Will Routley

http://www.b4h-whistler.org//blog/1765594-b4h-fundraise-ride/

Come ride with me!

The time has finally come for me to do something with the Whistler chapter of Bicycles for Humanity. I have wanted to do this for some time now, but you know how it goes: busy schedules… Anyway, on June 22nd B4H Whistler will be holding a fundraiser ride. It sounds like it will be a blast, but I will again miss out due to race schedule, this time I’ll be in Quebec taking another run at the Canadian title.

So, because I can’t make it out on the fundraiser ride, we decided that every person to enter will also be entered in a draw. Five names will be drawn to do a group ride with me the following weekend, (when I am actually in Whistler for a few days!).

We’ll get out on the road and talk about training, about racing, how crazy the peleton is over here in Europe, and how the fans are even crazier! I’ve been racing past several hundred thousand each weekend, and there are some crazy ones! When it comes to things cycling and travel related, I’ve learned  a few things over the past 15 years.

As an extra bonus, I’ll be bringing along a signed jersey for one of the lucky five riders to head home with.

Ultimately, this is a small way in which I can take part, and I really hope you all sign up, and bring along as many friends as possible for the Fundraiser ride on the 22nd. It is for such a great cause, and the folks behind it have put in a lot of effort to create a really great day.

Can’t wait to meet the winners!

Will

http://www.b4h-whistler.org//blog/1765594-b4h-fundraise-ride/

The last 2 months: I’ve lived in 3 countries, (visited others) caught 8 flights, slept in 15 different beds, got in 10 days racing, 8 days at training camp, bought a car, rented 2 different houses, operated in a foreign language, spent 45 min in the back of a police car, and probably did a bunch of other stuff, but that part of my brain is hurting from trying to remember all this. 

The countries were Canada, (winter) Spain, (sunny spring) and Belgium (winter revisited). As for the racing, it’s been a bit of a lackluster start. At training camp I was ripping, but haven’t quite found a rhythm in the races just yet. A few good days, but nothing to write home about just yet. My schedule this year has a lot of bikin’ on it, so there is plenty of time for things to come right on the competition front. Right now it feels like the race season is only just beginning.

The team is split into French and Flemmish speakers, and for the moment I’ve been rooming with French guys. I’m working on mon francais, which is vastly improving, but my flemish on the other hand… fritjes anyone?

The car is coming from Germany and we are still waiting for it to be delivered. Luckily I have been able to borrow wheels from the team in the meantime, thanks to Devos Renault for that one!

Finally the police car: Right now we are living on the edge of a tiny little village, they are doing construction on the main street (only street) and have decided to make it a one way road for a couple days. I drove into town yesterday from a side road and turned on to the main drag which evidently becomes a one way during certain times of the day due to construction (this town has about 100 residents and there is no traffic.) About 50 Meters later I am stopped by a cop standing on the side of the road, he has 2 other cars stopped in front of me. After waiting a half hour for him to deal with the first in line, it’s my turn. I had to sit in the car and tell him my life story, get the 3rd degree, and pay 150 euros cash! (I didn’t have that much cash so did a little cross training and jogged to a bank to get the cash) I tried to talk my way out of it but good luck with that one! I’m still not even convinced there was a sign from the side road I came in on, but that was pretty far from this guy’s area of interest. Pretty sweet little afternoon that one was.

Aside from that, Belgium has been good. Tasty fritjes and baked goods, bakeries are absolutely everywhere! It is definitely winter here. I think I’ve seen a high of 4 degrees, and most days are around 2. The weather really isn’t that bad though, people complain about the rain here, but we are from BC, and our idea of a rainy day is a torrential downpour for 24 hrs, so a foggy gloomy day here really isn’t half bad when you can stay more or less dry.

Our house is great; super bright and warm with a wood-stove, and it even comes with an insane kitten that tries to steal my dinner.

I’m glad it’s so cumfy because I now have two whole weeks in one
location. Same bed for two weeks feels like a holiday!

Racing in France we had 2 nights at a really nice hotel in the “Natura” part of town. Swimming pool, sauna, a lot of sexual themed artwork in the lobby and restaurant.

The hotel also had rules: No Bathing Suits Allowed! (Seriously)

We discovered that the Natura part of town is a full on nudist village. This explained the artwork and the abundance of spa themes. It was freezing cold though, so not a lot of skin on display for this visit.

Life in Spain: Washing my bike in a fountain by the entry to our apartment.

Life in Belgium: “Ours is the scary horror movie looking house at the end of the lane”

Since we are literally living in Flanders Fields, there is no shortage of war memorials.

The part I find amazing is how many of these memorials feature CANADA on them!

A sunny day at the races. Jumping on the bus and taking a shower after a hard day in the saddle: Priceless

Time to check in from Europe and my new team Accent Jobs Wanty.

It may be the middle of winter, but the season has begun: On Jan 2nd Shani and I flew over to Europe. The first stop was Belgium. I met some of the staff on my new team, picked up the new Carrera bike, and spent a full day at the sports hospital doing all the requisite UCI medical testing. I am now declared fit to race a bike for another year! We had a few days to visit some friends and Shani met with her new team also. She was loaded up with new gear, and pleased to see it is run by some great people, and of course, sponsored by a Belgian beer company.

After stop number one, we caught a quick flight down to Girona where we have a nice little apt right in the old town. Girona feels comfortable now, crazy how these places all over the world are beginning to feel like a second home. Shani got settled in, but for me, it was again only a couple days before I was picked up and drove another 600 km south to team training camp in Benidorm. It’s a tourist hot spot, but this time of year is off season. Cheap hotels, great roads and weather reaching over 20 degrees! All this all means that half the pro teams in Europe have training camps in the area. It’s pretty easy to forget that it’s the middle of winter.

That was until this morning when I flew back up to Belgium one more time. I was looking out the window at a Europe covered in snow! I’m here just for 1 night for our team presentation. It is quite the event they have set up, taking place in a stadium with a DJ, drummer. lots of flashing lights and loud music, just like bike racing right?. Seeing the snow reminds me how happy I am that I have just under two whole weeks ahead in Girona. Two weeks in one place to just train and not travel seems like a real treat right about now.

