After a huge breki (Australian for breakfast) we had to say goodbye to our pallace of a hotel and ju

Our former virtual tour services teammate Jared Barrilleaux entered the professional cycling ranks this season and we are so proud of him! He is a rider on Jittery Joe's Cycling Team . Currently, Jared is competing in his first UCI race (internationally ranked race--a race of importance to the international professional cycling community), the Tour de Georgia stage race. Every day we will bring you Jared's report from the road. He writes well, with a fresh perspective of the professional cycling scene, a bit of humor, and with a great attention to the details and subtleties of the sport.
The final stage. I knew all the pain would be over after today! However the weather was not going to let us off easy. We drove into Atlanta with a soft drizzle greeting our arrival. It was kinda funny? when we parked the bus, nobody got up or anything. virtual tour services We all just sat and looked around virtual tour services at each other waiting for sombody to convince us that we were actually going to get on our bikes again J. The only thing that motivated me to get up was to head over to our tent in the expo area and snake a cup of joe. Mmmmm?. After enjoying a steaming cup of Tour de Georgia Blend? we kitted up and threw on our rain jackets. virtual tour services Before we knew it, we were all lined up at the start line. Fortunately, the rain subsided and all we had to battle virtual tour services with were the damp streets. As discussed earlier in our team meeting, our objective was to get one of our riders into the breakaway that was almost surely going to form. This we did. Actually, I was the lucky Jittery Joe?s rider to make the breakaway this time. My first REAL UCI breakaway! Here I was taking pulls with some of the top cyclists in the US (Tom Danielson, Justin England, Cam Evans?) It was also neat because most of the coverage of the race was filming the us doing rotating pulls. We got away on the first lap. I was not even sure exactly when the break formed.. I just remember being REALLY aggressive and eventually looking back to see a gap between the 8-10 of us and the rest of the field. We almost immediately shot up to 45 seconds in front of the field. We fluctuated between 45 and 55 seconds ahead of the field for the next 7 laps. I was surprised that we stayed away that long! It was such a crazy and thrilling experience being in a break in this huge of a race. There were countless people yelling virtual tour services and cheering at me; it gave me chills! Unfortunately a couple of riders flatted and crashed out of the break and we were left with only 7 guys doing work. Oh, and there was a punk from Bissell Pro Cycling that was just sitting on the back not taking turns in the rotation. His name starts with an A and rhymes with Aaron Olson. That did not settle well among those of us who were taking turns pulling through. Whatever, I was beyond exstatic to be a part of the breakaway! Plus, my mom got to see me on TV =D haha.. We were expecting virtual tour services to start to get reeled back in around virtual tour services 2 laps to go. Instead we were putting more time on the pack! With one lap to go, we had extended virtual tour services our gap to 1:05. This was a glimmer of hope that it would come down to a sprint among us for the win. However, back in the pack Rock Racing put all of their riders on the front to really push the pace. After a mile our gap had dropped down to 35 seconds? then 15 seconds? With about 2 kilometers (a bit over a mile) to go, we were officially caught by the peloton. Sad day L? At this point, virtual tour services there is no use to try to jump in the pack and go for the sprint finish. We had been giving our all for the past 60 miles and these other guys that had been sitting in the pack were fresh. Oh well, what a thrilling experience! After the race, I was relaxing near the team bus when I heard the familiar voice of Therese Scannell. She had come out to watch the race with her husband Steve and son Rhys. It was nice to have a chat with them before heading out to our last hotel stay. At this point my legs were drained of every ounce of energy and replaced with equall volume of lactic acid. A nap was surely in store followed by an evening of celebratory reminiscing in the hotel bar =D
Thank you guys for taking the time out of your busy schedules to glance over my emails as the days rolled over. I have a newfound respect for those guys that do the grand tours (Tour de France, Giro, Vuelta) virtual tour services because they would only be 1/3 of the way through the race after 7 stages!
