Recently I was told by Amazon that they'd discontinue my Kindle Blog if I didn't post anything soon. Since this would affect all of you who value this blog enough to pay for it, I took action.

There isn't a whole lot to report right now. We've basically been up here in Tahoe enjoying the Fall weather. I was riding the mt. bike a lot till I crashed and broke off a shifter. So now I've been hitting all my favorite roads before the weather turns bad. I've also been using this time to get a lot of school work done. It's time to finish this thing up.

We're moving back to the Sacramento area at the end of the month. We're renting out a room from Dan, so that should be Sweet.

In team news. I'm riding for Kenda p/b Geargrinder next year. It was definitively time for a change and I'm happy about that move.

The last couple of days have been non-stop. Finished the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, traveled home, moved stuff out of our Davis apartment, and met with my PhD adviser.

So, USA PCC. On Saturday I attacked right from the gun. We got a gap, but were caught up the first climb. It was risky but I figured why not? Later I learned that Levi thought he knew why not and was heard muttering, "Have they seen the profile?"

At Utah he made fun of me for sitting in and now he comments on my attack. I'll spare Levi the actuarial ass kicking and just say, I had nothing to lose and a chance to gain.

Sunday, there was another climb at the start and it split the field into multiple pieces. That sucked, but after a lot of chasing it all came back together. Frank was 5th in the sprint.

At the airport, on the way home, I saw a bunch of people wearing USA PCC merchandise, that was cool. But as we approached the gate for Reno it got weird. Lots of dreadlocks, hula hoops and tie-dye, we were on the Burning Man plane.

Funny thing, I overheard these people planning to buy cheap bikes at Wal-Mart to ride for the week and then just toss them. Isn't that counter, counter culture?

Now it's off season time. What that means is I can experience Tahoe like everyone else, some other way than by bike.

The mood was light around the dinner table tonight. There is nothing like suffering together to bring a team together. Everyone had a story about almost blacking out, throwing up or some other form of intense suffering.

So, I honestly thought that after the short day yesterday I'd feel good for the "easy stage." However, that was not the case. I attacked a few times and then the road went up and I was in the box, deep.

Fortunately or unfortunately I was not the only one suffering. As I was trying to sit in, I watched rider after rider attack, explode, and shoot back through the pack. I even saw the look of death on Laurens Ten Dam's face in person.

The second half of the race was a false flat downhill so things calmed down. Rob and I passed the time celebrity watching and cutting in front of the camera to get on TV. What? Sara told me to have fun today.

Even with the late race start it was still an early morning. We needed to drive the 2 hours from Aspen to Vail. But the real trouble was getting into the parking lot.

Vail was packed. I mean seriously crowded. Lots of fans, in the way at first, but then the attention was nice. Two girls were even taking pictures of us warming up with our skinsuits rolled down.

Later those girls came by again and picked up Ben JM's rider card, looked at it for second and then carefully put it back. They didn't do that with mine.

The race was the race. Awesome fans, almost too close at times. I made sure to keep it out of the crowd and out of the red.

It's common knowledge that my wife "likes" George Hincapie a little too much. Today George enabled this infatuation. I'm not really sure what I think about it.

Another stage between 7,700 and 12,000 ft. What a vacation.

I tried my hand at the break, but it took a while to recover between acceleration and I missed it. There was a crash at the cattle guard near the beginning. Some one's wheel got caught in the little gap and it ended badly.

The first climb went easy but it rained on the decent. That was unnecessary. The second climb was harder. I got dropped during the acceleration at about 10,800 ft (according to the data) and rolled it in, slowly but it was not easy. It rained again on the decent.

The fans up there on Independence Pass were out of control. Over the top there was just one bike width of room. It was cool.

I finished feeling decent. My analogy is if you can't put the accelerator all the way down you won't ruin the engine. That's how I felt at altitude.

Here's a fun fact. The race bible suggests Diamox for Acute Mountain Sickness. Unfortunately acetazolamide, the active ingredient, is a banded substance. Oops.