Two days have now past of the HTC-Columbia training camp in Spain.  Yes, I meant to put the HTC first.  They seem to have taken over the title spot of the team, but that is about the only difference you will notice on the new jerseys.  We have received some great new Columbia gear as well, and I have been putting all of it to use.  As I am typing, the wind is howling outside my window and the cold air seems to be forcing itself through the walls and into my room.  So escaping the freezing temperatures of Greenville, South Carolina didn’t go so well!

Our ride today started out quite pleasant, actually.  Maybe it was the fact that we had the wind at our backs the first half of the ride, and the sun in our faces that kept us warm.  As soon as we started to head back it was a different story.  The rain blew in; followed by a short burst of snow, then more rain!  Luckily, all of this crazy weather hit us in our final half hour, so it could have been much worse.  It is also amazing at how just having some fresh roads to ride makes the day go that much faster, and it also makes you a little less sensitive to these bad moments.

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.

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.

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.

It’s been quite the week here in Greenville.  Another birthday celebration, this one for my dad, and I have been keeping busy preparing for the upcoming Columbia-HTC camp.  Winter has officially arrived here in the Deep South.  Many of you northerners might laugh at what we call winter, but once it’s so cold that I can’t feel my hands and feet I consider that to be cold enough.  And it must be quite the site to see me out there, dressed in spandex, standing on the side of the road shaking my arms and hands trying to get some blood flowing back in them.

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!

Our annual cyclist only tennis tournament is only a few weeks away now.  Known as the “George Hincapie Invitational” in honor of his win last year, it has grown greatly in popularity and more and more non-cyclist are wanting in.  We thought it would be best to keep with the cyclist theme, so in order to qualify you have to be able to climb Paris Mt. in under twenty minutes. When you see the pros stopping the clock at around nine minutes you might think it’s easy, but for someone who never rides it’s a tall order.

Jeremiah, who worked for Columbia HTC this year, and Jared, a local artist, were up for the challenge.  Jeremiah has had some experience on a bike and he has all of the gear.  But Jared was borrowing a lady’s bike and wearing normal tennis shoes, not the best setup, especially with the wet weather we had today.

Obviously Jeremiah had been holding out on us as he made it to the top in under fourteen minutes, a very respectable time.  He did manage to get his heart rate up to 200bpm, so at least we know he was going for it. 

After seeing him finish we headed back down the mountain to see Jared’s progress.  He was going fairly well, but fighting the bike the whole way.  Sprinting for a few seconds and then almost coming to a stop. It was actually pretty inspiring to see someone push their limits so much.  He made it to the top in twenty one minutes, just over the time limit, but we figured he deserved a little leeway since he was in tennis shoes and in the rain.  Jared immediately collapsed in the middle of the road, but he had secured his spot in the Tournament along with Jeremiah.

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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My final stay in Girona for this year has had its ups and downs to say the least.  It took a little longer to expect to recover from the World Championships.  I would basically pass out around 10PM and I would stay that way for a solid ten hours each night.  I guess my body was just not used to seven hours of racing on the bike.

I did start to come around after four or five days of rest, so I started to get in some good days on the bike.  As soon as I was feeling like my old self, I headed towards the hills and ended up on what was one of my favorite loops.  A really nice climb followed by a gravel descent towards a massive reservoir and up another mountain.  Sounds awesome, right?

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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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