Redlands is over and Nathan held on for the overall. I traded pulls on the front until I couldn't pedal my bike anymore, then just cruised in to finish about 10 minutes down. It was hard, just as I expected. But helping a teammate take a win is the next best thing to winning myself. It sounds corny, but I take a lot of gratification out of being a part of another person's win. That's good, because I don't win many races myself.

I have to be on the road at 4:30 am for a 6:00 am flight back to Portland. So, no more typing for the night.

The crit was this afternoon and it went very well for us. Mike, Karl, Kirk, and Tim spent the entire race at the front and kept it controlled from start to finish. Jeff and I helped out a little, but basically got the free ride so we have a little bit more left tomorrow. Incredibly, after killing himself at the front for 90 minutes, Karl was still able to take the sprint for the stage win. Unbelievable. Now we just have one really hard day remaining.

I have no pictures to post because I didn't bring my camera USB cord. Probably for the best because uploading pictures takes too much time. I need that time to sleep.

Today's results here:
http://www.redlandsclassic.com/results/results.shtml

So we raced a time trial today. My teammate Nathan O'Neill went really, really fast and won. Scott also went very quickly and finished in third. Personally, I didn't ride as slowly as I feared I might, which was encouraging. I finished in 21st place. That's pretty good for me in a time trial. Not that I'm saying it's good enough, but taken in the context of my historical TT performances, it's a step in the right direction. It's especially encouraging considering how I felt in the local "Banana Belt" race last weekend. Adrienne was very disappointed when I didn't bring a banana belt home for her. She put a lot of pressure on me.

Now we have a couple hard days of jersey defending in front of us. That means lots of time spent on the front drooling all over myself. I ate some extra cookies tonight to fortify myself for the effort ahead. I'm ready.

Results are here if anyone's interested: http://www.redlandsclassic.com/

After just over a week at home, I'm now in Redlands California for the Redlands Bicycle Classic. My time at home was a bit hectic, but I knew that'd be the case. After getting back from Taiwan last Monday, I spent just one night in the old apartment before Adrienne and I started the move over to the new place in NW Portland. We made the move slowly, but I'm not sure if that actually made it easier. Instead of one big day of moving everything, it was a full week of back and forth trips and small errands. But the new apartment is almost entirely set up now and I'm really happy with it. This morning I walked two blocks to the MAX station to catch a train to the airport. It'll be nice living in the center of everything.

On the racing front, Redlands is sure to be hard as usual. It's down to only three days this year, but that only adds to the unpredictability of it. The race consists of a short 5k uphill TT tomorrow, the traditional 90 minute downtown criterium on Saturday, then the hilly Sunset Circuit Race on Sunday. Last year Chris Wherry won the TT and we just defended his lead over the next three days. We're hoping for a similar scenario this year, but even if someone on the team wins the TT, the circuit race on Sunday will be very difficult to control. I'm hoping that the last vestiges of jet lag and fatigue from the Taiwan trip have left my system because it's going to be a tough weekend. I'll post more here as it progresses.

The race is finally over. We did a criterium today in the center of Taipei. There were actually a few spectators out. There haven't been many of those at this race. We rode hard on the front from start to finish. Kirk just missed out on the stage win but officially won the individual GC. We also won the team classfication. It was a good week, but I'm glad it's over. I'm tired.

After the race we went over to the Taipei bike show to sign autographs at the Maxxis booth. There was actually quite a lineup and we all ran out of postcards to sign. Weird. Another unusual occurance was seeing an 8ft tall photo of myself on the wall. I'm making a goofy face. I always make goofy faces.

I'm now in a back alley tea shop writing this report. We're going out to dinner in a bit and hitting some local bars after that. We also have all day tomorrow to check out the city. There's a lot to see. I need to get some souvenir shopping done. Pictures below.

I'm in Taipei now. I'm really impressed with this city. We were all shuttled over to the Taipei bike show, which is being held about a mile from our hotel. Instead of coming back in the bus, Garrett, Roman, and I walked back so we could take a look around. It's a very hectic city with scooters, and cars, and people going in every direction. But it's also a very clean and modern city. It doesn't have the sooty industrial feel that Kaohsiung had. We're here for three nights before flying home on Monday. I'm looking forward to exploring more.

In the race today, Kirk dropped most of the climbers on the mountain top finish to basically clinch the overall. We have a four corner crit tomorrow at the base of Taipei 101, which is apparently the tallest building in the world. It should be basically a formality.

I'll try to put pictures up tomorrow. The hotel charges per computer for internet, so I'm on Roman's and can't upload photos. All for now.

