I was coming into tour de Toona with high hopes of a top ten GC finish and some good fitness... luckily one of those happened. Sort of. The first days race was an intense and short circuit race in the boonies outside Altoona P.A. deep in the realm of Menonite (Floyd) country. It was a rolling circuit that came into town for a very tight very very fast crit like thing coming into the finish before heading back out on the bigger circuit. I was able to ride agressively, and actually got in an attack on the final lap that had promise. Sadly, when the pace of the field is over 27 mph it's hard to stay away. Coming into the finishing circuit everything got REALLY scetchy and I ended up not risking my life and coming in with the WAY TOO INTACT field. Oh well.
Tour de Toona Day 2
After checking out the course the night after the circuit race, I knew it would be a day of work for me to get Justin in the front group. My legs havent been reacting to climbing well this year and considering im about 6 pounds heavier than I need to be to climb well, today I would be a work horse and was I ever. I spent the majority of the first 40 miles toward the front going with a few stupid yet possibly good moves then all hell began. Blue knob signs began to show up and the closer we got the faster we went. At the base of the climb I started hurting and I did what I needed to to get Justin in the front. Then boom, the wall of 10-15% grade hit the thighs and I was finished. After about 15 miles of chasing in a sad belief that we just might catch one of the front groups we started picking up small groups and sadly one had Justin in it. Poop. In the end we had a fun little finish sprint that I finished 2nd in. oh well. Sunday I kind of hurt my knee so I didnt get too far into the crit. Good thing. It was a hellish course and I was not even 50% so I called it a day and watched the remainder of the race from the sideline. Oh well.
Chalk up another and another gone
Iban Mayo is a doper.
Sweet... who else? With that being said, the clean team in America is looking to grow. Sliptream is adding not only David Millar, THE Dave Z, and Christian Vande Velde and "a past winner of Paris Robaix" Check out the article here. I remember reading a few months back an article about big Maggie Backstead and how he hoped to work with up and coming pros when he got older. Considering Van Petegam, Boonen and Stuey are all pretty set in their teams and their roles on those teams my money is on Big Maggie. This could make NRC racing in the states pretty intense if they decide they want to come over and "play" wahoo.
Any way, its time for me to get on the bike. I have a two week block to get ready for Georgia Cup Stage Race and then it's vacation, school, and greenmountain or Windsor. yaya
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