I talked to the directors and you know, myself and Robbie have had a pretty off and on spring -- a lot of sickness and injuries. Robbie crashed bad right before the classics started. He thought he would be back on form by now, but he was fighting a lot of discomforts, and right when he started getting better he got sick -- probably due to the stress trying to come back from an injury. He has had a pretty off spring for him, so he just wanted to stay home and rebuild. Coming here was going to be traveling, and the race is really an unknown to him.

Fred Rodriguez