Elkhorn - and it begins

We left last night for Elkhorn.  We drove to La Grande, which is about 45mins from Baker City, which is city the race will envelop for the next few days.  We stopped in La Grande because one of my team mates, Eli, has family here that very graciously put us up for the night, is currently cooking us breakfast, and is going to help work the feeds for us this weekend.  Got to say, we got it pretty good.
I am really looking forward to this stage race.  The plan is to drive to Baker City, park the van, set up a tent, and race our bikes.  Once we park the van, we are not getting back in it till we leave on Sunday.  Really stoked on that.  I think that we are camping takes some of the seriousness out of the stage race, and if there is one problem with road racing, it is that on the whole, we all take it too seriously.  Anything to lighten the load, camping included, helps.  Speaking of taking things too seriously, a big goal of mine this weekend is not to do what I usually do, which is consume 1000 calories / meal.   Trying to stick to my usual diet of fruit, veg, and whole grains as much as possible.  I'll start with this here apple.

As for today's stage, sounds like it is going to be a select group finish.  The climbs are enough to spit some people out (hopefully not me), but the downhill and flats are long enough that there will be a regrouping.  Field size is small, so we will see how the race unfolds.  There are a few riders that will likely attack early.  My job is most likely going to be following wheel, answering attacks, then sitting in if I get in a break.  Goal is to get any many guys in the front group as possible, while working as little as possible.  Sounds like a big task, so if we can get Boone, Eli (our GC guys) with Adam to stay with them and help out later in the race / on Sunday, I'll be happy.

Since it looks like we have the largest team, people might be looking towards us to set tempo.  If that ends up being the case, I might attack, because I would rather burn my matches in a break then burn them riding on the front.  

Not sure if we will have wifi at the school ground where we are camping, but I plan on posting after every stage.  Looking