Today was stage one of the Vuelta a Chihuahua in Chihuahua Mexico. This is a UCI 2.2 Stage race that has teams like Saunier Duval, Relax Gam, Slipstream, and Agritubel. It is 7 stages over 8 days and will be the toughest race of my life so far. Today's stage took place in Juarez, just over the border from El Paso Texas. It was a pretty easy stage. It was flat 6 k hotdog course. We rode down a 3 lane road with a median for 3 k did a 180 rode back three k to do another 180. It was a headwind one way and tailwind the other. So today was really really easy. I just sat in like all day and wasted no energy. It kind of sucks because a group of about 40 go up the road 12 k in, but we got Eric Keim in the move so that was good. I was near the front and said to myself that a group this big is going to get away no way this early. But I was wrong and this group gained like 3 min on the field. However, it isn't so bad that I missed the split. I wasted no energy today, so that is important. The gaps in this race are large by the end because of the long mountainous days, so I can make up some time by the end and will move up some in the general classification probably. Who knows what will happen it is a long race. I feel good and am ready to give it my all. I got a flat today too and they gave me a free lap on this large circuit. That was pretty crazy. So that was about it for today. We go to the airport en route to Chihuahua city pretty soon.
The flight was pretty uneventful and everything seemed good. Mexico is a very nice country. It is a lot less crazy than I thought it was going to be. We arrived at our hotel for tonight around 6 pm. It is called Palacio del Sol. It is nice but seems kind of old. The rooms have a kind of retro style. Some people were stuck in the elevator between our floor and another. The staff was running around trying to figure things out. Finally they got the people out of the elevator. It was pretty crazy. Then we went to dinner. This consisted of watery spaghetti, bread, bananas, and what they call a sub (a hoagie roll with 2 slices of peperoni, a little lettuce, and mayo). This was just more like just bread. Big band music was blaring loudly over some speakers. Maybe they thought that the bad music would make us forget about the bad food. At least this food won't give me food poisoning. It is fine. I have internet at the hotel. This place is pretty nice. Tomorrow is a 150 k flat stage that will probably finish in a bunch kick but anything can happen. This is bike racing.
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