Mike Olheiser

Find the details on the race at:  http://www.tourofsouthland.com/         
This will be the jersey our team will be wearing for the race.

Day 1 - Travel day, I think 19 time zones
Day 2.5 - We made it, nobody has a bike, but we are here.
Day 2.75 - Still waiting for our bikes, any suggestions.

   
Day 3 -  I think. We got our bikes last night and finished putting them together today, Sunday, Saturday for anybody reading in the US.  Went for a 60k ride, and got some good lunch.  Now watching football and waiting to go to the team presentation tonight at 6:30. 

Race Day 1:  TTT – We had an ok run for 5 guys thrown together and racing together for the first time.  We got 15^th.  Afternoon was an 80k RR, they were not kidding about the wind.  There was also a big crash which neutralized the field, Seth broke this nose, and it took Stefan a minute to figure out where he was.   I finished 20^th and moved to 21^st in the GC.

Race Day 2:  163k RR, it was fast from the gun.  Both Stefan and I got into a few moves, but all the moves would come back, except the last move in the last 10k.  The 4 riders put all of 3 seconds into the field despite a massive effort.  If you have checked, they changed Stefan and me on the results, but I finished 14^th  Still waiting to see the GC.  Everyone is good today, finishing in the field, and looking forward to tomorrow.
Race Day 3:  88k this morning, not too much exciting to report.  A break went up the road, and ended up getting 32 seconds on the field.  I finished 20^th, and the rest of the boys finished safely in the field.  101k this afternoon, excuse me, holy shit.  15k into the race we turned to go down the coast, and got sideswiped by a 30 mph wind.  The field blew to pieces, I saw what was happening, but was too late to do anything about it.  I ended up in the first chase group, but I knew there was no way we were going to get back to the leader, they finished over 7 minutes ahead.  We battled the wind for the next 70k and I ended up getting 20 seconds on the field in the last 2k, with Kevin and Greg finishing right behind me and Stefan losing a little time.  Tomorrow we do a couple of climbs, let’s see what happens.  More pictures at http://sethrubin.blogspot.com/

Race Day 4:  131k of pure fun, with a hill top finish, but it was racing as normal, with breaks coming and going.  The guys raced strong, but it was the hills that were going hurt.  I think we all finished in the top 60 out of the 100 left.  I felt pretty good leading up most of the last climb (3 guys from the break up the road), but only managed a 7^th place finish, but that ended up moving me up to 15^th in the GC.

Race Day 5:  Another 100 mile day. A break went up the road early and the rest of us watched.  I would have like to tag on, but as it has been going, I have not made the breaks all week.  Well, this stage ended with a 3K climb and I was hoping to catch the break on the climb.  But not to be.  Three riders stayed off the front and I finished 7^th.  Not a bad day, with 2 stages left to go.

Race Day 6:  This was another 2 stage day and the last day of the tour.  We were told that this was going to be a fast stage.  We did 80k in a hour and a half.  I made the climb with 5 other guys including Stefan, but after about 55K Stefan was popped which left 5 of us.  We never slowed down, and I was working very hard and in the last 5k I rolled off the front only to be pulled back, but in the last 300 meters started my sprint and held off the other 4.  Great stage win.

The 2^nd a stage of the day and the last stage.  The winds decided to kick back up.  We fought the wind for the entire 60K dwindling the field down to about 20 riders.  We finished the circuit and I finish 14^th I think, but moved to 11^th overall, what a fun, but tough week.