It is a strange feeling to be racing so close to home, but one I really like.  This year’s Volta Catalunya, like the past two editions I have competed in, started just down the coast from Girona in Lloret de Mar.  A very familiar prologue kicked things off, and the following day we started on the outskirts of Girona itself, in Salt.  I really feel spoiled to have a ProTour race that passes through Girona, as well as the US national championships taking place in my home in Greenville.  It is a taste of what it is like to be Belgian, for instants, and being able to race the Tour of Flanders, or many of the other big races near your home.  You know every corner, every hill and every pothole.  And you have that little bit of extra motivation to perform well.

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.

After finishing up the Volta ao Algarve with a fairly strong ride in the final time trail I am ready for what lies ahead. Spring has made its first appearance here in Girona, and my pale skin saw the sun for the first time this week. There is nothing quite like those first few warm days on the bike after a long a miserable winter. Those are the days when the hardest part is forcing yourself to turn your bike back towards home.

I feel my fitness is heading in the right direction now. After a rough start to the racing season, with two crashes, too many flat tires to count and the horrendous weather, I can say that the bad luck is behind me. Now I can look forward to performing well in Paris-Nice. I will spend this week in Girona working on some longer distances as there are many stages over 200 kilometers in Paris-Nice, and then next week I will head up to Nice with Courtney to meet up with some family and recon the last couple of stages. I can’t wait to see how it all goes. Much of my time lately has been spent daydreaming about wearing the white jersey after the prologue!

The Challenge Ciclista a Mallorca marks the start of the 2010 racing season for me. It is quite a strange way to begin as well. The five-day race looks like a typical stage race, yet the format is far from the usual. There is a final overall for the general classification, just like the Tour de France, but each stage is raced separately. Only if you choose to race all five days will you be in the running for the overall title. I know, it sounds confusing, but it is just like what I grew up racing a lot of in the South, the omnium.

Most teams bring over half of their roster here since ten riders can start each day (instead of the more normal six-nine) and it doesn’t have to be the same ten everyday. With some riders skipping a stage or two, spots open up for others, and you could see over fifteen riders sharing the week of racing.

It is a pretty nice way to roll into the season, and I feel it’s great for the fans as well. They get the chance to see twice as many of their favorite pros. The fans also get to ride out on the same roads that others, who are not racing, are training on for the day. A training camp with race days and twenty teams all in the same area is basically what it boils down to.

The first two days were rather flat, so I opted out of those and arrived here today ready for the final three stages in the mountains. Each stage seems to get progressively harder as well, and the weather is not the brightest in forecasts. But I am remaining positive that this will be a great start to the year. With all of the training I have done the past few week’s things couldn’t be better. I am just looking to erase all of those question marks that you typically start the season with. Will I be strong enough to finish? Will I be strong enough to be at the front? Could I be there fighting for the win? By the end of the week I hope to answer them all with a “yes.”

Life has been great here in Girona.  Sunny skies and a quite, tourist-free, town have made the time here very enjoyable.  Courtney arrived this past weekend, and we have had a lot of fun getting to know each other again after our very busy month apart.  We have both quickly adopted our favorite lifestyle, that of the Spanish.  I spend each morning out on the bike.  Usually meeting Michael Barry at the local bar/restaurant here, Boira, then after a quick and extremely tasty zumo de naranja (orange juice) it’s off into the hills.  Each training session has gone better than the last, so I am very happy and confident about where I am beginning the season!

Once my day’s work is complete I spend the afternoon with Courtney.  We have a nice lunch, and then I usually take a small siesta while she knocks out some more of her work and after that we go for a stroll around town to gather food to cook for the night.  Does life get any better than that?

We have a lot to look forward to in the near future.  My first race, Challenge Mallorca, is just around the corner.  I am eager to get to the start line and get some good racing in my legs.  I’ll only be doing the final three stages of the five-day race.  There is no need for me to be parading around the flat streets of Palma for the first two days! The final, very mountainous, three stages are much more suited to my style.  I have never raced in Mallorca before, but with many training camps there in the past I will have a good feel for the roads.  This race should provide the perfect start to the season.  Before all of that fun begins, Courtney and I will probably sneak down to Barcelona for the day.  It is so close and easy to reach by train, so we really are making sure we take advantage of that while we can.

Roberto Bettini from the other side of the lens.