As for camp, it was really great. Being a foreigner on a team is new to me. In the past I’ve ridden with Canadian and US based teams, ie, English speaking. Now the challenge is to learn French and/ or Flemmish, and fast. I roomed with Vogondy, a Frenchman, and in the 8 days at camp my French is coming back to me, but still a lot of work to do. The team is a really good group, the staff are all pros, and we got in some great rides. The last couple days we opened it up with a 209 km ride, followed by some intensity the next day, where we split into 2 groups. One group got a head start and the 2nd group would chase em down. My group caught the one we were chasing! It’s always a good way to build some camaraderie. One language everyone understands is riding hard.

Now it’s time for me to go put my face on and get my picture taken here at the team presentation. Lots of hands to kiss and babies to shake out there.

               Training camp in January, hotel on the beach!

Half of the squad, finishing off a day at camp with a bit of motorpacing.

Two of our soigneurs showing off some SiderTech at camp. They were visited by reps from the company and given instructions on the magic blue tape.

Staf is one of the first to try the SpiderTech and he’s sold.

Preparing for the team presentation, way too much excitement for me to handle.

Heading out for a ride in Benidorm, “no wait, let me get a picture”

The trusty steeds await.

Upon realizing December had already begun, Shani and I decided we’d better get up to Whistler for a family visit. The last few months have absolutely blown by, and we now have less than a month to go before heading to Europe. We’ve been packing a year worth of logistics into two months, all in order to get ready for the next adventure, as we won’t be seeing much of Canada in the coming year.

With time a wasting it was great to take a few days to see the family. We got out for the annual Christmas tree chopping excursion. This time we hiked right from the house, and it was snowing/ slushing the whole time. We navigated a creek crossing where we had to throw the Winston the dog across, (maybe he’s smarter than us, because there was no was he was going to cross that cold water) we hiked/ bushwhacked up a steep hillside, found the perfect trees, then slid on our bums down the side of a cliff to get out of there. It was all in good fun and we got the bushiest tree I can remember. It looks like a farm tree! (Don’t worry, we only cut them down under the hydro lines in areas that get pruned no matter what) We also got 3 other trees for the neighbors, really helping out “the hood.”

My mom’s birthday was last week, and since it’s still slow season, some of the restaurants in town have their specials running. We did a belated birthday dinner at Araxi, which was unreal. A 5 course menu: Shani and I had the duck. Living in Abbotsford I regularly ride my bike past the very farm where the duck comes from, good looking meats!

My dad is now in the used car business, and he often has to get to Squamish or Vancouver to pick up vehicles, and bring them back to Whistler to sell. So on Wednesday he did the full on day: he was up early, slayed the powder on the hill, got home by 11:00, just in time to head out the door with me on the bikes and ride to Squamish. He picked up a car and continued on his work day, I kept riding and ended up riding back to Whistler in a full on blizzard! Nothing like a road ride in a snowstorm, next time up I think it’ll be time to break out the skis.

The visiting was awesome, but didn’t last long enough. We had to get back to Abbey. Shani has exams this week, and I have to keep pounding out the miles. This semester has been nuts, seriously, all she does is train and study!

The Europe plans are coming together, it’ll be Spain for Jan & Feb, then up to Belgium after that. I can’t wait!

The happy tree chopping family returns. Look at that tree on the left!!! 

Heading out for chilly one with the old man. The sun was almost peeking out.

The sun didn’t come out, it’s dark and stormy now, it only snowed more and more from here on out. Good times!

By now it would be safe to say my article is sufficiently “out there.” In the days following it’s publication I was truly amazed at the response. It has been overwhelming how positive and supportive people have been.

When I wrote the article, my daily routine consisted of waking up to the sound of the CBC. For a few weeks they were regularly featuring news surrounding the “reasoned decision” Lance Armstrong case. I would get up, eat breakfast while listening to the news and checking my e-mail, and then immediately get into the day’s discussion. It doesn’t take much fuel to get the morning debate rolling here on the farm. Ricky loves to argue/ debate, and Shani is currently in a course titled: Sociocultural Aspects of Sport. We are all three cyclists, and between us, there is no shortage of discussion.

So the forum has been open, debate/ yelling/ laughing/ solving all the world’s problems; combine this with some encouragement from mom, and I was led to put a few ideas down on paper. (By paper I mean on the computer, as I don’t think I am actually capable of handwriting anymore).

To make a long story short, after having it sit on my computer for two weeks, I finally sent the article into a friend at The Vancouver Sun. He said he’d pass it on to his editor, and they’d get back to me before moving forward. The following night I received an e-mail saying “thanks for what you’ve written.” The e-mail was from someone I didn’t know and seemed like junk. I didn’t really put two and two together at first, but in short order I had received literally hundreds of messages, all along the same line. The article was published, and people were reading it. The comments have poured in from others who are also frustrated with doping in the sport, people who want to see it improve, people who have been afraid to publicly say how they really feel. It was overwhelming the amount of support I received.

What this all has led me to believe is that we are right now in the midst of a profound shift in our sport. I really and truly believe we’ll look back in ten years and see this time as a turning point. I’ve felt very pessimistic about the subject in the past, but at the moment I’m in the optimist camp. Things are unlikely to ever be perfect, but I am seeing so much energy pushing us all in the right direction, that it can only be positive.

So here is my opportunity to say thank you so much to all of those who have been so incredibly supportive. With this momentum behind us, I think (hope) we’ll hear from many more clean professionals, fans, and sponsors alike, all moving us in the right direction. 

The Article:  http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Whistler+cyclist+Will+Routley+says+competitors+used+PEDs+aren+just+cheaters+they+criminals/7502237/story.html

I know it’s fall, but today felt like winter training. It is definitely cold out, and even though I finished my ride at 4:30 PM, it was already dark.

Today was one of those days that makes me love riding a bike, I cranked up the tunes, put my head down and hammered out a 5 hour in the Fraser Valley. The roads were empty because of the holiday, and I just put in one of those solo missions I love so much. It’s really one of my favorite parts of being a bike racer.

We have had an awesome break in the rain this week with a cold high pressure system sitting over the valley, but all good things must come to an end, and today was a last chance opportunity to ride and stay dry.

All day long I could see the storm heading in. I could see it dumping snow off in the distance, the mountains slowly getting gobbled up by what is likely to be a week-long downpour. It was only about 3 degrees in the valley today, so it’s currently dumping snow on the mountains, and just pouring rain outside our door. I managed to pull in the driveway literally as the heavens opened up, so I don’t think I could have timed it any better if my life depended on it.

Sweet sweet training roads. If you look closely, you can see the cut line heading up the mountain, that is the Canada/ USA border. Extreme security!

