christianparrett.com presented by caffeine

I made it to the UK fairly pain free, and am now battling jet lag with the answer to most of my problems-coffee. Being sponsored by a coffee company is a great fit since most cyclists are caffeine addicts, and I've had the chance to try both the Magnus Maximus blend and new Sprocket Rocket blend that Magnus sells. I know a bit about coffee-I at least won't try to tell you Starbucks is the greatest coffee ever and have run an espresso machine before-but I'm not gonna tell you I'm a real expert, so I won't try to sound fancy. Instead I'll just say that the Sprocket is awesome kick-in-the-crotch coffee that would be awesome as espresso, while the Magnus Maximus is smooth and tasty with a hint of cocoa (but not in a flavoured coffee/'I poured chocolate syrup into my coffee' way) that is still plenty strong.

For now I'm staying with the team manager outside of London in a town called Fleet. I got fixed up with a training bike so I did a good spin yesterday and am heading out for a few hours here soon. Magnus dropped by the house yesterday, it was great to meet him. He's a super nice guy and yes, very tall. He also gave me some team kit so I've started the first of several rounds of the mini-Christmas that is getting new bike gear.

Sunday night I'll head down to Wales and meet all my teammates and get settled in there. Then next weekend I'll start racing at the Tour of the Reservoir, a British Premier Calendar race. All the British pro teams should be there, like us, I think most of them have international rosters and race mostly on the continent, aside from the major races here. So it should be a hard, typical Euro race with tv coverage to boot. I'm excited to get to work.

Last local race for awhile

This weekend was the Perry weekend of racing, about 30 minutes south of Macon. Last year was the only year since I've started racing that I haven't done this race, and it was fun to be back this year. Since I missed the race in Macon last year and will again this year Perry is as 'local' as I've ever gotten to race. I had a good ride in the TT and took the W by a solid margin. Once upon a time time trialing was my bread and butter but the last couple years I just haven't raced very many. Hopefully this year that changes and I can put together some good tts at bigger races.

whoa

So hopefully most people reading this have heard by now, but I'm moving to Wales next week. Pretty crazy.

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this)

The season is shaping up great and I can't wait to be over in Europe and in the races. I'll miss the Southeast, not to mention Chik-fil-a and Mexican food, but it's a great opportunity for me.

happenings

Team Kenda Pro Cycling presented by Geargrinder was in town this past week for their pre-season training camp. I was on this team 2 years ago when they were amateur and it's been exciting to watch them grow into a Pro team. I was lucky enough to be able to ride with them all week and catch up with some people I've known for awhile, and meet some other good guys. Good luck to those guys with their season. Macon cyclists take note, everyone on the team loved the riding around here and had nothing but good things to say about our local training grounds. We are lucky to have some great riding in this area.

Also, after doing this blog thing for awhile, a friend of mine is helping me start up my own website. Soon you'll be able to find this blog and a ton of other stuff over at Christianparrett.com. Check that out mid next week to see the website, not to mention some pretty exciting news.