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.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
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.
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.
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.
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