I haven’t blogged in awhile. As my room-mate would say, I’ve been too busy “Living the dream.” The last few months have been spent enjoying the wonders of the off season:

Hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, hitting the gym, starting a cycling development fund, writing a cookbook, watching as doper after dirty doper get busted, having never ending heated debates regarding said filthy dopers, visiting long lost family members, mountain biking, going to weddings, watching as my team decided to cease operations, frantically searching for a new team to ride for, selling off a boat-load of old gear on ebay, raiding the garden of our neighbor Erna….. This list could go on awhile, but suffice it to say, the dream is alive and well.

My race season ended a bit early this year. And with September being BC’s driest on record, I ended up having a full-on summer holiday. It was totally awesome!

Shani is back to school at UFV, so we decided to move back in with Ricky Federau for one last hurrah on the farm. It will be sold in the new year so this is the last taste of chicken farming life. That, and the last taste of the tomatoes, plums, pears, apples, blueberries, squash and salad greens that his mom grows. (she lives next door)

My mountain bike has seen some good use. It’s always nice to change it up and spend a little time on the dirt. I have had my butt kicked by my dad Tony, by former ripper Ricky Federau, and by current ripper Neal Kindree. My butt is sore, but it’s been a lot of fun.

Try as I might, I’ve not had much luck in the fishing department, catching my first trout on a fly rod was a blast, but the salmon haven’t been as productive. We even got out on the saltwater with my dad and Nels, but we got skunked. Instead the old guys just feasted all day, they brought enough food to last us a week! The sun was shining, so it was a great day nonetheless.

The hunting has been better, Jeremy and I got out for our annual trip and had success. Fresh wild deer liver was on the menu here on the farm last week, and Max the dog couldn’t have been happier with those leftovers.

In the team department, it was a a pretty tough blow to hear the news with team Spidertech. No racing next year meant we were all in a bind and searching for a new team. I am happy to say that the search is going well, and I will blog again in a few days with the full report on that front. For now I think it is safe to say I’ll be spending a lot of time in Belgium next year.

The doping news is frustrating to say the least. I’m in the process of an article on this subject. To Summarize my thoughts: I am pissed off. I don’t think the punishments are sufficient, and I am sick of hearing how these guys “have contributed to the sport.” The fallout of their crimes is very far reaching, and I really wish they would either leave or be removed from the sport so they could finally stop negatively affecting my life.

Shani and I hosted both our families here at the farm for Thanksgiving. That was our first turkey dinner event. It was a blast, we did a hike, had dinner, and even had a little fire in the backyard after.

In the past few weeks I’ve been back to a bit of a training schedule. It feels good to be getting a bit fit again. The rainy season has arrived here in BC, but I have managed to ride every day during the little breaks in the weather, so I’m doing well so far.

For now, there is the re-cap. More juicy stuff to follow. 

    The family on Sumas Mountain. Thanksgiving and it’s hot and sunny!

                 Nels and Tony. Are we fishing or are we feasting?

                 Camping with Luke. I discovered he’s a pyro. 

              Camping with Shani. I already knew she was a pyro!

      The things you see when you go camping in the middle of nowhere.

           I guess I had some fun suffering in the desert of Utah

Back to racing in the US of A! I haven’t raced in the states for quite some time and it was a lot of fun to be back. I forgot how many friends I have in the US peloton, after a couple years on the North American circuit one can meet a lot of people, and this past week felt like a reunion of old friends.

It also didn’t hurt that we went out and won our first UCI stage race at the Tour of Elk Grove in Chicago. It was a full team effort, we were able to control the race for 3 days and came out on top with Frank in the yellow jersey. It was a real treat to get back to racing with team SpiderTech after a month away from the guys.

After the high of winning in Elk Grove came more highs in Utah, but this time it was in terms of elevation and temperature. I quickly went from feeling strong as an ox in Chicago, to suffering like a dog in the desert of Utah. The temp was over 40 degrees every day, and coming from sea level meant the elevation certainly didn’t feel pleasant. Fortunately the rest of the roster had been preparing at altitude already, and were more adapted to the conditions. I just put my head down and suffered, and did the best I could as a team helper. Simply keeping the guys fed and watered is a non-stop job, shuttling bottles and ice socks from the team follow car back up to the guys. I honestly can’t believe how many bottles of drink mix one person can drink it conditions like that. We had another good week, had Lucas finish in the top ten overall, and hopefully gained some fitness out of the deal.

Now I’m back home, and after a brief rest will be out behind the scooter hammering out some motorpacing sessions. Summer in BC is great!

Bike racing is tiring

Don’t forget to sign in before the race!

Team meeting time, it’s always good to go in with a plan.

Caleb took a tumble, fortunately he wasn’t injured, but his clothes on the other hand, didn’t fare so well.

Summer has finally hit BC, and just in time for Superweek. The week of racing is actually 10 days long, and it’s where most of us local pros got our start. It may be several years since then, but racing at home is still a great time.

The halfway point was last night, with the famous Gastown GP. The folks at Global Relay have their office right on the course, and they decided to get involved in a big way, bringing the race back after a 5 year hiatus. It was an unreal night, I would say the best edition I’ve ever seen. 

After a busy spring campaign in Europe I was pretty cooked, and took a nice little break these past few weeks. It was much needed, but it also means the legs are hurting for Superweek. Hurting in a good way of course. I’m using this week to support the local race scene, build up the fitness again, and just feel the love of racing my bike. It’s pretty special to do races of this level with such great competition right here at home in front of our friends and family.

It’s just Ryan and I racing this week for SpiderTech, so we have our work cut out for us, but so far it’s been great. The fitness is already creeping back into the legs. Somehow I’m getting better as the week goes on.

It was hard to sleep last night after all the excitement of Gastown, but tonight we’re at it again in Burnaby, then off to the Tour de White Rock for the weekend. It’s one of my all time favorite races, and the place where I got my first big victory.

With all the time Ryan has spent on the podium this week I’m feeling like I’d better return the favor this weekend. I’m always glad to see him tearing it up.

Getting back into shape in Delta!

My Swiss adventure ended early, and in some ways in was over before it began. I spent the 2 days prior to the race with a nasty fever, and in the end the illness got the best of me. I tried as best I could, but on day 4 of the tour I only made it half way, stopped at the feed zone and that was that.

So now here I am at grandma’s house in Ontario, home early, and resting up in advance of the nationals next weekend in Quebec.

