Stage 1 - Nogales - US -Nogales - Hill top out of town

So this is crazy. We get to the host hotel last night, register and then they tell us they ran out of hotel rooms. That is were the adventure began. We eventually bartered our way into two rooms for 7 dudes. Kind of crowded, but managable. This morning, same crap. What time do we start? What kind of course will we do? Chaos insues.

They finally make up their minds and we ride neutral from here to the U.S. At this point about 30 riders don't have visas and can't cross, so they wait at the border. We proceed to a sponsor's business, sit for 1/2 hour, they inflate the little start banner and we roll neutral back to the border. As soon as we hit the border the race is on.

Today's race was billed as a 52k point to point. Since the stage is super short and all 160 guys have fresh legs, it t was CRAZY. There were crashes everywhere! At one point we were doing 40 mph on the wrong side of the highway into oncoming traffic. To spice things up a little more, we went through some toll booths with huge speed bumps and those oversized bots dots. After traveling on the highway we finally turn right to the finishing climb. I had learned from a teammate that it was 4k to the top from the left hand turn. So I kept to the front and just waited. Finally the left hand turn came and the marshalls told us to do a 180!

We then proceeded to head back down through the oncoming caravan to the bottom of the climb and in the process picked up every single rider who had been dropped before. At the bottom we turned around to climb to the top again. I was dizzy at this point. We climbed up again, dropping the same guys, and finally made the left turn. I was in a fairly decent position at this point until the guy in front of my teammate chris and I dropped his chain. Classic. I finally made it up, pack finish. Crazy day. My roomate Chris said it was too sketch and headed back to the States.