3, 2, 1, BEEEEEEEP!

Okay - here we go! The Tour starts tomorrow in downtown San Fran and all I can say is let's get this thing going already! I've never had so much prep, planning, and hype before a race. Everyone on the team is just ready to hit that start line. We had a great camp and everyone seems to be hauling right now. So I'm excited to see how we fair against the big boys. And speaking of which - being as this is my first BIG race, I'm allowed a certain amount of gawking and awestruck-ness at the event, eh? So here we go. I'm just going to do this once and be done with it. In the last 2 days, I've had breakfast or dinner in the same room as Basso, Bettini, Rasmussen, Jens, Eki and of course all the U.S. stars. I'd have to say that Bettini has the biggest "aura" as the current Olympic and World Champ. And last night our team was introduced at the big gala by Paul Sherwin and Bob Roll. I'm not going to lie - it's been a little surreal. But now I have put all that junk out of my mind and just race my bike hard. I will say that this race is stacked with talent! If everyone is going well at the moment, it should be quite the epic battle. As far as our team, I've been amazed at the level of equipment, staff, and organization for this event. We're on arguably the best equipment at the tour (no kidding) and we'll have 2 soigneurs, 2 mechanics, along with Mark and Glen. So, that's all I got for now. If you can't make it out to Cali to watch, you can catch the action each night on VS. (formerly OLN) and some of the guys will be keeping daily blogs found at the team website. Thanks for following our progress and all the good luck wishes. I'll try to update when I can...