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.