I've been hesitant to post here because I knew it'd be hard to top Adrienne's last entry. I should have her write these all of the time. But since she's at work now, I'll give it a shot on my own.

Georgia ended rather uneventfully for me. After fighting all week to make the break, I finally got in the move in the Atlanta circuit race, only to get a flat tire on the second of ten laps. After getting a new wheel, I didn't think there'd be much chance of catching back up to the break, so I just waited for the field to catch me and then sat in and sulked. I helped a bit to bring the break back on the last lap, then it came down to a big bunch sprint in which I finished somewhere near the back of the field.

After that we ate a nice dinner on the west side of Atlanta (midtown, I think), then came back to the hotel to find the post-race party in full swing in the bar. They'd just made last call, so I didn't get to partake. I was way too far behind to have much fun hanging out down there anyway. A few hours later, there was a loud pounding at the door and my roommate for the week, Tyler Hamilton, went to answer it. I briefly panicked thinking that it was someone coming to tell me I'd missed my early morning flight. But no, it was my former teammate Greg Henderson, who'd won the day's stage, wandering the halls at 3:00 am wondering why everyone else wasn't up and partying right along with him. Greg barged into the room and stayed for a good ten minutes before Tyler finally struck on the brilliant idea of suggesting that he go find Mike Creed. And I got a couple more hours of sleep.

After getting back home the following day, I spent the next week relaxing and going for some easy recovery rides to prepare for Mt. Hood. It's going to be great having the first couple of stages here in Portland this year, and I'm especially excited about the Mt. Tabor circuit on Wednesday. It's far from the ideal course for 130 riders to compete on, but I know it wasn't the first choice for the race promoter, Chad Sperry. In fact, I'd been involved in helping him select an incredible course up in Washington Park, but some last minute permitting issues forced him to find an easier alternative. At least it's close to town and should attract a good crowd. With any luck I'll get the home town call-up at the start and the narrow roads, along with the ensuing splits in the field, won't be too big of an issue for me. Hopefully it goes off safely and none of the real contenders find themselves stuck behind a split. I'd like to count myself among those contenders, but given the quality of the field that's going to be there, it'll certainly be harder to get a win than it is at a normal mid-week Tabor race. But I could certainly use some cheering.

Since my rest, training has been going well. I had an especially good ride on Sunday with Kevin Hulick. We did the Bridge of the Gods loop:

If you live in the Portland area and haven't done this ride, schedule a day soon. It's amazing. I took my Garmin along to record the ride and the file is here.

I also have a couple stories from Tuesday night that demonstrate both the best and worst in people, both within a couple hours of each other. I thought they were worth sharing. First, the bad: On the way out to the PIR race, I was on a narrow, uphill stretch of road approaching the St. John's bridge in northwest Portland. Anyone familiar with that spot knows it's a little crowded, but it's also pretty heavily used by cyclists. I was on the fogline, approaching the red light at the top and trying to stay out of the way as much as possible, when I heard the unnerving sound of an 18-wheeler blowing it's horn behind me. The guy started to pass me, but as he did so, he veered toward me, giving me the option of either going underneath the wheels of his trailer, or steering into the ditch. Of course, I did the latter. But as I mentioned, there was a red light ahead, so when I got there I approached his cab from the left side to let him know my opinion of that maneuver. And get this: he stuck his tongue out at me. Seriously, who does that? Though I suppose that intentionally trying to harm a cyclist demonstrates little more than a 10 year old's intellect, so it makes sense to use a 10 year old's taunt as well. I didn't immediately have the piece of mind to record his DOT number, but I caught him again at the light on the other side of the bridge and did so at that point. I made a complaint to both ODOT and his employer, JET Delivery, the next morning. Though I have to admit, I have little faith he'll ever be punished. It's scary that people like that are even allowed on our roads, not to mention the fact that they're given commercial drivers licenses.

But on to the good. Adrienne was driving home on our scooter later that night and had forgotten to grab a set of clear-lensed glasses. An older guy on a sport bike pulled up next to her at a light and, after admonishing her for not wearing glasses, gave her the ones off of his own face. Then he rode away without saying anything else. Hearing about that cheered me up a great deal.

That's enough for now.