Good, Clean Fun

While Tommy was out for a ride - Jackson, fresh off a bath, decided to have a go on Tommy's new laptop. Fortunately, the paparazzi was there to catch all the action.

Brian, Eddy, Ben the mechanic, and I are leaving for the Tour of Shenandoah today. We will meet up with the college boys: Brent and Jake, as well as Mark (our director), and Graham and Scott (2 fellas from the U23 program). It sounds like everyone is ready to do some damage. The other guys on the team: Richie, Robbie, Tommy, and Teddy are staying in Georgia for the Athens and Roswell crits next weekend. Glen will be flying out to join them Thurs. Those are a couple of the hardest crits all year long - the boys will have their work cut out for them. But, on the other hand, they'll be sporting the new Easton Tempest II carbons so they should tear some legs off. I'm just sorry they have to wait 4 days longer to race than us (hehehehe). Later on.
I'll try to update ya from Virginia.

just add salt...

..to the wound, that is. Hanging out here in Georgia training rather than racing. The training has been great but is little solace for not getting into the Tour. The TdG time trial went by about 3 blocks from Eddy's house yesterday. Some of us went down to watch and cheer our buddies. It definitely burned a little. In a previous email, I said some negative things about TargetTraining that I regret. They are a quality team and I wish that both of us could have raced Georgia. Anyway, I tried to get a pic of Landis as he went by but he was so fast that I only got his follow car (it has nothing to do with my picture taking skills). The pic is a typical road that we've been training on the past few days: rolling, surrounded by trees, no traffic, immaculate roads.



Sooooo, the answer to the pop quiz posted earlier:
I made it 7 more miles on that tire before the tube finally blew. I was getting ready to hoof it home when I had a MacGyver-type idea. I used the foil wrapper from some poptarts that I had eaten to use as a barrier between my patched tube and the ground. It was enough to get me back the remaining 3 miles home. I was feeling pretty smart - well as smart as someone can feel having left for a ride with a tire that badly worn...

For those in the midwest, I'm sorry but the schedule on the team site is wrong at the moment. We are planning on doing the Tour de Beauce in Canada that same weekend as Nature Valley. I will lobby for a midwest race, though. Now a little advice: try not to shove 8 pro cyclists into a house for days at a time when they haven't raced for weeks! Restless to say the least. There are a lot of blank stares and "lost puppy" looks going on around here. I think it's going to be like releasing a tiger from its cage when we finally do race, though.

Drat!

Well, we made it down to Georgia in one piece. Tuesday, we had a beautiful ride on some of the most georgeous roads that I've ever ridden. It was 85 degrees and no wind. Perfect! Today, however, is a different story. We are in the midst of a southern thunderstorm. The pic was taken at 11:00A and it really is that dark out. We are still optimistic that it will clear up enough to get out for a good, long ride. We were riding up till 8:30P last night so we still have some time. I've been occupying myself by watching how far Jackson (Eddy's 3 yr old) can leap off of the couch. It's quite incredible, he's like an airplane. Okay, more later.

Mullet Mania!

As you can see, the weather in Michigan has been surprisingly wonderful for mid April. For some reason, I don't feel like I need sunscreen when I'm not a mile high. I guess I can put that theory to rest now. The hairstyle is for my WXC boys - I'm bringin it back bee-yatch! FTR, this haircut has been Kira-approved and certified "hot".


For today's pop quiz: Based on the photo above, taken on Sun. afternoon, did the moron riding this wheel flat before making it home? And if so, how far from home was the moron and did I have to walk back to Bob's? Facts: at the time of this photo, I was 10 miles from Bob's, I had already let out air to about 60psi, being in rural Michigan - I had "0" cell phone reception, and the bulges you see are actually a Slime strip and not the tube. Answers submitted to the comments section will be graded. The "key" will be posted in the next couple of days. Good luck.

Heading to Georgia tomorrow. The 4 biggest guys on the team will be shoved into the team Vibe for 12 hrs of fun. Look out Eddy, here we come!

Yep. One of those guys.

Okay, okay. So I started a blog. It's really not as bad as it sounds (I'm talking to you, Scott). I'm just trying to make things easier on friends and family who would like to check up on things at their leisure rather than have me sending them novels over email. And this way I can post pics easier without filling up mailboxes, etc. Now that I've justified this and feel better about myself - the truth is that when I'm traveling I often feel disconnected with everyone and this is a good way for me to hold up my end of the communication struggle. That, and I typically have some time on my hands when on the road. Hey! Even if I train 7 hrs/day - eat for 2 hrs/day and sleep for 9 hrs/day - that still leaves about 2 hrs/day of free time after you factor in stretching, massage, applying chamois cream, etc. So, check in when you feel like it. I'll try to be diligent about updating and I'll make an extra effort to at least entertain myself with the material posted. Comments and feedback would be appreciated as well. Here we go!