To prevent the posting of a certain alleged race report bearing my name, I offer you this genuine glimpse into the Elkhorn classic.

The drive up from California (Bradley, Justin, Emile, Brett and myself) was EPIC. Here are a few of the highlights: 100+ lbs of fruit, the compost bucket seat, Pneumatic Cafe in Reno, camping at Rye Patch SP, Winnemucca, Basque Country, slots, "Fruitland" ID, and of course, the strawberry sour straws.

Stage 1 (75 mile RR): Basically everyone was scared of the climb and so we cruised until we hit it. On the climb some people got dropped, but not too many. But about 10 miles from the finish we hit some big tailwind rollers and it was on. Will from Symmetrics attacked and everyone scrambled to get on terms. It pretty much all came back together in the last 1k, with 15 of us within 7 seconds of GC.

Stage 2 (10 mile TT): Fast and windy course, I couldn't really push it for some reason. Just felt sluggish, lost 1 minute to winner, into 12th GC (-:50)

Stage 3 (60 minute crit): canceled due to weather. So glad this was canceled. After hearing about the women (see Cara's post), this would have been real ugly.

Stage 4 (105 mile RR): So there I am sitting near the back 3 miles into race, keeping an eye on the GC guys when a big break rolls off the front. Real big break (20 guys!). Race leader with teammates miss it along with most of the top 10 GC, but there's no real chase, we just cruise along and the break goes further and further out. Bizarre. Finally, on the penultimate climb, Will from Symmetrics gets fed up and crushes it. He just set a ridicules tempo up the climb. 4 of us are barely able to hang on. By the top we have 2 minutes on the group and 4 minutes to the break. We decide to see how close we can getto the leaders before the final climb. Will drove it at 30 mph into the wind and we did our best to pull through. Amazingly, just before the final climb (~mile 88) we see the break ahead. A Symmetrics rider drops back and tows us up to the rest. There was one guy off the front, but basically we all started the climb together. We climbed tempo for about a mile, then Will attacked HARD. No one even tried to go with him. 3 guys formed a little chase ahead of our group of about 10. I hung on as long as I could, but I was hurtin pretty bad and dropped off a little in the last 5k. Ended up almost 2 minutes down on the stage (ouch), but moved up to 6th GC because most of the GC guys were way back.

Overall, a pretty fun race. Weird tactics, and easier-than-advertised climbs made life a little tough, but the courses were really great and the competition was good. Congrats to Cara and the rest of the women for a good race, and big ups to Molly and John for the support!