counting down!!!

I was back in Greenville this weekend for the first of three straight weekends up there. No racing, but I did get my bike situation fixed and do some great training.

Saturday was one of the coolest rides I've ever done. only 5 hours, so not especially epic, but still incredible. My brand new scott addict and I headed out of Greenville northwards into the mountains. Probably half the ride was on roads I've never done before, yet somehow I managed to not get lost and turn it into a 7 hour ride. Don't laugh, it's happened before. The bike is incredible and I'm really lucky to be on such great equipment.

Anyway, back to the title-four days until my first race of the year! I'll be racing both days the next two weekends in Greenville at the Hincapie spring series. I'm planning on mostly using it for good race-effort type training, and learning to race with my teammates. I think even without much focus we can pull out at least some decent results though.

Here's a tentative schedule for the first half of the Season if anyone's interested:

February 28/March 1st-Greenville
March 7th/8th-Greenville
March 14th/15th-Rome GeorgiaCup
March 21st/22nd-Union City GaCup
March 26-30-Redlands Stage Race
April 4/5-Chattanooga GaCup or Rock Hill
April 18/18th-Chattanooga Scenic City Velo weekend

and the biggie:

May 3rd-June 28th: Europe

hmmmm

So some of you are probably visiting the blog to see what I think of the new ride; others have probably heard of the weekends events and are looking for the details.

Short Version: The bike was incredible, for the day it lasted.

Long Version: Saturday I headed out on the new ride for a few hours of breaking the bike in, along with two of my teammates doing the same. 5 minutes from the house, at the end of the ride, we had a nasty crash. Blair missed it but Strad and myself went down pretty hard. I'm fine, but cracked my frame. Strad's bike is fine,(we hit the ground HARD, so it's a testament to the bike's durability that only one cracked) however, he came off a little worse. Luckily nothing is broken, but he does have a concussion. He's tough as nails and will be back on the bike in a few days, unless his mom forgot to confiscate it, in which case he's probably been skipping school and riding Caesar's Head the past couple days. I'm not going into the reasons for the crash on a public site-if you feel you need the full story, feel free to contact me.

Good news: When bad stuff happens, you learn a lot about the people you've got on your side. I owe a big thanks to all the Hincapie staff, and especially Rich. He barely batted an eye before getting to work on the situation. I'll be back on a Scott Addict soon and can't tell you how thrilled I am about that. It's easily the nicest bike I've ever ridden, stiff, light and very stable. Also, thanks to John James from Sunshine Cycles for checking on me after the wreck. And of course, thanks to all the friends and teammates who were calling or emailing to check on Strad and I.

Bikes are in!!!!

Our new Scott Addicts outfitted with Sram Red have arrived at team headquarters in Greenville. Looks like I am making my return to the republic of greenville to get the bike fit and break it in some. Rumor has it they are sub 15 lbs built up and crazy nice, so I'm pretty giddy right now. Here's a picture of the frame and also one of our new kit design, which should also be here in a couple weeks.

team weekend

We had another team weekend a few days ago at the Hincapie headquarters in Greenville, Sc. Originally this camp was supposed to be when we got bikes, kits and all our equipment but with things running a little late that didn't happen. We still got to view our kit design, have some important meetings and get some of our sponsor equipment. Big thanks to Oakley and Giro for the great stuff we got this weekend. I also got in a ton of training and had a great time with my teammates and the staff. I want to give a big shout out not only to our bosses Steve Carpenter and Rich Hincapie (who both couldn't make the camp this weekend) but also to Nicole Johnson and Steve Baker for keeping things organized in their absence. Also, I may be doing some guest blog posts for our team blog soon, so I'll post the link and be on the lookout.


The U23 contingent-Chris Butler and I.


aj and I doing some nintendon boxing


fi'zi:k is providing us with great saddles this year. I wanted to test the comfort of the saddle in the aero position.


I got caught posing badly in my new Oakleys.


Showing off the new Giro helmets that will match the kits-and some Hincapie casual clothing-Aubrey Moore, Blair Turner, Cinthia Lehner and Stradford Helms.