Well folks I’m back in the Valley of the Sun after a quick week in Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix… affectionately dubbed the Nature Valley Crash Fest for the first few days…

Anytime you have a bunch that’s 50% professionals and the other half cat. 1’s or 1/2’s, and you line them up at a race that has grown to become a regional or local legend type of race… well, you’re going to have crashes. Allow me to explain this… every amateur wants to be at the front because it’s their big race, in their backyard, with their family watching… Totally understandable. Now due to this, every professional wants to try and stay infront of them… combine all that with a road race that split ASAP in 2006 due to bad crosswinds. Are you still with me? For the final dash of spice, add the Colombian National Team and the wild riding style of guys like Steve Tilford and finally… put all this in a mixing bowl and stir it around and you get a race where nobody is going to calm down and chill out until there’s a sweet crash… or two… or three.

Case in point… the massive pile up at the beggining of stage two. Somebody fell, and everyone else just pilled into him. All this on a wide open, flat road, at maybe 20-25mph…

For the record: Anytime you have a crash that happens at 20-25mph… on a flat road… in dry conditions… and it results in a 30 to 40 man pile-up… well, quite a few riders weren’t paying attention.

Write that down.

I managed to stop my bike, only to get plowed into by a few guys behind me. I’ve got the tire mark on the back of my thigh as a souvenir. In that crash, we had 5 guys on the team go down and lost 4 to 5 Cane Creek wheels out of it.

It took Jeff Hopkins and I forever to get our bikes straightened out and back on the road. It was only a short 2 hour race, and I spent nearly half of it glued to the cars bumper pacing back on. It was funny, but as we tried to get back into the bunch, it looked like a motorpace session out there as we caught, passed, and saw numerous other riders in the same postion. Fun times…

As a whole, it was a great race that is promoted remarkably well. All aspects of the race are covered and covered to a high level. I’ll have to say that the last stage, the Stillwater Criterium, is probably the toughest crit course I’ve ever done. The start line is at the bottom of this tough steep climb and the top is the finish line. Jeez… a bastard of a course. On the start line, you’re standing there staring up this steep road thinking about the slam fest that’s only minutes away. Good times.

Well, I think that’s all for now. I’m home for a few weeks before being shipped back out to Canada for a few races in Vancouver. While home I’m going to wrap up the last bits of this realtors license I’ve been pursuing. All the classes are done and the tests passed. This evening I have a mandatory 6 hour contract class scheduled. After that, all that stands in my way is paper work and applications. Neither of those scare me too much so hopefully, by the end of the week, I’ll be a fully licensed and active realtor. I’ll keep you folks posted on that.

By the way, I’ve posted a new update from Janet. Just click on “Thoughts From Janet” on the homepage to get caught up.

Take care people.

PS… Tune in to BicycleRadio tonight. Live at 7pm to 8pm PST.

Categories: Daily Jibber Jabber.