Tuesday, February 28, 2006



This shot was captured by Ernesto one of the over 2,040 different blog readers! This is a shot Ernesto captured on stage two.
My daughter Jennifer took this shot of our homecoming celebration. We toasted the to the future of the fine riders of Mexico and to the people who support them. I have been on the road with this project for 20 days the longest my children have been without me. Posted by Picasa
On Monday, we flew into Tucson, AZ then I drove the riders to Nogales, Mex for their next race. It is a five day UCI 2.2 race starting today! Not my plan, but the riders are going for it nonetheless! It is normal to take at least a few days off before starting another race especially this early in the year. In any event, this is a photo of Lam and Hector at the first hotel in Nogales. Posted by Picasa
This is just an example of one of the hundreds of Mexican flags that were out on the course. I took this while I was driving to the start before the final stage. I am told that we were the crowd favorites by a number of the AMGEN Tour of California staff that were out on the courses. We had pictures left on our cars and big greetings before and after the stages. A lot of Viva Mexico chanting! We need to get a proper Mexican horn for our cars! Posted by Picasa
Here is a photo of our final finishers and some of the staff. Right to left. Me, Jesus, Lam, Fausto, Gerardo Langarica (should be a talent scout in Mexico), Jorge Rodriguez ( Vice President of the Mexican Cycling Federation and an honorable man), Hector Zamora, Cirilo Ortega, Jason Tullous (a timely consistent performer!) and Pedro Zamora. Cesar and Wences were out taking photos. I will post them as soon as I get them... Posted by Picasa
KB Home Mexican National Cycling Team blog For The Amgen Tour of California

Hello Everyone,

Sorry, that it has taken me a while to post again. My travel laptop is having a glitch of some sort where it does not recognize any wireless connections…

This post will be short but keep checking in because I will produce a more thorough evaluation of our performance.

The sixth stage had thousands of spectators lining the course. Our race was uneventful setting up for the finish. The course was good for Fausto. Fausto was in fifth position at 200 meters to go but his legs blew up so he faded back to the 18th position. Not a bad finish considering the effort it requires to get into position without a strong team for lead-out.

The final stage was the circuit race. There was a crash caused by the best place U23 rider in the race. Unfortunately, he hit a big pothole (one of the only ones on a near perfect course). His hands slid forward off the bars and many riders went down. Phil Zajicek (NIC), Robert Hunter (PHO), Bart Dockx (DVL), Sebastian Lang (GST), Koldo Gil Perez (SDV), Michael Creed (TIA) were all out of the race. Phil Zajicek landed on an already damaged right wrist… The team leadouts were good eliminating good set up positions if you were not on one of the big teams - Fausto finished in 22nd place.

For our team the final stage was uneventful except for a wheel service for Fausto.

The guys were glad to have finished as a team. I have photos that will be posted along with a lot more information.

I will get my computer working properly and new postings will be forthcoming! Stay tuned.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Yesterday was by far the best day of this tour for us! Now that we are getting some race experience with each other it is becoming more and more apparent we have a good potential to compete at the highest levels sooner rather than later.

Our equipment hassles continued yesterday. We are using a lot of Mavic Neutral. Lam is riding a Campagnolo Veloce bike that has a rear derailleur that needs to be replaced along with a worn out shifter. The wheels that Mavic puts together are designed to work with both Shimano 10 and Campagnolo 10 speed systems. It is amazing that it works as well as it does. Lam has a new chain but the bike shifts poorly none the less. We put in a real campy wheel and it worked much better so we went with a lightweight American Classic rear wheel with an 11-25 on it to be sure he was able to climb in the big chainring.

Unfortunately, the relatively new freehub body gave away under Lam’s pressure and freewheeled in both directions. Mavic did a wheel change and we got him back in before the climb.

During the climb Lam rode with the best and in the end finished 1:13 down on the leaders. The decent was the kind you pedal on and the first group had more punch in it. We should never race at this level again without the equipment that is necessary. Lam’s bike is almost 10 kilos! I will see if I can get some pictures for you to see what the others are using.

Jesus was in the 3:58 group. Once the climb was over it is unlikely you could improve your position on the course… It was another respectable showing.

One of the best things that happened yesterday was that Fausto was smart and did the right thing by minimizing his expenditure. His GC is nowhere so it did not make sense that he would go for it yesterday with today’s stage being a better fit for his current form. It is easy to talk about doing the right thing but he was able to resist burning to many matches. Fausto did a professional ride yesterday.

