Over the past ten days the Greenville community has seen its fair share of professional cyclists cruising the streets.  Riders from across the nation are discovering the quiet roads and relatively warm climate of the Upstate.  Having the US Professional Championship based in Greenville for the past five years has certainly helped get the word out.  Now, the time and effort is finally being put in by a number of riders to actually set up their winter base here and take advantage of all that the area has to offer.

George and I have been happy to play tour guide these past few weeks.  The long rides we are use to covering by ourselves are made much quicker and easier with the help of some company.  Ted King has been based out of my house this past week and has, as far as I can tell, been enjoying his time here.  Another New Englander, Jeremy Powers, just made the journey down south to put in his final preparations for a bid at the upcoming Cyclocross World Championships in Germany.

Our training group has been getting more diverse by the day.  From sprinters like Frank Travieso to climbers like Chris Butler, we have had a great mix of riders to push each of us in all the aspects of cycling.  After all, sometimes the best way to progress is by surrounding yourself with better riders.

With a few of the locals joining us throughout the week our group has been relatively big and entertaining.  Some of them have been biting off more than they can chew trying to keep up on the climbs and pull through when we are rotating on the flats.  But it has all been in good fun.  I hope Greenville continues to draw in a growing number of cyclists.  When we are in the dead of winter, and the body needs the mind-numbing base miles for the season ahead, misery loves company.

Another edition of the USA Professional Championships is in the books, and I will once again be waiting for another shot at the title in a few months time.  Thankfully, the event is remaining in Greenville for the next two years and is moving to a new time-slot in the month of May.

Greenville once again proved to be a worthy host to the championships.  Each of the past five editions has seen wins from a number of fashions.  From sprints to long solo breakaways, a worthy winner has always been crowned here.  This year’s race was made even more unpredictable with the race radios being banned from the riders.  This added to the confusion, and forced teams to remain together at all times in order to communicate.

Ben King is a very deserving winner after the effort he put in yesterday.  Blazing temperatures wore down on the sluggish field throughout the day.  In the beginning, talk was of how slow and easy the race was.  “Easier than an training ride,” was heard throughout the bunch during the first hour of the race.  After that, there were few left in the race with the energy to do much talking.

It was a strange race, to say the least.  The required effort needed to close the gap to the leaders came far too late in the race.  Since not a single team was willing to take control of the race when it was still within reach, the gap to the leaders skyrocketed without them having to put much effort in.

I leave the race with mixed emotions.  I am happy to have the event in my hometown and proud to have such wonderful fans.  Yet, I am also happy to have the week behind me.  So much stress throughout the week, to just watch the race roll up the road minutes after we started.

Everything has been going really well here before Christmas. Jet-leg is still clear and present, as I am passing out each night before ten and getting up before the sun.  Can’t really complain though, it’s amazing how much more you can fit into the day when you wake up early.  I am just finishing up a solid block of training before I take a small break over the weekend.  The other day I made the mistake of riding my TT bike for four hours and now I can barely move my neck!  But other than that, it’s been great.  Most days have been spent training with George doing plenty of tempo efforts on the flats and getting in a few climbs here and there, weather permitting.  The snow from last week is still lingering in the shady corners and up in the mountains.  It’s not really worth the risks of riding on ice, so we have been forced to turn around several times.

This Christmas weekend should be as special as always.  It’s hard to believe it’s actually that time of the year.  I have been so busy lately that it’s been hard to keep up with when and where I actually am.  Surely when I sit down with my whole family for dinner on Christmas Eve it will set in.  Enjoy the Holidays!

Another nightmare of a trip finally brought me home to Greenville this past weekend.  Delayed, and even canceled flights were again the cause.  The “storm of the decade” was making its way up the east coast as I was trying to get from Philadelphia to Greenville.  My wife, Courtney, had to drive late in the night, with snow and ice on the roads, to pick me up in Charlotte, NC.  In total, I spent almost six days of traveling just to be in Lanzarote for six days!  I am glad we were able to get so many meetings out of the way as it probably wouldn’t have been worth it otherwise.