Well, finally a good day for the team. Kirk got in a breakaway with Jeff and 9 other guys and they stayed away by about 7 minutes at the finish. That puts Kirk in the race lead which makes everyone very happy. It also means I'll be spending the next two days riding the front. I've spent a lot of time doing that over the last year, but I like it. It's much more fun to work to defend a race lead than to sit in the pack and wait around.

After the race we had a 4.5 hour bus transfer. We followed a twisty coastal road up to the northeastern coast of the island. The scenery was amazing. There's a very long stretch of coastline where the mountains simply fall into the ocean and, excluding the road itself, there's really no sign of civilization. But scenic or not, 4.5 hours in a bus is too much after a hard road race. We did stop at an interesting roadside shop, though. See the pictures below. Time for bed.

Today was another longish road stage. A Japanese National Team rider won from a breakaway only a few seconds in front of the field. I didn't crash and Garrett's still in second. I guess that makes it a good day. Jeff Sobul, our team media guy, conned me into writing race reports for the team. They're being posted at www.teamhealthnet.com. Go there if you want to hear more about what's actually happening in the races.

What else? We passed a construction guy laying on the side of the road today. His arms were splayed out at his sides and his legs were in the ditch. I was near one of the Australian riders and I said, "What was that?" He responsed, "a body." That ended our discussion on the matter. I asked after the stage if anyone else had seen the guy, but none of the other riders had. Kim had seen him from the caravan, though. He was getting out of the ditch by then. I'm glad she told me that or I might have spent the rest of my life telling the story about the time we passed the dead guy in Taiwan. But he sure looked dead.

On a sadder note, a small chihuahua like dog found himself in the middle of the road during the final sprint. That was not pleasant to witness. Poor guy.

We're in Hualien for the night. It's an industrial sort of town about halfway up the Pacific coast. Our hotel is near a golf course and it's pretty nice. The dinner spread was great. I ate shark meat and pancakes with ice cream. We got here pretty late in the evening and we're a little bit removed from the town, so I didn't get to explore at all. That's kind of been the theme. Looks like I'll have to do all of my souvenir shopping in Taipei.

And photos:

Today was indeed a long day. We loaded onto the bus for a 20km transfer to the stage start at 7:10 am and didn't get back to the hotel until 4:30 in the afternoon. And the bike race was hard. The limit for each team is five riders, and there are 18 teams, so that leads to chaos on a long day like today. Everyone wanted to have somebody in the break and no team was strong enough to control anything, so it was 220km of attacking. I sucked and missed the front split of 15 or 20 guys with about 100km remaining. At first I was the only Health Net guy who hadn't made the front group, but then Roman cramped up and came back to the group I was in. That left us with 3 up front, which was pretty good. Even still, no one could beat McLachlin and he won his third stage in a row. Garrett was second, but that's all I really know at this point. Luckily the rain stopped just before the stage started, so the day wasn't quite as miserable as it could have been. I really didn't want to race in the rain. Oh, and I didn't fall over today either. I'll hit a real milestone when I actually have more consecutive days without crashing than I had with crashes. One more to go.

Unfortunately I don't have anything more interesting to talk about for the day. All I did was race my bike and sit in a bus. My plan for the rest of the evening is to eat, get a massage, then go to bed. Boring. A beer would be great too if I can find one.

Here're some pictures that I took yesterday. I was going to post them yesterday, but I got kicked off the internet before I got the chance. That's all I have. Sorry to have wasted five minutes of your life with this.

Today I didn't crash. That fact is amazing for two reasons: #1) Please reference the entries from the last two days, #2) The race organization seemed completely intent on keeping my streak alive. Let me explain. The course today was a 6km loop around a lake, just outside of Kaohsiung. For the most part, the roads were narrow and twisty, but really quite safe. But, there was one stretch of road that seemed like a fairly major thoroughfare and there was no traffic control whatsoever. Not in either direction. On the first lap, things were pretty slow, but it was obvious that the traffic issue would be a problem. But I think most of us were willing to assume that maybe the course marshals just hadn't quite figured out what they were doing yet. That was not the case. I got in a break on the second lap and when we hit the major road again, we found ourselves weaving through traffic going the same direction as us, only slower. It was a mess. At one point, we had to weave between a bus and a scooter, then dodge an old lady entering a crosswalk. Incredible. After one more lap of chaos, the commissaires finally put a stop to things and we went back to the parking lot while they figured out what to do. Eventually they found a way to barricade the road and divert traffic, so the race continued without any further incident.

Once the race got going again, Roman got in a break with two Asian guys and they didn't get caught until the last kilometer. Then we blew the leadout again and Kirk got second to the same Australian that won yesterday, Rob Mclachlan. Oh well, 5 more chances.

