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 Wow, this has been a crazy week. I’m back in Boulder after spending last week in Visalia, for the NRC they call the Quad Knopf. It was a great race, I was really happy for Sherri Clark, the organizer. She worked so hard, always had a great attitude, and did womens racing right, by offering an equal prize list. I shit you not, the womens racing on the NRC circut these days is as exciting, if not more so, than the mens race. I’m not dissing the men, but it’s about time the bike race community recognizes how awesome the women have been racing. I’ll admit, I used to cringe at the thought of watching the negative racing against Saturn the last few years, but to be honest, Saturn was just too good. You can’t knock them for that, as Tom Schuler is one of the smartest guys in the sport, and he was given the recources to do what he did, which was dominate the sport. I have a ton of respect for Tom, but I bet he would agree the racing is a lot more wide open and fun to watch these days, now that we have so many evenly matched teams.

 I’ve been home in Boulder for the last week, and it’s been great. I’m really bummed that I don’t announce at Redlands, but I have to assume that they have better announcers than me, or I’d be there, right? I sure wish I could have been there though, as Andy Bajadali is such a cool guy, and that win was huge for him and his Jelly Belly team. I am really happy to be headed back to Georgia though, as the Tour in that state is for sure the race that I made my name at, and I great week, every year. I actually love that race, and state. The Medalist folks are by far the best people I have ever worked for. Well, AEG are unrateably good, as far as that goes, but they are smart, and hire Medalist to handle the “racing” part of the Amgen Tour of California. I know I’ll never work at the Tour de France, but the Tour of California is my TdF. I’ll always be proud that I had the chance to announce at the first 2 years of that race, and every Georgia. They can’t take that away….

I’m headed to Georgia to be a part of Saul Raisen’s ride on Friday. I am so stoked. I’ve always loved Saul. When he was on oFoto, he struck me as a really smart, funny kid, and I was right. After what he’s been through, making the trip to the East Coast before heading back across the country to do one of my favorite races, the Garrett Lemiere GP, was a no brainer. As I mentioned, I love Georgia, and the ride is in Sauls hometown, Dalton. This will be a tough, but rewarding weekend, for sure. It probably isn’t the smartest thing I’ve done, but I bet the karma rebate I get for it will be off the charts!

Life sure has it’s ups and downs. I came home from Fresno so stoked about racing. The weekend that will be now known as the 2007 CVC Classic was epic in every way. The winners like Ben Jaques-Maynes, Henk Vogels (his first since the crash at Fitchberg, even though he’d been close a few times) Tina Pic, and Christine Thorburn gave the event a huge amount of prestige. The womens racing was off the charts exciting and aggressive. For those lucky enough to have stayed around, what Michael Hernandez did in the Masters race (which is as competitive as any out there) was something I’ll never forget. He attacked with “old school fury” while down 69 seconds on GC. He ended up nearly lapping the field, and winning the GC battle. It was amazing. Larry Nolan won the stage, and he did what he could for his team, but at the end of the day, it was the courage that Mike showed that awed me.

So, after the best weekend of NRC racing I’ve been at in a long time, I flew home with no problems. Tina Pic was on my flight, we had, as usual, a great conversation.

So then I check my local racing forum this morning.

Rob Hicken is dead….He was such a nice guy, loved racing and bikes, and ran a website devoted to his passion, bicycle video’s. I heard what happened, but don’t feel it’s my place to post that. The Daily Camera reported that he died in Colorado Springs, on the 6th. I sure wish I’d gotten to know him better, and will miss his smiling face. That guy was always smiling when I saw him, and that was so cool. To Robs family, I’m so sorry, Rob was a sweet man.

The Fresno race doesn’t seem so great anymore.