At Quad Cities, everyone has a story...

... it's true, you travel to the Mississippi Delta, Memorial weekend to collect four separate stories, each with their own seemingly epic plot...

...A windy road race, with cross winds and a break that almost always comes back...

...The Snake, with it's storied cobbles, large fields and critical starting position...

...Melon City, which takes place in Muscatine, which we're still trying to figure out; with its big circle, mile laps (we do 40) and incredibly important positioning for the finish...

...Quad Cities Crit, with it's super tight turns, fast pace and chain link fence that keeps the riders in and the hundreds of fans out...

Three of the stories have been written and for Ciclismo racing, our stories reflect those of decades past...

Sparing the reader my prophetic (or long-winded) prose, here's the recap...

Day 1 - 80 mile Road Race - this day was all Phil, as Jarred and I stayed behind in Lincoln with babysitting trouble... yes, the proud daddy Berger had to watch the little-one. The break was caught with 500 meters to go and as Phil knows best, he went for the win out of the swarm. This story, however, ended with a near collision with one of the most classic figures of these races (no names... sorry) and Phil settling for sitting up to reach 12th.

Day 2 - Snake Alley - as Jarred and I arrived in the afternoon, it was hot and humid, with storms looming on the Mississippi horizon. I start with a weather report because that was our story... it rained and rained hard. With the cobbles wet and slick, we were to set up for the storm positioned at the back of the 100+ man field. Let's just say the first time up the Snake we were shrugging our shoulders with crashes all around us and unable to navigate through... the leaders already had 60 seconds on us, 2 minutes into the race... I chased to 24th, Phil was 31st and Berger was pulled even though he was only 10 seconds back of my small chase group... did we mention the rain, the entire race?

Day 3 - Melon City - 135 starters and a whose who of current and former pro's, national champs and typical corn-fead, yet crit starved midwesterners, we were ready to race... our story began with a script that read... "attack, but attack smart, for when we go, we are to go so hard we are eyes go crossed." Attack we did and on no fewer than 3 occasions the pin stripes of Ciclismo were out in front in some incredible breaks. This story, however, was about positioning and a field sprint and no-one better than our midwestern sprinter (yes, we feed him corn even in Colorado) to get into position and take 7th...

Day 4 is tomorrow... Berger and I are ready to write a script for Phil, taking him to the finish... he will tell the story tomorrow...

- I