Stage 1: Individual TT, 7 miles. The Individual TT is always the time to shine for our Top GC contender Bain Foote. Early in the day, the course was reported to be super fast with a tail wind on the way home. By the time the Pro field started however, the winds had shifted and picked up considerably in strength. But Bain Foote would power through the stiff wind on the smooth, rolling course to finish in 10th place. First place went to John Murphy (Healthnet Pro Cycling), with 17 year old phenom Chris Butler (Hincapie/Barkley) in 2nd and Frank Travieso (Toshiba) 31 seconds back in 3rd place. This would set the stage for a big battle between Travieso's Toshiba team trying to take 31 seconds back from the very dominant John Murphy.

Stage 2: Street Sprints, "The Vomit Comit",  650 meters, single elimination, 3 rounds 9:00PM. This was a stage where the only person with any experience at all was Kenny Bellau. He's done 3 of these and done pretty well in all of them. But none were this long. This stage would see 8 riders starting from a standstill racing for a line about 1KM away. And it was pretty dark. The first 3 advance to the next round until there were only 9 riders left in the final. Bellau's advice to the team was to waste the competition at the start line by starting in the smallest gear possible and don't look back. Bellau, leaving the line on one wheel, immediately put about 30 meters on his field. But rolling a fairly small top gear (50X12), he was reeled in before the line at 38MPH. He was eliminated. So was Frank Moak in his heat as well as Woody Boudreaux. Moak was unfortunate enough to pull the country's best sprinter, John Murphy in his heat. But both Tim Regan (resident Herring Gas sprinter) and Bain Foote (a non sprinter) advanced into the 2nd round. Regan missed a gear change in the 2nd round and was eliminated there, but surprisingly, Foote advanced to the final. In the last sprint, Bain finished a close 4th place, but still managed to gain a total of 15 bonus seconds taken off his time from the 2 previous sprint advancements. Regan managed to get 7 taken off his time for his effort. It was too dark to see anyone vomit.

Stage 3.... 60 lap Criterium. 9:30PM start time. Gimme a flashlight. This stage was just plain fast. It started about an hour after a rain storm, in the dark on a clean and fast course in an office park outside Atlanta. The course had one small, gradual hill at the finish line with a strong tailwind. The rest of the course consisted of big sweeping turns, mostly downhill with a big 180 serving as the last turn. The course was so fast that it was impossible for any break-away attempts to succeed for any amount of time. It was a bit dark in places, but all the turns had gobs of grip. Bellau, having had better weekends, pulled out at about half way swearing off cycling for the rest of his 30's. But the duo of Foote and Regan were still fighting for the top spot. Both of these riders need back-up to shine in a field like this and it was decided that it would just be safer to finish in the pack than to risk crashing in the dark at over 40MPH. The final average for this stage was a quick 29MPH. Pretty fast for a course with a U-turn. Bain's still maintaining 9th in GC with Tim in 15th.

Stage 4: Team Time Trial. 13 miles 9:00AM. Yup that's right, less than 12 hours after finishing a lightning fast criterium with blindfolds on, the pro racers had to line up this morning for a torturous Team Time Trial in rolling hills. The Herring team was already handicapped with having only half of the allowed 10 rider team they needed. The competition, although sleep deprived as well, would be extreme. This is the most technically dependent and most scrutinized of all of cycling events. You mess up here and everyone just assumes you and your buddies are posers. And you can forget trying to recoup any of measly prize money. Herring's mission was to limit damage as much as possible. They were up against John Murphy and his composite team of stellar time trialers, Team Myogenesis who had a full roster of strong, experienced riders, Frank Travieso's super-strong TeamToshiba, and the kids over at Hincapie/Barkley. All of these teams had 10 riders. Herring had 4.5. By the end, Herring only lost about a minute and a half to the winning Toshiba team, finishing with all 4 of its top riders together, where many of the 10-man teams finished with only 3 or 4 as well. It sounds a lot worse than it was, but the objective of limiting the damage was met.

Stage 5. 90 mile Road Race. Just a couple of hours after the Team Time Trial. The racers were complaining of the heat. The Herring team, most who live in the armpit of America (as far as heat goes) were finding it comical that 85 degrees was being considered hot. Anyway, the race started off with a bang. Literally. Well, it was actually a lot of bangs. For once the Herring Team had a great starting position. While the official recited his normal instructions, the boys in blue gave each other a serious "Let's do it", recognizing the opportunity to be the first to dish out the pain. Out of the parking lot, the entire Herring team was on the front which allowed Tim Regan to gently roll away from the pack. He realized that he had a little bit of a gap and he could see no one behind him but his own teammates. So he threw down a little attack, which was followed by a few other riders to jump across. This was going to be good, however, one rider who's brother-in-law must surely be someone with a computer that can forge papers to get an upgrade to a category 2 decided that he would panic before we were even 500 meters from the start. The rider from the Latino team  would try to pass the field on the white line on the right. He wasn't going to make it. Bellau said, "I looked back to see him get bumped off the road slightly. Yet, he kept on the gas and hit Bain Foote from behind so hard that Bain's wheels came off the ground. Bain landed under my bike, taking me down with over 30 riders falling down on top of us."  The Latino rider landed in the grass, while Bellau's brand new Orbea Orca was destroyed under a mountain of lycra clad racers landing on it. Bellau relented, "I would have gladly taken on twice the road rash to have not lost my bike with-in sight of the start line." He wasn't alone. Woody Boudreaux immediately snapped Bain off the ground and assessed that Bain's spaghetti-heap of a bike was finished as well. He shoved his bike into Bains hands and gave him a push up the road while screaming "bring it back in one piece". Frank Moak who also hit the ground was tangled up a bit and rolled off about 2 minutes later with a few other crashers in tow. Frank chased for about 25 miles and was in sight of the pack, but after dropping all the helpers he had with him, it was obvious he would never see the pack again. Then the unexpected happened. A race official in a van drove up to Frank and said "You've had some pretty bad luck and you're working your butt off. You deserve to be back in the race. We're putting you back in. Get in the van." Now in Frank's almost 30 years of racing, this has never happened. Sure enough, they dropped Frank off in front of the pack, just in time for him to check in on Bain who was riding a bike that for him, felt like it was built for a child. And now it was raining with gale-force winds. The pack was approaching a railroad crossing that was at a diagonal to the road, the same one we were warned of at the start line when it was dry. As they hit the tracks, the rider in front of Bain dropped his wheel into the wet, slippery tracks and struck the Superman pose as he slid down the road under Bains front wheel. For the 2nd time in 30 miles, Bain was on the ground with a destroyed bike. Didn't I use the word "ugly" up there at the top?  Frank then did his best "Woody Boudreaux imitation" and shoved his bike into Bains hands and gave him a push. "Stay upright. This is getting expensive" yelled the Herring Gas Team Manager.

