Wow !! What a weekend !!! There is so much to write about to share the experience, but being out  there could only give you the real feeling of what it was like... I'll still do what I can to describe it though.... As some of you might know. The tour of California starts next week, which is a race that has a very high competitive cycling level like the Tour De France. So that brings a lot of teams to come to California before the race in order to prepare well for it. Which... Boulevard road race ends up being like the perfect tour of California warm up for them ! And that's the race that I did on Saturday!! A grueling 140 km road race with a lot of climbing, that brought many professional teams such as Type 1, Jelly Belly, Flying V Australia, Ouch Team, Rock, BMC, and including 2006 Tour DE France winner Floyd Landis!!!. It also brought some very special weather conditions that you don't often get in San Diego which were cold rain, and SNOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that didn't stopped the organizers from canceling the race... The distance stayed the same, and 100+ riders still made it to the start completely freezing !!!  It was insane !!! 

Photo by: www.ironstring.com / Mark Johnson

The race got going, we could all feel the snow coming into our mouths as we pedal the first few miles into the first descent of the race !!!!. Our feet, hands, and every single part of our body became completely numb right away. Guys started pulling out of the race already, and everybody else was just out of it wondering what they were doing there... I kept telling myself to forget about it, and just deal with it the best possible. I kept squeezing the bars to not loose control of my hands, and know that I could still brake in case of anything!!!...

First lap went by slow.. Before you knew it. Two guys were already 3 minutes up the road... Then 2nd lap came, and a group of riders went off the front, and they let them roll. I stayed in the field, just trying to eat, and staying close to my teammates. They kept telling me to wait, eat and save energy for the third lap out of four. So I did... Floyd's team had most of it's guys in the field including Rory Sutherland, and John Murphy, which gave me confidence that they would try to bring it back.

By the start of the third lap. Nobody was taking control of the race, and the break had a gap of about two minutes!, which was still possible to bring back. My whole team saw that, which included Victor Ayala, Stuart Press, Gustavo Mendez, Raul Frias, and Brandon Gritters, and they all went to the front and got lined up for me, and starting rotating  to bring the gap down. I was completely shocked by seeing them do that for me, and working so hard. They really believed I could do something... As the 3rd lap came to the finishing climb. My teammates had already pulled for already 2/3's of it, and it was just up to Ouch to put the last effort in order to bring it back. But they didn't... They just sat up and kept riding, which was weird, because the odds for them of winning out of the break were small.

Photo by: www.ironstring.com / Mark Johnson

Victor Ayala brought me to the base of the last climb on the third lap, and started riding hard, Floyd, and Rory followed and they laughed of what we were trying to do. I got pissed, and launched an attack just to see how they would react, but I still made sure it would cost them to get up to me. Floyd, and Rory followed me,and then asked me what I was doing?... I attacked them again to answer the question... They caught up to me again, and I heard them breathing hard, so I kept pulling. They eventually started riding hard with me as well to put time on others. Here I was with previous tour de france winner Floyd Landis, as well as twice NRC champion this past two years Rory Sutherland, breathing hard and riding with me up the climb. That just inspired me even more, even though they were cursing me like if I was an enemy... They dropped me a bit towards the top though, I but manged to catch them again on the flats with the help of a Type 1 rider.

On the fourth lap what was left of the group caught up to us, and we were about 30 guys "chasing" the break, which had a huge lead by then of about 5 minutes... ! Impossible now!!! FUCK !!! Now we were all racing for somewhere between 10-30, which sucked... I attacked twice again. And both times Rory, and Floyd bridged up to me and didn't took a turn. How cool is that?? Being marked by them personally??? That gave me even more boost to go harder!! I went back to the field, and Alessandro Bazzana put a good attack, and the whole OUCH team set tempo until they caught him. Halfway through the last lap I attacked  again, but I made sure it was an all out move over a small climb. I got a good gap of about 100 meters, and kept growing little by little... I could see them coming, but kept riding hard, until we hit the final climb. They were getting closer, but I kept riding harder, and eventually rode away. I caught two guys on the last climb that were in the early break and passed them. I was able to hold what was left of the field to finish 9th...

Photo by: www.ironstring.com / Mark Johnson

I was happy for all my teammates, and people that supported me on the race. I had the biggest crew of people helping me to get ready to race that day, and had to do something for them.