All I can say is good luck to the guys still racing, it’s such a cool race, great that the team is racing at that level, and I am anxiously checking the online updates to see how the guys do.

Until nationals next week, it’s an opportunity to visit the family in Ontario, eat massive amounts of asparagus fresh from the local farm, and enjoy a change of pace, training on some different roads in the Belleville area.

Delirious Swiss Time Trial

The last time I was in Lugano was ten years ago for the mountain bike world championships, we ate pizza and gelato, it is the Italian region of Switzerland after all. This time around, it’s stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse. I was the first rider to start, and dead last to finish. And I went as hard as I could go! 

Results don’t always tell the whole story, and for me, today’s goal was to just finish the race within the time cut, and be able to start tomorrow. I have spent the last couple days with the flu, and it hasn’t been very much fun. Last night I tossed and turned for 14 hours in a sweaty feverish haze. I think I was a solid 10 lbs underweight this morning, just empty, but today I’m filling the tank back up and am on the mend. I was pretty sure I was out of this tour before it began, but now am thinking I might just have a chance.

The Tour de Suisse is the biggest race we’ve ever done, and I don’t want to miss out on the action. I think tomorrow will be the big challenge for me. It is 220 km long, the first pass is over 6000 ft high and the finish is in Verbier, at about 5500 ft of elevation. Again, my goal is to finish in the time cut. If I can get through tomorrow, I should have enough time to refill the body and get stronger as the tour goes on.

Now it’s time for bed to try and sleep it off. 

When we arrived in Luxembourg a few days ago we instantly noticed how green it was. It’s like a jungle out there! It was sunny and pleasant for the first few days, but we assumed they must get some decent rain to be so lush. Well today we experienced the Luxembourg weather first hand. It was a torrential downpour for the race. Just unreal, bucketing down the likes of which you would expect to see in a movie about the rainforest.

Luckily it wasn’t too cold, and the racing was hard and fast, so we kept warm by hammering. I’m pretty cooked now, all I can say is that I hope this was the push needed to get prepped and ready for Tour de Suisse next week.

We’re back in Europe! After a few glorious weeks at home we’re back at it. We have the 5 day Tour of Luxembourg, followed by the 9 day Tour de Suisse. Luxembourg begins tonight with the prologue, it’s short, technical and finishes with a super steep climb on cobbles. I’m looking forward to it, I like those short little prologues, but they hurt like crazy!

We are jet lagging pretty good here, mid afternoon is when we all suddenly crash and want to sleep really bad! It’s kind of funny how all of a sudden everyone looks like they are about to just pass out.

For a ride this morning Ryan and I did a few laps of the prologue course, then we went on a mission to find coconut water and beet juice. These are not easy items to find in Europe, but after riding around to 6 or 8 stores we found a Bio store with both! We came back, got the car, drove there and bought a few cases, so we are now stoked up on our beverages to see us through the race.

All in all a pretty good little morning. Now it’s time to get out there and go to work!

We are at an awesome hotel today, after the race I swam in the Med Sea, and the dinner is unreal. Here is the sign posted over one of the dishes served at dinner:

You gotta love translations!

The race, well after a relatively comfortable day today, I think tomorrow will be war out there….

The view out of our hotel room window:

And this is the nice side of racing a bike!

Update on Lacombe: His injuries are not good, but he is OK, and able to fly home tomorrow for some serious recovery time. We all wish him the best and a smooth recovery.

The race started today with all the usual drama. Seven out of eight of us are at some stage of a cold/ sore throat, so we went in hoping for the best from a bunch of sickies. I decided to roll the breakaway. The idea was to go in several breakaways this week, and go for the Turkish Beauties Intermediate sprint jersey competition. In the process I’d also go for a stage win from a breakaway that sticks to the line. Well I got the breakaway part down, but I lost the sprint for the Beauties jersey. So no points today.

After that I came back to the field in the final lap to see Guillaume had crashed and hurt his hand, but was still riding. Then in the final sprint there was a massive crash taking out half the field, and Kevin Lacombe went down in that one. Both of the boys are at the hospital right now, and we are anxiously waiting to see how they are. Kevin has had way more than his fair share of crashes in the last while, so our fingers are crossed that it’s nothing too serious.

We are here! We left belgium at 7:00 am yesterday, and got into the hotel in Turkey at 2:00 AM. That was a long travel day.

We flew here as a team with 74 pieces of luggage. 74 pieces!

This picture give you a rough idea of the truckload of gear we have with us in Turkey, it’s a bit ridiculous.

The weather is awesome and the race starts tomorrow, right now we’re off to the team presentation. Good times.

Tuesday it was Paris-Camambert. In the rain. Thursday it was GP Denain. In the rain.

Sunday it’s Tro Bro Leon. Rain or shine it doesn’t matter, with 25 sections of dirt road it should be epic no matter what.

Road racing can be dirty! But the team is riding great, the legs feel good and we’re having fun, it’s a good week.

So tonight it’s chicken curry! Ryan A, Ryan R, and myself, are lucky to have spent the last week in a home-stay here in Kuurne Belgium. Filip, our logistics manager extraordinaire, has just moved back north, and is staying with his parents. The Vandevyvere family has made us feel more than welcome. We have been spoiled actually, each with our own bedroom, and the lady of the house doting over us. She’s done our laundry, she forces delicious pastries upon us, and cooks quality meat and potatoes dinners every night. “Real white man’s dinners” as my fiancee would say. They even hid Easter chocolate in the garden and had us do an Easter egg hunt! I still have a smile on my face. She has even given us nicknames, Ryan being the: duurniet, it basically means the mischievous one. How did she know?!?

She has noticed our affinity to spice, (I don’t think it is normal Belgian fare) and is doing a curry tonight. I am pretty sure she thinks we are crazy to add the hot stuff to our dinner. With all this good living it’s tough to leave, but time flies, and we are off to France tomorrow morning.

This week it’s Paris-Camambert, followed by GP Denain, then way across France to Bretagne (Brittany) for another shot at Tro Bro Leon. 

I did this same block of racing last season and it went really well. With that experience under my belt I am really looking forward to another go round this year. I have a totally different perspective going into the races this year. With the knowledge of what lies ahead, I can’t wait to get out there!

Our hosts the Vandevyvere family

The profile for Tuesday’s race: Paris-Camembert, it gets tough near the end.

(I hear if you win you get your weight in Camembert cheeze!)

I was really happy today to see Ryan Anderson in the mix and get some points. I keep saying we’ll see a big breakthrough out of him any day now.