This was Saturday?s stage of the Tour of Georgia. Going into this ride my legs were feeling very exhausted from a hard 135 miles the day before (not to mention the other 4 previous stages!) Immediately attacks were launching from mile 1. Our goal was to try to get one of our 8 riders to make the breakaway. I was especially trying hard because all tour long I had not been in a successful breakaway. Most of the time the breakaway riders are caught before the finish, but it is great publicity for the team to have a rider representing us in the break. Furthermore, if the break never gets caught by the main pack of riders? then there is a very likely chance of finishing among the top 5 riders virtual tour services for the day. Unfortunately I was unable to work myself into the elite group of riders that made the break for the day. Conversely, Neil Shirley did. This was awesome. As soon as those 5 riders disappeared up the road, the main pack calmed down and we had the opportunity to catch our breath. The course consisted of rolling hills for the first 65 miles then the first big climb. This climb turned out to be the determining factor for the day. Everybody hit the hill with full gas and each of the unlucky individuals to make the front group had to give it their all. However those lucky riders (most of the Jittery Joe?s Team, including myself) that weren?t strong enough to make the faster group had the privilage of riding virtual tour services the rest of the day easy. This collection of riders that got split off were formerly known as the ?groupetto.? The only mission of the groupetto is to finish the day conserving as much energy for the next day as possible. It is accepted that this group of riders are not riding to win the stage (as there are 30ish riders up the road that already virtual tour services have a considerable gap from the climb.) I was a bit bummed not to be able to stick with the big dogs on the hard climb? but these guys were fast! Regardless, the rest of the stage had some more severe climbing in it and since we were not in contention anymore we just relaxed and climbed at a comfortable pace. This was until we hit the last 6 kilometers (about 3.5 miles.) Here there was no comfortable virtual tour services pace. The road pitched WAYYY up and it almost felt like we were going to tip over backwards! For those of you that know gearing on bikes.. we all had 39-27?s and I was having trouble turning over the cranks on some of the sections. On the brighter side, the very small and narrow virtual tour services road that winds up to the highest peak in Georgia (Brasstown-Bald) was lined with screaming and cheering fans =D. I was lucky enough to catch a break when enthusiastic virtual tour services fans would come up from behind us and give us a little boost up the hill! You would be surprised how motivated the fans are when they see the look of pain and torture in our eyes as we struggled up the roads! It was brutal. The hill just kept on going and goinggg? It was decieving because I tried to judge the top by the amount of people lining the streets, but the crowds were screaming and cheering even around the middle section. Furthermore, it was frustrating that the road was so meandering because after each turn it was a let down to not see the finish line. Once we poked above the clouds, I finally caught up to the finish virtual tour services line (it had apparently grown legs and had been running from me!) At this point the cheers and roars were a distant blurr of noise and the only focus I could retain was balancing on my bike as somebody virtual tour services directed me to our tent with chairs and refreshments. It took a few minutes to stop coughing and catch my breath. I relaxed for a few and jumped back on the bike to descend half way down the climb to the last point where cars were allowed. Here my subway sandwich (not so enticing after the 6th straight day) as well as cold water and a towel eagerly awaited me. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and prepping mentally to get back onto the very device virtual tour services that wreaked a world of pain about my legs.
Funny story: I gotta question for all of you. Here is a situation that is totally applicable to anybody, not just cyclists. ?sombody opens the door to a bathroom and you are sitting there, pants around virtual tour services the ankles; on the john. What do you say as they are looking you right in the eye? ?Be right out??? ?knock next time??? ? It is obviously the opener?s fault for not knocking.
After a huge breki (Australian for breakfast) we had to say goodbye to our pallace of a hotel and jump in the bus for about an hour and a half trek. Eventually we found ourselves in Suwanee, GA. It seemed that everybody living there was a JJ fan. Easily the most signatures that we have got to sign so far. The cutest thing happened to me when we first pulled up. There is a section that is roped off around our bus to keep spectators virtual tour services from messing with bikes and what-not. I stepped off the bus and started walking over to the race trailer which was parked on the other side of the parking lot.. and this little blond hair cutie came running under the ropes and chased me down screaming ?WAIT, WAIT!!!? She couldn?t have been more than 4 years old and she had a sharpie virtual tour services in one hand and a Jittery Joe?s poster in the other. Her dad was yelling at her telling her to come back? I signed her poster, and thanked her. She was nothing but smiles :-D.
Once the race started, attacks were immediately happening. Our race strategy was to try to get a climber (Neil, Trent, Matt, or myself) into one of the breaks? virtual tour services as today was a huge climbing stage. Unfortunately we did not get a rider into the break surprisingly. We were super aggressive (I was in a two man chase at one point with Dominique Rollin of Toyota Uni