rincon, puerto rico

the day after...after my all time favorite event each year, and I wasn't even racing this time around.

Doel pulled of another amazing race/dirt jump/concert/outdoor festival event. He even timed it to perfection with Tropical Storm Mitch arriving at 5:59 and blowing down all of the tents and sending sheets of water storming across the venue as everything wound down. A few folks had to ride their bikes home in it...Blake and shredded the scooter in it and froze ourselves to death, which wasn't too bad b/c when you're cold/numb/and dead...you don't feel the pelting of golf ball sized rain drops.

The ass would is healing up nicely now that the evil stitches have been removed and actual healing could occur...I was good enough to, with the help of double chammy and a codeine-Tylenol, to film the race with the pedalmasher.com camera setup...and actually sit down once in awhile. It was one of the cooler experiences, jumping in and out of the race and watching the race unfold from the epi-center of the action.

I'd ride with the front group for a few miles, loop back to the chase, then to the front of the women's race...then wait at an intersection for a minute or two and have to do a World Cup start sprint to catch back up to the Broderick/Wells/JHK train....

one perspective worth sharing is how easy it is to ride with the front group when you don't have to go through the pain and beyond LT effort of a start....well, I say that, but the last lap attacks of JHK and Wells were tough to cover with a camera pack, a hole in my ass, meds, antibiotics, no riding...and supreme horsepower laying down the smack on each other. Ouch, that was work!

I hope the footage comes out nicely...it'll be an assortment of dizzying single track shots with a few gringos bouncing off the trees...but you should be able to catch a glimpse of a world few know about - be it the men or women, they're flying out there. I challenge many of you to try and follow Mary or Heather for a lap during a full race effort.

After the race..it was the usual post-race-playa antics...

Pick your poison...

But never forget, you're dealing with professional athletes here. I think I'm going to apply for my pro-snorkel card soon. Broderick just got his table football license.

There's far too much toodweels on this site today.

Check out the rest of the photos here.