My prize for Hernando's track night

So last night was really really fun.

I wish I could have done more of these friday night Her-nanagins, at first I thought it would keep us(my tapeworm and I) away for the fridge and the wine room. But with JANDY and always smiling Sukie saving me a plate of ribs (thank you) and after my brief show at the missing out...I won the sprint straight to the keg, nothing like cold pork ribs and colder beer that makes me feelin like I'm happy to be home!
I think that was the first american beer I've had in 24 days. I made up for it with about 15, then had to show Andy why I ride Shimano pedals..the perfect bottle opener!

Legs felt better then I looked last night, not really wanting to go into the red to much as I had a few weeks of 2nd hand smoke to clear off the lungs and little riding. But there were a few times when we got rolling, I don't think I've gone that fast on the track with so many people. Hope I didn't piss anyone off. Sorry.

It did dawn on me when they were calling the cat 3-4 dudes to the line,,that uhhh I'm a cat 3 on the track. I sheepishly went to confess to Sabine that I was a Cat 3 and maybe I shouldn't be racing with the P12's. She comforted me by saying it was OK. Phew, I just keep learning.

Oh yhea.....the Prize!

I get to drive Sputnik for a week. Stay tuned for the tales and pictures of good Old Sputnik. I don't think I can help myself. I did think I'd give it a bath, maybe?

I'm gonna have some fun tomorrow at the TT, I'm Innes's 30 second man and I'll have something for him if he (which he should after he ripped Hood) catches me.

Coq a Vin vs Linguini

Things I like about the Giro this year.

TV coverage:
RAI- In typical Italian fashion-things take a long time:) They basically make commercial free live race footage. They are the only ones who can take a 6 hr race and give you 10 hrs of footage.

VS on the other hand, sucks! I think for every minute of coverage, they have a minute of bad weed eater BOB commercials

I did like the bluffing that Jens did yesterday until he punched it with 20 to go.

Its such a close race Contador is gonna have to stay sharp for the TT Sunday.

Things I didn't like..

the weather sucks, not seeing more of it in spain on euro sport, not being home to see the TT on sunday as I'll be doing a double.

Eur-itis & Jamonariha

Toto its good to be home!!!!

After a long uneventful flight back from Madrid and waking up at 3am I'm happy to be back! Missed a few races, but its probably a good thing to take a break.

Man I didn't miss the news back here!!! Gas prices are nothing to be compared to Europe! Also I'm happy that when I pay for a cup of coffee or go to an ATM I don't have to do the mental conversion of ...OK thats really 1.6 x 1.00. I never thought that the 50km per hr = 30mph would come in handy. $50.00= 30 euro.

Eur-itis=shrinkage of dollar that makes you stress twice when spending. Once when you pay for the item and again one month later when you get the credit card bill.

The dollar have some serious shrinkage in europe!!! I was wandering around yesterday on the bike in a bit of a fog. Thinking about how much I dislike the current administration. I'm not much about political blabbing , but man...things are pretty screwed up.

I figure that if all the people who voted for Bush the first time ...well OK, shame on you. The second time... wtf???

I think if you voted for that moron the second time, you sit this one out! Fuel, bank intrest rates, war, pulling funding from National parks, housing all pretty much suck . Thank you Mr Bush for your Bush speak ---your a babbling idiot!

Back to food and whine..and ridin.
Jamonariha=eating a diet of bread & jamon for 25 days, mixed in with some bread and unripe tomato's too make for another size in the skinsuit:)

It was great to ride the Transition yesterday for a few hrs after a few to many rides on the Break-Away. With a few TT zzz coming up - I've never been this far behind or unfocused, no intervals, no group rides to try to ride off my wheel, not really much of anything for the past few weeks except eating, drinking, and sleeping.

After catching up on things a bit here and dealing with a crashed Apple hard drive (please let the computer gods be kind with whatever I have in that big back-up thing I plugged in a few months ago) I needed to get some fresh air and blow off some steam...

I did get a bit of a wake up call yesterday that almost knocked me off the bike. I was riding along Uvas when all of a sudden out of nowhere I heard the noise of a helocopter coming over the hill, flying really, really low with a big bucket. By the time I figured out what was going on I took this quick pic.

It looks like there was a Triathalon out on Uvas recently both good and bad. Good news there was enough water in the res, bad news all the frickin Gu wrappers and crap they left behind. Makes me kind of think about that urban legend of a scuba diver getting found in the forest..after being dropped on the fire.
As responsible cyclists, please don't litter and leave behind a wake of gu wrappers. I'm sure its another reason people in cars get pissed off at cyclists.

I really was sorry to hear about the fires and everyone effected. Scary stuff!!

Hearding goats & la alqueria

Tracey and I have been here in Spain for a couple of weeks now.

Me for work..well if thats what you can call it and Tracey after 5 years at her job gets a month off.

She has a new part time job here in a local village helping a local farmer hearding his goats. The road does get a little slippery.

Last night we had dinner at the best restaurant I've ever eaten at in my somewhat charmed life. Adr Ferrand an one of the worlds most innovative chefs and has several restaurants. Most noteable is il bulli outside of Girona (popular cycling village) in the north of spain. We ate 27 courses at restaurante la alqueria and it was amazing!

Operation Mucho vino...

Well after my uneventful Cat's Hill this year, its true....I have an allergy to Cats!!!! I dunno why the past couple of times I've felt like someone put glue on my tires and no matter how hard people cheer on the hill.

Oh well, now I'm here with Tracey in one of my favorite hotels Santa Maria de Paular in Rascafria, Spain 1 hr outside of Madrid. Maybe I can get some gogo juice this month:) Just kidding.

Its amazing how fast I can fall into the life of living in Spain. We struggled last night to have dinner by 8:00, wanted to go to a restaurant in this tiny town, but most were closed and we started to fade pretty quick so we went to a bar instead and had a muy bueno tortilla (huge egg, cheese and potato omelette), patatas bravas (fried potatos with a spicy sauce) and a few beers.


Then slept in until 9, breakfast and out the door by 11 for a 3hr ride (mas o menos) Tracey is getting the hang of my ride time estimation being off by at least an hr. I rode thru familiar towns, waved to the a few of the local pros riding, rode by a few others and said Hola.

I did see more horses and cows today then people and rode jet laggy up and down 100km and 3000 meters up to a ski resort.

Gonna do it all over tomorrow.
Que bueno!

ps- Mom's and Dad we are great, sorry we didn't call this weekend.