Back to God's country.

After Pace Bend, Benji, Christian, Gonzo and myself stayed in Austin for the week to train a little bit. Peter and Whitney were kind enough to let us crash on their couches for a few days. I think some of their room mates hated us for being "loud", but whatever. It was pretty much just Chris Collins. The week was pretty entertaining for us. It was good to be back in the town I used to call home. Man I miss it!

While we were there, I wanted to show Benji all of the girls UT had to offer. He was a little skeptical after the freshman chemistry class we sat in produced little results. We had the brilliant idea of walking down to campus to hang out for a while. Peter gave us the room number for a "chemistry in context" course. He assured us there would be dumb people in there. I immediately thought, dumb freshman blonde's... Perfect! No luck. Instead we walked around campus a bit more and tried to just look a part.



Since we were in town, and we were having a hard time finding Benji a good looking girl we decided to go hang out on 6th street for a while. We went to the Iron Cactus, where a sorority mixer was going on. It was a good time, but I think Gonzo had the most fun. He even had a dude buy him a drink. How sweet. While we were sitting outside on the balcony, a lovely young lady came up and sat next to us. She proceeded to complain about all the "bitches" in the bar and how she was "over it". In the middle of her rant, Benji interrupts her by saying, "you have a chewing gum for me?" As she is digging in her purse for gum, she looks up at Benji and says. "how foreign are you?". She deserved to be thrown off the balcony. After our night was over, we tried getting on the bus back up to campus but the friendly driver wouldn't open the door for us. So instead we walked back. From 6th street all the way to 35thish. It was quite a hike.

The stay in Austin wasn't all pleasure. It was business first. We did some pretty good rides also. One day we rode all of the fun climbs off of 360. Courtyard, Beuford, City Park and few others crammed into a 3 hr ride. Christian is faster the steeper the climb gets. The next day we rode out to Johnson City with my good friend and former team mate, Tyler Jewell. This is by far one of my favorite rides ever. Mid way through the ride, we met up with Stefan Rothe and Heath Blackgrove. Just to cap off the ride with some good tempo. We were coming back up Hamilton Pool and I notice Heath in the dog pushing about 60 rpm. He is a man child if I've ever seen one.







Sometime during the week, we decided to stay and race the first day of Lago Vista and then head home. After last year, I was a little hesitant but later convinced by the coach. I heard Kelly Benefits was supposed to be out there but later found out they were only racing the second day, so I was rather bummed I missed that. The race was pretty hard as usual. I predicted the race pretty accurately. On the 2nd lap, a small break of 10 or so formed up the road with Steve Tilford and Heath Blackgrove both in it. Since only myself, Christian and Benji started the race, we didn't want to waste much energy on scrub breaks and chasing stuff down. Since none of us were in the group I thought I would be a good one to be a part of. I was right. i jumped across to it and it immediately split down to 5. Heath, Tilford, Alex Welch, Sol Frost and myself motored away for a few laps. Eventually Sol popped off the back and Alex started sitting on to wait for a bridging Stefan. I was feeling pretty good. and was able to hold my own. I never skipped a pull but never did more work that I had to. The legs were there. With 3 to go, however, it hit me. The bonk feeling was setting in and no matter how many clif bars I pounded, I was done. Heath and Tilford dropped me on the descent back toward the finish and I was left with Welch waiting for Stefan on the second to last lap. I was able to hang with Stefan for a while but as soon as they really started chasing the leaders I was running on empty. I dropped and got caught with the main field led by Christian just off the front going into the final lap. Good day gone bad. Heath stayed away and Tilford limped in for 2nd. Even more frustrating for me was that Christian got caught and Stefan and Welch stayed off for 3rd and 4th. Benji salvaged some money for us by finishing 13th.

After the race, it was back to Dallas for another week of training before our next race, Which is where I am now. Sitting in the hotel room the night before Rouge Roubaix, just outside Baton Rouge Louisiana. We rode some of the course today and it should be a fun one. After the race tomorrow, I am going to Greenville, SC with Ashley to ride a bit and check out the town a little.

Check back for updates and results from the race.

Thanks again to all the supporters for reading.