Today’s stage looks to be a good one for Fausto. It has 3 category 4 climbs and one category 3. This is a similar profile as the day he was able to get the 14th place finish. The thing that is not in the race manual or talked about much is that there are two sections of very steep grade before the finish. Some of the teams are going with the 11-25 just to be sure there is no gearing problems. We are following suit.

Today is the day for Fausto but we are going to hold Lam ready in case those last two pitches are hard enough to get him into a forward split. We should have Lam near the front before we hit those steep sections.

We only have our three riders left but team general classification is calculated the cumulative time of the daily top three placing. As long as we are able to finish with three riders it is legitimate to say that Mexico is able to field a team that was able to compete at this level.

These riders do feel the responsibility of representing their country. It is an honor for me to be part of such an effort. We are not going to hide in the field just to finish. These riders are leading the way for Mexico to provide further opportunity for Mexican riders.

Thanks everyone for your support. This blog had over 800 hits in the past 24 hours. I regret not being able to spend more time on it but this blog is not on my high priority list at this time.

Many thanks for the frame builder Andy Gilmour for coming out to straiten out some of our equipment issues.

Friday, February 24, 2006

We had another day that shared the properties of good and bad. The bad is that Domingo had burned too many matches in the time trial yesterday. Today his legs were just not under him. Domingo retired from the race in the first feed. I am sure he will be on form for a great season after another month of effort. It is just too bad that we loose him. Domingo has a quiet leadership style that I like very much.

The race was fast today from the beginning. Even the controlled starting circuits for the spectators was fast! The race had quite a few crashes too. Lam went down in one but was able to get back in. His left hand has been on ice since the end of the stage.

Fausto had good condition on the finish. Juan Jose Haedo won another stage for TUT. Frankie and his crew are very happy! Great results for a first year team. They had the finish weird it was dicey. Fausto and quite a few others were slammed where they had to break. In any event, Fausto was good with a 14th place finish.

Jesus and Lam also enjoyed a good day of racing. The course has breathtaking views that are hard to take in at such a blistering pace. 4:41 for 230k… Every race staff was taking pictures. You could see whales from the course.

The course had 2 category 4 climbs and 1 category 3 climb. Really fast. A lot of riders were lost today. T Mobile lost two in the way we lost Domingo for example.

We are doing well and the other teams let us know that this evening. One thing that is funny is that Lam is wearing full fingered gloves and leg warmers. None of the European riders can understand that he is actually cold. We will have to show them just what individuals Mexico can produce.

Tomorrow is a great opportunity. It has a 10k cat 1 climb that tops out 30k before the finish. The decent is not as technical as the other ones we have been experiencing. It is important to stay good in the draft because you have to pedal during the decent. If you come out of the draft it will be hard to get back on. Everyone knows this so the speeds can be high if it is in the favor of a strong team… CSC has made no move in this race and it is getting close to the end. It goes relatively flat for the last 10k.

Overall out team is showing signs of a very good potential. Once we drop another five pounds off of the bikes and get the riders prepared properly, I think we will produce some results that will amaze others who don’t know about the potential of Mexican riders.

Sorry no pictures. It is hard to get anything decent when you are driving a team car.

Tomorrow I will have a guest Andy Gilmour my friend and a great frame builder. Perhaps he can get some good shots.

More after I can capture another internet connection.

Cheers,
Neil

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

And then there were four...
Top: Lam, Jesus,
Bottom: Fausto and Domingo
Tomorow is the longest stage and it looks to be a real nice stage. Posted by Picasa
Here is a photo of the base of the big climb on stage 2. We will be car 15 tomorow...  Posted by Picasa
We went live on a national broadcast in Mexico after the 2nd stage. KB Home has been an excellent host as well as a great sponsor. It was after a hard stage and the guys were cold. Not a single complaint... Posted by Picasa
Every stage seems to have five or six people like this showing up with their support. We frequently have people yelling their encouragement to the riders. Posted by Picasa
It has been quite a day. All of the guys made the time cut! Domingo 62nd in the TT. Floyd Landis stomped everyone and won by 26” over second place… I had a gut feeling he was going to fly when I talked to him in the hotel last night.
Our other guys rode a smart time trial. Lam had a serious when his bar end shifter broke (I don’t recommend you keep them around for more than five years…) He was riding well until the shifter broke in his hand.

