Greenville

Hot and humid down here in Greenville. We got here on Tuesday for a few days of acclimatization and training before the US Pro Championships on Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday was a pretty easy 4.5 hour ride and I drank more bottles than I think I would in a 6 hour race. Even with the race being shortened by one lap from last year to 177k, the heat and humidity is going to be the big factor again. Other than the riding, there hasn't been much going on. We have a TV crew around us all the time filming a pilot for a TV show. Hopefully for them, things will get more exciting when we get closer to the races.

Back in Girona

Its done. I finished the Volta a Portugal. All in all, that was an awesome race and is definitely one I'll remember for a long time. There couldn't have been a more fitting final stage than a 40k tt with 31 roundabouts in pouring rain. So the course might have been a little more straightforward had it been dry, but the rain made it down right silly. Every few hundred meters there were 90 degree turns, some off-camber, or you'd go 3/4 of the way around a roundabout. Congrats to Danny who smoked it for an incredible 7th place on the day.

Stage 9 was just as crazy, with a 35min cat 1 climb, followed by a 1.5 hour climb to the finish at Alto da Torre. It was a fight all the way until 10k to go when the group I was in decided it was time to ride as a grupetto into the finish. Still it was a vicious day in the saddle. The view on the way down was spectacular. It was surreal looking down and only seeing the clouds below. The top was 2000m above sea level and is the highest point in Portugal.






I'm kicking it in Girona for a few days before heading back home to the states. Up next is the US Pro Championships in Greenville. The past 12 days have been killer prep work. I'm hoping it'll translate into some good form in a couple weeks.

Is this for real?

Today's stage:

Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta

9 days down, but it feels like its been 2 weeks already. Today's stage was "flat" by comparison, but was one of the fastest, and most stressful stage, second only to another "flat" Stage 5. Lots of close calls today. A small dog ran into the field on a downhill 5k into the race. Luckily the rider in front of me bunny hopped it, saving me and about 50 guys from going down. Then on a bumpy road, I hit a pothole and both hands slid off the handlebars. The only thing that saved me was the gyroscopic effect of the wheels at 40mph. A nutty finish with 18 roundabouts in the last 10k to top it all off. Whew.

This aint so bad

We definitely have a sweet setup for a few days here before Portugal starts. http://www.monchiquetermas.com/

A nice resort a few k up in the hills from Portimao. We got in a nice ride today with some motorpacing behind the car on TT bikes. Its not so easy and slightly chaotic with 9 guys in the TT bars when only 2-4 get the full draft. Tomorrow we'll attempt to find the prologue course again. Today's attempt wasn't so sucessful. We found a nice boardwalk on the beach however.

We ran into a family of Americans who thought they had escaped far away from their country. As a woman walked through the middle of all of us fully kitted up, getting our bikes ready and joking before the ride, she remarked very slowly and confused, "You're Americans. What are you doing here?" We paused and told her about the Tour of Portugal. She continued walking and without turning to face us, let out an "Ohhhhh."