Check out the entertainment action here at the hotel… What could be better!:) No boredom issues here.
Getxo went well. Everybody is on some good form and other than a little last lap crash that took out our sprinter we had a pretty dialed day.
Down to Portugal tomorrow for a few days pre-race by the beach.
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I generally try and skirt these issues as most of the time there is little good that comes from wild speculation, bitching and moaning or being unusually outspoken but it’s pretty much impossible to avoid what’s happening to our sport right now. The past few days have made it almost embarrasing to be a professional cyclist.
Motivation? It waxes and wanes.
What are these f—ers thinking?
Hasn’t enough gone down?
Aren’t they all riding with some serious fear tucked away in the back of, hell, the front of their minds?
Are we going to make it through these last few days of the Tour with the sport intact? Who knows.
At this point the thing that keeps me looking forward and my head still in the game is the knowledge that there are people trying to guide this currently very, very lost sport in the right direction. At this very moment we’re getting the prerequisite gut check that’s needed to jump us into the next era of professional cycling. In one way it’s exciting to be a part of a program that’s on the forefront of this movement and will safely emerge from the rubble as a model for others to follow. For young riders it’s a time when I think you can actually look forward without the pressures and worries of what is required medically to make it happen. Obviously there is going to be a fall out; probably a pretty serious one that will destroy teams, cancel races, and see fans packing up shop and sprinting away. Hopefully the transition is a fast one and those with a true love of the sport will stick with it, realize that things are heading in the right direction and hopefully be there for us in the future. Hopefully there are enough of those out there to keep things alive. In the end who really knows… Fingers are crossed. Guess we’ll find out soon.
I guess you could look at it another way too. Cycling has a few highly publicized positive tests a year. Major League Baseball had 104 positives in 2006 for stimulants alone - does anybody really care? In a very selfish sort of way I truly hope so.
Everybody has their happy place. In Girona I have two. One, the Rigo, is a great meat, cheese, wine and specialty good shop that satisfies the “dense food” category. My other, pictured here, the Bellsola, takes care of the starch side. From life changing chocolate croissants(light pastry, massive bar of choc through the center and then dipped on both ends) to some silly good baugettes, they get it done. Check the pizza, quiche and flatbreads in the pic…best post ride food out there for a euro. Breadworks in Boulder? Shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same paragraph…
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