Our goal this week was to put a rider on the podium for GC and bag at least one stage win. We accomplished both by getting Mike “Micro” Lange into 3rd on GC and with Brad Huff winning the last stage.

It’s fun to race for a team that will sit down at night and lay out a plan for the next day, then go out and execute it. We’ve really been coming together as a team. The better friends we become, the better we race together, and it’s starting to pay off.

Our staff was completely dialed this week. Our mechanic, Thomas, had our GTs running so smoothly that we didn’t even think twice about it. He also gave me one of the fastest wheel changes, so fast that when I got back in the field, one of the guys said, “Whoa! That was fast!” On the Mt. Nebo stage, we had some guys running different gear combos; some guys were running compact cranks, some guys the 11-25 cassettes. I think Micro was the only guy that said, “Can I have a 55 for today?”

Jenni Rae and Katie, our two wonderful soigneurs, were excellent as usual this week. The massages were fantastic, the feeds were superb (I don’t think a bottle or feed bag was dropped), and they passed out maybe 200-300 of our Lexus/Jelly Belly T-Shirts to fans this week when they weren’t taking care of us. It was fun to see nearly ¾’s of the fans at the crit wearing out T-Shirts. Go Jelly Belly! Even the girls had time to enjoy our host housing, taking time to jump on the trampoline in Russellville.

On top of good hard racing, we had a lot of fun. Our host “mansions” were amazing this week. Our former teammate, Brice Jones, hooked us up in his parents’ new house in Ft. Smith. On top of great hospitality, the Jones’ have a movie room with a theater quality setup.

We returned to Paul and Franshel’s Russellville country estate for three stages where we were met with true Southern Hospitality. Paul and Franshel whipped us up some good food for breakfast and dinner, and I’m sure that the good food propelled us to success. Micro took the opportunity to ride one of Paul’s horses while the rest of us went down to the movie room(!!) in the basement. We were truly spoiled this week.