Return to the USA countdown.

Only a few day before I jump onto a plan with my beloved bike to leave some quality Michelin rubber on the roads of Virginia. The weather here has turned a bit crap, and it is chilly and wet again. It’s OK though, I’ve been getting in some big rides, so I was planning on a slightly easier week anyway. I’ll also be doing the Carlo Dolan Crit on the 17th in the US. I’m looking forward to getting into the US peleton again. I hate Crits, but it’ll be good for me. It will be interesting to see how I feel, racing just 2 days after getting off the plane.
Sunday I am doing a 140k race down in the foothills of the Pyrenees. I was looking forward to this, but they are calling for snow and rain. I need to race, and I really want to race. I also really want to get in a couple of longish races, but I don’t want to crash and risk messing up my trip. If anything goes wrong, I’ll only have 3 days to recover. So my plan is to sit in and get some miles, I’ll pull out after 100k if it is too hairy… ie: if I see 4 or 5 crashes by the 100k point, I’ll get in the car. (I say that now, but I’m when it comes down to it, I’ll really think “Oh good, I’m staying in, 5 crashes means less people…”)

Stay Tuned.

Tour of Shenandoah:

I’m coming over to the US to do the Tour of Shenandoah with the Trek VW team. I’m really looking forward to the race. Usually this would be my kind of race, long point-to-point mountain stages. If only it were later in the year, and I could have spend some serious time in the Pyrenees riding my favorite climbs. Sadly that’s not the case… so I’m a little unsure about my fitness.

I’m really excited about the race. This is going to be one of the first times we have a clear leader, and everyone will have a clear job to do. This is more the kind of racing I like and look for. I don’t like racing for myself, that’s not how I think. I hope I’ll be strong enough to put my climbing experience to good use.

Thanks to Jeremiah Bishop for spending a LOT of time putting this composite team together and taking care of so many things.

Scott Gibbons:

Scott Gibbons has come and left. We had a great time riding and racing. We did a TimeTrial and a stage race. Scotts first few day here saw us ride in the rain and SNOW… only to get suntans a few days later. We did some great rides, Scott managed to crash every day he was here… well… almost… Scott saved it every time, but it was close. I don’t think a day went by without Scott either running into my rear wheel or going off the road into the ditch. See what happens when you mess around Scott.

The racing was good. We got to stand next to each other on the podium of the TT we did. Good start to the season for both of us. In the Stage race we did, we finished pretty much next to each other, and had fun doing Borat impressions. Pour French guys didn’t know what was going on. Scott has returned to the US and has been racing well. This is the second time he’s been over to race here in France, and he says racing here has taught him to be far more aggressive in the races back home, and see racing in a totally different light. Go for it Scott… attack! It’s better than sitting in the main field and finishing in anonymity.
Hope you can come back over here soon Scott!