Hi everyone -
Sorry I didn't get this one out last night, I was completely hammered. Holy cow...day 2. Let me begin by saying that everything that I heard about this day, all the horror stories of how insanely hard it was...they were all true and then some.

Day 2 - Oak Glen RR
The course - 105 miles total...nearly 100 miles with 3 KOMs and 3 Sprints BEFORE you get the base of Oak Glen, a 10KM gradual climb not unlike going up Blacksmith Fork Canyon, but at the end of a absolutely hellacious day, it REALLY HURTS. The first hour of the race was unbelievable. I've always heard stories about how frantic, dangerous, rippin' fast, and chaotic the first day of Redlands is before everyone in the pack works out their race jitters. ALL TRUE. Holy crap. Forgive my toned-down french, but explitives are really the only way to best describe todays race. So - the first hour or so, total mayhem, flying along in the pack at 35 MPH, guys at the front just drilling it (most of 'em were the HealthNet boys). Its like doing a crit for the first hour...and then hitting the first KOM. Guys were getting jettisoned in that first hour. We hit the first KOM after winding through a town at its base and the guys up front are still killing it. Unreal. Me and the rest of the boys are just fine, we all get over in the pack. On the descent from the first KOM, Nate Loyal, local brutha, gets a flat, gets a wheel and somehow makes it back. Good. On that descent however, as we're ripping down from it at 45MPH two guys tangle up and hit the deck...people said they didn't slide that much but that one guy's bike was launched into orbit from it. I saw it as the entire pack responds and avoids. I've always been amazed how the Pro/1 fields can avoid a pile up. Only two guys down and the entire rest of the pack around them somehow keep it up. Fast reflexes.   From there on out there'd be nearly a wreck every 1/2 hour, some guys turfing it here and there. It was so sketchy.

On a long flat stretch after we came down from the KOM, Victoria Blvd., I moved up to the very front. Sandy's done this race a couple times and got off in a break along here and told me to stay sharp and try to get in a move, so I did. I got off the front with about 8 other guys, but it didn't stick. At least I was safe on the front end of the sharp stick. Everyone on our team still in it to this point alright. We hit a loop going around a lake shortly there after.   THE WIND WAS POUNDING US. HealthNet and some of the other strong squads gutter it around the lake and everyone is completely strung out single file, riding the 2 inches of pavement by the shoulder of the road. We were pinned in the red zone for a long time...gaps start to open up as guys begin to blow and I'm stuck behind the first big split. A ton of splits happen behind as the the pack is detonating into little pieces in the crosswinds. Fortunately I'm near the front of the first split with Turbo and Nate... I think Dave H. and Jesse G. were in the front group OK. Turbo flats at a critical moment and that's it for him...totally out his control...Once you're off the end of the pack it is REAL hard to get back in. Our little group makes it back into the pack before the first feed zone...whew. I was digging deep on that one.

We didn't have anyone in the first feed zone so I use the area to move up a little, and even as I'm doing that I think the Jittery Joe's guys begin hammering at the front. I'm hanging on for dear life and I can't even imagine how far back the guys that took feeds are...my group gets gapped off the pack and I'm beginning to blow. I know I'm in trouble when the whole caravan wizzes by and I'm off the rear. Fortunately for me the pack eases up and I'm able to make contact with the caravan of 20 team vehicles. One by one, I'm ticking off each car as I kinda hop from one draft to the next, stair-stepping my way back towards the pack. That was the first time I'd ever worked my way back into the field from behind by using the caravan...I'd do that 2 more times in this race.

I'm not sure where Nate, Turbo, and Alex M. are as we hit the second KOM, but I can see the rest of our composite team in the front group. I make it up the 2nd KOM just slightly off the back, but in a small groupetto with several pros, including Gord Fraser (who'd I'd spend some time with later in the day)...we work our way through the caravan again and settle back into the pack. After the 2nd KOM the pack really eases up and I can actually do something but grit my teeth and suffer. Going around a corner, two Healthnet guys who were on the very front somehow tangle with each other and eat it hard...another wreck of several all day. The whole pack eases up even more so they can catch on...a mutual respect thing, not that they'd wait for me if I spilled...