Velonews and Mark Johnson posted an awesome report about the bike race here:

http://www.velonews.com/article/87404/ben-day-wins-as-landis-returns-to-racing-at-the-snowy

 Results (Around 120 starters??) :

1. Ben Day, V Australia p/b Successful Living
2. Cameron Evans, OUCH presented by Maxxis
3. David Kemp, V Australia p/b Successful Living
4. Charles Dionne, V Australia p/b Successful Living
5. Bernard Sulzberger, V Australia p/b Successful Living
6. Carson Miller, Land Rover-ORBEA
7. Chris Barton, U.S. National Development Team
8. Sheldon Denny, Bissell
9. Luis Zamudio, Kahala La Grange
10. Vincent Owens, HDR p/b Lombardi Sports
11. John Murphy, OUCH presented by Maxxis
12. Evan Hoffman, HDR p/b Lombardi Sports
13. Ken Hanson, Team Type 1
14. James Gunn-Wilkerson, Nytro Racing
15. Chris McDonald, SDBC-Acqua Al 2
16. Floyd Landis, OUCH presented by Maxxis
17. Rory Sutherland, OUCH presented by Maxxis

OH YEAH... I forgot to write something about Red Trolley Criterium on Sunday... Hmmm, let me see.... Race was fast. A lot of strong teams. Tons of attacks, but stayed together until the end. Justin Williams won, and friend/ teammate Alexi got 9th which was cool... :)

Too much writing... Time to rest !

We are a couple of days away from the legendary Boulevard Road race which will be held this Saturday. It's crazy to think that we will all be racing next to 2006 Tour DE France winner Floyd Landis!, and I am sure he is in pretty good shape too!, because the Tour of California is just around the corner!. I am really not expecting anything but to have a good ride! haaa!!. A good ride would be getting to race smart, and getting to race the last lap of the race!. If my legs are not there by then, then it's cool, but I want to be able to race that last lap with the leaders, and see what happens. It hasn't been a hard offseason for me, but somehow I am riding good, and I only expect to get a lot better from now on...

I did this 4 hour ride on Wednesday, and killed myself on the climbs until I cramped up... It might sound stupid to do a ride like that just before a race, but at the same time, I don't think it is. I usually cramp in boulevard because of how unaccustomed I am from the explosive continuous efforts that a race brings for a long period of time, and lack intensity... So now I will show up a little worked, and will ride hard still!. Should be fine. But I am always willing to try different ways of approaching a race. We'll have to wait and see...

This was my face after my training session...

Some very bad tragedy happened today in the cycling world... A young Belgian pro died on bed while racing at the Tour of Qatar this week. Woke up dead... Fuck, that's just horrible... They say possible heart attack... bulls@!#@E!.. 21 year olds don't get heart attacks while sleeping. They only neutralized one stage, and the race will keep going until it ends... More on this here:

http://www.velonews.com/article/87314/rider-found-dead-in-qatar-hotel

As my racing season comes to a start, I have set a goal to myself !. Last all season!, and don't race all the time! Prepare and race, and back and forth. I need to do good more than just doing a lot... I am really looking forward for this year, and I want this year to be my last season as an amateur. I feel ready to make the next step, and will fight for it! wish me luck this weekend :). I'll come up with a report right after the race. Stay tuned!

I also want to thank all the people that have been supporting me. I wouldn;t be here if it wasn't for all of you, and one day I'll make sure you guys feel happy that you helped me once!... Until next one

My bike is ready to rock n roll this weekend too :)

I am racing as bad as I could right now. My legs are fine, but I just couldn't do this right at yesterday's criterium. It was very disappointing. The whole shame is on me, and there is nothing I can do but forget about it, so the best way to start is by not writing a report about this race at all. Lets say I just sucked yesterday, got my ass kicked, and it's all I can say....

 Here we are Jose Blanco, his Dad, and myself warming up for the Imperial Criterium, in which we both decided to pull out and DNF...

I will also post some pictures of a nice ride to Coronado that I did with my friend Jesse, and we stopped for some nice lunch at Tartine Restaurant. Keep in mind that is WINTER !!!

What is Jesse pointing at ????

Yummy... !

Getting to Coronado now... You can see San Diego City behind us....

So I did this 5 hour ride today in the mountains, and a couple of hours into it I saw Neil Shirley riding by, and rode along with him for a while. He is an awesome bike rider, and I admire him a lot, so it definitely made my ride much more fun. It really took a lot to get motivated today to go out and ride. I don't know, I don't want to say I didn't enjoyed it, but it was just one of those days you just rather stay at home chatting on facebook, and drinking coffee than killing it in the mountains.. But I still did it.. Two hours into it, the excitement grew, and GREW even more when I notice there weren't many cars out there. Although my legs felt like shit over every single climb, I still just managed to do a good hard tempo up them, and feel good about the pure effort without worrying how slow I was still moving. Seems like I was in slow motion mode all ride...

As the ride went on, I kept telling myself I needed something extra, or special to attack myself a couple of times, and simulate a little bit of bike racing with tired legs full of fatigue after 6,000 feet of climbing already done, so I stopped by this fruit place, and saw this coconut juice, and man! I don't know, but I was on fire all the way back pushing the 54-12 doing strenght work for a solid 30 minutes in rollers with a headwind just to finish off my ride, and it was right after attacking myself like 15 times on the hills.

All and all good riding time. Getting ready for March. It might seem like I am trying to be ready for February, but I am really not. February will be the month to get the legs going, and hopefully with the shape I have I can still pull out some good rides. I am going to the tour of Mexico on March so that will be a good race for me. Maybe the biggest race I will do in 2009, who knows.. I still have my doors open for any opportunity that comes along..