Hours later, back at the team car, Woody was pointing out to Frank how bad the damage was on Bellau's bike. "Man, can you believe this? Wow, Kenny, this sucks. I hope Bain is doing OK on my bike."  Which is about when Frank piped up and said, "Woody, why are you so worried about Kenny's bike? That's your bike over there", pointing to the bent up heap of carbon fibre in the grass. "Bain is on my bike", Moak continued.
Woody's face dropped. "What? Awww #$%^& *(%^&^#@%"

Bain finished the stage with the pack, on 3 different bikes, helping bring back a rider that at one point had a 6 minute lead. The pack finished as a group and Bain and Tim finished 25th and 27th place respectively. Now was that bad luck or good?

Stage 6: Gainsville, GA, 60 lap Criterium. 4 corners, narrow and very fast. With attrition taking out many of the once 120 strong field, the Tour of Atlanta was left with only the strongest.  At the line, 75 very serious, very fast and very bandaged up racers would be racing for time bonuses and glory. Herring's game plan was to initiate a break-away hopefully containing the right mixture of racers. We needed at least one Toshiba rider, one Hincapie/Barkley and either Tim or Bain to be in the break. This would allow either of them to leapfrog many people on the results sheet. If we were lucky, Toshiba would allow this thinking that John Murphy of Healthnet would be left alone to chase. The attacks by the Herring riders would prove futile as Toshiba was more content to try to keep it together and gamble on Frank Travieso in the final sprint. The Herring riders were basically forced to sit back and watch. Sure enough, it was a Toshiba train for the last 5 laps at over 30MPH. Up the final stretch, Travieso barely nipped Murphy for the win. Another stage of 29mph. One stage left.

Stage 7: Buford, GA, 60 lap Criterium. 4 corners with a sharp hill between turns 3 and 4. Open and breezy. Almost time to go home, but there's some formalities to attend to. Namely, about 80 minutes of a bar-fight on bikes. Herring's chances were over for this tour, but Tim and Bain were still wanting to mix things up. Bain's place in 9th place in the General Classification was secure as long as he didn't crash again and if Tim could make it into a break he might be able to move up into a paying spot as well. Another issue is that there are riders here that didn't start any of the previous stages. This was allowed since this if the first annual Tour of Atlanta. From the gun, the Herring duo were duking it out with some of the riders with fresh legs. After a series of vicious attacks from both Tim and Bain, a group of 7 riders were able to escape with neither Bain nor Tim along for the ride. The group of 7 gained 1 minute and 10 seconds on the field when Bain got frustrated with the complacency at the front and cruised past the pack on the hill. 2 riders bridged across to Bain, but neither would lend any assistance. The 3 were able to close within 30 seconds of the 7 riders up the road with Bain doing all the work. Toshiba amassed at the front and kept Bain in check until he finally gave in and waited up. Toshiba was content letting the break-away roll off, which forced Murphy to chase. Toshiba had a rider in the 7 man break which would have taken the overall victory if they were to maintain a 35 second lead. Not wanting to be forgotten, Tim Regan rolled up to the front and within 2 laps had closed the 7 man break-aways' lead from almost a minute, down to only 10 seconds. This was with only 2 laps to go and it also forced Toshiba to now set up Frank Travieso for the sprint if the entire field were to catch the 7 riders up the road (there were bonus seconds paid to only the top 3 riders and Frank T was really close to taking the lead from Murphy).
At the finish, Tim Henry (JitteryJoes) who had escaped from the group of 7 out sprinted Phil Gaimbon (Fiordifruita) with the other 5 right on their heels. John Murphy held onto his overall lead and the Toshiba guys were not too happy with Herring Gas. We like that.

It was so good to get home. Road rash, broken bikes, an Rv that only made it to Hattiesburg and the disappointment of just getting beaten up still can't get us down. A few beers to celebrate the end of a tough weekend and we're ready for the next one.

We would all like to say thanks to Sylvia Boudreaux for having to play nurse all weekend when when she's nowhere near her hospital or a time clock. And to Bruce Sanders, one of the founding members of The Herring Gas Cycling Team for opening his beautiful Atlanta home to 7 weary souls.

