug deeper.
Pics at: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2009/jun09/mthood09/mthood092/gallery-mthood092
Saturday: RR, 92 miles and over 10,000 ft of climbing, we went nuts from the gun, 55 mph downhill in 50 degree weather, I could not wait to go up hill to warm up, careful what you wish for. Cal Strawberry wanted to get into a break w/o Bissel. The attacks started and the pace was fast and we were dropping riders like flies.
Fast forward, a lot of riders caught back on including all of my teammates, time to feed and wait for the last 40 miles up hill into a head wind.
Important note, don’t pee while moving unless you know what you are doing. Big crash, I watched a Bissel rider fall right in front of me, with nowhere to go I proceed to run over his back wheel, no problem. Well, puncture, I skid some hard, I ripped all the rubber off my tire and squeezed the caliper so hard I cracked my rim. I looked back to see the carnage and to find neutral support, there was no way for neutral to get to me, the road was scattered from one side to the other with bodies and bikes. So, the closest rider to me was Mikey aka Monkey and I changed rear wheels with him. The only problem with the wheel exchange was that a spring was stuck on the axel causing the wheel to be out of line and rub on my frame and destroy one brake pad, mistake #2, go figure.
The attacks came late on the last climb, but I could not match the accelerations, and finish 43 seconds off the lead, good enough for 9th on the day and 3rd in GC. Could have been better, and thank you to everybody for the support on the road on a long day in the saddle.
Pics at: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2009/jun09/mthood09/mthood093/gallery-mthood093
Sunday: Crit, 70 minutes, who didn’t screw up this day? We let the wrong guy go up the road (mistake # 3), Bissel did care about the stage, Cal Strawberry didn’t win, Red Truck got the stage win, but lost a spot on GC (but they marked me, gapped me off the field, and attacked me, go figure),and Baldwin cold get off the front. Just a bad day, Travis went down, I worked on my Mountain bike skills (again), and I lost a spot on GC.
Pics at: http://www.mthoodcyclingclassic.com/stage-4-downtown-hood-river-crit-in-pictures/
Overall: A great week, everybody finished, got a stage win and yellow jersey (That Nicole can’t wait to wear), and built some great team camaraderie. Thank you, everybody.
Check out more pics at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30342689&id=1524489428&comments=#/photo.php?pid=30340951&id=1524489428&comments=
Darrell's thoughts after the race: Hi folks,
Let me start by thanking everyone for what was a great experience for me in terms of racing, visiting a new place, and fellowship with friends. I’m sure that the Hood River area is among the most beautiful places in the U.S. Kristina and I commented many times that it was like being back in Switzerland. We were both pretty bummed to have to leave.
I also wanted to thank John, Casey, David, Valerie, Ryan, Nicole, Jennifer, and Kristina for all of their help. It was awesome to have them in the feed zone and out on the course. The refreshments on stage 3 were especially nice! And thanks also for putting up with tired and occasionally grumpy racers.
Mike O once again proved that he’s got the goods to be among the best in the country. Great job Mike! I’m very proud to have been a part of the race and to have made a small contribution.
From the sponsor’s perspective, I think that they – especially Steven Collins and Bert Hull – have to be extremely happy. We were able to get them a ton of publicity for a small investment – just what team sponsorship is all about. Thanks to all of those guys for having the faith in us to give us support in the first place and making our place in the race possible.
Hopefully the team’s brief time in the spotlight will also help us recruit some more help – i.e., more sponsorship and stronger riders. Even though the race on the whole was a huge success for the team, it’s impossible for me to not have some remorse over letting Mike’s podium spot slip away on the last stage. With a little more help, I’m confident that he could have held on.
I likely will not be able to do another big race like this during the remaining part of the season. And I may not have the opportunity to do this caliber race for a very long time since I expect that my employment will change in the very near future. That makes Hood, and my brief time at Gila, very special for me. Thanks for letting me be a part of those experiences.
Sincerely,
Darrell
Day before the race: Travis is cussing at his computer, I am silently laughing. We are planning a 3 hour ride, packet pick up, trip to Walmart (racer best friend for groceries and anything else while out of town), getting our last of our team settled in, and have some fun. We are looking forward to five good days of racing against some of the best racers in the States.
