Philly week is over!!

These have been the hardest races of the year by far. Ever since my crash at CSC, I haven’t been feeling 100%, so that just made these races even more demanding. Reading, PA was the second race of the Triple Crown series in Philly, and it was my first race back after crashing at CSC. During the race, I was constantly thinking about crashing again, which is possibly the worst thing to have in your head when you’re racing road, so I was pretty timid most of the race. My lack of aggression put me a little too far back in the field on the last lap when I should have been fighting to stay at the front. Because of this, I was back with some of the weaker riders that were opening gaps when the pace was lifted. I wasn’t able to close the gap, so I just rode in with a chase group.

The final race in Philly was amazing. I couldn’t believe what a huge production it was. Coming from a mountain bike background, where the only spectators are either your friends who race in a different category, your girlfriend, or your parents, the amount of spectators at Philly completely blew me away. Climbing up Manyuk almost made you deaf from the loud screaming drunken fans. Dustin made the early break, which took a lot of pressure off our team and made the pace chill out for a while. I abandoned the race about halfway through due to a flat and the slowest wheel change ever at the bottom of Manyuk. The guy who changed my wheel either mangled my rear derailleur while he was violently trying to force the new wheel into my dropouts, or simply the cassette that was on the new wheel just wasn’t compatible with my components, because the shifting was way off. Just about every gear skipped, sending my knees into the handlebars a few times while ascending the Manyuk wall. Dustin small breakaway group stayed away for most of the race. With Dustin being the strongest climber in the group, he won almost every KOM point of the entire race, and in the end was the KOM winner. Frank Pipp was our best finisher in 14th place.

Tomorrow I’ll be flying up to Minnesota to the Nature Valley Grand Prix. I’m looking forward to this race. After a pretty shaky week at Philly, I think that my body and mind will be a little more relaxed at Nature Valley and I predict I’ll feel a lot better. I’m also really excited to see all my friends that I grew up with… I haven’t seen any of them in a few years. My girlfriend is also coming up there, so I’ll get to spend some time with her and meet her folks.

Today, my teammates and I are without bikes, so we’re forced to find other things to do with our time. Well, Guptil and I have been online for about the last three hours, which is nothing new for most pro cyclists… I wonder what pro cyclists did to kill time before wireless internet? We’ll probably go check out a matinee movie later… you gotta love rest days.