HTC-Columbia’s training camp on the island of Mallorca has been flying by.  Once again, we are slammed with meetings and appointments filling every moment we are not on our bikes.  Even in the middle of the night I am waking up thinking I am late for the ride or some meeting!  To my surprise, the weather has been great so far.  All of Europe is buried under snow, yet the temperatures are mild and the sun is usually out here in the middle of the Mediterranean.

Training has been going along quite nicely as well.  Long hours on the road bike are broken up with a few intervals up short mountains or some high-speed work on the flats.  We also had our first “race effort” yesterday with a team time trial of fifteen kilometers.  We were split into two groups of eight, with the finish time taken on the seventh rider, so we had to stick together.  We raced down the coast road here, in very windy conditions, with only two minutes separating the first group from my group.  Soon after the start my group began catching guys that were being dropped from the group ahead.  They had obviously started off too hard and were paying for their effort now, and that only motivated us more.  We ended up winning by a good margin, and the first group only finished with four, not even close to enough riders to stop the clock.

I always wonder why we race so hard in these training camps, but in the end it is pretty fun to be out there going 60kph on the time trial bikes.  It is a feeling we have all missed over the past few months.  Later in the week we will take the race from the flats of the coast to the mountains inland for an uphill race.  Until then, the long days will continue.  Five to six hours on the bike each day, followed with more meetings.  I am happy the days are going by so fast as I can’t wait to get to Girona, Spain, and meet up with my wife, Courtney.

Well, my winter break here in Greenville has come to an end.  I’ve spent the past couple of days figuring out how to pack up my whole life into one suitcase.  I’ll spend the next six-months or so over in Europe, my longest block yet, and I’ll have to be prepared for everything.  Training camp in Mallorca, Spain, is my first stop.  Two weeks of hard training, on and off the bike, and hopefully a little better weather will help me get ready for the racing season.  Then, it’s time to get settled in Girona, my home for the year.

I am looking forward to getting the year going and figuring out where my fitness is in the first few races.  I feel the winter has treated me well, but it’s hard to say when you’re not racing and don’t have anything to compare with.  I am also really excited to get back to life in Girona.  The life and culture there is about as good as it can get.  Morning coffees overlooking the river at our place, and an evening glass of wine in one of the town squares with Courtney are some of the best parts of life.  It will also be nice to escape the bitter cold that has settled in Greenville, and have some fresh roads to train on.

I can’t think of any other race throughout the year that could motivate me so much so late in the season other than the Giro di Lombardia.  Last year I had the best result of my short career at this race and I was hoping to go even better than that in this edition.  I was better prepared both mentally and physically and was more confident than ever before.  The day just didn’t go that well.  I felt good, I just lacked that extra gear and was unable to follow the accelerations.  I have noticed that I have been lacking that extra something since Ireland really.  Maybe it just comes with the long season of racing I have done.

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If I accomplished anything during the race today it was that I came to the realization that I want to live in the Piemonte region at some point during my life.  From the start to the finish we were surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery that you could possibly ask for. 

The days prior to the race Thomas Lovkvist and I rode on quiet one lane roads and up and over countless hills, some gradual and some way over 20% grades!  We past vineyard after vineyard and village after village and hardly ever came across any traffic, something that I thought would never be possible in northern Italy.  I am not sure if it is the food, wine, culture, sights or scenery, but I am always excited to be in Italy and to race through one of my favorite regions, Piemonte, was even more special.

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The GP Beghelli is the final race in a series of the same name.  Starting with Coppi Bartali in the spring, a few one day races in the late summer and finishing with the Giro dell’ Emilia and GP Beghelli this weekend.  We actually started at the Beghelli factory today just outside of Bologna.  From what I could piece together they make security systems.  Regardless, they are obviously big fans of the cycling world so I support whatever they are making.

The race started in the loading zone area of the factory, yet just ten feet across the other side of the road were rows and rows of grapevines.  I always find it surprising in Europe to see how they somehow blend industrial areas with farmland, using every piece of land to its fullest.

As with every other Italian race I have done, once the flag dropped for the race to begin the attacks started left to right and we constantly hovered in the 50-60kph range.  Today was a little strange in that we never really came out of that range.  A small group did mange to get away, but we kept them on a short leash and that made the race quite difficult in the end.

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