 Day one, Mogollon stage, 94 miles with the last 10 miles being up hill with gradients up to 19%: Well, I will give you what I got. Levi won, I cracked on the Mesa (39th), Lance has my lucky number, its very dry, the garbage disposal at the house doesn't work, everybody finished today except Will. Alright, a little more, pretty much uneventful till the climb, just fast. We did 94 miles in under 4 hrs. I was with the lead group of about 15 guys until I got stuck in the wind on the mesa, so instead of blowing up, I backed off, and rode in saving something for the next couple of days. Time to rest and recover, tomorrow is a new day and this is a 5 day stage race. Hopefully, I can tear it up on the TT Friday, but I think we are coming together as a team and I hope it continues. I will try to get some pictures as I get them. The bike was awesome, the rider just wasn't all there. Thank you to all our sponsors and supporters.
http://tourofthegila.com/racecourses.html
Day Two, inner Loop, 80 miles with rolling hills: No good report today unless you can read German, http://www.radsport-news.com, half way down the page or want to read velonews report, http://velonews.com/article/91412/colavita-s-haedo-wins-gila-field-sprint-as-leipheimer . Fast day which finish in a bunch sprint. First picture from the week, Stefan and me in the new kits after Stage 2, get a good look at the front of my jersey.
Day Three, 16 mile TT: Wow, finally some down time. So, I went about 40 seconds faster then last year, and finished worse, 32nd. The field is stacked. If you were worried about the results from yesterday, yes, they were wrong. I finished in the pack and stayed at 35th place, same place I am in now. Maybe I can do something in the Crit, I am running out of days. Alright, I am going to chill and enjoy my coffee. Here's to WARP9 bikes, http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2009/apr09/gila09/gila092/22
http://tourofthegila.com/racecourses.html
Day Four, 90 minute Crit: Just a Crit. I was able to get off the front for a couple of laps, 3, but nothing to exciting. The crowds were big, and everybody was looking for Lance. We, Me and Stefan had fun. Here are the results and the GC going into the big day on Sunday.
http://tourofthegila.com/2009race/day4mens1.html
http://tourofthegila.com/2009race/day4mens1gc.html
Day Five, Gila Monster, 105 miles with several catigorized climbs: If you have not checked out the profile: http://tourofthegila.com/racecourses.html I finish 21st on the stage and 28th in the Overall. Travis and Stefan were great bringing me food and keeping me out of trouble. I think Travis got dropped 3 times and crawled his way back to the field to help, awesome job. The day was mared with crashes and carnage of the climbs, and by 90 miles you just want to get home. It was a fun day, nontheless, even though I had dropped many of the guys close to me in the GC, most managed to get back to me on the run in through the forest, unlucky for me. As for the new Warp 9, it has been put through its paces and come out hot on the corners. The bike rides great, it climbs, descends, and corners. It is fast in the crits, the breakway in Brookhaven, or ascending to the Continental Divide and falling off the mountain at 60+ mph, no problem. It handles great and is comfortable, what else could I ask for. Thank you all for your support.
Just found this picture, this is the finish on Pinas Altos, after 10,000 ft of climbing and 105 miles.
No pictures, it has been alot of races in a little amount of time. I will write more later, but here are the short and skinnies. I was in second place in the GC, going into the TT, Saturday night. The crit was fun on Friday, but frustrating, O and same on the RR this morning. Circuit race tomorrow, and we will see what happens. We are waiting for result from the TT, but I am sure we will have our work cut out for us tomorrow.
Tomorrow has come and past, and now it is Monday, time for work, and relaxing before the trip to NM. I placed 2nd in the TT and that placed me second overall. Our team was out of the Team competition, so it was time to protect 2nd place in the GC, which we did. The team did very well even though the field blew apart, and we finished around 25 riders. Unfortunately, it cost us Mikey Lite, who suffered a broken shoulder. A fun weekend never the less, and wish Mikey a speedy recovery.
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Train Hard 4 Life
Monday, 29 June 2009 15:00 | 
