New blog location

http://livingthedream.bicycling.com/

In a continuing attempt to use my stupid degrees...

...my blog will now be located at www.bicycling.com . I'll try to link them here as they're posted, but I'll be sending an entry each week between Monday and Wednesday.

Also, I'm pleased to announce a new sponsor: AsMaster chamois creme, http://www.asmaster.biz/
I tried it out during the Tour of California, and my private regions were glad I did. Yours will be, too.

new blog on bicycling.com

check it out:

http://bicycling.com/blogs/tourofcalifornia/expert-blogs/rider-diary-preparing-for-the-tour-of-california

I'll be posting here every couple of days for now, daily during the race, and hopefully regularly throughout the year after that.

Nice

Back in SoCal

I raced last weekend, but it went like every other Florida race ever: the break sticks when the big teams want it to, and they don't want it to unless I'm not there.
In the crit Saturday, I couldn't get anything to stick, so I found the Gutt with 5 laps to go, and said he'd get a leadout if he gave me half the money. He agreed, and with half a lap to go, I brought him to the front, brought back the small break that had a 10-second gap, and led through the last turn. Turns out that was a little too early, and he sat up a little so as to not have to lead out the whole sprint, ending up 4th. Disappointing, but there were some legit sprinters there, so he did way better than I would have.
In the road race, I attacked from first lap with a small group, attacked it solo when it was caught, and ended up off the front for the first half of the race with one other rider. He pulled through enough to keep my fresh, and I felt awesome, so we got a 1-minute gap, made Herbalife chase half the day, and sat up when the finally got close to us.
A few laps later, the real break went, with 10 or so guys, only 2 Herbalife, 1 Guttenplan, and no zMotion, who brought like 5 ex-pros and 11 riders in their decaled-up motorhome. So that was funny.
With one lap to go, I was thinking about attacking, but we started to catch the masters race. They were supposedly neutralized, but it seemed like they started going a little faster to get away from us, and we started getting a little slower since no one wanted to work that hard on the last lap. As a result, the whole last lap was easy as hell, which means I have no chance of getting away. We finally caught the masters on the last hill. I attacked, really just to get us past them. I was able to drop most of the break, but some old dude brought me back, and our break pretty much sprinted with the masters field. Not my cup of tea, but Gutt got 3rd (we'd agreed to split money again), and I got 7th. Herbalife won, but they had to split money with 3298932084 riders, so Gutt and I got the best split for the weekend. Small victories.
The real news was that my legs felt good and I didn't crash. There's kind of a big race coming up. More on that later.
I'm supposed to have a blog up on www.bicycling.com every day during the ToC, and every couple of days in the coming weeks, so keep a look out for that. That's part of why this blog has been suffering lately.

Training Camp

I was awake for 27 hours by the time I made it to San Diego, got my equipment, and had a dinner with some sponsors, but it was worth it. I've been really amazed with all the staff, the organization, and the stuff. I'll post some more later, but here's a preview.

Usually, when you get picked up at the airport, it's in a rental, and it's hard to figure out what car to look for. I figured this one was for me:


My training bike (SRAM Red, Deep sram wheels, integrated seatpost, etc.):

I think the race bike will be the same, but with Zipp tubies on it. Unfortunately, I think they want to keep the training bike for now so they can set up my race bike when it comes at the end of the week. The Cannondale has to last another week or two, and I'm going to miss this thing.

Trailer:


Neato Cateye Computer with the Jelly Belly logo on it:

I didn't get to take a picture of the obscene mound of kit, clothes, and luggage, but let's just say this is going to be a good year.

I'm trying to stay on east coast time right now, so it's bad my bedtime. Nighty night.

Transcript of my TV Interview

I was stopped by a cameraman and a news reporter from Jacksonville Channel 5 at the airport check-in this morning.
Reporter: Sir, are you flying to DC?
Me: Well, San Diego, but yeah, I'm going through DC.
Reporter: Do you have a game plan?
Me: For what?
Reporter: They're expecting record crowds for the inauguration.
Me: Oh, shit.