Tour de Bozeman and Tour of the Bitterroot

What a couple of weekends. Last week was the Big Sky State Games road race on Saturday morning then the Tour of the Bitterroot on Sunday with a crit and time trial. Saturday didnt start off well with me barely getting into the race at state games when I snapped my chain. I was extremely pissed because I knew I could have won that race. So I drove 7 hours to Hamilton for the next days races. The first was the crit which I got in a couple of breaks and then led out my teamate Brian Frykman for the group sprint which he took 2nd in. I was very pleased with my efforts in that race due to Brian said that when I took the lead of the peleton for the final lap I strung out the field and dropped a lot of riders. Nothing better then being a super domestique in my book. So after having some lunch and tons of water I started warming up for the afternoon tt in the scortching windy weather. I think I found a new secret for me in the tt's, being as though I have never been good at them I tried 3 new things for this tt. I had a coke during my warm up, never let up off the gas during the tt, and got a new tt bike. Out of all three of these things combined helped me ride into a 3rd place finish in the tt and a 3rd overall for the omnium. I was super stoked about that.

This past weekend was probably the biggest race on my calendar and for sure my team's. It was the Tour de Bozeman which turned out to be a big regional race, awesome!!! It started off with 20km time trial Saturday morning. I was fortunate enough to be able to use a disc wheel thanks to Brian. I rode awesome but only came up with a 3rd place finish, 6 seconds behind the 1st place guy from Washington and 5seconds behind the 2nd place rider from New York. That night was the downtown sprints which I have never done. It consisted of 5 riders at once sprinting 3 city blocks and the top 3 advance. I made it to the finals before getting raped and taking 5th place. I didnt lose my GC spot but my teamate Scott was now tied with me. During the awards ceremony for that stage I got to be the podium boy for the womens pro1,2,3's, which was AWESOME!!! Gave the first place winner Lisa Curry a kiss and her money for winning the stage. The following day was the hardest day by far. The road race had over 5,000ft of climbing in it and it was hot out once again. At the beginning of the race a break got away with my teamates Scott and Brian Frykman. Later After Sam Krieg dropped most of us out of the pack, I was alone until my teamate Brad Morgan and the 2nd place rider from New York caught me and I joined their group. I knew that to keep my third place overall I would have to beat this guy from New York. So Brad helped me try and drop him but it didnt work. On the last major climb on a 10% grade I attacked to try and drop him but still didnt work. At this point I was starting to get worried cuz I knew now it was coming down to the final sprint which was on a pretty steep climb. So I sat on his wheel and with 200meters to go he attacked up the climb and I came around him with about 100meters left to win and take 3rd place on the day and 3rd overall in the Omnium. I was totally STOKED!!! So i got to stand on the podium twice that day for the stage and the overall. This time after I was podium boy again for the women, I recruited two of them and they were my podium girls :) AWESOME!!! Thank you Patricia and Geraldean