We'll see you later,

Tim Regan powered his way onto the podium in the 3-stage Regions Bank Bike Race Weekend in Albany, GA, with team mate Scott Kuppersmith close behind in 5th place. It was the last stage road race where the Herring Gas duo of Regan and Kuppersmith pulled away from the strong field of 80 pro and amateur riders. Their 12 rider breakaway in this final stage grew to over 8 minutes, but was pulled back to only 4 minutes at the line. "Scott buried himself today for us to get the win," stated an elated Regan. "Two riders got away from us. Two riders that had been sitting on the break and doing no work at all. Scott pulled them back in the final miles so I could try to take the sprint," Regan continued. The line was about 10 meters too close as the two escapees stayed away with Regan out-sprinting the rest of his group to take 3rd place in the road race. Kuppersmith held on to the break, finishing 12th in the stage, but gaining over 4 minutes moved him up to 5th in the general classification and Regan into 3rd. Further back in the field, Woody Boudreaux held on for another impressive ride at 19th place. Frank Moak however suffered a horrible crash where one of Atlanta's strong Under 23 riders found himself in critical condition. "It was too disturbing for me to keep racing. I thought I was watching some kid die right there on the road," Moak explained. As of this posting, Herring Gas is unable to determine the identity and condition of the injured rider, but we wish him the very best.

The race started off with a short 3 kilometer, very technical 12 turn individual time trial. All 4 Herring riders finished in the top half of the field, with Regan taking 10th place and Kuppersmith 17th. Later in the evening, the 60-minute downtown criterium started with all of the same corners as the time trial. This stage finished fairly uneventful with a field sprint, giving the entire 80 man field the same time.

The next day in the road race and final stage, yellow jersey wearer John Murphy of Healthnet attacked across the yellow line and was relegated to the back of the field. This agitated the field and the break formed shortly after this infringement. Murphy, not wanting to be left out of the press, attacked again across the yellow line with at least 1 other pro rider in tow. Officials were not amused and both riders were ejected from the race.

Up front Kuppersmith was giving Regan the last of his water bottles, yet Kuppersmith continued to pull and do the lion's share of work in the successful breakaway. Scott's work in stage 3 greatly contributed to the success of the team for the overall GC. Congrats to another successful weekend for the entire Herring Team.

March 2, Lago Vista, TX,
LaPrimavera Road Races at Lago Vista, TX
Bunch Takes the Bunch.

Bryan Bunch of Herring Gas blasted away on the steep uphill finish in the 35+ road race in the beautiful resort area Lago Vista on Sunday. Bunch rolled away with a large breakaway of 15 riders early on in the race. The group worked well together until the final lap when riders started prepping themselves for the difficult and fast uphill finish. This uphill comes right after a very fast 45 MPH decent. You lose all momentum going up the hill and you're constantly shifting gears all the way to the finish. "It's not too easy winning a race in Texas with no teammates," said Bryan Bunch. Looking at the pictures, it looked easy. Congratulations to Bryan on his first victory of 2008!

Sorry so late with this. Just fired up the computer today. Been catching up on some sleep after a recovery ride. KB

Stage 6: Final Day

Vindication and pain nation.

This morning, as we got to the starting area in the beautiful mountain town of San Ignacio, we were greeted with bashful smiles from some of the race officials. They wanted to deeply apologize for the "screw-up" on the King of the Mountains (KoM) points tally for the Polka-dot jersey competition, which we were sure we had on the shoulders of our man Michael Olheiser. (And I apologize for any accusations I made here of favoritism. It's all been a bit frustrating though). They handed us a new polka-dot jersey, this time without the fanfare and stage presentation with the pretty girls and all, but it was fine the way it was. We were told that Mike had only a 1 point grasp on the jersey and there were 6 points to be gained on the first and only KoM hill climb today (6 points to 1st, 5 points to 2nd and so on). The points paid out to 5th place to the top of the hill at mile 30. All we needed to do was either let 5 racers get ahead on the road to soak up the points, or make sure that Mike was at least 1 place in front of the Santino's rider #7 who sat in 2nd place in the KoM points. Sounds easy on paper.

When the race started, immediately a couple of racers attacked up the hills of San Ignacio. They quickly gained about 45 seconds which we thought was a good situation. Now there were only 3 places for the KoM points hill coming at mile 30 of this 95 mile stage. But what we discovered was that there was a deal struck at the front with some of the Spanish speaking teams. We were sharing a radio frequency with the Mexican Tecos team and with my limited ability to speak and understand Espanol... and what we were seeing, there were at least 2 other teams helping Tecos chase down the 2 escapees. I immediately attacked, but it was a 'fools bet' to try to go against such a strong chase. Eventually the chasers caught their prey and pressed forward.

This was a bit sobering considering that we knew there were other alliances in the peleton against us already. But having some of the Latino teams join forces to try to wrestle the Polka-dot jersey from us just made us race harder. Each Herring rider took turns marking the front of the field behind the bright orange Tecos train. No one in Blue showed any signs of being tired or signs of being intimidated that more than half the teams in the race were working against us.

So here was the deal: We had to lock up the climbers jersey by getting either 5 people who were not in the hunt for it to win all the points or we had to get Mike to win at least one more point than the Santino's rider wearing #7. Then we were to go on the attack. Try to get Bain up the road away from the Yellow jersey. His team was tired as we saw yesterday and in this wind, with Bain being 3 minutes down from the lead, it was still do-able.

