Cramps, crashes, and crosswinds....

Yeah, that pretty much sums up the day. Don't come to Gila if you don't want to sit in the gutter in a 30mph crosswind for 70+ miles. Not the best way to spend the day. It started off nervous and stressful, the anxiety level was high. There were no less than 10 crashes throughout the day. The day had its ups and downs, we lost one rider. Patrick DNF'd on the day, it just wasn't there for him. He got caught behind an early crash and had to chase on then got caught out coming through first feed zone and had to chase back on again. It was a rough day and he became familiar with many of the teams car bumpers. Phil and Paul were both caught out behind another crash 2/3 of the way into the race and Paul was able to make it back to the group but Phil's day was done. It was great though, he did everything he needed to and put us in position before he turned it in for the day. At that point in time it was just getting started for Paul, Jarred, Ian, (our adopted orphan) and myself. We hit the base of the climb in the top fifteen and were in perfect shape. Then the big let down for the day, Ian, Paul, and myself were all caught behind a crash and were slowed up. At that point in time all we could do was watch the race ride, scramble and salvage what we could. In the end we finished with 3 of the top 5 amateurs and were the top amateur team on team GC. All in all it was a good hard day and we were fortunate to miss out on all the accidents. Anyway, that is all for now... check back tomorrow for the story.

Brad