Tour of Walla Walla

What a great weekend at Walla Walla. J-Cat and I drove out Friday and engaged in 5 hours of trully sophmoric humor. The hotel was nice, even if it was in Oregon (not as close as we were led to believe). The racing was good (if small) and the dinner/breakfast at the 26 Brix ruled. I used to work with Davis back at the BUCKS and now I sponsor his team, Clif Bar Midwest. I think his Dad owns the restaurant.. anyway thank you thank you thank you for the food. If you go to Walla Walla, stop in a get some of their excellent food.

And of course, we got 2nd on GC (Emde), 2nd on the road race (Emde) and 2nd (J-Cat) in the Crit. If you are going to lose, it might as well be to the Mighty Ian Tubbs. He won the road race and the overall for about the 5678th year in a row. I like everyone, but I really, really like Ian. I remember when he was the super strong guy who didn't win cause he got outsmarted and the day (I at least thought) it clicked (State Omnium 2000) and he turned into the real NW Tom Boonen (Sorry Anton). And how can you not love Leslie? Great job Ian.

I managed to attack Anton again after he flatted (hey man, I didn't know you were still chasing), but that was a bluff. I knew 10 miles into the race I was screwed. I don't think I've had legs that bad since I started racing again. I was hurting up the mildest grades at 12mph. Hopefully it's an abberation and I'll be back on form for States.

Again I was super impressed with Stangeland. Broadmark had him against a wall and credit the kid for not only coming out swinging, but attacking the guys in blue and yellow. He won the crit from a group of Jonny and Andrew.

The garage came up empty handed, but they took responsibility a couple times to chase and I think that they will be a very good team next year once a couple of their newer upgrades get experienced.

Not sure any of this is interesting to anyone who wasn't there.