As for me, I am happy to have two long 200 km races in the legs these past two days. I didn’t feel quite as good as I did before crashing, but I think I am back on track. Looking forward to the series of French races coming up next week.

Today was a long day, so time for bed!

Since I was left with a forced day off from racing, I decided to make the most of the location we are in. I’m in a tiny town in northern Belgium, but it is only a 25 km ride to Iper, also known as Ypres. Iper is an amazing looking town, with some incredible buildings and history. The town also has a huge war memorial dedicated to British Commonwealth solders who were never properly buried during the first world war. My Great Great Grandfather’s name is on this memorial. I’d heard about it many times from my grandpa, and he told me where to find the name, as one could never find it without knowing the location. There are nearly 55,000 names on this memorial, 7,000 Canadians!. (the 55,000 are just Commonwealth solders, and only those with no grave, hard to comprehend the numbers)

It was pretty powerful to see.

The Menin Gate

To the armies of the British Empire who stood here from 1914 to 1918 and to those of their dead who have no known grave

My great great grandpa John Hammond

Downtown Iper

Well, it could be a lot worse, but I am out of the race! Today was going extremely well, I am feeling very strong, and made it a point to really work on my positioning in the group. And it was working, as I was having a great race and sitting comfortable in the first 20 guys through all the cobbles and burgs. Then in a nice simple piece of smooth road I hit something with my front wheel, (I think it was a rock), and down I went. 

Luckily no serious injuries. I have some cuts and road rash, but it’s all superficial, and I’ll be back at it right away at the next race. The lousy part is I was on a really good day. But, sometimes things don’t always go according to plan, and fortunately there are many more days ahead.

The shower after the race was not pleasant. The thing about road rash is that it is all surface area, and you have to get in the shower and scrub it with soap! But that job is done, so now just let the body do it’s job and heal.

As for the day today, unbelievable weather for Belgium, the temp was in the 20’s!

This is what we woke up to. (In Belgium in March!)

Our accommodation has chickens. We eat eggs.

We roll to the race in a camper that Kevin & Martin imported from North America!

Back up in Belgium on the eve of 3 Days of De Panne and the sun is shining again. Just gorgeous!

We start racing tomorrow and I’ve been doing my research. The first stage looks to be pretty tough, with a dozen burgs, (categorized ones, there are always a few more) and a healthy dose of cobbled sections as well. In most of the past editions of the race I looked at, this first stage finished pretty blown up, with guys finishing in small groups. If we can stay safe and out of trouble for the first half of the race, then it sounds like my kind or day!

I’ve been fighting a bit of a sore throat the last few days. It’s always a cyclists’s nemesis with the constant travel and racing, but with the sheer volume of garlic, tea, honey, lemon, zinc and vit C I’ve been downing I don’t see how it can slow me down. I don’t see how anything can survive that assult of garlic actually!

Today we had a great ride in the sun, even saw some pheasant running in a fields. Belgium is so green, it’s really pretty when the sun comes out. It was a nice relaxing day, a good thing in advance of the craziness to come.

Here’s the profile for tomorrow’s stage.

Well I got a little carried away today. I attacked too much and too hard on the lower slopes of a big climb. Then got myself dropped, and never caught back up again. So now I’m out of the race!!

It was not the best day out there, that’s for sure, but fortunately in this game there is always another race around the corner. All there is to do now is rest up, and fly to Belgium, as I’ll be in the 3 Days of De Panne in only a few days from now.

Today we continued with the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy. It was a double day so we had an early morning. Double days are always hard, and I’ve started this tour with a big effort on day one, just to make things harder on myself. (this is becoming a routine for me) This morning’s road stage was pretty spicy! A couple of nasty climbs with ripping descents off of them, and the Italians love to climb. I had a flat tire on about 10 km out from the finish and had to wait a long time for a spare wheel, but at that point was already in the 2nd group, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Then we had  a quick Italian lunch of rizotto, and did the team time trial in the afternoon. It was first for this team, and although our finish placing doesn’t look so hot, we actually rode pretty well. A little practice and we’d shave on some time for sure.

Our hotel is on the beach, so I finished off my day with a quick ice bath in the ocean. It always hurts, but it also really works to get the legs feeling better. 

More action to come tomorrow: 150 km of mountains!

A month ago I remember talking to K-Fed and saying how the early break doesn’t stick to the finish enough. “I want to be in the break that sticks to the finish.” Well today was my second time this year that it happened, and it’s only March!

Since I last blogged I have had an unreal block of time in Girona. A few weeks without racing meant I trained my ass off, enjoyed the warm sunshine, and made the most of the time with Shani before she heads back to Canada. (She’s on a plane right now) It was really great, we could easily get used to the lifestyle, the good weather and the good food!

A few days ago the racing started again at Handzame in Belgium. I did a quick one night trip north, got in the all day breakaway, (which was the hardest breakaway effort I’ve ever done), got caught 10 km from the finish line, and flew back to Girona that night, very tired. All in all I’d say it was a great trip. Nice weather in Belgium in March and a good safe race, I can’t complain.

After that it was 2 days off in Girona before heading to Italy last night. Today was stage 1 of the Coppi Bartali stage race here on the Adriatic sea.

I actually wasn’t sure about going on the attack today, but Mike, (our new director) talked me into it, and I’m glad he did, because it was an excellent break, and I had a shot at the win. A group of 8 guys came up to us on the last lap, and we had a dozen sprinting for the win just a few of seconds ahead of the charging peloton. I don’t know what to say about the finish, I was 5th, so can’t complain too much, but I wanted to win. Simple as that.

It is really nice to be in the mix consistently this year, I am feeling more comfortable in Europe, and the team morale in general is high. I think the next few days of racing will be great. 

Tomorrow is a double day, hard mountain road stage early in the morning, and a team time trial in the afternoon. So right now, it’s time for bed!

The calm before the storm. Here we are hanging on the start line.

Breakaway action.

Recovery time…  for 1 day.

Yesterday we finished off the fifth and final day of the Vuelta Andalucia. It was another tough stage. To give you an idea, as we passed the 25 km to go sign I looked at my speedo to see we were moving along at 48 kilometers per hour. The thing was, it was uphill! I think that kind of explains the pain in my legs this morning.

