getting close

Can't believe it's almost May! I'm counting down my last few days of class and finals. Only two days after my last final I jet over to Europe for two months of racing. I received a schedule awhile back, here it is below. As always, things can change but this leaves some room for either/or races so it should be pretty close (the multiple listings of each month show the different options for race schedule: 3 for may, 2 for june). Regardless of which races I do it looks like I'll be doing mostly stage races and doing a bunch of climbing, so I'm really excited.


MAY 3-4 travel Haut Anjou, Triptyque, Ardenees Ronde Isard

MAY GP Wallonie, Triptyque Ardenees, Ronde Isard

MAY Haut Anjou, Fleche du Sud

JUNE Vuelta Tarragona, Ronde de L'Oise, Haut Savoie, IWT, Omloop Het Volk June 28th travel home
JUNE Thuringhen Rundfhart, Haut Savoie, IWT, Omloop Het Volk

Other than the pollen counts making my life absolutely miserable, training is going well. Last weekend I even got out on a group ride in Macon with some of the guys from around here. I love the riding there and I owe a lot to all the people in the cycling community in Macon. Hopefully i'll make it out to the tuesday night worlds ride sometime this season.

alright, time for some training!

The Gaps

The Gaps in North Georgia have gotten a pretty fair amount of recognition as a training grounds for cyclists, and I have to say, that area is hard to beat for a solid weekend block of climbing. This past weekend I found myself staying at Will's house, yet again, for back-to-back big climbing days. It says something about your weekend when Six Gap was the "flatter" day (the other day consisted of some doubling back on climbs that meant something like 8 total, without the easy side of Woody's). It may not have a huge variety of roads to offer up endless new routes like Greenville, and it doesn't have climbs as lengthy as the ones found further up into he Appalachians, but all Six gaps are reasonable climbs that are pretty close to each other. And if that's not enough, you can add in Brasstown or any number of the "secret" 5-10 minute climbs we've discovered.

hmmmmmm

I refuse to talk about Redlands. I'm actually gonna pretend the trip never happened.

Training has been going well and I'm getting really excited for my Europe trip. If i haven't mentioned it before, I go over May 3rd this year and come back June 28th. Congrats to the guys over there now who are tearing it up. This year I'm lucky to have a really nice calendar or races, mostly stage races and plenty of climbing and time trialing. So very well suited to me. I'll also get to travel a bit more of Europe which is always great.

What's with the crazy weather? It's been darn cold in Georgia for April. With less than four weeks until I go to Europe, it's looking like the warm clothes are staying in circulation until I get home at the end of June....just think, it's gonna be July before I can put the warm stuff away for awhile. I don't mind too much though, and our Hincapie stuff is wicked nice so it's almost good to get an excuse to wear it!

Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully I can keep the updates rolling a little more consistently.



check the sweet kits.



Blair creeping into my headshot at our last team camp