The next two weeks will be spent fine-tuning my form in order to be ready for my first race of the year, Challenge Mallorca.  With so many long rides in my legs after this camp, I won’t need to worry about adding volume.  I will just be focused on shorter more intense days, trying to help the body remember what it is like to be racing.

Courtney and I will also be rediscovering the Catalunya region of Spain.  We have both really missed the culture and atmosphere of Europe, and are excited to be back.  It will be great to spend some time together and revisit our favorite spots and dine at some of our favorite restaurants.  There are so many great things to look forward to at the moment.

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.

Everything has been going quite smoothly in my preparations for the 2010 season so far.  Some power is finding its way back into my legs and it is taking a little bit longer each day before I bonk out there on the road.  I would say that I am better than ever before at this point in the year.

On a side note, while on the massage table a few days back, Jeremiah noticed something poking out of a scar on my shoulder.  I had shoulder surgery over five years ago, but I had no idea of what it could be.  All I knew was that something had been itching me for some time so I asked him to pull it out.  Once we found some tweezers he proceeded to pull out a three-inch bright blue stitch!! It was quite gross to say the least.  It is crazy to think that it has been working its way to the surface for over five years.  The body really is an amazing organism and full of surprises!

What happened when we arrived is something that I could never fully describe with words. We stopped at the entrance to Llata and met up with the local officials. After some hand shakes, hugs, fireworks and pictures with them all a boy holding a torch, like the Olympic one, led us through town. We were then met by a large marching band that followed us the rest of the way. The whole town was out in full force. Signs everywhere with our names and pictures of random cyclists.  We must have walked by thousands of people, it was really unreal. They were so happy to have us there. One guy even came up and grabbed me, picked me up and gave me a huge bear hug. He was almost in tears!

Once the parade concluded we moved on to the school. The kids had stayed an extra two hours to see us. We played a few games with one group in their town’s stadium and then visited many of the class rooms to see what all they were learning by working with Right To Play.  We closed out our visit with lunch with all of the teachers followed by some speeches and several dances. The feeling I got was that they didn’t want us to ever leave, but we had to. We had another five hours in the bus to get back to Huaraz.

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…