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.

Here is a photo of the base of the big climb on stage 2. We will be car 15 tomorow...  

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... 

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. 

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.

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

Left to right. Miguel Meza, Arquimides Lam, Cirilo Ortega (our head Soigneur) and Florencio Ramos warming up for the prologue. 

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! 

The day before the Prologue. Thank you SPECIALIZED the helmets and sunglasses work and look great!

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

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!

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.

EXPRESO news paper.





http://www.expreso.com.mx/index.php?pagina=3&seccion=3&sdia=14&smes=02&sanio=2006&s=impresa_anteriores 

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 

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! 

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. 

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. 

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 

Let me introduce you to our team:

DOMINGO GONZALEZ
Birth date: 1/30/1970
Current Residence: Villanueva, Zacatecas
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 152
Years racing: 20
Years professional: 15
Hobbies: Music, Reading
Specialty: Rolleur / Sprinter
PALMARES
Road Race National Champion 2005
5th Place Road Race Pan-American Games 2005
3rd Place Road Race Pan-American Championships 2004
Bronze Medalist in the Central American Games - Individual Road Race 2002
Winner of the Central American Games –Time Trial Road Race 2002


FAUSTO ESPARZA
Birth date: 6/02/1974
Current Residence: Guadalajara, Jalisco
Height: 5’ 5 ¾"
Weight: 154
Years racing: 11
Years professional: 6
Hobbies: Reading and cinema
Specialty: Sprinter


PALMARES
Winner of the Gran Premio El Occidental 2005
Winner of the Vuelta Arizona Sonora 2005
Winner of the National Team Pursuit 2004
3rd place in the Road Race National Championship in 2003



ANTONIO ALDAPE
Birth date: 11/20/1978
Current Residence: Leon, Guanajuato
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 152
Years racing: 17
Years professional: 8
Hobbies: Family, scale car toys, car mechanic
Specialty: Rolleur

PALMARES
Winner Classic Leon-San Luis 2005
Winner GP Zapopan Romero 2005
Winner Vuelta Oaxaca 2004
Winner Tour de Tabasco 2004
Mexico Nacional Champion Road Race 2003
7th Place GP Beauce, Canada, 2003
Winner GP San Guissepe, Montecasino, Italy, 2002


ARQUIMIDES LAM
Birth date: 09/02/1978
Current Residence: Armeria, Colima
Height: 5’6"
Weight: 132
Years racing: 9
Years professional: 5
Hobbies: Farmer
Specialty: Climber



PALMARES
Winner of 5Th Stage, Vuelta Sonora Arizona, 2005
2nd place 2nd stage, Vuelta Costa Rica, 2005
Winner Clasica Fiestas de Durango, 2005
Winner Tour del Sol, 2004
Winner one stage Vuelta Costa Rica, 2003
4th place Mexico National Championship, 2003
Winner Vuelta Mazatlan, 2002


MIGUEL MEZA
Birth date: 5/19/1977
Current Residence: Ocotlàn Jalisco
Height: 5’ 4 ½”
Weight: 136
Years racing: 14
Years professional: 9
Hobbies: Music
Specialty: Rolleur



PALMARES
Most aggressive rider Vuelta de las Amèricas 2003
Most aggressive rider Redlands 2003
2nd Place in 1st Stage of Tour de Georgia 2003
Winner of Copa Guadalajara 2003
2nd Place in the 7th Stage of Vuelta Tirreno Adrìatico 2002


JESUS ZARATE
Birth date: 9/05/1974
Current Residence: Mexico City
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 149
Years racing: 16
Years professional: 12
Hobbies: Music, Cinema
Specialty: Rolleur, Sprinter

PALMARES
Winner 8th stage Vuelta Costa Rica, 2005
Winner 8th stage Vuelta Chiriqui, Panama, 2005
Winner GP El Occidental, 2004
3 stages Winner Vuelta de las Ameritas, 2003
10th place San Francisco Gran Prix, 2002





FLORENCIO RAMOS
Birth date: 11/24/1977
Current Residence: Guadalajara, Jalisco
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 157
Years racing: 10
Years professional: 6
Hobbies: Music
Specialty: Rolleur



PALMARES
3rd Place Mexico National Championships Time Trial 2005
Mexico National Champion Road Race, 2004
2nd Mexico National Cup, 2004
Winner Orizabita, 2003
KoM, Vuelta Chiriqui, Panama, 2002
Winner stage one, Tour de Gila, 2002


MANUEL HERNANDEZ
Birth date: 6/12/1976
Current Residence: Apasco, Estado de Mexico
Height: 5’9"
Weight: 154
Years racing: 14
Years professional: 9
Hobbies: Cinema, Music
Specialty: Rolleur / Sprinter

PALMARES
2nd Place Sprint Vuelta Costa Rica 2006
National Champion Track Points 2005
National Champion Track Team Pursuit 2005
Sprint Jersey Vuelta Panama 2005
Winner Vuelta Oaxaca 2004
2nd Place Vuelta Republica Dominicana 2004
6th Place Panamerican Championship 2004
Winner Giro de Le Marque (Ita) 2003
3rd Place Giro Internacional del Valdano (Ita) 2003
2nd Place Mexico Nacional Championship- Road Race 2002