Owing Sprint King

There's been a fair bit of rain over here in Aus this past week. While it was hot and sunny at the Tour down Under in Adelaide in South Australia, the weather here has been decidedly British. On a couple of mornings this week, as I got up and got ready to ride, I came nose to nose with a torrential downpour everytime I opened a door or window. That's a good and well for a while, you just stay in and don't ride. But after a few days you really need to get back out there and continue on with your training. With this in a mind a few mornings ago I went out in dodgy looking weather to join the group ride. Once there the weather went pear shaped once again. Shaun (a Pro from Team Panasonic who was racing in the US last year) and I took one look up and scrapped the ride in favor of a very long stint at the coffee shop. Reassured by the story of Floyd Landis downing a thousand espressos in Spain one morning when he was riding for US Postal, we down more coffees than we could keep track of. I hadn't brought enough money, and so Shaun paid for the majority.

Beat that Floyd

With that in mind: Every Wednesday on the group ride they have a small sprint down in a town called Caloundra. After the sprint they stop for a coffee at a local coffee shop. The Coffee shop gives out a trophy and a $10 gift voucher for the winner of the sprint. As everyone knows I can't outsprint a 70 year old granny on her way to the bakery, but knowing I owed Shaun a thousand coffees (and knowing he wasn't there himself to beat me in the sprint) I decided, contrary to the norm) to take part in the sprint.

With me trophy. Please ignore my jersey from a team from... erm... 4 or 5 years ago.

So now I can pay Shaun back for all those coffees!
Lets see if we can beat Floyd's Espresso record tomorrow Shaun? :-)