Whirlwind Summary.........

Been awhile,

Let's start with what's most important, racing.

I did the Silverton RR a few weeks ago. I didn't feel great. I did too much work during the race. I ended up taking 8th.
Results
That pretty much sums up that day. I guess it was ok for a 2nd ever cat. 3 race, but I just didn't feel like I really stomped it.

Next up,
I just got back from a stage race over in La Grande, OR, The Elkhorn Classic. It was a 3 day, 4 stage race. Stage 1 was a 75 mi. RR with one big climb and some serious rollers. Stage 2 was a 10 mi time trial. Stage 3 was a crit. Stage 4 was a 105 mi. RR with three significant climbs plus a 7 mi climb to the finish.
Things went pretty well. I had a terrible first day. I have never felt so bad on a bike before in my life. I don't know what it was but some combination of things came together to make me miserable. I was with the main chasing group going across the last rollers and all of a sudden I just blew up. All I wanted to do was stop pedaling, but as soon as I stopped pedaling my legs would seize up in nasty cramps. Talk about a catch-22. "Must stop! OUCH, Must Pedal!" I ended up losing 3 minutes and pretty much watching my chances for the overall go down the drain. I went back to the hotel and my legs wouldn' stop cramping up all night. Even when I was trying to sleep if I bent them too much they would seize up.
So the next morning, I had a 10 mi. time trial bright and early. Needless to say, my legs felt terrible since the had just stopped cramping a few hours before, let alone started to recover. I sucked. I lost another 3 minutes.
Later that day was the crit. It was downtown on what looked to be a pretty cool course with a good size crowd. The problem was that it started to rain and there were some pretty nasty corners. Just fallen rain is extremely slippery, just enough moisture to wet the oil on the roads. The races before mine were filled with crashes sending at least a couple people to the hospital with broken bones. Another person crashed in ouw warmup. The organizers decided to call the race if it started to rain again. After about 6 laps of our race, it started to come down again and that was our night. Thank God. My legs needed all the rest they could get.
Dooley Mountain, my last chance to save my race. 105 mi. serious climbing, summit finish. If there ever was a course for me this was it. It was a gorgeous day. I was feeling much better after a good dinner and night's sleep. I loaded up my pockets with all the food I could carry and we rolled out at 8:30 a.m. There were multiple attempts to get an early breakaway off the front. It was a risky decision. Part of me wanted to go early, knowing that the group would expects us to blow up and catch us later down the road. The other part of me just wanted to sit in and conserve as much energy as possible for the final climb to the finish. I knew that I would have a pretty good chance for a good result if the group came to the final climb together. So I decided to wait and let things play out. The problem was that the break never came back... The group let them get too big of a goup and there was no organized chase effort. So pair finish 5 minutes before the group, now we were automatically racing for 3rd. I felt good all day and came to the final climb ready to go. What was left of the group exploded, there was a small group of about 8, including myself, climbing together. Our group split and I was too far back to make the bridge across. It was too bad. I felt good but by the time I got to the front of the split the gap was too big to close. So I pulled our smaller group of 4 all the way to the finish. Then at the top, all the guys the I led up the climb, jumped me at the finish. It was a pretty unclassy thing to do since they didn't share any of the work, but whatever. I finished 12th on the day, could have been top 10 but I'm not going to sprint for 9th!
In the Overall General Classification, I took 14th. I feel pretty ok about it. I probably would have made the top 10 if I didn't have a horrible first two stages. Ohwell. It was a pretty deep field and I rode pretty hard. We'll take it. Baby steps.
Results

Category 2 upgrade points earned: 2 Points needed: 25

Pics
http://dbrannen.smugmug.com/gallery/5249571_ZVUn6#319814113_dLdGZ-A-LB
http://dbrannen.smugmug.com/gallery/5249554_5EEP3#319256665_VrNTK-A-LB
http://dbrannen.smugmug.com/gallery/5249585_npm9g#319376953_2TFmd-A-LB

I've got some more pics from Hail and I's drive and misc. I'll try to get them up.