Saturday, May 5, 2012

Cinco de mayo! Gila crit

Today in cinco de mayo and if you are unaware of what it stands for it is simply the 5th of may in Spanish which is also the national day for Mexico. It is pretty cool then that I happen to be very close to Mexico and be in new Mexico for this occasion and I sent the day or more specifically the evening racing my bike. Tonight they had the criterium of the tour of the gila, a 70km street circuit for all the locals to come and enjoy on there national day of celebration. I have never done a race where I have been so distracted by the smell of food anywhere in the world. One one corner there was the taco and burrito stand and another the spit roast was churning over and on another the spare ribs were being dished out left right and centre. Surface to say I made the decision very early in the race that as soon as we were all done and dusted I was heading strait for the burrito stand to get in on the action, this corner smelt the best!!! The race for me was simply another good training run, just stayed up the front out of trouble and avoided any potential crashes so I was happy with the evenings events. The Americans are crit specialists as they race them week in week out so was good to see first hand how it's done. With a full lineup of 8 riders I look forward to helping set up one of our sprinters later in the year in one of these races because they are really fun. Really fast and always something happening, it is kind of like a road race version of a time trial. Tomorrow is the final stage and kindly nicknamed the gila monster so as I am feeling better and better each day I am looking forward to seeing what I and my lungs can handle on my final day racing at altitude. Time for some rest Cjw