We decided to play it conservative to the big hill. Coming up the category 3 climb, it was all blue at the front. A couple of Santino's riders made the mistake of coming up to the front to do the same thing. They got in front of me as the hill was starting to get steeper. Behind me was Tim, Bain, Frank, Mike, Woody and Chris. Everyone present with the target in our sights. The hill proved more difficult than what was on paper. The wind was buffeting us around like sheets in the wind, but by the top of the hill, Mike was clear and took first place at the line marking the top of the hill. Over our race frequency I could hear several "Congrats Mike" from our squad, then a heavy Spanish accented "Congratulations, Herring Gas!", which I believe came from the director of the Tecos team, with whom we were sharing a frequency.

Now here is where the real racing would start. From the top of the hill, we slowly turned north-east toward Belize City and straight into a stiff 20MPH head wind. Attacking riders were usually a Herring rider, or closely followed by a Herring rider but the chasing peleton was determined to keep things together... and the pace very high. The more north the road turned, the stronger the wind. Finally the Tecos team had regained control of the front and the attacks were all proving to be pointless. Then we were served a big surprise.

The motorcycle holding the information board drove past me holding a sign that read "10 KM to the next KOM". What? "Hey Mal, this board up here is saying that we have another KoM sprint in 10KM. Anyone else see that?" I asked over the radio?... Silence. I repeated. Then Mal pipes in, "The Race Commissioner just told us that there is another KOM in 10K." (Actually that sentence was full of expletives and more accusations, but this is a family show.) This hill wasn't in the daily communique nor in the race bible, but it was vaguely mentioned in the daily parcours, a topographical description of the day's upcoming events. We had to again try to take control of the front, after we thought those duties were over. Quickly, we had all 7 of us behind the orange Tecos train, who only had 4 riders pulling at this point. Mike O' then told me that he wished he knew where the Santino's rider #7 was. "Hold on Mike, I'll drop back and find him."

I found him about 25 riders back and as I did, I could hear over the radio in Creole (we were sharing a frequency with Santino's also) that his team was calling him to the front. His radio didn't seem to be working, but his team leader suddenly showed up on my shoulder and was screaming across me for him to get his butt in gear. He starting moving up, but on the right, which was the windy side. I kept Mike informed exactly where we were and I kept #7 in the wind as discretely as possible. Every time he made a move to get himself protected from the wind, I was there to gently take that protection away from him, even from behind his own teammates. Now he was directly behind Mike, but still in the wind coming from the right. I slowly moved in behind Mike, moving #7 back into the wind. When we saw the "1 KM to go" sign I moved slightly in front of him, keeping him on my right as Mike started to make his move. When Mike decided to take off for the sprint, lucky # 7 was so tired that he didn't budge off of my wheel. Again "Good Job Mike" came over the radio.

From here, about 50 miles from Belize city, the road flattened out and the wind picked up harder off of our right shoulder, pushing us all against the left ditch and the crumbly stuff. And the pace got intense. The field was splitting into pieces and I found myself off the back because of my efforts in the hills. I was in a chase group with Woody and about 40 others, mostly little guys and munchkins too vulnerable to the wind. Then this group started to splinter as well. Up front, the Tecos team and their allies were keeping the pace high to discourage attacks and to keep the chasing groups from re-attaching. Then turning right back into a direct head wind, the Yellow Jersey crashed. In a true sign of unsportsmanlike behavior, a couple of teams picked up the pace. The Herring riders witnessing the crash and the Canadian Pro team Calyon got to the front to try to slow the pace so the race leader can get back on. There's a gentleman's agreement that "you don't attack the Yellow Jersey if he crashes or has a mechanical." The Tecos team did get him back up and back on just as the pack was coming into the finishing 2 mile circuit. Turning onto that circuit where we would do 2 laps, Frank Moak crashed and came detached from the very small front pack of only about 45 riders. Frank would finish about 45 seconds behind this group.

Off the front was local Red Bull rider Ernest Meighan and US National team rider Chris Barton with a narrow 20 second lead on the field. When the group of 9 that Woody and I were chasing with arrived on the circuit, the front group were finishing their first half of a lap. From here I could see all the finishing action and was right in the mix to see Ernest Meighan take the win for the stage against the young US Team rider. Right behind came the pack, chasing at over 40MPH with another US National rider taking the sprint from the field for 3rd place with Tim Regan holding on for 7th. Woody and I rolled in about 4 minutes later and yes, I did a wheelie across the line.

So no Yellow Jersey for us. The race was basically lost on the first day with that big 12 minute break that Woody started. From that group, on that first day, the winner of the race was able to gain the 3 minute lead he held onto till the end. His team, Tecos did a great job from there keeping us in check. And a big nod to the US National Children. I don't know how fast the children are in your neighborhood, but I can promise you that they are probably not as fast as the children on the US National Team. All but one of them is younger then 21. They won the team competition at the ToB. Now they are going to Belgium for 4 months to try to grow chest hair. They beat us at our best and they should have. Hopefully they'll be bringing home gold medals from the Olympics one day. Those are some really fast children.. I wish them the very best.

