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