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.

It’s been decided amongst the Columbia-HTC riders to call this island Alcatraz, rather than Lanzarote.  We are all here on this rock in the middle of the ocean.  It is part of Spain, but we are over 1,200 kilometers from the mainland.  Mauritania, Africa, however, is only sixty kilometers away.  I am not quite sure how Spain ended up with control of the Canary Islands.  Anyway, this island is also as far from self-sustaining as you can possibly get. Even the fresh water must be shipped here. I feel very sorry for our staff that had to drive the trucks down here.  The drive to the port in the south of Spain took two days, and then they had to spend four days on the ferry to reach Lanzarote!

The training is going very well, partly because that is the only thing to do when we are not in meetings.  The roads are quite pleasant, and terrain is undulating.  Winds that could easily blow you off the road seem to be the only negative.  All of us have been making the best of things, putting in solid hours on the bikes and filling the rest of the day with core workouts and meetings.  The days have been flying by, and that’s great news, as I can’t wait to get back to South Carolina and enjoy Christmas with my family.

Just a little water falling out of they sky turned my fairly short trip to Lanzarote into three days.  After spending hours on the runway and many more hours in long lines, I finally gave in and tried to make the best of it.  London-Heathrow came into play as my connections were all shuffled around.  I spent some quality time there shopping and enjoying a full English breakfast.  Then, it was finally off to Madrid, only to arrive too late for any flights departing for Lanzarote.  At this point I was melting, but a glimmer of joy appeared as I realized I would be spending the night not too far from one restaurant which I have been dying to try, Santceloni.

After dropping off my bag at the hotel I headed into town and was waiting at Santceloni’s front door for them to open up at 9PM.  I sat down to one of the best meals of my life.  Several “compliments of the chef’s” dishes accompanied squid to start, then some lamb to finish.  Then the desserts came.  By the end I lost count of all the different dishes.  The only thing missing was my wife, or any company for that matter.  It is always strange dining out alone, but with as much time as I spend on the road I have gotten use to it.  And I just couldn’t pass up a chance to try Santceloni.

The next morning, three days into my travels, I finally boarded the plane for Lanzarote.  The island itself isn’t much too look at.  Sure it’s always beautiful and there are plenty of beaches, but there are no trees whatsoever, and the terrain is desert-like.  The next week will fly by regardless of where we are.  The riders and staff of Columbia-HTC will be busy with one meeting after another, while cramming in as much riding as we can.