Trittico Lombardo (Tre Valli Varesine, Coppa Agostoni and Coppa Bernocchi) and Trofeo Melinda used to be the races where the Italian World Championship team would be selected, back when Worlds were in August.  If you performed well here you would likely be part of the Squadra Azzurra. Now, even though these races play a minor roll in the Worlds selection process, they are still raced as if the rainbow jersey itself was on the line.  After Dan Martin (Garmin-Transitions) won Tre Valli Varesine the other day you would have thought it was the end of Italian cycling if you had glanced at the newspapers the following morning.  Italians are expected to shine here, and dominate these races in their home country.

The following day in Coppa Agostoni, the Italians blew the race apart from kilometer-zero, allowing only thirty-five riders to reach the finish line in Monza.  I was one of the many to hop in the team car in the feed zone, with my race long over before then.  A feeling I would like to soon forget and I hope to put that performance behind me come Saturday during the Trofeo Melinda.

Trofeo Melinda is held in the Trentino region of Northern Italy, and there isn’t a flat road in sight.  Maurizio Fondriest and Gilberto Simoni are from this area if that helps paint a picture of what kind of rider you’d be if raised here.  On our easy spin today we knocked out 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) in the flattest 1.5-hour loop we could find.  The race on Saturday will be more of the same, always going up or down.  Racing through endless fields of apple trees with only tiny hillside villages separating one from the next will make for a beautiful day.  I am just hoping to see more of the race from the bike than from inside the team car behind.

The Tour de l’Ain wrapped up last Saturday and I quickly, and happily, headed back to Spain.  I left l’Ain totally spent having raced over 2,000-kilometers in two weeks with tons of travel and a nagging head cold.  Not the ideal way to come out of such a big block or racing, but I am hoping a few days rest will breath some life into my body.

HTC-Columbia had mixed results during the week.  Coming close to winning two stages with Marco and Alex being caught just a few hundred meters from the line and placing Tejay high in the overall made for a solid week, but also for one of the few stage races in which we didn’t actually win a stage.  I felt worse by the day, and barely hung on to finish out the race.  Racing a week in Poland and then heading straight into another race filled with fresh riders made for a rough experience.  I am hoping my body bounces back in the next days and benefits from the race days.

Tomorrow will bring yet another travel day as I am off to Italy for the rest of the week.  Some very challenging races are in store.  Plenty of mountains are to be climbed and with these races being some of the final ones for the Italians to earn a spot for the upcoming World Championships in Australia they are sure to be fast.

There is a never-say-die mentality here.  Even the dropped groups, with no chance of returning to the front of affairs, race for every second.  There is no groupetto here.  No laughing bunch that soft pedals towards the finish only concerned about making the time cut.  From the kilometer-zero sign there are a fury of attacks, and even when the breakaway is up the road the fighting for position in the peloton never ends.

We have had the great, and rare, luxury of staying in the same hotel for the entire week.  The Mercure Hotel, in Bourge en Bresse, almost feels like home now.  Our bags are even fully unpacked, a feat I hardly ever achieve, even when at home.  The staff is well aware of our likes and dislikes, making life a little more enjoyable.  The chef knows not to even attempt to serve us his take on pasta that would be easier to eat through a straw than by fork.  Instead, we have been playing it safe with basic rice and omelets on most days.

With only two more days remaining, in what will be my last stage race of the year, the focus will now be on single-day races.  Starting just next week, I will be heading to Italy for a couple of tough one-day races in the mountains north of Milan.  And then on to Canada, and eventually, back to Greenville for one more shot at pulling on the stars and stripes in my hometown.

A short night of sleep followed and I was soon in the Krakow airport before 5:30AM heading back to Spain.  Two flights and a long taxi ride later I was finally home in Girona just in time for a great lunch on the patio with Courtney.   We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up at one of the many sidewalk cafes in town.  A solid night’s sleep in my own bed and the new day brought even more adventure.

An easy spin, to loosen up my sore and tired legs, around town with my agent, Andrew, and then back home to try to enjoy each passing moment with Courtney as I was heading back to the Barcelona airport that afternoon.  This time, the plane is bound for Lyon, France as the five-stage Tour l’Ain begins tomorrow with a 3-kilometer prologue.  As you can see, the life of a professional cyclist can be hectic at times.  You just have to roll with it and take each moment as it comes.

Each day we have finished on a very technical and quite dangerous circuit.  The roads alone are hard enough to navigate.  Potholes are so sporadic that you have to remain 100% focused at all times.  And even when the roads are smooth they ride as if you were surfing the asphalt.  The Polish seem to be missing an important link in their road construction equipment, the steamroller!

On the finishing laps, railways, cobbles and off-camber turns are added into the mix.  These conditions open the door for anyone with nothing to lose to take the win.  I am sure it is exciting to watch on the television, but at times I could think of better places to be!

