Indiana North Stage Race--Road Race

Tough day:

No Teamates, marked by everyone, windy, hot, got stung by another bee in the crotch during the race, tired, nobody wanted to pull, guys were attacking over top of my efforts, etc, etc, etc.

The only delight was learning that I still won the GC after all that crap!

Oh, I forgot one more good thing - it's over!

More to follow.........?

I woke up today feeling great! Rish and Fisher made sure to stuff me with all of the awesome food they had made. They tried really hard to keep me away from Krispy Kreams, especially when the Just Hot sign came on! I did really well that day eating the right foods.

The race started out calm and nothing happened until the 2nd time in the head wind. A group of 13 or less broke away and we stayed away for a lap, then two riders took off. I jumped up to them and away we went. Five laps to go and I felt great, only one big problem, 2 of us had to do all the work.

Spanbauer the guy who didn't do any work enjoyed our pace. Todd asked Spanbauer to help us because no one was in sight. Spanbauer told Todd "I know who you are and your a nice guy. The problem is I don't know who he is". Spanbauer continued to say "all I know is his # is 107 and it's taped to my handle bars". I told Spanbauer that I'm a nice guy just get me across the line before the rest of the riders. Todd and I continued to do all the work and then with only two laps left I felt real bad.

I had drank all my water and it was at least 93 degrees. I started losing sight and started getting really dizzy. All of the hard work I had put in didn't matter now. I had trouble staying on the road and felt like walking up the hills I went 20 MPH up the lap before. Then I felt like puking and started getting chills. I slowed down as much as I could. At that time other riders came behind me, I jumped on and held on for my life. As we came up to the finish line with one to go Joe Niccum and JoMay Chow had water for me. I tried hard to hang on but I couldn't go anymore. The last group of riders caught me in the last 2 miles. Thanks to Chris Fisher for pushing me up the hills. He suffered a cramp in his leg pushing me.

I was so scared of getting hit by a car or running off the road, I should have quit but I was so disappointed. The winning break that Todd and I established had 5 min on the 2nd group and 10 min on the last group. After the race JoMay, Joe, Chris & Rish took great care of me and I was fine an hour after the race. Thanks too all.