A quick east coast edition

The east coast is nice. Well some parts seem to be at least. As a life long west coast resident this is my first trip to New Hampshire, so I thought I'd check out the coast. Oceans are pretty cool.

 

 

I even got a chance to run on the beach. The last time I ran anywhere was at close to 9000 feet. I'm pretty sure this one was slightly closer to sea level.

 

But the beach life was short lived. The race in Gloucester, Mass was well attended with most of the early fields selling out. Since we were set up right next to the start grid it was a bit crowded before each race.

 

Even with the crowds and work, you could still see the ocean. Pretty wonderful weekend.

 

And Caroline won.

Time flies

I was trying to figure out the last time I had done this blogging thing earlier today. Apparently it's been quite some time. A busy road season seems to have lead to a less than ideal number of posts. I'll do my best to get a few older posts together as the fall and winter wears on but for now I'm pressing on from here.

 

Cross season is upon us. After only a few days at home after the US Pro Challenge (perhaps a future blog post) I was off to Boulder, Vegas, and finally Madison where this photo was taken.

 

Inside the Raleigh-Clement compound James, the head mechanic, and I take care of a team of up to 6 cross racers.

 

Despite the fact we have fewer riders than the road team the workload is just as high.

 

 

Some things are a bit different though. For example since we are usually set up away from the hotel we sometimes have to stop along the way to get the vehicles washed. Pressure washers sure are nice for washing.

But some  things remain the same. After the  race last weekend in Madison we had to drive out to the east coast. Many states in the middle of the US seem to still be pretty excited about corn.

When we had some extra time, we even got to stop by Niagra Falls. I've been told the Canadian side is better, but the American side was at least pretty cool.

There was even a rainbow when it wasn't raining.

Some of the other tourists were prepared for rain. Didn't think I'd see a Seattle Sombrero so far from the Pacific Northwest.

Then again I didn't think I'd see people drinking Four Loko either. But hey, he's on vacation, right?

There were also a fair few of these signs. The cliffs to the falls drop off right on the other side of this railing.

I think maybe the signs could be removed and there would probably only be a few people who will weed themselves out because of that.

 

More news to come. Maybe not even in 6 months.

TOC

The Amgen Tour of California is one of the biggest damage races in the US. With bigger races comes bigger vehicles, in this case mainly an enormous RV.

Our compound before the day before the start in Sacramento.

Our neighbors were friendly enough.

But we were ready if things went bad.

Stage one started/finished around the Califormia capital. Here we took full advantage of the bike lane.

Once the riders had left for the start this guy took full advantage of these bike parking stands.

It was sunny and a bit windy in Sacramento.

People were out en masse to watch the start as well as the women's criterium to follow.

Some better prepared than others. (Can you count the flasks?)

But since I didn't have to ride in the car, I watched the race on TV.

A couple days later in Monteray soon to be extra famous cycling star Eloy Teruel signed a giant poster for a fan.

The Monteray to Cambria stage was fantastic. We spent most of the day cruising the PCH looking at the ocean.

Over a few bridges and up some hills.

And past the worlds luckiest cows.

Guy with very strong neck.

View from the back: one of the OPQS riders back for bottles from the car.

Possibly for this guy (2014 Roubaix winner)

In the caravan the front of the race seems a very long way away. Thankfully we can also watch the live stream.

After only a week of driving, washing, and tuning it was over. I guess time flys when you're having fun.

One Tour of California down. Hopefully more to come.

 

 

The post that was going to be titled Arkansas.

So I went to Arkansas for a bike race. Then tornados threatened the drive and I ended up being in Arkansas for about 8 hours. But these things happen. If you're curious about the highlights:

Ian Crane won the damn thing and JJ won the green jersey.

While that was happening I was somewhere in Oklahoma.

In Texas there was free steak.

In Albuquerque I found some riders. Fortunatley Eloy was not bothered by riding in a car with all available space filled.

Our hotel in silver city was delightful. There was even a pancake machine (not pictured).

So we set up the compound as usual.

 

I made the Silver City Sun Times.

And were joined by SRAM NRS (Neutral Race Support).

Hugo getting numbers on the bikes.

The smile may have been caused by our K3 number holders.

And as the sun sets work is all but done.

All of that work was made very sweet the next day. If you're wondering: yes they all talked the night before about what to wear and decided it would be best if they all were on the podium with the coordinated outfits.

Which did not keep anyone from being ready for the next day.

Often the amount of things we carry seems crazy. Why would you need so many stands? Staff ? Etc?

The answer is only that this is the before picture.

The after photo, I think, brings some perspective.

But the road is not all work. Sometimes we have a nice hotel cooked meal.

Sometimes we cross multi tools with old friends.

Sometimes we relax in the feed zone.

And sometimes you get to win. In this case the sprinters jersey courtesy of Luis Amaran.

Climbers jersey courtesy of Daniel Jaramillo.

Best young rider jersey courtesy of Daniel Jaramillo.

And the team GC courtesy of (L to R) Felix Fariña, Luis Amaran, Eloy Teruel, Daniel Jaramillo, Gregory Brenes, Rob Squire, Carson Miller, Tyler Wren, Matt Cooke, and Sebastian Alexandre.

And as you can imagine this left us with a few new clothes for our wardrobe.

Hopefully they can keep us warm at the Tour of Califormia.