Today we have something special, an interview with Ian Boswell of Bissell Pro Cycling. He's a 19 year old stand out and first year pro from Bend, Oregon, now living in Chico, CA.

PaulMach.com: Thanks for sitting down with me Ian. But lets get right into it, when did you start reading PaulMach.com?

Ian Boswell: After the Paskenta Century in February. Am I the first one to be interviewed on the site?

PM.C: No, we actually did a two part interview with Paul Mach himself last year (Part 1, Part 2). But I'll be asking the questions. When did you start riding bikes?

IB: I did some BMX, but it started with the kids race at Cascade when I was 11.

PM.C: Isn't that a little old for a "kid's race."

IB: Not really, I mean, a win is a win.

PM.C: Okay... so you're headed off to Europe in a few days, when did you start racing over there?

IB: I did 3 weeks with the national team when I was 16. The next year I did a youth exchange to Belgium for school. I raced a bit while I was there. Last year I raced the spring in Europe too.

PM.C: How does that work with school?

IB: I graduated a semester early so that helped. But teachers are usually pretty supportive if it's for the national team.

PM.C: Now for something more interesting, are you heading into Europe single or are you doing the long distance thing?

IB: No, I'm single.

PM.C: Have you been looking then?

IB: Yeah, I'm on the prowl.

PM.C: Does being on Team Bissell help with that?

IB: Sure, now that I have business cards. I've been scattering them all over the park in Chico.

PM.C: Any success?

IB: So far no responses, but I'm keeping my phone on vibrate.

PM.C: Okay, so when you're not riding and not looking for a date, how do you spend your time?

IB: I like cooking. I'm always in the kitchen trying something new. it's fun.

PM.C: And you can't find a date? I'm sure this interview won't hurt. One final question, what are your goals for the season?

IB: I just want to learn from the older riders. You know, about stuff like blogging, tweeting and taxes.

PM.C: Alright, thanks Ian and good luck at those European races.

So to recrap: we have a young, single, professional athlete who has traveled the world and loves to cook. What's not to like?

Today I've added a new feature to the blog. It answers that question I know you're always asking, "Where is Paul Mach?" Now, just a quick hop to PaulMach.com and you've got your answer in the nav bar on the right.

At first I wanted this feature to show my exact location. I figured it'd be cool for people to find me and get autographs.

Later I realized that might be a bit much. I don't want to make it too easy for people find out where I live. "Cough" Chris "Cough."

How does it work? It's automagical.

Well, not really. First, satellites over 12,500 miles away help my phone find its location. That information is then sent to my local cell tower before being transfered through a "series of tubes" to PaulMach.com. On the server a script asks Google to convert the lat/lng coordinates into a street address, part of which is displayed to you.

Pretty simple, and it all happens in about half a second. The technology took decades and billions to develop and now, finally, it's being used for something you care about.

The Madera Stage Race ended today with some serious drama. It was an 80 mile, 5 lap, road race. But first, let me share with you the GC going into the day:

1. Ben Jacques-Maynes
2. Paul Mach at 32 seconds
3. Rob Britton at 1:30
4. Jesse Moore at 1:48

The race started off with the typical attacking for the first lap. At the start of the second, Ben and Jesse got off the front with 4 others. A chase organized but it wasn't sustainable and the gap kept growing. As it climbed past 1:30, Rob and I started to worry.

So lets recap. We're just vibing in the pack while our leader is off the front, riding us out of the GC. We strategized a bit and came up with a plan to attack over the rollers with 2 laps to go.

That worked, and now Rob, Jim Wingert and I were on a direct flight to Suffer City. The gap wasn't coming down that fast and it took a while for Ben to learn we were chasing. Once he did, he attacked and soloed to the win.

Meanwhile, after an hour of chasing and a half lap to go, we finally caught what was left of the break, Jesse and some Yahoo. Jim and I attacked and finished a little bit ahead of the rest. The finish order was Ben, Paul, Jim, Jesse, Rob.

In the end the GC was unchanged, but man did Ben and Jesse make us work for it.

Ben was all business before today's time trial, and for good reason. I mean, there was a lot on the line after yesterday. Long story short, he smoked it, set a course record at 20:39 and beat me by about 40 seconds. Well played Ben, well played.

Day two of Madera features two stages. After the flat, 10 mile TT in the morning, there is a crit in the afternoon.

So after a bit of lunch we suited up again for the crit and man was it cray cray, cross wind all over the place. Ben and Rob spent most of the race off the front in a 4 man break, I hung out fighting the wind in the pack.

Overall, Rob managed to get some time bonuses to solidify 3rd on GC, Ben and I are still first and second, respectively.

Now for a little reward for those of you that have read this far. It's a little graph of the time gap between me and Ben during Friday's TT. Pretty interesting.

The Bissell team is continuing their central valley tour with the Madera Stage Race this weekend in, wait for it... Madera.

This morning we drove a bit out of town for stage 1, the Ben Hur Time Trial. It featured 6 miles of rolling followed by 4 miles of climb. Bissell pwned it, I won, 4 seconds ahead of Ben JM, Rob Britton was third and Ian Boswell was 5th.

It was nice to finally get a win after a number of near misses but you know Ben must've been upset. To top it off his fortune cookie at dinner said, "Failure teaches success." Ouch, now he's going to be extra focused tomorrow.

The rest of the race features a flat 10 mile TT tomorrow morning followed by a criterium in the afternoon. Then there's a road race Sunday morning.

For those of you looking for results, you can find them here.