There are only a few races each year that carry the same vibe and excitement as the World Championships.  The only other ones that can maybe rival it are the spring classics and the Tour de France.  The media attention, the crowds and the history make it a very special race, and representing your country is always pretty cool.  Even if I am surrounded by riders I have raced against all year, for this one day we come together for a common goal, to do the best we can for the US.

Our team plan was pretty simple, just watch after Tom Danielson, and hope he is good towards the end.  The course was about as close as you can get to racing over big alpine passes, yet never doing a climb over two kilometers, sounds strange but it is true.  We were either going up or down, and there was always a constant pressure on the pedals.  The Italians and the Spanish, being the favorites for the win, did most of the work throughout the day, with the Australians biding their time to perfection, and placing Cadel in the winning move.  There is not much more you can say about the race tactically.  We traveled around the 13K circuit a total of 19 times, with a total of 4600 meters of climbing, and by the end I was shocked at how fast seven hours went.  With the laps so short and technical you had to always be focused so the time just flew by.  The race was also very steady and the distance basically wore everyone down.  All it took was a little nudge and the race blew apart.

The crowed were amazing as well, some 200,000 people were there, all packed on the two climbs, and all screaming for their country’s riders.  After listening to the crowed for seven hours it was even difficult for me to sleep that night as I could not get the noise out of my head.  It reminded me of days I spent at the beach as a kid, and could still hear the ocean long after I had left.

I left Mendrisio with a little more confidence in myself.  I only have a few of those epic days in my legs, so it is great to keep reconfirming that I can be there and be part of the race after such long distances.

I spent the following two days in nearby Varese with all of our Columbia-HTC staff and all of the new guys joining the team next year.  Bernie Eisel was also there so I spent most of my time with him while the others were busy with meetings and getting everything set up for next year.  It is strange to already be thinking about the next season while I still have a few more weeks to go in this one, but it is good to get a head start and we will be that much more ahead come 2010.