Elite Nationals, Bend OR, 2010

 A first time experience for me.....I had no Idea what to expect.....going head to head with what is supposed to be the best amateurs in the country.......Here are few photos from the TT....and road race........I ended up 12th in each........about 31 seconds off the podium in the TT, and 4 seconds in the road race.......Next year I know what to expect and will have much higher expectations.......should be fun.

Crushing the last bit to the finish......Dumbo helmet in the not so aero position ...that's my 30 second man behind me......we battled the entire 35k for position leap frogg'n each other and...passing 3 or 4 guys in front of us...This jerk pushed me to my limit......and I scored a pretty darn good time because of it...I was really hating him by the end...We gave each other a big pat on the back...!



 The top of the climb up Archie Briggs road........a steep 3-4 min power climb that we scaled 6 times over 100 miles of racing.


 

Entering one of Bends many awesome round-a-bouts...

The finish was a tough one.....I chased down a move with 3k to go.....and then got counter attacked by the eventual 3rd and 4th place finishers.....Blew it big.....and then pulled the 5th place guy to the line...He proceeded to torch  me in the sprint....awesome...

That would be me on the far left.....by the barriers...just plain blew it....!!!!!!!!

Fill'n N the blanks

Just a quick update since I left everyone, well at least...(all two of my followers) hanging after Elkhorn....

Quite a rainy day in the saddle......about 75 miles into the race.....this is all that remains...except for a group of 6 riders about 2 min up the road.....Jesse Moore played the role of Crazy Horse, giving up his overall and pulling the break back to within a few minutes mostly by himself............then the rest off us raced our wet spandex to the top fo Dooley Mt......about a 2000' climb..mostly 5-6%, beautiful and in the trees......I blew a gasket with about 3 k to go......and came in seventh........Thanks Mom for the warm hug.!





coincidentally I ended up 7th on GC....for my efforts I was awarded a $100.00 bill.......don't I look stoked!
 
Not a great way to make a living......this would help subsidize my greedy portion of  our planets dwindling liquid dinosaurs supply....and a scarce amount of food on the way to nationals immediately after the stage........ !



Check out the winner of the stage, 90lb Chris Hong, made us look like a bunch of Apes....... He put almost 5 min into us on the last climb...and swept the GC.
Before heading to Bend I made sure to tank up on the free locally brewed beer and pizza.  The volunteers put out a huge effort to make the rainy, cold, 40' finish a sweet place to be. Always a fun stage race........most likely I'll be back next year...!