Joe Martin

Prologue: Last year I did a 9:10 to place 33rd, this year a 9:12 to place 88th! Wow, I must have missed something or did the quality of the P/1 really improved so much over one year? Anyways, that was not a good start but a 10min effort like that was just not in the legs today.

Century + 10: Friday's stage was probably the slowest 110miles I've ever done racing. It started fast and I (+Mat) tried really hard to get into "the break" in the first hour but nothing would go. Finally, it went and I was back in the pack :-( Anyhow, we started to go SLOW. I think we dropped only one rider over Mt. Gaylor this time...Almost 5:20hr into the stage Chad found my wheel and I did an all-out effort to pull him next to the OUCH and Colavita-trains. I had no legs for the final so I "dropped him off" and took it easy around the last few turns while he finished 7th, being best amateur once again!

Fastest 92miles ever: After our granny-ride yesterday some people thought it's time to add some speed to this race and we actually "raced" - all day. I was sitting 30th wheel and could notice all the aggressive riding the first time, the 2nd time, and the 3rd time up the little feed zone hill. Bissell definitively threw everything they had at Landis & Co. and it was fun to have an actual bike race instead a controlled, tactical "cruise" where the "real" racing would get neglected. 28mph avg speed sounds more like a crit to me but still 100guys made it into a mad dash to the final line after 92miles of racing. I tried my luck at first but only managed mid-pack in 32nd.

Crit: Some say it's the hardest Crit you do all year, I say it's definitely close to that. Only Chad and I were left from our original squad of five. I've done that race 3 times now and every time the leading team would ride tempo all day at the front. Not the "tempo" you think, more like NormPower of 360W for 90minutes. I found my place in the group and just followed wheels. Some wheel you wanna follow for sure is that of Huffy, might not always look the safest but he gets around the peloton pretty quick (and eventually finishing 5th). After getting a glimpse of what it feels like to be off the front I quickly settled back in the pack and finished it out in 30th place. The last 10 times up that B@# of a start/finish hill I barely had my eyes open and was always VERY close to pull the plug - but I couldn't.

Chad