Unexpected trip back to Dallas.

SuperWeek is officially over, however i have now been back in Dallas since Wednesday. I only raced 11 days before returning home. While racing in Bensenville, I crashed with 4 to go and broke my bike. I was ok, not even a bit of road rash, but I managed to get a 3-4 inch crack in the center of the top tube of my bike. Awesome. SRAM support was worthless so I continued to race it for another 5 days or so. On Tuesday I woke up feeling like a pile of crap and decided not to race. I told Barry and we agreed going home would be best.
I did manage to salvage a 7th place finish in Ripon before heading back. Not bad considering I was riding in support of Carlos. I think the rain made it easier to get a good result. All you had to do was not crash and stay at the front. Carlos had maybe the best Superweek he has ever had. Even after a slow start. He finished 3rd overall, 3rd in the sprint competition, and 1st in the top amateur competition. That's pretty solid considering he did it basically all by himself. He's the man.
Nationals is next on the agenda in just a couple short weeks time in the great state of California. The following week is crit nationals in Downers Grove.
This is all assuming I get a bike to ride and an airline ticket from my team to get to Cali. For the time being, Richrdson BikeMart has been very generous in loaning me a bike for training while I am in town and until Scott can come up with another one for me. I see myself riding a Speedster in the near future. Awesome! What an upgrade.
On the upside I did win the u23 state crit championship. We can just forget that the turn out was sub par for the event. For obvious reasons. A jersey is a jersey I guess. Bryan won another one too.
Out for now.

More Superweek.

Almost halfway done with Superwwek 2008. All in all its going ok. We had our first off day on Thursday, skipping the Shorewood crit, and used the day for travel from Chicago to our host housing in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Carlos is around 10th overall, 2nd amateur. He has been consistently finishing in the top 10 on every stage. On day 1 in Bensenville, he lapped the field with 7 other guys and finished in 5th on the day.
Coming into Superweek, we all knew that it was pretty dicey if you chose to be competitive, and that it wasn't a matter of IF but when you were going to crash. The team fairing well in the crash department so far. (knock on wood). Only Barry, John and myself have crashed. All on the same course. Luckily nothing too bad.
Yesterday was our first race after the rest day in Ripon, WI. The course was a kilometer long with 2 punchy climbs. Start positioning was crucial, groups were getting pulled 8 laps into the race. A group of 3 got off the front and eventually lapped the field. With 20 laps left it began to rain. For the next 12 laps there were crashes on every other corner. The race finished with myself, Carlos and Tyler all in the top 20. Today's course is in Waukesha. Last year this race had to be stopped and restarted twice due to crashes. Hopefully it goes better this year. However, rain is threatening, so it could get worse.
Before the race yesterday, I noticed a crack on my top tube a couple inches long. Still not sure if its all the way through the frame or just paint. I better find out soon though. Still a lot of racing left.
Internet is sorta hard to come by at the moment. I'll post back as soon as possible.

Thursday was also my dad's 52nd birthday. Just want to shout out to my biggest supporter and sponsor. Thank you for everything you do and the shit you have to deal with. I couldn't do it without you.

SuperWeek

We are up in the Chicago area for the first few races of Superweek. After Wednesday the remaining races will be up north in Wisconsin. The first races have gone by OK. No one has crashed....yet. Carlos is sitting in the top 20 overall and showing signs of good form despite being sick the entire trip up. Yesterday he spent over half the race in a 3 man break before getting caught with 30 laps remaining. He has been finishing consistently in the top 20 everyday. The races are much faster this year then I remember. Kelly Benefits has 6 guys, Kahala La Grange has 6 guys (at least). Plus Rock Racing is sending their squad from Cascade up to join the 2 jersey wearers, Rashaan and Sterling. Tyler, myself, Tristan, and newly adopted team mate John Trujillo are trying our hardest to support Carlos. The legs are feeling better and better each day. We all knew the first week was going to be the roughest. Hopefully things just continue to get better each day. Still 13 days left including 2 road race which have double points. We are a little further back then we were hoping but there is still a ton of racing left.
Check back in for updates every other day.
Today the race is in Bensenville, IL. About 10 min from our hotel. No more sitting in traffic for 30 min to get to the race. Finally. 2 1/2 hrs and 100 kilometers of death.

Also, Thank you to the following people for continuing to donate to TX Tough in my behalf.
Nancy Donahue
Betsy Murphy
Tammy Rice
Alan & Kathy Johnson