Chris Jones’ Diary – Tour of California Conclusions

Chris Jones is a second-year professional for Team Type 1 who lives in Sacramento, Calif. Throughout the Amgen Tour of California, he shared his thoughts and behind-the-scenes observations exclusively with Bike World News.

It’s over.

I finished the biggest race that I’ve ever done. Against the most stacked field in the history of North American cycling (or at least that’s how it was billed). My race wasn’t necessary full of the results that I wanted. But I’m proud that I battled through and finished.

It was a really tough week for my team. We lost five riders to crashes, illness and other maladies for various reasons. But it’s also really exciting for Team Type 1 that we competed in the Tour and finished strong. It shows that this team has the talent and infrastructure to achieve its goal of reaching the Tour de France by the year 2012.

One interesting aspect I noticed this week was how professional the riders are, and how respectful they are toward other riders. Sometimes here in the U.S., riders become so aggressive that they’re just not safe. But this week, I didn’t see a single crash caused by anyone cutting anyone off or being overly aggressive. They were all just because of circumstances. It was good to experience that. I hope that maybe this can carry over into domestic racing.

One of my cycling heroes is Chechu Rubiera. Like me, he’s an engineer and he kind of plays the same role on the Astana team that I do for Team Type 1 – only on a different level. I’ve always admired the hard work he’s put in and so it was great to race with him.

I want to say thank you to all the fans who came out. The crowds all week long were unbelievable. When the sun came out during this weekend, it was awesome to see so many people supporting Team Type 1. On Sunday’s climb up Mt. Palomar, there were people in all different areas yelling “Go Team Type 1!”

It was also great to finish the race here in San Diego because this is where I started my cycling career. So there were people from my very first club all along the course. I know it was them because I used to ride a triple chainring on my bike – all the way from Cat. 5 to Cat. 1. So when I heard people calling me “Triple,” I knew they knew me from the San Diego Bicycle Club.

Thanks everyone for reading and for Ron Callahan giving me the chance to share my thoughts with the readers of Bike World News. I’m off to the Vuelta Mexico (an eight day race) starting on Saturday. You can always follow me at ChristopherJones.info if you liked what I wrote here during the Tour of California.

Jones finished the Amgen Tour of California in 62nd place, 43:34 behind race winner Levi Leiphimer.

Tags: Amgen, Amgen Inc., Amgen Tour, amgen tour of california, astana, California, Chris Jones, cycling, France, Kazakhstan, levi leiphimer, Mt. Palomar, Ron Callahan, Sacramento, San Diego, Team Type 1, Tour de France News, united states