This time trial has a really fast and technical decent.

Mexican people are greeting us from everywhere. We get people honking there horns stopping in traffic to shake hands and it just goes on and on. The reception we are being given is quite incredible.

The other half of the team that did not make the time cut will be racing in LA this weekend. It will be interesting to hear if they receive the same kind of reception without the AMGEN Tour of California energy surrounding them. Posted by Picasa
Yesterday was both our best day and our worst day. We lost four riders due to the time limit and at the same time we had a performances closer to what these riders are capable of.

Miguel Meza, Manuel Hernandez, Antonio Aldape and Florencio Ramos did not make the 10% time limit cut.

The four we lost have it in them to ride within the time limit in a race like this but they simply did not have the preperation and equipment. I understand from past performances like Miguel Meza has had by excellent performances in the Tour of Italy. Manuel Hernandez perticipated in the LA world cup race earlyer this year and it was a bit of a stretch for him to perform at such a high level in such two diferent venues especially considering the level here in the AMGEN Tour of California. Manuel will be off to Sydney next week. As for Antonio and Florencio they are quite disapointed but this is all part of moving to the next level. I am sure we can expect great performances from them in the future.

On the positive side Jesus Zarate 70th (9:24) yesterday has started to come into the race. He was climbing fine and finding some of his form. I know he is close to coming into his form it is just a matter of time before he moves into the high level. Jesus has good expereance and riders in the US may know him from his days when he was on the Mercury Team.

Domingo Gonzales had a rough day of it yesterday coming off at a particularly hard point. He made an incredible effort to make it in using his time trial ability. He made the cut by ten seconds!

Fausto Esparza was in the middle of the field today (68th)allong with Jesus. We will see today how many matches were burned. Fausto has done most of his racing in Centeral America but I think everyone who saw him with the Vuelta de Sonora last year was quite impressed!

Our standout performance was from Arquimides Lam. There was some good climbing yesterday and Lam showed that he is starting to come into some form. He topped out with two T Mobile guys and two Discovery Channel riders. The decent was fast and he was able to finish in the second group that was about 5:20 down.

Today will be the real test of this tour as there are the best equiped and fastest timetrialist in the world compeeting. Of course, this is going to be a great challenge especialy due to the time limit of 15% of the fastest time! In a race like this that might be five minutes. Thankfully the course does have some climbing in it but under the best conditions we would be more on par in the equipment arena. The distance is 17 mi. / 27.4 km. I am sure the guys will give it their full effort only time will tell if we will make it through this greatest of all our challenges this tour.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Hello,

I am back. Let me get you up to date with a shorthand letter. The riders were blown out in the prologue. Jesus left his form on the trainer when he was warming up. That is easy to do in an event like this. The other guys were just too charged before the climb. The energy from the crowd electrified them at the start making a rough transition into the climb. It is easy to think you are going easer than you think when the crowd is with you. We talked about the potential for this but some things are lost in translation.

Today things were good until a leg breaking effort went down on the last climb. It cracked six of our riders off. The guys did a real team mission and stayed together working in a TTT formation with other riders sitting on. One of the Gerolsteiner rider sat on them the entire way to the line.

It has been two tough days for the team. Thankfully we have been given help from a lot of people to take care of these riders. This is a new level for them and with enough time they will be able to ride at this level. It is so good that KB Home and the Amgen Tour of California is opening the door for Mexico!

The race fans have been the incredible. We have a lot of people yelling to us and waiving Mexican flags.

Thanks everyone for so much support. It may seem that things are bleak but they are not. This is what it takes to raise the level of Mexico’s riders and federation ability to staff a race. Experience can be a hard teacher but in my view it is the best teacher.

Time to get back with the riders and staff.

Cheers,
Neil

Monday, February 20, 2006

Left to right. Miguel Meza, Arquimides Lam, Cirilo Ortega (our head Soigneur) and Florencio Ramos warming up for the prologue. Posted by Picasa
This is a picture of two really cool Mexican American guys Danny and Jose. These guys really became a part of our support team. They helped with their local knowledge of the area and let us use their equipment for warm up. Martin is in the photo wearing red, Danny is in yellow and Jose is on one knee. Thanks for all of your good help and company! Posted by Picasa
The day before the Prologue. Thank you SPECIALIZED the helmets and sunglasses work and look great!
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Weather report looks like rain today: http://www.weather.com/weather/print/94010

