From Nelson...

I had a great weekend in Madera again this year and some fun and challenging racing. I love getting away for stage races and wish we had more. It seemed like the town of Madera was half bike racers, with racers all around you at every motel, restaurant, store or street corner and bikes on most of the cars. If you eavesdropped a bit while eating out, you mostly heard race talk coming from the tables around you. I traveled down with Jason B. from Yuba City, spent some time with his Rocknasium team and had a fantastic dinner at The Vineyard Restaurant with our team Saturday night.I joined Fred and John in the 45+ as I couldn't get into the 35+4/5, and was challenged from the start in the crit when NCNCA TT Champion Bubba Melcher attacked early on with another rider and kept the pace of the peloton high the rest of the race trying to catch them. The breakaway finished about 20 seconds ahead of the pack, and I finished mid-pack. My avg watts of 259, normalized power of 277, and avg HR of 154 were higher than crits I've done in the past (my threshold power is 280 watts and threshold HR 150).The TT got off to a bit of a disappointing start when the start official was so busy explaining the course turns to me he missed my start. Instead of a countdown, all I got was Oops! Go! Go! Sorry! Fortunately my official time of 26:03 was only 5 seconds slower than what my computer showed. My avg watts were 292, avg speed 24.0 mph, and avg HR 157. I felt good about beating my time from last year by over 40 seconds, but disappointed that my finish put me in the bottom fourth as compared to the top half last year.The road race went off briskly the first lap, and when we reached the rollers at the end of the first lap, a four to five rider breakaway went off and I was in position to jump onto it and almost did. I decided it was too early to do so. Fred launched a bridge attempt after we turned the corner onto the 2nd lap, and it looked like he was going to make it when the moto ref pulled him back. I guess he went over the center line briefly to get around to the front. Suddenly the tempo of the peloton slowed, and I realized something was going on that I didn't fully understand, but it wasn't good. The pack rumor I got later was that none of the riders out front were in the top 20 for the GC, but there were riders from all the big teams in it. Fred moved to the front and started chasing as did John and I, but after a few 450 watt pulls with noone pulling through after, I got discouraged. With Fred doing most of the pulling, the gap came down from over a minute to about 40 seconds, but never got closed. We finished in the top 20 in the main pack sprint. Nelson _______________________________________________