I have been off the radar with the posts. My Word Press acount is acting up and I can only update through Flickr right now. Lame! Anyway, US Pro was a huge success and that doesn’t even begin to descirbe the weekend.

We brought four guys to Greenville and every one of us had an awesome day. It was the first time I had ridden with Thad Dulin all season in a race. What a monster! Tim Henry rode to perfection and Neil Shirly put the icing on the cake by hitting the podium. Holy shit! It was amazing.

The race was stacked and had a few more guys that could go uphill fast. Adding the starting circuits changed the race a ton and there was an early break that kept it hard on the climbs but pretty tame. It worked out great for us. I was feeling really good on the climbs and felt like I could have a good go. After the 2nd lap of 4 up Paris Mountain Neil asked how I was feeling. I said pretty good, but not great. He said “I feel really good.” That is all we needed to hear. The third time into the climb myself and Thad made sure Neil was at the front so he wouldn’t have to surge or chase on. I ended up staying there and hitting it pretty good at the bottom as John Devine (Discovery) hit the gas a bit, then Levi Leipheimer attacked and took off. I was in the box, but Neil was in the main group. I made it over just off the back with some other guns, Scott Moninger and Phil Zijacek. I was wondering what they were doing back there with me? Suffering! I felt better as the race got harder.

Soon the order came to try to keep the pace high so guys weren’t attacking to much off the front and keep the gap down. I stayed on the front with Thad and some of the Slipstream guys for last part of the 3rd lap and all the way to the bottom of the climb on the 4th. I cracked as soon as it went uphill, but it was worth it.

I made it back to the finish with the rest of the stragglers to see Neil attack, that’s right, attack Hincapie and Fast Freddy! Hincapie came around Neil for second but Shirly came in 3rd place and kept Freddy’s cherry picking to a minimum. It was awesome.

So congratulations to Neil Shirly. I can’t think of anyone who deserved to be on that podium any more than Neil. His many years of riding the cycling roller coaster through the twists and turns and loops finally came to a stop on the 3rd step of the US Pro Podium. Stellar, Awesome, Sick, Whicked, however you want to say it, very nice work. Enjoy the moment because it has been long deserved.