Not much can be said about my next five months living back home in Kansas.
It's was just taking care of my parents and waiting for the snow to melt.
I quickly started to miss the Los Angeles atmosphere and night life.
The only thing here in Kansas is corn, and tons of it.

But I had no choice but to be here and every time my dad made some progress
in his recovery I knew I was doing the right thing, family comes first.
Especially after I ditched them to move to California, almost 5 years ago now.

Along with seeing my dad regain health the other benefit to being in Kansas
is how easy it is to get a training ride in on my bicycle.
In LA it was nearly impossible with all the cars and the parks were always full.
Here it was just me and the road with no distractions. It felt great.

By the time May rolled around I was in great shape,
rode my bike almost everyday and was always working on the farm.
But before I could pack up my bags and head back to Cali for Amgen ToC
I needed one last prep race to get my legs turning before I went pro.

So why not end my amateur career in the same race I started my career?
That's right, I'm going back to the local summer festival to compete.
I have much better equipment this time, so finishing last looks unlikely.

What a strange feeling being back here at this race.
Looking at my competition I knew there was no way I was going to lose.
I had the best bike, best fitness, most experience, and revenge on my mind.

--- *** --- *** --- *** ---

Before the race I scanned the crowd, and saw a lot of familiar faces.
But that was to be expected as most people aren't given the chance to leave.



The race has gotten a lot more popular over the years, 80 riders start.
And the course has been lengthen from 25 miles to 37 miles.



Right from the gun I attack! I want to dominate this race from start to finish.



And nobody could follow me. So it looks like it will be a 60km ITT.



One thing was for sure, the crowd started buzzing as people were
starting to remember and recognize me the longer I was leading the race.



Soon this news spread to the peloton as people started goggling me,
and my results from the track Districts were the first things to pop up.



They started closing down the gap like crazy
when they figured out how good I actually was.
Little did they know in one week I would be racing in
America's biggest stage race of the season.



5kms left and I could now look over my shoulder and see them coming.



But there was no way I was going to let them catch me.



I was running out of Kansas with my head held high.
Domination in front of the people that made fun of me growing up felt so good.

EXP - Mountain / Form - Mountain (x2), Hill

After the race I was bombarded by old acquaintances from my youth.
Some of which I didn't mind seeing again, while others acted like
they were my best friend when that was far from the truth.

People like to surround themselves with successful people I guess.
I had turned into this local celebrity once people started to take interest in me.
Being mentioned in a ESPN article and winning amateur events would do that.
But the matter of the fact was I had more true friends back in Califonia.

However there was one person that I didn't mind actually noticing me until now.