We are moving to...

Dave says: We are moving to Arizona! In case you didn't know, I applied to a bunch of Management & Organizations Ph.D. programs back in November. I have been working with the business school for the past two years as a RA and TA and have taken several Ph.D. classes already. My undergraduate degree is business management and I am interested in areas that cross over between the fields of law and business such as negotiation, ethics, organizational justice, and business law. I am ultimately looking forward to pursuing a career as a professor.

In January I got a call from the University of Arizona. I flew out to Tucson in early February and was very impressed with the faculty and the Ph.D. students. After considering my other options I decided that the University of Arizona was the best fit for me. Since I grew up in Tucson, I am familiar with the area and am excited to be returning. However, given the fact that summer is the worst time of year in Tucson and the best time of year in SLC, we will likely spend most of the summer here in Utah. How's that for a summary of the last two years of my academic life (which never seems to make its way onto the blog).

In other exciting news, Alisha is back from Europe. After a month apart we appreciate each other more than ever. I guess that's why I'm trading a team mtb ride for flat intervals on the TT bike today. I am looking forward to a few warm days on the bike as it seems that spring is finally here. We rode emigration yesterday and it was blissful (with the exception of the crazy-fast pace that Alisha was setting).

In terms of racing, I haven't updated things for awhile. This is probably because I had such a bad mtb race down in Hurricane two weeks ago. I started ok but then didn't feel like I had any energy and my insides were all twisted up. After taking 3 days off in the next week, I was feeling good for the Tour of the Depot. In the circuit race I was in a few moves that were reeled back in. However, on the final lap I threw down a counterattack off the front. The field hesitated before it began to chase and I rode like crazy and managed to stay away for second. It was my best result on the road bike since upgrading to the Pro/1/2/ field. Perhaps it even looked a bit too good for the officials who did not know who I was and put me down as a DNF. The next day they looked at the tape and put me in the right place.

The RR was the windiest race I have ever seen and it was blowing at 60 mph +. It started as a headwind and I thought that as a result we would all stay together until the big climb of the day. However, I was wrong as the wind shifted to a crosswind which left the field strung out and split off lots of riders. A group of 7 went down the road and was never caught. Then, the chase group of 30 riders or so that I was with missed a turn and rode an extra 30 miles out of the way. It would have made the race well over 100 miles in crazy conditions so I pulled the plug in the last feed zone. Without a shot at the overall, it was a good call. As a result of the extra miles, 8th place in the GC finished nearly 2 hours behind 7th. However, I had a good race the day before and would likely have been too tired to put up a good challenge in the RR anyways so I wasn't too sad.