Came out to Gila a few days early with a few of the guys. Stemper, Phil, and myself were greeted at the airport early yesterday morning by our ace mechanic William Swan. Ha Swan. We made what felt like the forever drive from El Paso, TX to Silver City, NM.

Once we made it to our awesome accommodations at the Baptist Church's gymnasium we kitted up and headed out for a spin. The local's greeted us with horns and one finger up which I don't believe meant #1 in this case. Once we cooled down with a few laps in the gym, a little hot for one particular rider, we showered up and headed to dinner an the grocery.

Stemper who was having just an awesome day which included a broken bike from the airline, not a very welcoming committy on the ride, and a mishap with a slippery gym floor would be victim again at dinner. He ordered steamed veggies, which the waitress forgot about. They finally came out but were no where near the description of steamed veggies and best of yet he was charged $6 when the menu said $4. All the waitress could say about that was, "What would you like me to do about that?" Seriously!

Today we reconned the last 80 miles of the Gila Monster stage. We started in the valley and headed to the hills battling a sweet wind.

Not a bad draft behind these stallions.

Behind climbing specialist Phil. Look at that form.

Then there was me.

Stemper really hadn't planned on riding long or hard today, but we talked him into going with us. Here on the biggest climb I'm thinking he wasn't to happy.

I was trying to keep the spirits up. It's hard to keep it easy on a 7km climb that averages over 7% with a cross wind gusting over 40mph.

Once we were finally able to find more water, get back and get some food in our body's we were happy to have such a great day on the bike. Plus ace mechanic Will Swan also became baking extrodinare and made a cake for us. Maybe we shouldn't tell Frankie. Now time to rest on the gym floor, try not to eat to much cake or all the candy, cookies, and ice cream that appear to be in the freezer for two days before the start of the race on Wednesday.

Breeze On