Madera Stage Race and Sympathy for my Teammates

Most of my teammates are down doing Vuelta de Mexico right now. I dont know what is actually happening but here is a quick synopsis of what I have heard about the goings on of that race so far:

• Chad Beyer was doing well until he started puking, and for all I know, he is still puking 4 days later.
• Gavin Manion may or may not have taken a chain-ring to the face. Probably as a part of a strange ritual related to Americans buying coffee in Mexico, because that would be tough to do in a bike race.
• Bobby said that the stages start and everyone just gets dropped right away. Sounds fun.
• I caught something about the whole race being neutralized due to a protest.
• There were 180 speed bumps on one stage.
• There are dogs with bib numbers acting like bludgers in quiddich from Harry Potter (no i will not check the spelling on EITHER of those two words).
• Someone glued half soccer balls made of steel to the road, everywhere.
• Christian was eaten by a 38 foot python, here he is with his new python sleeping bag! (unconfirmed)

Looks so warm!

 So, I am happy to say, I am in Madera, California with Sam Bassetti doing some road bike time trials, a crit, and a road race. I got 9th in the first TT which was cool because I think I was the first place dude on a road bike (meh, thats mainly meh), but then this happened:

At least the bees love it.

So, I feel terrible, and not 20 minutes goes by without either having some Zicam, taking benadryl, gargling antacid, drinking emergen-c, doing some crazy nasal rinse that makes me feel like im drowning, or COMPLAINING ABOUT THE POLLEN. How much pollen is in the air? Well, every field has 20 boxes of bees sitting next to the road, and I have 2 bee-stings to prove it. I'm sorry to report that I have solved the (tragic) sudden bee death problem: its cyclists' faces. That's right angry drivers, I finally found a legitimate reason for you to treat me so terribly. You're welcome, although I know you don't need to be thanked. 

Annnyways...

This is my first race with Sam (@swbassetti). Yesterday he came back from dinner with friends and, without saying anything to me, changed out of his jeans into shorts. Therefore he is an awesome person. Not having TT bikes to ride made the first two stages frustrating, but we kept our spirits high by riding to and from all the stages because I am too lazy to pack up the car every day. Frankie (@Fakiefrankie) has managed to still throw his two cents in via twitter, telling us we are worthless and road bikes in a TT are not an excuse, to which I say he should concentrate on keeping the rest of the team out of the belly of large snakes in Mexico.

Tomorrow we hit up the road race and hopefully America's Best Value Inn and Suites, which I am going to start calling hotel buzzword inn, lets us get back in the room to clean up for our long treks home. (I just sneezed all over this keyboard). Hopefully I get a picture of the wall hanging that depicts a HUGE tsunami wave engulfing the golden gate bridge in the lobby, its a gem.

As for you, reader, keep on coming back. I feel a blogging tailwind on the horizon, and I even put some fun links over there to the right in the sidebar. The goal this year is to win. The other goal is to tell you about it. My third goal is to keep the bee stings to a minimum tomorrow.