We hit the 3rd and final KOM at about 75 miles. I blow sky high like Mt. Vesuvius (sp?). I can't hang anymore, nothing left in the legs to keep the pace. Turbo had said if I can stay with the pack until the base of Oak Glen (which at that point was still at least 20 miles away) I'd make the time cut just fine. I thought I was a goner for sure, but I tried to recoup and ride as steady a tempo as possible. I climb over the last KOM and drop down the other side and hit the longest most miserable false-flat windswept section of the race, a complete death march. I do about half of it alone for nearly 30 minutes, before a single rider bridges up to me: Gord Fraser. Gord was falling through the pack on the climbs I remember, but I didn't realize he was behind me. So he and I trade off 30 second pulls at 11 MPH into this wind for the next 1/2 hour until we pick up a couple other lonely blown souls. Chatted with him a little and the guy seems to be pretty cool. Nice to meet a friendly pro. As we make a turn from the death march headwind towards the base of Oak Glen, a group from behind catches us and just like that I'm go from 11MPH to freakin' 35MPH into the base of the last climb to the finish.

So our little group hits the base and I have no idea how far off the main pack we are, but we're pretty far. I blow up again, like for the 5th or 6th time and can't hang with our little group. So I ride up the last climb solo, completely empty, no fumes in the tank, NADA. I'm in my 39x25 just pedalling squares up a grade that is pretty gradual, something I'd normally be able to motor up in the big ring had I not put 100 miles of misery into my legs prior...

I'm climbing up the final climb at a snails pace, legs cramping all over the place, but I'm pushing through it and barely able to turn the pedals over, going just barely fast enough to stay up. The women's race catches me and goes by along with half of the pack by the top. I'm guessing I'm so far off the rear that were I in the women's race, I'd not even make THEIR time cut! But I keep pushing it out, almost there...they have KM signs to the finish from 5K out and let me tell you: If the time between KM markers to the finish on Lotoja ever seem to take forever to go by, then this was 10x worse. I make it across, have no idea how far back I was, just barely able to pedal. Un-f'n-believably hard day...the hardest day on a bike I can remember. I blew up so many times and pushed through, riding outside of myself. I was completely DONE. Felt like I'd done Lotoja 5x.

The rest of my team is in the parking area and we just chill out and swap stories of misery and pain. Turbo and Nate got ganked by flats, Dave H. and Jesse G. and Jason VanMarle (our GC guy!) finish near or just off the main pack - they're within the time cut for sure. I think Dan Holt our other composite rider made it too. Alex Moore, our last composite rider rolls in about 20 minutes after me. We just sit and veg out in disbelief for how hard the day was.

As a side note, while I was marching towards death with Gord into the wind on that one section, I asked him if it had ever been this miserable and he said that this was the worst he'd ever seen it. Great, my first time and I get the full treatment.

So the rest of the evening we all try to recover and after showers and food, we're all in much better spirits. We chill out watching stand-up comedy on Comedy Central for a while 'til we can't take it anymore, spend time talking, and just having a good time together. Its been a great adventure so far, even if I don't make the time cut, I'm thinking. I've made some great new friendships, Nate Loyal, SoCal rider, awesome dude, amongst them. Looking forward to keeping in touch with him. I've deepened my friendships with Turbo and also with the other UT guys that are riding composite for us. Good time all around. Sharing in some good pain and misery will strengthen relationships for sure.

10PM: They finally post results...I MADE THE TIME CUT! I'm the last one to do it on the day too! Over 60 guys behind me got the axe, but somehow, I made it in as the door was closing shut! So I get to race in the Crit...SWEET! Wait, the crit's going to be more suffering...ugh. Why do I love this so much? Sometimes I wonder. So, I have one of THE most coveted of all GC spots in this race: Lanterne Rouge! I'm the last guy in the GC! I can't tell you how happy I am to have it - I can keep racing and don't have to pack up and go home.

So - today's crit: 90 minutes on a very tight technical course with an nice gradual uphill finishing straight that pops riders like Orville Redenbacher...Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading and I remain your 2nd most faithful scrivener!
Marc