The Tour of Belize is a great tour. It's well run, professional and very challenging. And we had some great success. We proved that a little team from the Gulf Coast can be competitive with anyone in the world. We had one rider on the podium for 3 days pulling on the climber's jersey. We had the whole team on the podium in the Team Time Trial, which was a pretty big honor for everyone involved. Fourth place in the Team competition, 4th place in the sprint competition and we had 2 riders finish in the top-10 in the General Classification (6th and 8th). This little team had such a good showing. Real true teamwork. Professionalism. Honor. We were the talk of Belize and at our hotel after the last stage was a constant flow of local riders, fans and new friends dropping off gifts, making jersey trades and signing autographs. It seems like we were putting on more of a show than we thought. Not bad considering that we had 2 of the oldest riders in the race. Also, Frank held his own award ceremony out on the water front Sunday evening as some cold beer and fruity drinks were served. It was my first beer in months. Man I missed beer.

I hope you enjoyed my sometimes rambling ramblings. I know I can go on, but it's more of a blog for me and the team to keep a record as to what went wrong and right as anything. And I passed on all the well-wishes you sent us to the entire squad. It was heart warming to know how closely some of you followed this. You can check out our pictures in the picture section of the Herring site at http://herring-cycling.com/gallery2/ (more to follow). And I'll have some video posted up soon, after I fix this battered computer. We're all home now, licking our wounds, letting our privates heal and picking at the peeling skin from the sunburn. I'll be posting some Q and A's I got during the tour later in the week. Next time I'm going to wear long sleeves.

See you later,
Kenny

Ed: Yo Kenny - On behalf of everyone who has followed the race and waited impatiently for their daily Kenny-fix: Thanks, buddy. Well done.
- DH

Short version: Tim came in 7th in today's race (and judging from the number of DNF's and large spread in the times, it must have been another tough one.) In the GC Bain was 6th, Michael was 8th, Michael kept the polka dot climber's jersey, and the team overall finished 4th just behind the US National Team.

Good going, guys.

Stage 5 Mountains Passed and Dirty Tricks

I'm tired. I'm not built for these types of stages anymore. My legs are so sore and knotted up and it's almost impossible to walk down a flight of stairs. At 5'10" and 165lbs, I'm the heaviest on the team and 10lbs over my fighting weight. But today I surprised even myself, pulling double duty of riding at the very front of the field over 3 hill passes, making sure Bain and Michael were out of the wind and out of danger and heading back to the car to bring up 12lbs of water and food for our top dogs. Heading up the biggest climb of the day reminded me what I forgot to take out of my bag that is stored back in Belize City... My climbing gears. I still have my big gears on my bike for the sprints and the high speed stuff, so I got dumped off the back of the field for the first time in this tour. I caught a group of 10, then drug them up to another 10, then caught about 15 more stragglers on the downhills. At one point I looked at my watch and thought, "OK it's 12:45pm now... I'll only pull this group of big non-climbers along until 1:15." That's how the rest of my day went and I'm beat. I lost 12 minutes.

Up the road Micheal Olheiser was on a mission along with the rest of the team to retain the Polka-dot Climbers jersey and move Bain up from 6th place in the general classification, possibly into the Yellow Jersey. But this tour is proving more and more to be about dirty pool and favoritism. I won't really go into specifics, but I don't want to sound like we are eating sour grapes, but Micheal O' won every sprint to the top of every hill where the points are awarded. At the end of the race, the results read that he had lost it and someone from a local team is now wearing it. With the teams help, he won 3rd place in a flat sprint, first place on a category 3 climb, first place on a category 2 climb, first place on another cat 3 and 6th place at the finish, but he still lost the jersey. Needless to say we are filing a protest, but the results are so late in being delivered to our hotel, that there is no time to handle up on things. Just an example, they have me placed 50 places lower than I am supposed to be. 50 places!

Well anyway, we are riding like champs. And we are being treated like rock stars. Especially after the stage win yesterday and the TTT performance on Thursday. This morning Mike O' and I walked out of the hotel into several people waiting to snap pictures as one guy said, "Hey Herring Gas! You guys did well yesterday. I've got a present for you. Come over here to my car." Now this big Rasta guy opens the back door of his car and out steps a tall Belizian woman who smiled big and gave us a wave that kinda meant... "Happy?" The guy then looks at me and says "hey we got girls for domistiques too. There's one on the other side." Mike and I looked at each other with disbelief and Mike responded politely, "Ummm, we're all full right now, but why don't you come see us next week.

Everyone is doing great... 4 of us in the top 20 which includes the ever present and ever attacking Woody Boudreaux in 17th, Frank Moak in 11th, Mike O' in 10th and of course our GC contender Bain in 6th. Tim Regan and Chris Alexander hung in there to bring up Mike after he flatted and Mike took a wheel from Woodie. Then Chris flatted and Chris gave his good wheel to Woody so Woody could keep his position in the General Classification. During Mike's chase back, Frank was waiting, but waited too long and Mike blew past him and Frank could never get back to speed and got caught in the race caravan as they had to slow almost to a stop for several one-lane bridges. It was frustrating as Frank lost a couple of minutes. After Mike caught up and got back to the front, Tim took over and repeatedly attacked the yellow jersey, completely wasting the guy for the next 10 miles. This allowed Mike and Bain to hold back for the final category two, 1.5KM climb to the finish line. Mike finished 6th and Bain 9th. Results for the others are sketchy at best.

Today's stage was a monster, just like they promised with the worst chip-sealed, gravely, pot holed roads that they could possibly create... 50 years ago. And they poured these roads down the steepest mountains they could find. But what might take off the sting is that we are in the most beautiful countryside you could wish for, covered with palm trees, orange and papaya groves and the occasional monkey. We are all almost too wiped out to enjoy it, but our support team is keeping us in check. We're lucky to have people like Mal and Perry along on a trip like this. And even luckier that Taylor, Candy and Tammy showed up to help out as well. And Scott is doing much better after his horrible crash.

