WALLA WALLA....ouch!

The team and I traveled to the Walla Walla Stage Race last weekend and came away with a win in the criterium stage on Sunday. Congratulations to Remi on a great ride.

It was pretty much a survival contest for me with the intent of getting through it and coming out the other side with some fitness. That almost all came to naught though in the very first stage on Friday. It was a 4pm start, 69 mile road race with an advertised 42oo feet of climbing. All I know is that at one point during the race, I looked down at my computer, saw 28 miles and thought to myself "oh my God, we are not even half-way". Not a good thought to have. This stage was a bitch, at least for me, and from what I hear, from many others as well. Saturday saw us return for a 10k time trial with 400 feet of elevation gain (first rider off at 8:45) and then we came back for a 2pm start of the 95 mile road race that had 5000 feet of climbing. Sunday we actually got to sleep in and race a 60min crit (again, we won).

Now, I think that this race has some potential, but the promoter has got to change the time and/ or stage format. Finishing a 69 mile road race that seemed to always be climbing at 7pm only to be back at 8am to get ready for a time trial just does not allow enough recovery time. You are way to jacked up to get any real sleep. Then to have us do over 100 miles in the afternoon (with the roll out and riding back after the finish) is almost inhuman, especially for a bunch of amateurs who pretty much do this for a hobby. I think he needs to either do a crit in Waitesburg on Friday night and then keep the rest of the format the same (he could probably do away with the short loop on the Saturday road race which would still leave us racing close to 80 miles). Either that, or he needs to do the Friday road race start a lot earlier in the day.

The other thing that gets me are time cuts for local stage races like this. Especially with a hell stage for the first stage. Just let everyone keep racing. It is not like we are tyring to earn UCI point or anything. Leave the time cuts to the big boys in the big races.

One thing I really like about this race though is the crit, great course in a great small town.

That's all I got. PNW Buckeye....out.