I've been out here on the east coast for a just under a week now, but I haven't been too motivated to post here. The racing's been tough and it hadn't really been going well for either myself or the team. But today in Reading, PA, everything turned around. My teammate Oscar Sevilla took the win, and I finished a race after two consecutive DNF's.

The trip started out in Arlington, VA, just across the river from Washington DC. Here's a really terrible photo from my hotel room with the Washington Monument on the left and the Capitol Building just right of center:

We did a little touristing one night too and paid a personal visit to Mr. Lincoln himself:

We were there for the CSC Invitational on Sunday, a 100k crit on a one kilometer, six corner course in Clarendon, VA (I think). Yes, that means braking into a turn and then re-accelerating a total of 600 times. At least, assuming one finishes the race, which I did not. I got a little too relaxed at the start line and ended up lining up near the back. There was a point where I literally could not see the front of the race. It was single file for two turns in front of me. A big break went early, we had no one in it, and I spent some time on the front trying unsuccessfully to help bring it back. Then I got really tired and couldn't keep going. That is not a good feeling.

We drove that night to a hotel on the outskirts of Philadelphia, where we'll be until Sunday. On Tuesday there was a race in Allentown, PA, replacing the longstanding race in the Pennsylvania Amish Country town of Lancaster. Allentown is one rough city. It's full of beautiful old Victorian style brick rowhomes, but the whole place looks more than a little bit neglected. I was looking around thinking how much I'd like to live in one of those rowhomes, but many had plywood on the windows and looked like they'd simply been left to rot. The whole place had an aura of poverty, with all of its associated ills. While we were sitting in our canvas chairs pinning numbers and getting our radios ready, a guy walked right up behind Rahsaan with a walkie talkie in one hand and a pistol in the other. He spent some time trying to stuff the pistol into his waist band, then pulled his baggy shirt down to cover it up and went strutting past us all. Only myself and one of the staff members saw it, but it really made me nervous. I'm not used to that sort of scene.

The race itself was on a great course, and it was unbelievably fast. But just before the halfway point, somebody braked hard in front of me and came to a stop. I stopped suddenly too, then got hit from behind. I found myself lying on my side looking back at a hundred panicked riders trying not to run into the pileup. Scary. I jumped back on my bike, but realized quickly that I had a broken rear wheel. By the time I got it changed, I was probably two minutes behind the field. I briefly tried chasing, but it was clear that it was futile, so I slowed up and just rode to the feed zone for DNF number two.

Which brings me to today's race in Reading, PA. It too was fast, but I finally felt decent and the team really rode well as a group. I spent the early part of the race covering breaks, and Mike Creed and I found ourselves in one that stayed away for a little while. But Oscar put on the real show today. He got in a break of four just outside of ten miles to go, then dropped them all on the final climb and soloed in for the win. Great show. Unfortunately, the language barrier has kept me from getting to know Oscar too well (he's Spanish and lives just outside of Madrid), but it's clear that he's a really nice guy and I'm incredibly happy for him. It's a big win. Plus, no DNF for me!

There was some bad news today, though. My former Health Net teammate Karl Menzies had a nasty fall late in the race and ended up with six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken wrist. I didn't see the fall, so I don't know exactly what happened. Regardless, I feel terrible to hear it and I hope he gets back to racing soon. No one should have to deal with something like that, but especially not one of the good guys.

Now we have just one more left, the big one on Sunday in Philadelphia. After that, I'll be flying to Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. More soon.