Hopefully we'll get all this mess worked out in the morning, but we have yet to see results from today. We'll probably get them at the starting line. I'm so toasted and I need some sleep. Tomorrow we head back to Belize City for the final stage. We'll be on the same road where we were stuffed into the gutter at 35MPH the other day. I'm guessing if the wind is the same, we'll have a direct head wind for the entire 95 mile trip. We'll be on the attack the whole time. And for me, no climbing, so you can bet that I'll be out to hurt someone.

See you later,
Kenny

P.S. Sorry for the sometimes bad English, incomplete sentences, misspellings or typos. I have less than an hour each evening to peck this out, load up pictures, check references, find an internet café and wait for what seems like forever after I hit "send."

For other Tour of Belize photos visit our gallery

Stage Win! Jersey winner X-2! Herring Dominates and sets records!

We won! Today was the first stage win in a grand tour for this team. And it was done in grand fashion, under extremely adverse conditions. We were looking for vindication for yesterday's defeat in the Team Time Trial. Starting from Belize City, we blasted out of town into the mountain region of Belize. I took off immediately from the start heading out of town at about 36 MPH with a couple of Islanders in tow, but the field had other plans. They blew my doors off a minute or so later and I never slowed down a bit. For about 15 miles, my computer read a steady 35 MPH. This pace was done mostly in the gutter. I have to say that this was the fastest 15 miles I have ever ridden that wasn't behind or inside a car. We had a severe cross wind from the left that was pushing us into the right side marbles and the ditch. During this everlasting effort to stay attached, I noticed that all of our team were still present in the front group except for one. Scott Kuppersmith made contact with a large, dislodged brick from the side of the road, then he made contact with the pavement. He's OK, but was unable to continue and we lost him for the rest of the tour. He's resting with some nasty road rash and deep contusions. By the time the ballistic pace let up, we had blown off about half of the field. All left in the dust and probably, for a lot of them, they would finish outside the time limit.

Up front with the Herring boys in blue, Tim Regan was barking over the radio that he needed help keeping Bain Foote and Micheal O' in contact with the front rotation of riders. The first few big hills were coming up at mile 65 and we wanted to be in prime position to make our move. The top three teams were all amassed at the front, Tecos, USA and Herring. Up and over the first little leg breakers, everything looked good. Hitting the first hill giving out King-of-the-Mountain (KOM) points, Micheal O', Woody, Bain, Tim and Frank made the selection. Me and Chris A had been doing water duty at the back of the field and once had to bring Tim Regan back up to the front after he flatted, so we were immediately dispatched off the back. Coming up to the next hill, the foursome moved to the front taking over the lead from the dominating Mexican Tecos team. However soon after the USA national team took the lead and started making trouble. This move by the US youngsters split the field again heading into the first major climb, "The Concrete Road". This was the beginning of the end for everyone but Herring. Michael Olheiser slowly rolled off the front, even waiting for the US team to roll back up to him. Sensing a lull in the motivation from the US and the Mexicans, Mike O' put his head down and set the record on climbing the hill. Michael not only set the record on the super steep climb, but he smashed it by more than 30 seconds. He kept his head down, rocketing through the mountainous Belize jungle toward the finish line in San Ignacio, just 1 mile from the Guatemalan border. Raising his hands, crossing the finish line to thunderous screams from the locals and school children along the finish straight. Following several minutes behind, the uphill sprint opened up with Bain Foote holding on to 10th place, Frank Moak in18th and Tim Regan and Woody Boudreaux rolling in a few minutes in arrears. Woody had to help Tim make it back to the front with about 20KM to go because of a 2nd flat, then Tim got a 3rd flat, where Woody gave Tim his wheel. Woody was able get a wheel from the neutral support vehicle and re-attach to Tim's group. I don't know how that rookie does it.

Podium time! It was a great seeing a Herring rider standing on the top step of the podium for the stage win. Micheal was beaming as his teammates cheered loudly as he received the oversized check from the race organization. As he stepped off the podium into the arms of the team he was called back to the podium to pull on the Polka-dot Climbers Jersey. This was the part of the ceremony we almost forgot about. Michael, murdering all the competition trying to make it over the hills first, gained enough points to remove the jersey from the Santinos rider that was wearing it this morning. This was truly a great day! Talk about a morale booster.

Today was vindication for our narrow defeat yesterday. We are in good position to take the overall. Bain moved into 6th place, Woody is still in the top 20, Michael gained more than 5 minutes and shattered today's course record by more than 20 minutes and should be in 12th. Tim and Frank are also still holding really strong and hopefully Scott will be able to get over what he went through today, with a massive high-speed crash and will be unable to finish the race because of it. He will be missed sorely. Scott is a go to rider, a strong support man and a great teammate. He's healing, but it hurts much deeper.

Tomorrow we have the monster of all stages. Several mountain passes, with extremely steep and cobble stoned climbs. We need to be strong. We don't have to defend a yellow jersey yet... that's Teco's job but we need to be vigilant and on the attack. You can bet we will be.

Team Director Sportif Malcolm, stated "you can bet that we will attack our butts off tomorrow because we came here to win the race." Well said Mal.

Oh and Perry, our overworked medical expert and his wife Tammy are sharing a bottle of wine right now. I wish I could have some. Candy will have to drink mine.

See you later,
Kenny.