Now it is time to once again re-adjust to a new time zone and finish up all of my holiday shopping.  It’s hard to believe Christmas is this week, but it sure does feel like it.  Returning to the cold weather was a shock and it is strange to see snow by the roadsides and ice in the trees.  Training is full on for the 2010 season now.  It was a very quick switch from easing into things to being in the thick of it.  In fact, the week spent in Lanzarote, I had around forty hours of exercise!

The goal for the next few weeks is to just enjoy as much time with my family and friends as possible.  Before I know it, I will be back in Mallorca, Spain, for our next training camp and then the racing season will have officially begun.

Are we halfway through November already?  When I think of the off-season, I think of a time where I am basically doing nothing.  Just recharging the body, the mind and catching up on a lot of missed time on the couch.  Yet, each year I seem to pack more and more into the winter months and this year I seem to have over stretched myself.  There has not been one dull moment and I feel about as tired as if I was coming home from a race.

When I am home, I am cooking, cleaning, shopping, running, riding and playing some tennis here and there.  On my trips so far it has felt like a stage race, with hotel transfers and with activities planned from sun up to sun down.  Unfortunately, during the winter months I can’t use my “I need to rest and recover for my next race” card and my wife knows it!  Guess it’s payback for the rest of the year when she is taking care of me.

If I looked back to the summer months I was already looking towards the off-season and making plans to do this and that.  Trying to pack in as many fun things that I could.  The possibilities seem endless at that point.  Once the off-season finally arrives you realize that the more you have planned, the faster it goes, and that is the case for me this year.   But I can’t say that I would do anything different.

I really have had a great time so far.  I was able to be part of so many cool experiences in Texas, our annual tennis tournament is coming up this weekend, which will be a great chance to catch up with some friends and then on Sunday I am off to Peru for a week with Right To Play (www.righttoplay.com).  I can only assume the Peru trip will be a huge eye opener.  We will be touring different villages and schools, giving talks and playing games and other activities with the children. I have no idea of what to expect, but I am sure it will be something I will always remember.  After Peru, it will already be Thanksgiving and then off to the first Team Columbia-HTC training camp.  It really does go so fast, but you only live once…

The first week of my off season has already passed, and as I look at the calendar, the first training camps and even the 2010 season are just around the corner.  Sometimes I feel it might be easier if we just continued racing, and that might be the case in the near future.  It wasn’t so long ago that the real racing didn’t begin until almost April.  Now teams and riders are putting more importance in doing well in races in February and even January.

I have really enjoyed my break so far.  I am still putting in a few hours here and there on the road and mountain bike.  My goal is to stay relatively fit this winter to have a great start to next year.  Off the bike, I traveled down to Charleston with Courtney for a few days.  There we caught up with some good friends and even snuck in a nice and increasingly rare night alone.

I had not been in Charleston in many years so I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed my time there.  It has a very European feel, and I love the fact that we were able to walk everywhere and never had to use the car.  We did a little shopping and even a run one morning along the Battery, but we spent most of our time trying a few of the amazing restaurants Charleston has to offer.  A big group of us went to Lucca one night and dined family style, with endless plates of anitpasti, fresh pastas, meats, cheeses, wine and desserts being brought to the table.  By the end of the night, with very full stomachs, we all agreed that it was some of the best Italian we have ever had.

It was nice to get  away with Courtney for a few nights, but I was happy to get back into my own house and put away my suitcase, even if its not for long.  We are off again next week to Texas for a clay shoot that benefits a local charity and the big NASCAR race the following weekend.  It should be a great time, and we are looking forward to catching up with our family there.

This past week has brought nothing but rain here In Greenville. It has made for a rough week of training.  About the last thing I like to do is leave the house with my rain jacket already on.  I took a few days easy once I got back from Missouri, I actually felt much better coming out of the race than going into it,  and I have started doing some big days to get ready for the upcoming World Championships.  How do you train for a race with 265 kilometers and 4700 meters of climbing?  I am not sure, I have never done that, maybe the closest thing would be LBL this year.

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