Joe Reporst on Belize 140 mile Cross Country Classic

Hey all-
It was a crazy weekend for Boyd and I in Belize. We flew in Thursday night were we stayed at the nicest resort in town. Sheffield met us at the airport and immediately catered to us. After getting settled in Boyd and I went out on the town for a quick hour and a half ride where I flatted. Not a good sign.
Friday was our rest day, but we managed to get out for a 2 hour ride where we ended up meeting the Santinos team. This team is like the Darth Vader of Belizean Cycling. It's the New York Yankees of baseball-all big hitters and all bought but the 'rich" guy of the country. They are super nice guys, but the team is not well liked by the cycling fans. After our ride we laid around the hotel, went for a swim and watched a few movies. Boyd makes for a great date! In the evening we met up with Western Spirit, the team we were going to be racing for. We were brought down in hopes to help Shane Vasquez defend his title from last year. Although our plans included a plan B of either Boyd or myself going for the win if Shane couldn't get into a solo break-away.
Saturday quickly came. We were up at 4:30am to eat some wet pasta. I was feeling like shit with a major head cold and I don't know if Boyd was feeling at the top of his game either. The race kicked off though at around 5:50 am and the crowd was already intense. The roads were lined up already, everyone chanting for Shane.
The first few hours were pretty fast. The 140 mile race started out at about 25-30 miles per hour and Boyd and I were chasing down a few people who kept trying to go up the road. I looked at Boyd at one point and he looked like he was suffering...so was I. After about 65 miles, I think we both started to feel better and the legs were loosening up. Plus we were coming into San Ignacio where the crowd was 6-10 people deep!! Everyone was chanting Shane's name by now and Boyd and I quick made our way to the front because the turn around was going to be real crazy.
80 miles into it and two Santinos guys got to the front. These two were shipped in for the day, like us, from Guatemala to work for the powerhouse team and that they did. They got to the front and hammered for about 20 miles making the field of about 140 guys down to about 40. Boyd and I were sitting about 5 and 6 guys back, perfect tempo for us.
The race was starting to heat up as Shane got away in a break. He got about a minute on the field, but he was a marked man. They quickly brought him back. Plan B-sprint finish. Our "domestiques" weren't doing any work so I started to go back for grub and bottles for us. I didn't mind though, I was feeling good. At mile 100 Boyd says to me "I can win this"-rockin' I'll take second place. The podium is big enough for the two of us.
With about 15 miles to go, some dude literally falls over right in front of me nearly taking Boyd out. I went down hard, but used the Mike Miller technique-fall on something soft. I hurt my back pretty bad and was very slow to get up. My day was over. Boyd and Shane kept it upright and went on with 6 other guys. The race was in the bag for us. The crash took out the leading sprinter, Greg Lovell so I was told to quit chasing. That's bike racing-I finished in the back of the chasing group at about 17th. Boyd though was led out by Shane for an easy sprint victory.
The crowd coming into town was absolutely incredible. It was lined up about 5 miles out of town. By the time I finished Boyd had about 15 reports with mics in his face. There were people all around giving him praise. Our team was ecstatic with the victory and the $5000US cash prize. We are literally rock stars in Belize.
Again, awesome weekend with great results. I can't believe how catered we were. Boyd i think is still down there signing autographs and taking pictures with people's grandparents. Also, one more thing-there is an 11 by 14 picture in the Bakadeer Inn of "Environmental Alliance International Cycling Team" Pretty cool.
Stay tuned for Boyd version of the race in a day or two. Also, I apologize for any typos in the email. I still zoned out from the traveling.

Joe

Kirkwood Road Race Report By Joe

today was the Kirkwood road race and Alliance fielded a small team of three guys; myself, Karl, and Jame. It was a relatively small field of probably 65 guys and the race was about 85 miles. So far, this has been by far the hardest race I've done all year. Although the field was small there were some high quality guys such as Scott Z from Priority Health Pro and numerous guys from Rite-Aid Pro.
The gun went off and within the first mile Jame was gone with a small group.
little did we know that that was the end of the race right there. Jame stayed away the entire day and was able to beat out his one and only competitor in an easy sprint finish. Because of the race conditions(mainly cool and windy) the field was torn apart. I actually found myself straggling behind the field only two laps into it having to chase back on for a mile or two. There were also a million attacks making people just completely suffer.
Everytime I saw Stephan or Scott attacked, I had a small feeling of hatred for them because I knew that this was going to be the hardest 20 seconds of my life trying to hold onto their wheels.
With 2 laps to go, the field had relaxed for just a bit as a small chase group had formed up the road from the previous few laps. I wanted up there so I tried a few attacks myself, but ended up dragging the whole field with me, until my final attack up a small hill in which everyone let me go. It took me about 5-6 miles to finally catch the chase group of about 7-8 guys.
By this time Jame and one other dude had a good lead. Scott Z then threw in yet another attack and blew up the chase group even more. There were only 4 of us coming into the finish(one guy got away and took 3rd because we were all playing games) where I easily took the sprint from Scott to take 4th.
Alliance domination with few numbers-how sweet.