After the race we had 3 hour transfer to Taitung, where we'll be for the next two nights. The island of Taiwan really isn't that big, but there are some very large mountains in the center of it. To get here to Taitung we had to drive south from Kaohsiung along the Straight of Taiwan, then west over a twisty mountain pass, then back to the north along the Pacific coast. This area is much more rugged and scenic then Kaohsiung. We're in a steep little valley just inland from the coast. We got here at dusk, so I didn't get the chance to take many pictures. I'll try to get more tomorrow.

Tomorrow's stage is 220km and it's supposed to rain. It could end up being a very, very long day.

And again, I crashed today. Seriously, I've had enough of this. My tuck-and-roll technique was near perfect, but I didn't do a good job of choosing where I landed, so I ended up with a pedal to the kidney. Damn. But, unlike yesterday, this crash was completely someone else's fault. I take solace in that. Kim's done a great job of taking care of me, so hopefully I'll be fresh and ready for another tumble in morning.

Other than that, the race was pretty good for us. Jeff almost held off the field for the final two laps, then Kirk almost won the sprint. Now that we have a bit better idea of what to expect, it looks like it should be a good week for us.

After the race, we had about a 5 mile transfer up to another hotel on the edge of town. The rest of the guys rode over here, but I was too busy holding an ice pack on my side and pouting, so I rode in the car. Gus made me navigate, but we made it anyway. My cause wasn't helped by the fact that the english names for the roads don't correspond to those on the map. For example, "Chingchang" is the same as "Jhingzang." Complicated. On top of trying to decipher street names, we were dodging scooters and cars trying to make left turns from right hand lane. It seems that traffic laws here aren't so much laws, but more just gentle suggestions. I watched a car cut off a scooter carrying a father and his young daughter. Back home such a move would have led to irate screams and lewd gestures. But, the scooter driver didn't react in any way. Just changed course a bit to avoid the crash, then kept going as if nothing happened.

But that's it for now. See below for a picture of the hotel for the evening. Pretty nice. My back hurts.

Today was one more day of hanging out in Kaohsiung. We took a ferry across the harbor onto an island hoping to find some quiet riding, but it turned out being more of the same: dodging scooters. On top of that, I fell off my bike. I don't like falling off my bike. I got my front wheel caught in a metal slot of some type that ran lengthwise down the roadway. I went down pretty hard. But, excluding my pride, no real damage was done.

Racing starts tomorrow. I'm ready to get going. We were finally given our race guides today so we have some idea of what to expect. That's helpful. Tomorrow's criterium is only 66km long, but I'm sure it'll be hard nonetheless.

More pictures below. Check out Garrett Peltonen's blog for a witty-midwestern-type take of things here. Make sure to read his posts with a strong Wisconsin accent, they're better that way.

After 4 flights and 27 hours of travel, we made it to Kaohsiung, Taiwan late last night. I flew from Portland to San Francisco on a domestic ticket, then picked up my bags and met the rest of the team at the international terminal to check in for the remainder of the trip. From San Francisco, we flew to Tokyo, then to Taipei, and then on to Kaohsiung, on the southern tip of Taiwan. As I type, it's 8:00 in the evening on Friday here and 4:00 Friday morning back home. My body is very, very confused.

We went out for a two hour ride this afternoon to try to loosen up and get over the flight. I just felt like sleeping the whole time. It was nice to get a look around, though. The air quality here is terrible. The roads are completely dominated by two-stroke scooters, which I'm sure has plenty to do with the haze in the air. There are more scooters than cars. I expected to see more bicycles on the streets, but there aren't many. The roads are semi-anarchic; scooters and cars make turns when and where they want. When they want to turn left, many of the scooter drivers will cross the road early then drive the wrong way along the curb. It didn't make for a very relaxing ride.

Afterward, we went to a restaurant about a block from the hotel for a late lunch. None of us could read the menu, so we had to order by pointing to pictures. Jeff ended up with beef tendon soup. I got what I think was pork over noodles with a stinky broth soup on the side. I don't think I'm adventurous enough to explore much more of the local quisine.

Racing begins for us on Sunday with a criterium on the city streets. So far, I haven't seen any indication in town that the race is even happening. I'm curious to see what kind of spectator turnout there will be. After the race Sunday, we'll transfer to the next town and keep moving every day until we hit Taipei the following Sunday. If the length of the flight from Taipei to here last night is any indication, we have a lot of ground to cover. I still really don't know much about this race. I'm not used to being so uninformed.

I'll keep updating this site throughout the week. I've also added the RSS feed as someone requested. See http://www.dougollerenshaw.com/blog/atom.xml or http://feeds.feedburner.com/dougollerenshaw

Here're a couple pictures from today. That's all for now.