1st race of the season

Last weekend was the first race of the season. It was the Callville Bay Classic stage race down at the Callville Bay marina at Lake Mead. The Pro 1,2 field was made up of about 74 riders including some very strong pros including Floyd Landis. Each stage starts at the marina so 3 of the 4 stages start by climbing up the 4.5 mi road out of the marina. The first stage was a 50 mile road race that began with a neck break pace up that first climb. I fell off the back just before the top, not ready for that kid of pace and plent the rest of the day picking up and droping riders. I ended up 45th 12min down. That first climb was climbed 2 minutes faster than my TT time last year up the same climb! Anyway the next day was the TT and I improved from last year by 45 seconds which was a good sign that this years early training has been good. THe 3rd stage was an 85 mi road race in the rain. I stayed with the leaders over the first climb and at about 40 miles in Floyd Landis drills it up this very long climb, stringing out the pack and shattering it. I was near the back when it happened and so put my head down and picked my way up through the carnage, establishing the 1st chase group on the road. There ended up being about 12 of us but only 4 of us were doing any work. We never recovered time on othe leaders but I finished 32nd and my GC was 45th. The last stage was the crit and with my placing of 45, and the fact that if I stayed for the crit we wouldn't get home until 3am, I decided to get in a hard 2 hour ride in the morning and head home. The others on my team were grateful for that. All in all it was very good training and a good test of how the off season training has been. Our season begins next weekend in St George with the Tour del Sol stage race.