Forecast
Today Feb 18 Light Rain 49°/38° 90 % Rain
Sun Feb 19 AM Showers 52°/39° 40 % Rain
Mon Feb 20 Sunny 54°/40° 10 % Rain
Tue Feb 21 Mostly Sunny 56°/42° 20 % Rain
Wed Feb 22 Partly Cloudy 58°/45° 20 % Rain
Thu Feb 23 Mostly Sunny 60°/46° 20 % Rain
Fri Feb 24 Partly Cloudy 60°/47° 20 % Rain
Sat Feb 25 Scattered Showers 59°/49° 60 % Rain
Sun Feb 26 Showers 58°/48° 60 % Rain
Mon Feb 27 Scattered Showers 58°/45° 60 % Rain

Friday, February 17, 2006

Here is a photo of our core team staff. Left to right, Hector Zamora a cycling coach who is taking the position of our head mechanic. Cirilo Ortega our Head Soigneur. Mr. Ortega has thirty five years of experience and speaks no English – I would not trade him for anyone. Martin Esparza is another cycling coach who is working this race. Mr. Esparaza is wearing many hats, mechanic, soingneur and what ever it take to make things smooth for the riders. It takes a lot of people to effectively pull things together. This staff is working hard for their riders and keeping it fun too!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006



Here is a first look at our team cars! We have two! Many thanks to everyone involved especially KB HOME and Andrea Wymer of AEG.






Posted by Picasa
EXPRESO news paper.





http://www.expreso.com.mx/index.php?pagina=3&seccion=3&sdia=14&smes=02&sanio=2006&s=impresa_anteriores Posted by Picasa
CALIFORNIA - Transport Day!

The number of viewers of this blog is quite unexpected. Thank you everyone for your interest. It is apparent we are now on the radar of the media. I am getting requests for telephone interviews and many questions via email.

One of the questions that I keep on getting is what the riders schedule is like. I can tell you that we have a consistent way of handling our ever-changing schedule. For example, today the team transports from Hermosillo to San Francisco. The plane is small so we do not expect our bike to arrive with the riders today.

Here is today’s schedule for the riders:

7:00 Desayuno / Breakfast
8:00 Rodar / Ride
9:45 Yegando de rodar / Back from ride
10:00 Empacar / Pack
11:00 Salida airporto / Transport to airport
1:00 Comida / Lunch
1:15 Salida / Depart
6:17 Yegando / Arrive
(8:00) Cena / Dinner Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

This is a photo of the final break of the 130k event sponsord by Vh a Mexican supermarket chain.

The rider at the front is Gregorio Ladino one of the best profeshinal riders in Central America.

In the end it was Fausto and Domingo that had the upper hand as Gregorio was without his full Tecos team.

Many thanks for all involved to bring our camp a high quality race to us for a tune up! Posted by Picasa

Monday, February 13, 2006

KB HOME Wins! On Sunday we had our first race in our new team clothing. The race was fast with a lot of wind. We finished first and second. Here is a shot of the lead group before the final break of three went away. Fausto Esparsa won with Domingo Gonzales second. We had strong competition from a Columbian rider on the Tecos team. I will publish another photograph with more detail on the event tomorow. Posted by Picasa
Here is our team going for the first ride in our new KB HOME clothing. My wife and children made the dilervery to us here at camp. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Appendicitis strikes!

Edgardo Lugo was operated on January 30th due to appendicitis. Thankfully, his appendix did not burst but the operation to remove the appendix requires splitting the lower abdominal mussels.

Edgardo has been excited and preparing diligently for the AMGEN tour and is disappointed to have this setback in his perpetration.

Edgardo will attend our preparation camp in Hermosillo to receive as much help as the KB HOME Mexican National Team can provide.

EDGARDO LUGO
Birth date: 3/27/1976
Current Residence: Tenancingo, Estado de Mexico
Height: 5’ 7"
Weight: 138
Years racing: 14
Years professional: 6
Hobbies: Music

Specialty: Stage Race General Classification (overall rider)

PALMARES
17th place Vuelta Costa Rica, 2005
2nd place stage Vuelta Chgiriqui, Panama, 2005
3rd place Vuelta Oaxaca, 2005
2nd place Vuelta el Occidental, 2005
5th place Nacional Championship road race, 2004
6th place Vuelta Oaxaca, 2004
Winner 17th stage Vuelta de las Americas, 2003 Posted by Picasa