Thursday, February 28, 2008

Cali Aftermath

That was quite the Tour. Plenty of drama to go around with the weather, rampant sickness, start list oustings, and oh yeah - the racing. Most impressive performances from my standpoint: Cancellara's prologue - different planet. Levi's TT - who expected that kind of domination? Nydam's KOM jersey - overcame more than just mountains. Creed's St. 7 performance - anyone else would have quit after being as sick as he was the first 3 days. However, the Bissell team had an impressive ToC as well and I'm psyched on how strong AND cool everyone is. There are some questions that need to be answered but don't show up in the results: 1) just how many times did Zwiza give up his wheel (or bike) for a teammate during the tour? 2) Exactly how many kJs did Teddy burn during St. 4 being in the break all day? 3) How fast was BJM going while descending back to the group after flatting during st. 7? 4) How many times did Steve-O toss cookies during the week? All very intriguing questions that start to tell a richer story than just what was seen on VS. or the results page. Thanks for all the emails, texts, phone calls, and comments on the blog that I've received since the tour. I am in awe of the number of people supporting and cheering on this Bissell team. It's very humbling and I hope we can continue to race to our potential. I decided to post some of the pictures that I've been sent since the tour:
Bissell was a part of the Best Buddies program for Stage 7 and Aaron and I were introduced to our buddies for the day, Travis Raefield aka "Mr. Electric" and Brianna Barlow. You can check out all the photos for the week here.
Aaron, Travis, and Brianna signing autographs before the start



Travis making sure my Prince is over the UCI weight minimum before the start.












Travis cheering me on during my doomed solo attempt




Slogging up Sierra Rd during St. 3 - photo by Martin Brandt














off the front in St. 7, still feeling chipper, by the looks of it - photo by Bruce Nolte











Starting to feel it now...ouch! - photo by Bob Kahn











At the start of St. 3, I had just caught sight of Nydam's bro Aaron in the crowd cheering - photo taken by our very own Beth Skau.