DLP Racing is at the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. Shawn, Tim, David, Scott, and Tiago are the lucky riders to contest this National Racing Calender event.  We are fortunate enough to also have some great help from Dr. Andy Pruitt who came down from Boulder, CO to drove the team car all week. Gila is a very hard race for two reasons. 1) The race is at altitude with many of the climbs passing 7000 feet. 2) There is lots and lots of climbing… some days have over 9000 feet of climbing. The 2009 event was made even harder by the last minute inclusion of three riders from the Astana team. This roster just happened to include one Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, and Chris Horner. The guys woke up to some beautiful weather for Stage one which was a 96 mile road race from Silver City to Mogollon. The course featured 5600′ of climbing including a grueling 3 mile climb to the finish. The team rode really well with Tim Henry starting the decisive break for the day that got a lead of over 3 minutes at one point. The break was well represented and in turn left the team free to conserve energy for the final climb. The break got caught on the finishing slopes and Scott Tietzel put in an awesome ride. He finished 19th on the day and was placed with many of the GC favorites. Tomorrow holds the Inner loop road race at 77.9 miles with 5800′ of climbing. Stay tuned….

This was one of the most fun races I’ve done in a long time. The course was made for me as it was selective, yet didnt reallyhave any extended climbing. Oh yea  - its also really looooong at over 125 miles. From the beginning, I knew I was finally back to normal after my crash at Redlands. No leg pain, no chronic fatigue, just the ability to make myself hurt and the motivation to enjoy it. The first of two 62 mile laps went very smoothly. I had no flats or mechanicals and positioned well for all of the hard parts. DLP rode well as a team; for the long/rolling gravel section there were 4 of us sitting comfortably in the top twenty, conserving energy. I felt very safe sitting right on BMC rider Tony Cruz’s wheel. Lap 2, and I still felt very strong. The hard parts hurt more, but I had no trouble getting over the climbs with the now smaller field. After the big climb on the course came a really tricky decent. It was a mile of fast pavement leading into two more miles of dirt full of pot holes. Already going fast and with Bissel and OUCH driving the pace on the front, I was not being very careful and hammered several big holes with my rear wheel. Seconds later I was on the side of the road getting a wheel change from the team car, but it was to late. The last big group blew by me at 40 mph and by the time I got back on the bike there was no one in sight but a few isolated stragglers. The team car was needed up the road so I had no way to motor pace back to the group and had to finish the last 20 miles in a small group for 54th place. The good part is that I feel back to normal and I am feeling more confident in my abilities. The bad part is that I really think I missed a great opportunity for a good result, but that’s just the way it goes. Boyd ended up having a great ride and finished with the front group which had less than 20 riders I would guess. Next up for me is Athens Twilight and the NRC race in Roswell, GA.