For other Tour of Belize photos visit our gallery

Things begin to get clearer around mile thirty-seven when two time U.C.I. Time Trial champion Michael Olheiser of Herring Gas, Chad Bayer of the U.S. National under twenty-three team and Luis Gutierrez of Tecos Break out of a lead pack of ten. However, by the time the race reached Roaring Creek, the lead is down to two wilth Olheiser pushing the pace as Gutierrez tries to block for his yellow shirted teammate Carlos Oyarzun in the back. This one we’ve never seen before people. We’re ascending Mount Hope when the American Olheiser blows off his Tecos companion in an incredible show of strength. Again this is history in the making as the U.S. rider who came into stage four ten minutes, twenty-three seconds behind the yellow jersey steps into time trial mode as he streaks towards San Ignacio.

We’re going up the Cement Hill and we find Luis Gutierrez trying to make the chase but Olheiser is long gone. Even in the hilly terrain of Benque Viejo Olheiser continues to increase the distance between himself and the competition. And now he does his grooming for the occasion as he raises his hands in victory from an unbelievable solo flight. Yes, the hug from his manager in celebration is real and deserving.

Well done, Mike!

For other Tour of Belize photos visit our gallery

This was written on Thursday 9:00PM. Internet connectivity here is TERRIBLE!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Tour of Belize.
Herring Gas Team makes the podium

Today was a double-stage day. What on paper seemed like it would be a relatively easy stage 2a, it was anything but easy. The roads here are TERRIBLE. Imagine you are driving down the interstate. You get off the interstate and get on a state highway, then you get off the state highway and turn down a county road... then you exit the county road on to a road that the local farmers pooled their money together to have their dirt roads paved. That is what the Belize highway system is made of. The roads here were all paved in the 50's by British contractors using the cheapest asphalt they could find. The vibration created at 33MPH will make your feet, your hands and the other part that touches your bike go completely numb within the first 10 minutes. These are Frank Moak kinds of roads.

The race started off like we were shot out of a cannon. A constant and grueling 33-35MPH ate up the first 10 miles in under 20 minutes. The attacks were fierce and frequent. Most of them included a Herring rider. Later the Mexican professional squad Tecos grabbed control of the front of the race and kept it in control for the next 35 miles. Trying to protect their yellow leaders jersey, they kept the pace at a more gentlemanly velocity. Off the front was a 3 man break away that hovered for the entire 35 miles at about 1:30.

As the 30 kilometers-to-go mark passed, the front of the race turned into another street fight, just like the start. Attack after attack blasted off the front of the race. At one point, Bain Foote got away with 4 other riders and gained about 45 seconds on the fast chasing field. Over the race radio it was finally announced what Herring rider had taken this flyer and the chase increased two-fold. Bain group was reeled back in and Woody Boudreaux made a brilliant counter move with only 2.5 miles to the line. Woody's group gained over 30 seconds as the peleton behind debated over and over if they spend their energy chasing, or risk it that another team would take up the charge. Herrring riders Bain, Tim Regan, Michael Olheiser and myself kept a close watch at the front making sure that no other riders slipped off the front before the finish.

At 1 kilometer to go the pace was well over 35MPH in a strong crosswind. Snaking from gutter to gutter as the leading riders where trying to shake off the followers from their draft. At 500 meters, the Woody group of 4 were only a few seconds ahead and the Herring riders at the front of the field had no choice but to start up the sprint. The front of the field was so disorganized because of the wind combined with the bumpy road that it was virtually impossible to organize a decent lead-out for Tim Regan. We caught Woody and the other 4 about 50 yards before the finish line and last year's winner Marlon Castillo blasted across the line first. Bain Foote finished a strong 10th with me and Michael O' directly behind in 12th and 13th. However, it was announced that Marlon Castillo riding for the local Santino's team had a problem with his bike and traded with a rider from the closely affiliated Red Bull team. This is a team sport and taking assistance from another team is forbidden and Castillo was relegated to last place, moving everyone up one spot and giving the win to a Team USA rider.

Stage 3 Team Time Trial 3:00PM

The Team Time Trial is the most graceful and beautiful event in all of cycling. But participating in one is pure misery. Especially competing in TT where one of your team mates is the time trial World Champion, another usually finishes within a couple of seconds of him and a third that is the master of all masters of time trialing. Throw in some more of the wonderful Belize road work and a stiff 25MPH wind and if you aren't a TT expert, you will have a miserable day. Like me.

Starting off we took our time getting in formation, which was quickly disrupted by a near head-on collision with another team. Then the formation was broken again by a confusing roundabout u-turn at mile 3. From here, heading back across the Start finish line in the other direction, we were already down to only 4 riders working and 4 of us sitting on. The wind in this direction was horrible and stiff, blowing each rider in a wobbly fashion around the bumpy road. At about 10 miles in, the pace started to slow a bit and the 4 riders sitting on started to pull through to help the other 4 TT experts. At this point is when we caught our first team, which started 2 minutes ahead. Before we arrived at the second u-turn, we had caught and passed another team that started 4 minutes ahead of us. The work was shared mostly by Bain Foote, Michael Olheiser, Tim Regan and Frank Moak. Only occasionally did the other 4 roll through making the Herring squad a solid unit. By the end of the race, we had caught 3 more teams and it was screaming over all the radios that Herring would be the team to beat. The results finally came in and Herring had only the 3rd fastest time. We were so sure that we had won, but the bottom spot on the podium would have to suffice. In front of us was the Mexican Tecos team finishing only 8 seconds better. They were surpassed just barely by the USA National team, finishing only another 9 seconds ahead of Tecos. Just to note, not a single rider on the US National team is over 20 years old. I keep telling them I'm their Daddy.

