BLOOD, SWEAT and TEARS!!!

“Hey, here’s an idea guys, what say we all get together and spend a week riding our bikes. Will shoot for 90 miles or so a day – maybe string 5 of them together – that sounds like fun. “

“You know, if we head up to the foothills below Lake Tahoe we can get a little climbing in – that should really make it fun.”

On paper it all sounded so good – problem is that pesky 2D just doesn’t quite capture the roads that we spent the better part of the day bombing up and down upon. And when I say up and down, please keep in mind that is more often than not the former vice the latter.

Carter once again sold us a bill of goods - with a measly 6000+ feet of climbing; we normally figure another 10% just for giggles – but 50%, what were we thinking.

Now to Carter’s defense, it wasn’t his entire fault. Though the route cards were correct, the tendency to change names, eliminate signs, and generally make navigation in the foothills seems to be in a world of it’s own. The planned route went by the wayside for all but two of ourgroup – Bob

Davidson and Pat Scanlon were the only two to actually find their way. For the rest, we were all over the map, it was carnage on the road today, and the riders rolled back to the hotel from every direction possible.

Since by-and-large, everyone still put in 90+ miles and well exceeded the climbing, it all becomes a wash – but congratulations to both Bob and Pat, I guess we know who takes the lead should we have to set sail for a new world.

As usual, the day began with a gentle roll-out - which lasted all of 100 yds, then it was 20 mile

s an hour through the historic downtown of Jackson. 10 minutes into what would be more than 5-hours on the road, Ken Rodriquez looked over to Andrew, his heart rate already beginning to spike, “these guys never warm up, it’s on the gas from the start”, he gasped, but then, thinking aloud, he thought, “what the heck, have you ever seen a jaguar warm up either!”

The day was not without it’s tragedy; our first crash of the day occurred on a steep descent with about 25 miles to go. It was a rock, a skid, a blown tire, and bike and body sliding across the tarmac. While he will have to give up his

dreams of a career as a leg and cheek model– it is only skin – the bike survived relatively unscathed.

Can you guess who this is?

The first Black Jersey of the week was awarded to Scott Duncan just prior to the start of today’s rollout. As a reminder, this is a daily award that can be for any myriad of reasons. In order to paint the picture of our Day-1 winner, I need to take you back to ToP IV as Scott is repeat winner. Last year, day 3 of the epic Santa Barbara to San Diego edition, Scott experienced two flat tires, one only minutes after the other. This occurred in one of the most inopportune times, just as the front group ramped up the pace on a long climb. Only one rider stayed back with him, helped him get his tubes changed and towed him for miles up the side of a mountain – occasionally dropped, this selfless rider would slow enough for Scott to get back on – encouraging him all the way. A brief descent after the apex of the climb brought them to a van stop where another small pack of riders was getting set. Riders were getting water, food, and cokes – all prepping for the next hard section. Our selfless rider – the protector of Scott – went around the back of the van looking for a private place to do a little personal business. He returned minutes later only to find that not only had all the riders left, but Scott had rode away – thinking only of himself. He was awarded his black jersey because this is the Train of Pain, not the Train of NICE!!!

Flash forward a year and a whole new Scott. Yesterday, as we blasted along a hard and windy section of narrow road a huge explosion of a tube sounded off – a terrible time for a flat as the road was too busy and narrow for the pack to stop – the poor sod would be on his own.

But nope, Scott would not hear of it, he had learned his lesson – and while the rapture may not have happened, he was not taking any chances with Karma – he stopped, helped him change out and towed him for 25-miles to rejoin the group by the next van stop. For showing us the true Yin and Yang of the rider, we congratulate you Scott – now don’t be getting all soft and cuddly on us, this is still the ToP!

Yellow/red is looking like a two-way fight between yesterday’s strongman, Nate and the quiet man Zach Scheetz, who dominated the toughest climbs (topping out at 13%) and dropped the lot of them.

Green – still not locked up by any stretch, but Andrew has begun to make his mark.

• 94.7 miles – 185.9 so far
• 8,972 feet of climbing – 13,342 so far