Giro Di Jersey done

In both today's and yesterday's stages of the race there were some strong, organized teams along with the Rite Aid pro team. We are a little bit unaccustomed to as much organization in races because not many teams are so strong or organized in the Georgia cup races. While it often does make the racing faster and harder, it also makes it more predictable. The last two days of racing were both circuit races with hills playing in as a major factor; each day Jafer got in the the main breakaway of the day, and each day I worked to lead out the sprint in the final miles. Though he did make the important moves, as he always seems to do, Jafer found little cooperation in his off the front efforts, and they did not stick. Our best placing of the weekend was made by Oscar on today's long, uphill sprint finish; after the first 10 riders finished in a break, Oscar placed 5th in the field sprint....ending up 15th for the day. Oscar and I both recieved a little bit of pay out at the end of the weekend for our positions in the overall general classification, placing 24th and 20th respectively.

Last night we decided to get a cheap room at the Extended Stay Hotel in Somersey, NJ which turned out to be a really good call. Booking the room saved us almost 4 hours of driving (back home and then to the race again today), and gave us plenty of time to lounge around, shower, wash out our clothes, get our bikes ready for the next day, and eat.........a lot. After cheching into the room, we immediately headed back out to fill our starvin bellies with some grub (we had just finished racing 74 miles so we was huuuuuuuungry). After a short bit of wandering in the volvo, we came upon a business district in a city called Bound Brook. If I had been knocked out and woke up to find myself in Bound Brook, I would have sworn I was somewhere in Mexico. There were probably at least 20 Mexican restaurants and various other stores (all with signs in spanish) lining a few blocks. Luckily, the thought of mexican food sounded great so we sat down at one of the smallest, hole-in-the-wall restaurants there was. After eating our authentic and very spicey tacos one of the guys sitting in there started talking to us and when he heard where we were from he told us he used to work in Carrolton and in Lawrenceville, so that was cool.

Just a few hours later, when we headed out for dinner, we went a different direction and found ourselves on the streets of New Brunswick right by Rutgers University. We enjoyed dinner at a little pizza/pasta/hooka bar place in the college town.

After all the driving and down time we've had between races, I have become a sudoku master.