Today and tomorrow will see the overall race sorted out.  Plenty of hills are still ahead of us and the racing is just getting faster.  It is pretty obvious that many of the riders here put in some serious time on their bikes this summer.  I am feeling good heading into the final stages, just need some luck and to deal with a great deal of suffering and a good result will be waiting for me on the weekend.

Warsaw, and the surrounding landscape are dead flat, but after we finish today we will be in the foothills of some surprisingly big mountains that border Slovakia and the Czech Republic.   It will take us some 250-kilometers to get down there on some boring roads, but the sun in shining and there will be plenty of fans waiting for us on the finish circuits.

Yesterday was a nice opening stage.  Not too much stress and a good way to ease into the race.  HTC-Columbia took control of the race from the beginning while every other team had some sort of excuse for not helping us.  Seemed like every other sprinter in the race had some kind of issue and was on a bad day.  Yet, when the finish came, lo and behold, everyone miraculously overcame their illnesses and was mixing it up in the sprint.  A massive crash soon followed as we raced between narrow barriers at full-speed.  Fortunately, I escaped unscathed and will be one of the lucky ones to start today with all of my skin.

My mind was made up.  I would pick up the car in Girona, drive to Belgium and race through Liege-Bastogne-Liege, then drive down to Italy to pick up Brendan Quirk for a few days of training on the Giro d’Italia course and finally bring the car back to Girona in early May.  I am tired just from writing about all of the driving ahead, but at least I know I will get to where I need to be.  The outrageous bike charges and the countless security screens that come with air travel will not be missed either.

Driving in Europe is not all that bad either.  I am amazed at how much the scenery changes in such short distances.  Being from America I am use to driving hours on end before I was out of the deserts of the West, or the mountains of North Carolina.  Here in the space of a couple hours you go from the arid landscape of Provence, past the high mountains of the Alps and you are in the rolling pastures covered in yellow mustard seeds that make up central France.  The scenery defiantly keeps the drive entertaining, but I was more than excited to pull into our team hotel late last night.  It was a long trip that took some thirteen hours from door to door, but I am happy I did it.  It is great to be back with the team and where I belong.  I hated watching Amstel on TV, and I didn’t want to be in that same position the rest of the week.  These races are some of the best of the year and regardless of how I feel after the long drive I can’t wait to race tomorrow.

For 2010, Fleche Wallonne has had a pretty significant course change.  As always we pass the infamous Mur de Huy three times.  With its slopes kicking up above 20% it has always been a deciding factor, but probably never more than it will be this year.  In past editions we would pass the Mur two times before the finish on the third trip up, but those first two times were always far out from the finish so the pace was calm.  This year the 2nd passage comes just twenty-nine kilometers from the finish, so it will play a vital role in the race.  The run-in to the 2nd passage will be chaotic, as we all know the race will be decided there.  HTC-Columbia’s goal is to have some riders up the road by then as with a finish like tomorrow it is always good to be a little ahead of the game.

It has also been nice to sit back and watch some of the racing action this week, with Flanders and Roubaix taking place.  There is no better way to get motivated for my races ahead than by watching these guys battle each other over the cobbles.  I really have an awesome couple of months ahead of me.  The Ardennes week is fast approaching.   I will be racing in all three, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.  These are three of the biggest and most exciting races of the year for me.  The crowds and the courses make this week special.  Then it is off to northern Italy where I will check out the courses of the last week of this year’s Giro d’Italia.  A close friend of mine, Brendan Quirk, will be joining me in the Dolomites for a great week of training.  Then it is the Giro itself.  My first Grand Tour, I am not sure what else you can say about that!  As always in life, there is much to look forward to.

Spring has arrived here in Spain.  The winds, coming from the south, are blowing stronger each day and bringing with them warmer temperatures.  A very welcomed change from the harsh winter we have endured.  After a few days on the couch, with long mornings of enjoying coffee, I should be back in working order.  Just in time for what might be the hardest week of racing of the year in the Basque Country.  The Vuelta al Pais Vasco is a race that strikes fear into every cyclist and whenever it is spoken of one word always comes to mind, “Ouch!”  The endless climbing will surely be great prep for the Ardennes and the Giro, but it will come with its fair share of suffering.  But I will have plenty of time next week to worry about all of this, for now it is all about enjoying life at home.

I spent most of the first stage thinking about all of the training and suffering I had done on these exact roads to prepare my body for these races.  I also couldn’t help but notice how much easier we glide over the hills in the race compared to when I am training by myself.  I am always amazed at how fast the bunch can get moving when it wants to.

HTC-Columbia has already had a very successful Volta Catalunya.  The prologue went very well, and Mark Cavendish has made it very clear that he is back from some early season setbacks with a great win into Banyoles.  Within just a few short weeks of proper training and racing he is back to winning and showing why he is the fastest man on two wheels.

Now we head into the mountains, direction Andorra.  The next three days will be very difficult I feel.  There might not be a mountain top finish to any of the stages, but the roads will be constantly tilting up and down.  And if the previous races this year are any indication, we should see some epic race days ahead.