I never thought I'd be disappointed to be standing on the podium of a UCI stage race, but we really did expect to not only win but dominate in the Team TT. We were close, but no cigar.

At least we did have some nice arrivals today as 3 of the wives showed up to watch and help out with some of Mal and Perry's endless duties. It's nice to have female faces around in an environment like this. I don't think the lady who runs this hotel can stand any more testosterone.

Well, we hope to have good spirits and better legs tomorrow, where we finally head into the hills during an 85 mile stage. I'm sure it will be bumpy.

See you later,
Kenny

Ed: Updated with the official results

 
Woot!

Checking out those times, it appears the Tour of Belize is using a nonsense scoring system similar to what the Tour de France now does (notice that places 4-15 are all 10 seconds apart). Nice if you finish 15th, bleah if you're in the top 3. But that's just my old curmudgeonly opinion.

Nothing on the GC yet, but Bain should move up from 6th and Frank and Woody might be way up as well.

Well, OK, another update. Bain is still in 6th (keep in mind this is before today's race) but within striking distance of the podium. Frank is at 11, Woody at 12. Is this cool or what? :-)

Stay tuned.

At about mile 40 of today's stage, a Herring rider dropped back into the caravan of support vehicles to our race truck. Here, Mal Schuler, our director sportif reached back and grabbed an Economy sized can of whoop a** and handed it to the rider to open on the Tour of Belize.

I couldn't be more proud of our guys. It was an amazing day, very hard, extremely bumpy and dangerous roads and fast. Not to forget that our race distance today was 131 miles. But, we have a new superstar on the team. Former John Curtis Football inside-linebacker Woody Boudreaux wasn't only the rider to initiate the first major breakaway of the ToB, but he dominated that breakaway. Woody was joined by Frank Moak in the break a few miles later, then Woody attacked the break. For more than an hour, all that was heard over the race radio, the public radio and the live TV stations was Ryan (Woody) Boudreaux is still dominating this race. It was quite a revelation for us as a team as well. This is Woody's first race outside our humble little District of LAMBRA. Obviously, going off the front of an international stage race with Olympic and Pro level riders would look like a foolish and rookie move, but Woody rode like the professional he is. The main pack never laid eyes on Woody again. At one point, there was such a fierce chase that the pack just seemed to quit and the gap to the 10 man breakaway grew to 12 minutes, with Woody 1 minute ahead of that. The other 10 did finally reel him in, but around this time, Bain Foote attacked from the main pack, attempting to bridge the seemingly insurmountable gap. He caught Scott Kuppersmith and the 2 rolled on together until Bain punctured his rear tire. Scott gave Bain his rear wheel and he continued on the chase alone, leaving Scott to wait for Mal and a new wheel. This was also all over the news in a classic display of true teamwork.

Bain did make it across and now the front breakaway swelled to about 18 riders with 3 of them Herring, including Woody and Frank. The gap continued to grow as Michael Olheiser was suffering with a mechanical that was being fixed by Mal hanging out the window at 30 miles an hour, wrenching on Mike's bike. In the main field, Chris Alexander, Tim Regan, Mike O' and myself (Kenny) were making continuous trips back through the race caravan to our vehicle to get water and food from Mal and Perry Gaudet, or medical expert. In a race like this, it's common to burn over 1000 calories an hour, so eating and drinking are vital. Later in the race, our vehicle had to maintain constant contact with the breakaway and the 4 of us were left to fend for ourselves back in the pack. This was with about 50 miles left to race.

Up front, Bain attacked several times, finally breaking the hold of some of the other riders on the Herring Trio, namely the Mexican professional team Tecos. Woody and Frank also tried several times to narrow down their chances by doing their best to hurt their companions in the break. By the end of the race, Bain Foote, setting up for the sprint moved into position at about 4th or 5th place. This is where he had to hop one of the many speed bumps in this country and he punctured his rear tire yet again. He was less than a 300 meters from the finish line, about 20 seconds. He still rolled across like a rocket on a flat, finishing 9th place. Frank was about a minute behind in about 15th and we think Woody made it into the top 20. Slightly further back, Michael O' and Tim were able to make it within 3 minutes of the winner. They got pretty close at one point to catching the break that earlier had almost 12 minutes on them and Scott was about a minute behind them. I finally made it out of the main pack and marked last years winner, the almost defamed Marlon Castillo. He was quite frustrated about what was happening up the road and was doing a fine job of hurting me. We came in with a small group of about 10, maybe 2 minutes ahead of the main field.

So yes, the race blew apart from the moment Woody took his first trip off the front in his first real race. We had a phenomenal day and everything just seemed to click. There is something to be said about having good morale, which is evident at the racer-dinner tonight, where the morale was noticeably missing from several of the tables.

We're all sunburned. The SPF 45 I'm using is just melting off me and for the 2nd time in my life, my legs are sunburned. Both times have been near the equator. But the high spirits keep all the sunburned noses and arms barely noticeable.

Tomorrow is a double stage day. At 8AM we have a 100KM race from where we are now, Orange Walk back to the province of Belize. In the afternoon will be the most exciting and beautiful event in all of cycling, the Team Time Trial. Imagine seeing 15 different 8-9 man teams blasting down the road at 33MPH. I'll try to get you some video from that also.

My new roommate Chris A is complaining that I'm keeping him up, so I'm off.

I'll see you later
Kenny