Thursday, June 21, 2007

Philly Cheese Steaks are Good

A Brit in Philly Sarah, My Guapa
Ready, Set, Go
Following Zee German


It was a week of downtime in downtown Philly after the RAS. The thought of it is quite nice after a hard stage race, but not having the chance to head home for this week took it's toll. Yes, I get home sick and miss Sarah. I wouldn't say home sick for Boulder, but homesick of the comfort of our new apt. there on Pearl St and spending a week off with my wife. I spent the week with Walters and Rollin in a great old house in the historic district of Philadelphia. We took our time getting the day started, enjoying our home made coffees and going out and about taking pics with our KODAK cameras of course. I struggled with the heat and humidity as it was a drastic change from Ireland's Spring Weather and the high allergic levels. CSC Invitational was the first race back, and it was a suffer fest. The heat took it's toll and made most of the field drop out. I hung in there until the finish but could not manage much help for out sprinter Rollin. The race took a lot out of me and made that following week miserable with a nagging cough and green snot! This made for early departures in the mid week races, Lancaster and Reading. I awoke highly motivated for the Big Philly race as my wife flew in and a few old friends. I did have a few nerves at the start, as the venue is quite a scene. It's no local Chicago crit. It was my job to keep Walters up in the first 15 riders heading into the Manayunk wall each lap, in which I succeeded in. Its a full on sprint each lap to the base of the steep 1.5km climb, but we managed to duel it out and head into the run in safely. It was my longest race ever, it being 156 miles. This year was done in record time of 5:45hrs. not bad aye... I was spent have the race and was struggling with the fact that I would be on a plane the next morning to start a 6 day stage race up in Quebec. The Tour de Beauce...

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