Right after the stage we did a towel shower and jumped in the van to the airport. We caught a late night flight back up to Barcelona. A rental car was waiting for us to make the drive to Girona, but of course it was a Euro version of a “midsize car.” In North America we’d call it a compact hatchback. It was funny for a minute, except even with the most strategic packing job on earth, our luggage was not going to fit along with 5 grown men. So we sorted that out at 1:00 am, ended up with a second car, and hit the autopista. In the end we were home at 3:00 am. It was a long day, but this morning feels worth it because we have a full day off in Girona to rest and chill out. We have to enjoy it before piling back in the car and heading up to France tomorrow. We race the Circuit du sud Ardeche on Sunday. 

If all goes according to plan, this should be a 1000 km week on the bike. I think this has been an unreal start to the season!

Today we averaged about 48 kilometers per hour for the first hour of the race. And it wasn’t flat!

The legs are now officially sore.

The end of the race was pretty cool as we were racing in what is almost a desert with nothing but olive trees everyhwere. In the distance we could see we were heading toward the snow covered Sierra Nevada mtns. They looked awesome. 

It’s something to take the mind off the suffering of the race.

Tomorrow is another tough day to finish off the tour. Should be a good one.

Bed time.

So today my mission was to try and get in another all day long break. And while I’m out there score the points for the intermediate sprint competition.

Well I tried. The race started out with about 45 min of climbing, and I went for it from the gun. It was a hard start to say the least, I was off the front for a little bit, but guys kept attacking and a little while later I was off the back for a little bit. It ended up with a break of 1 rider up the road while several teams controlled the pace to set their guys up for the final climb. We did the same, and on the final climb I dropped an anchor while the guys raced as best they could.

Tonight we’re back at another awesome resort hotel. So far at this tour we’ve been enjoying some plush accommodation. Beats the heck out of the industrial park mini rooms we spend so much time in. We are all enjoying it, sunshine, good food, hard racing. Great way to start off the year.

As for tomorrow, hmmmm?

Just 2 days ago I was having a conversation about how I wish more breakaways would stick it out to win the stage. Then sure enough, today I was in one for 200 km and we stuck it out to the finish!

But man was it close. The stage had a 180 degree hairpin inside of 3 km to go, and at that point we could see the peloton was very close to catching us. I decided this was my shot and attacked the break. I was clear for the final 2 km, I could taste the race win, but the 2 riders chasing me were able to hold themselves together, and I was caught at about 75 meters to go! So close it stings! I figured the worst case scenario was I’d get a podium result out of if, and that is what happened. I am left wanting more, which is good for the motivation, but I’m also happy to be on the map.

Last season it took us at team SpiderTech until April to get on the podium, and this year we already have 2. This just leave one thing left and that’s the victory that I know is so close.

As for the stage today, it was unreal. We rode along the southern most tip of continental Europe, past Gibraltar, and could see Africa in the distance. I was able to look over my shoulder a few times and see the view. It’s really cool to have a look at this part of the world.

So, time to get some rest, we still have some work to do at this race yet!

I’m sitting in the south of Spain, 100 meters from the Atlantic Ocean, ready to start the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol, which begins tomorrow morning.

We flew in yesterday, and so far I think this place is great! We are spending the first 3 nights in the tiny seaside town of Zahara de los Atunes. The town has tuna in the name, and sure enough, we were served tuna steaks for dinner last night, they were delicous. 

This morning was spent tinkering wtih the TT bikes, as for most of us, this is the first time we’ve touched them. It was a rush to dial in the position and get out for a test ride today, as tomorrow the race begins with a 6 km prologue time trail. I am actually really happy with how I felt on the TT bike today, 7 or 8 months since my last TT ride, I was surprised to feel so good in the position.

This area is full of wind farms, we were riding by hundreds of massive windmills today and they were spinning pretty good. Apparantly today was: “just gentle breeze” according to one of the locals, but I would have called it pretty darn’d windy myself. Good to know what we have in store for the week ahead.

I dragged a couple of the guys on a walk around town when we landed last night. It’s good to flush out the legs and have a look around. There is a really different feel down here in the south, as compared to what I’ve experienced up north. And aside from having a look around, we found a sweet little bakery and had tasty little treats.

Anyway, the tourist time is almost over. Seafood dinner again tonight, and pack the bag for the morning. Tomorrow will be a lot of driving and prep for a very short and painful 6 km race against the clock. I’ll keep you posted.

Our mechanics with the new rig. They are working hard, as they always do.

Flavio on the beach. Our hotel and a wind-farm are in the background.

Yes, I made it to the beach as well.

After the final stage of Med we jumped in the van and booked it straight back to Girona. I must say, it sure was nice to wake up to the sunshine here this morning. Perfect rest day.

The final stage of Med was again shortened do to even more snowfall. That makes it 3 out of the 4 stages that were altered because of the weather. I think I’ve only had 2 other bike races altered because of weather in my whole life, so this was different, but nothing we could do about it.

Because the big mtn top finish was now removed from the final stage, the plan was to rally around our sprinter Guillaume. He was going to strap on his climbing legs, and try and hold onto a good overall GC finish in the race. Everyone on the team put in a good effort to keep him in the mix, and he did indeed climb unbelievably well. But in the end the final hill top finish was too much and he lost a little bit of time.

I myself was working as best I could to score last place in the overall GC, but in the end 1 guy snuck in behind me, so I was 2nd from last.

Now I have a few days at home in Girona to train and get ready for the next race: La Vuelta Andalucia, Ruta del Sol. This one is a 5 day tour in the south of Span. 

Well Guillaume sure proved he is on form today with a 2nd place finish today. Combine that with yesterdays’ 5th place, and we are quite sure he can win the stage tomorrow. The race today was super windy, and it seems as though most teams here are looking to ride for the sprint, so that will likely be the order for tomorrow as well. For me there is not much to report, just getting comfortable racing again, and I came out unscathed, so I can’t complain. Plenty more race days to come, starting with another cold one tomorrow. 

The first bike race of the year for Team SpiderTech is down!

The weather is still cold and winter-like here, but warmed up to a pleasant +4 degrees today. 

Today I went for the early break, but it didin’t last long. I was away with about 10 guys for the first 3 minutes of the race, but then we were caught and a solo rider took off on a long lonley day.

With only one rider in the break it made for an uneventful day in the pack up until about 25 km to go, when the pace really picked up, and we raced flat out for the sprint. It was actually a tough run in to the sprint, and we are pretty sure Guillaume was 5th place, showing he has some great early season form.

All of the guys are looking good, and it is nice to get that first day of racing out of the way. There was a lot of nervous breaking in the pack today, it really kept us on our toes all day, so hopefully everybody will mellow out in the coming days.

