So it's been a year...

Long time followers may recognize some of the scene I am going to write about since we just finished the first race (Gila) that I blogged about last year. Different things happened this year, but in a similar setting.

Flying into El Paso I noticed that the engine is not a mens room.

We stopped at a gas station to grab some beverages. No one pulled the trigger for the samurai sword.

Winger did find a great hat though.

This year the staff (Alan and I) stayed in a little cabin down the trail from the main house in Pinos Altos. It was very romantic.

And cozy.

Dune buggy! Silver City hobbies may vary.

Clean water bottles getting dry and ready for beverage. This represents a small fraction of what we used over the course of the week.

Our house. No garage but a nice sized yard to hold bikes.

And oh how many bikes we had.

I had to foil an attempted hitch hiker on one of our bikes before stage one.

At Gila we were joined by Utah Chris. I was glad to discover that his strength on the bike can only be rivaled by his strength in shoe choice.

Cars lined up for Stage 1.

A rider dropping grabbing a bottle from the car in front of us.

Day one was reasonably successful. Jon managed to fight back to a top 20 finish despite the fact he did to his front wheel.

Alan and I meanwhile spent some time figuring out what was wrong with the brakes on our van.

TT day was windy. (Flag in center as evidence.)

Also cold. I got the wheels ready in the back of the van to stay out of the wind.

Alan was in the car.

Rider, director, and photographer just ahead of our last TT starter.

Post TT taco truck!!

Featuring a sticker I also have on my toolbox. Great minds....

I have mentioned before that a lot of racers are also fans of the sport as a whole. With the start of the Giro and limited internet access, I walked into the house Saturday morning to find this scene huddled around Steve's phone.

Our return to the taco truck on Saturday was just as wonderful as the first. We got a little better idea of relative van vs truck size.

Basically if the bike racing thing fails, we may start serving Tacos out of the van.

Crit start. There is a new trend going around of bringing a chair to the pits. I may have to start doing that. People just look so comfortable.

The last day finished right by our hose in Pinos Altos. I've included this map I found on my coffee cup. If you're curious about Pinos Altos it's a lot like this. The Buckhorn is basically the only thing in town.

 

More to come on the journey home.