It was a snap to drive to Merced for the McLane Pacific this morning - I left San Jose at 6:45 am and was in Merced at 8:30, even with pea soup fog for the final twenty miles. Really nice drive and I should have been to this race way before now. Plus, today was a cool little crit with a couple of wicked corners.

So I was kinda hangin’ out at the Start line when I arrived and thinkin’ how it was a bummer that none of the Discovery guys was gonna be racing. Right at that moment, my half-asleep brain told me that I had just seen a Discovery team kit - I thought I was losing it... But no, I wasn’t hallucinating - it was Tony Cruz. He drove up to race this weekend as training - staying tough and keeping his legs. A solo racer hasn’t a chance in Hell when he’s racing against tough teams, so this is just training for him.

One of the Health Net guys ate it on a corner in the last couple of laps. I was standing at the finish line when he rode in, and Jeeze - he was bloody raw on his whole left side. Ankle to knee, knee to hip, knuckles, arm and the side of his face = hamburger. I’m telling you, that guy is in a world of hurt tonight. It’s bad enough to get that kind of road rash, but that raw, bloody flesh then has to be scrubbed, and I do mean scrubbed, to get out the dirt, gravel and any dirt bacteria. There can be really ugly infections from cruddy microbes in dirt. So you suffer the crash and then suffer the first-aid... I didn’t see who it was, but the dude rode back in and walked over to the medics.

The Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club (my club) is here, so I mostly tried to get shots of them - I dunno - most if my shots from today don’t look that great. Well, of course it’s the camera’s fault - it couldn’t possibly be that I blew it today... Or could it?