I think the whole team is feeling keen and fit, so the next three days should certainly go well.

The first race of the year starts tomorrow!

It sounds like the best place to watch the race live and get all the stage profiles and information is on:  http://www.steephill.tv/tour-mediterraneen/

Today we rode out and took a look at the stage 1 finish. Looks like the first stage will be tough, I am really looking forward to it.

Only 1 more sleep to go!

The gang is all together in Aix en Provence for Team SpiderTech pre-season training camp. Most people think of Provence and think wine country, sunshine and the Mediterranean Sea. Well the sun is out quite a bit, and the Med hasn’t gone anywhere yet, but it’s 5 degrees below freezing and the wine isn’t flowing, it’s frozen under a blanket of snow. We are riding all bundled up, and while this isn’t anything new to me, it’s not the warm weather that I’ve very quickly adjusted to in Spain these past 3 weeks.

After a few days of getting our pictures taken, setting up the new bikes and the like, we got out for a real proper ride today. We took a look at the course for stage 1 of Le Tour du Med, which will be our first race of the season starting next week. At 2 points on the course today we were off our bikes and walking over the top of a climb because the road was so covered in ice and snow! If it doesn’t get above freezing here I don’t know if they’ll be able to run the race on the chosen courses. The forecast has Europe frozen for a few days yet, but weather it’s cold or colder, personally I just can’t wait to start racing!

Easiest way to keep warm:  Ride Hard

Southern France…

Just out for a Sunday stroll on some black ice

Today I finally feel like I’m back in the swing of things. It feels like the 2012 season has officially begun!

Shani and I have been in Girona, Spain for about 1 week now, but it was bit of a slow start. The airline lost our bikes and bags, so the first 4 days here we were without supplies. It was also a holiday when we arrived, so no stores were open for the first 3 days. It meant just getting out and finding some food and a toothbrush, (Mine was in my lost baggage) was an adventure unto itself.

Anyway, we’re settled in now, the apartment is great, we get the maximum amount of sunlight and have a patio on the roof. It makes it easy to do our core exercises when we can soak up some sun on the roof!

As for training, I’ve slowly ramped back into it after a nasty bug the whole family had through Christmas. (Christmas with the family was fantastic by the way)

Today marked my first real hard test and the body is definitely back. I got out with my new SpiderTech teammate Caleb Fairley. He lived here last year and knows a few good routes. We got is an awesome workout, did 6 hrs and hit up 3 X 20 min climbs at a solid tempo. It felt great, assuming you think suffering feels great. We even got held up by herd of sheep out on one of the tiny little mountain roads.

It’s funny to be here in Spain, on the other side of the world, and have so many friends in town. It’s a hot spot for English speaking pro cyclists, and we have several friends from back home that are here at the moment. I think we’ll see more of some of them here in Spain then we normally do in Canada!

After today’s effort I’m eating everything in the house at the moment, so it’s time to go back to the pantry. But consider me back online in the world of blogging.

Will

These sheep live in the mountains. They make very very good cheese.

Caleb taking in the view from the top of one of our day’s climbs.

Caught in the act! Coffee stops are rare for me, but it was tasty.

The off season is fun. I’ve been racing to the end of October for the last few years, so when the off season came in mid September this year I decided to make the most of it! September in BC this year has probably been the best weather of the whole summer, and I’ve been loving it. I’m super sore, as I’ve been out on some hikes and mountain bike rides, and we’ve also gotten out fishing a bunch of times. Jeff Sherstobitoff came down for the weekend and we got out with Ricky on the river twice. The picture above is back at Ricky’s farm with the 9 salmon we caught that day. Mid September, mid 20’s celcius and full sun, we spent the day standing knee deep in the river with no shirt on, and just nailed fish after fish. Sure didn’t feel like fall. There were 3 times that day when all 3 of us had a fish on at the same time!

Time flies, so it feels good to make the most of it, as I’ll be back on the training program in no time. But first a few more weeks of fun and adventure right here at home.

I am writing from the train. The race organization has all of the riders loaded up on VIA Rail from Quebec City to Montreal. And there is wireless internet on here! So 175 bike nerds are all sitting here using our devices.

I am still coughing up a lung, so needless to say yesterday’a race didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped for. But I think I did all I could do to get healthy and prepare, so, such is life.

Good performance or not, the crowds, which numbered in the 100’s of thousands made for some cool racing.

I’m here at the Fairmont in Quebec City, enjoying a view of the river and city outside my hotel room. Certainly can’t complain about the digs!

We race the GP Quebec tomorrow. It’s one of a very few World Tour cycling races outside of Europe, and it is a big deal in Canada.

I’ve been in recovery mode for the last 2 weeks since Europe. I learned the bone in my hand was after all broken this whole time, and am wearing a little hand splint. But it certainly feels a lot better than it did over in Europe, so can’t complain too much,

As for the race course here, it’s an awesome circuit, climbing up the Cote de la Montagne into the old city, and looping around on the cobbled streets. Should make for unreal photos and spectating. I raced here last year at the inaugural event and it was a massive party for the crowds, a real good time. 

Let’s just hope I’m out there having an equally good go of it in the race, it’s time so suffer hard!

We won!!!

This is the post I should have had up 3 days ago, but I haven’t gotten on the internet since Svein took out our first European victory at the GP Zottegem in Belgium. It was also one of my own better days on the bike since coming back from injuries, not to mention one of the best days as a team this month. Things really came together!

We had Svein, Zach and myself all in a big break of about 18 guys. It was a hard pace right from the gun and we just rode the break as hard as we could for the first two thirds of the race. There were 3 full teams chasing us. They managed to bring us back, just barely, but in turn they completely wasted themselves, and the final smaller break of nine guys was gone.

It felt good to be in the mix more and more, and I can definitely feel the strength coming back. But after a big effort like that, I struggled the following day at our last race of the trip. I think we all struggled a bit in this one. It didn’t ruin the mood though, and we packed up in the parking lot right after the race, and hit the road to Amsterdam, smiles and laughs all the way.

Racing over, traveling begin. A couple hrs of sleep, a lot of strategic bike packing, a few shuttle buses and planes with our mountain of luggage, and a little over 24 hours later, and here I am, back home in Whistler, heading off to sleep at 9:00 PM. (It is a battle to stay up this late) Sometimes I don’t know how it all works out, but we all made it, and our bikes did too.

Another successful trip done!

We just made it Belgium on the tail end of this whirlwind tour. With 1 day off after Limousin, we raced again in France yesterday. The Chateauroux Classic L’Indre was a super fast 200 km circuit at well over 45 kmph for an average speed. We saw some success, getting Martin into 4th place. It was really good to see, but I know he was so close to the podium he could taste it!

After the race we immediately jumped in the cars and drove north, got to bed late and woke up early to continue driving this morning. I think all the guys are pretty tired and can feel the end of this month-long trip is near. But we have a really good crew here, and are keeping each other laughing as much as possible.

We got into Belgium this afternoon in time for a little spin. We are staying in the country at a B&B on an old potato farm, and good training roads are everywhere. I don’t think anybody felt like riding today, but we needed to flush out the legs. We have 2 more days of racing in the next 48 hours, and both are 200 km.

Our spin today was awesome! We only rode at about 10 clicks per hour, and made quite a few stops. We took a look at some dairy cows, and Mark educated us a lot, as he grew up on a farm. Then I saw a plum tree overhanging a ditch, and we stopped again to pick a few. The guy who owned the house came out, and we were expecting to be told off as per usual, but instead he invited us into his back yard. He had a great little little oasis full of fruit and veggies. He kept his own bees, had a greenhouse and a few chickens, the works. We chatted with this friendly old guy for a bit. We chowed down from his fruit trees and asked him all about his hobby farm, and he asked us all about our bike racing, then we continued on our merry way. 

That is what I love about being a cyclist. Little meetings like today peppered into my travels, and being lucky enough to enjoy it with some good people.

Today was actually an improvement over yesterday. It’s funny to look at a race like this as “training,” but in coming back from the crash, it has indeed been good training for me. I’d say I’m feeling pretty positive after today.

My role for the race was to fetch water bottles for the guys. It’s still hot out and we’re drinking a lot. The course finished with 4 laps of a tough circuit, and we were hoping to set Guillaume up for the sprint. I think he and Svein were in the right position right up until the final, but it just didn’t quite come together. I know he’s not too happy about today, but Guillaume is also coming back from injuries, and is riding really well all things considered.

So there you have it, another “HC” ranked stage race in Europe down. A year ago I didn’t even know how hard these would be.

Tonight and tomorrow it’s all about recovery, as we’ll be back racing again the following day. Busy busy!

Many people don’t know about the time cut in cycling, or “hors delay” en francais.

As if racing isn’t difficult enough, there is a rule stating that you must finish within a certain percentage of the winner’s time to even be considered in the results. In the case of a stage race, if you are outside the time limit, you don’t get to start the next day. Today I was again dropped in the race, yeah it stings. I was with about 8 or 9 other guys, but we didn’t just casually ride in to the finish line and live to fight another day. Instead we kept hammering, because if we didn’t, we’d be done, and no starting tomorrow. In the end we did indeed make it in time, and sometimes that small victory is enough. So I’ll be racing it out tomorrow, the last day of Limousin. Hopefully we’ll get a guy on the podium to finish the tour off. I think it’s possible with how some of the guys are riding.

Stage 2 of Tour du Limousin done! It is ultra hot here. Maybe I’m just not used to it, but with mid 30’s temperature and 90% humidity, we are having trouble fitting enough water bottles in the team car. Seriously! The race today was hard, really hard, so not much more to talk about there. Instead I thought I’d post this picture of Ryan and I enjoying some coconut water back at the hotel. This is not the kind from a can, but the real deal you have to work to get at. That is what I call a recovery beverage!

Yeeeowza!  Bike racing is hard. I find myself saying that after a lot of bike races, but this one is definitely tough. It has a reputation of being really aggressive racing, and today didn’t disappoint. I actually surprised myself today, covered a pile of moves, fetched some water bottles, and was away in several breaks, a couple with 20 and 30 guys! But they all came back together and the the attacks just kept coming. Toward the end of the stage I came off on the biggest climb of the day and finished in a group of about 25 guys or so.

So after giving my old noggin a floggin a few weeks ago, the first race back went quite well. I wasn’t too sure how the hand would hold up, but my self invented tape job helped, and the racing was plenty painful so as to be a good distraction.

Bed time now, we’ll get up tomorrow and do it all over again, only 20 km longer.

Back to racing! I’ll be back at it tomorrow for the Tour du Limousin. 4 Days of racing in and around Limoges France. It is a little frustrating coming into this race after a crash and with some residual injuries. I am still not feeling 100%, and haven’t raced in awhile, so the confidence isn’t as high as I’d like. BUT… in looking at the stage profiles, this is the kind of race I would normally be really charged up for. So for me over the next few days it’s just going to be about suffering a lot, and about working on the head space. The mind is a powerful tool, you just have to make it work for you instead of the other way around. Cycling is a funny thing, I’ve seen some guys DNF when they have the best form of their lives, and sometimes it works the other way, with a tired sick guy pulling off an unexpected win. For this week I’ll be channeling the latter option.

Our soigneurs on this trip have worked on Le Tour de France a few times, and said they stayed in this very hotel during the Tour. It’s a sweet little 2 star place. (emphasis on little) Good to hear there isn’t any more luxury in Le Tour then in what I’m doing right now. Plenty of the racers are the same guys anyway, Limousin is supposed to be a really tough race!

Here are the stage profiles for this week:

It’s absolutely amazing how fast the body can heal. I might still be sore, but crashing in Germany is quickly becoming a distant memory. I am back to training hard, and put in a some good rides over the past few days. I will be racing again on the 16th at the Tour du Limousin.

Speaking of training rides, yesterday Mark and I got out for 5 hrs. It was a perfect summer day, and we finished the ride with a climb over the Col de L’epine. It goes up to about 1000 meters, and has some killer views! Certainly makes training in this part of the world enjoyable. I kind of want to move here and start a hobby farm, the spreads we ride past are just beautiful.

We have a hot plate in the hotel room and have been cooking up feasts for dinner each day. (What else do I have to do when recovering from injuries in a foreign country) Curry has been on the menu nearly every day. Turmeric is a natural anti inflammatory and is ideal for my bruised up body. There are actually many foods with natural anti inflammatory properties, and I’ve been eating most of them these past few weeks.

As for the rest of the guys here in Europe, they are currently part way through the Tour de L’Ain. It has been a little tough reading the reports on the internet instead of being in the action. I was really looking forward to a few key days in L’Ain, but such is life, there are still plenty of race days ahead.