Want to take a stab at designing our jersey for next year? Click HERE for details. The team for 08 was announced today in Greenville and it’s exciting looking ahead at what’s in store. First and more important however is this weekend’s National Championships in South Carolina. The same course as last year with 1 less big lap and climb and a few additional small circuits at the start. Everybody’s pretty fired up and with a plan that hinges on some numbers in the final selection here’s to us all firing 110% on Sunday afternoon. Other than a whole lot of heat and humidity not much happening here. A week of cruising around Greenville, counting in absolute awe at how many Churches and “savior centers” dot each little town and tuning up the legs for the weekend. Good stuff.

Damn it’s nice to be home. That’s about all that needs to be said there. After a long block on the road there is nothing better than sharing time with my wife, playing with our dog, sleeping in my own bed and cooking in a well supplied kitchen. The rest of the season is all US based for me so I’ll actually get to enjoy it for a while as well.

Sunday. Wow. Good racing all day until about 10 to go when people decided it was time to kill one and other. Kelly set up on the front(and finished it off - well done!), a move that should have calmed things down a bit, but for some reason guys decided that it was the signal to start going nuts for the spots behind and didn’t mind crashing for ‘em. At 5 to go I peeled over, drifter from the front, helping out Mike and Brad, straight to the back for one lap, and then after watching another crash or two decided there were better things to do for a non-crit guy like me than touch pavement. Like watch others do it… The pit was a perfect spot to watch the last few stacks and appreciate the fact that I wasn’t in em. Crazy. Hope everybody is healing up OK and the rain-slick roads softened the blows

My first criterium of the year yesterday here in wet and cold Downers Grove, Illinois (about the only place in the country that isn’t 100+) and I’d forgotten how sketch they are, but at the same time how much fun they can be. Today is the National Championships, professional riders only, and yesterday evening was a mixed pro-am event, typically one of the wildest events of the year. 224 starters on a 1 mile course with 8 corners - anybody’s definition of a good time.

We rolled to the start in the pouring rain and set up undernearth a bank drive-thru for the “warm-up”: put on lots of clothing and wait until the last second to get over to the line. Somehow the rain stopped just minutes before the gun went off and although the roads were rain-slick and an occaisional drop or two fell from the sky we got pretty damn lucky compared to the women who raced through the deluge just prior.

I started mid-pack and got to see the first crash of the day after all of 40 meters. Unreal. The second was in the second corner, 100 meters later. Fortunately the race strung out quickly and other than dodging the occaisonal local dude coming backwards like an advertisement for why the race shouldn’t have local riders taking part things became a bit safer. After about 15 minutes spent sneaking my way up to the front I countered an attack from teammate Meatball Friedman and actually stuck. 3 of us quickly grabbed 10 seconds from the field and then were joined by 3 others, bringing up some much needed HP. The 6 of us eventually got up to 25 seconds or so before the late-race chase came, catching us on the line. 5th place was teammate and defending chump, Brad Huff, actually coming out of the field and passing the last 2 guys in the break. I hung on for 4th. I tried a couple of times on the last lap to jump away but I feel like a big ol diesel engine right now with NO snap whatsoever. Managed to squeak out a tiny gap into the last corner but let the self-preservation instinct kick in a bit hard crossing the rain slick paint stripes and the other guys blew by me before the line. All things considered, just staying upright (my main goal for the evening) was a victory of sorts and with all the guys riding well and none of us touching pavement last night we’re optimistic looking towards today’s main event. Unfortunately rain is once again in the forcast so fingers are crossed. With a smaller, pro-only field things should be safer but crits are always risky and with Nationals coming up soon risks aren’t exactly what most of us are looking to take right now.

Time now for a bit of grub and a morning spin in the rain. Fingers crossed that I’ll be reporting back soon just after one of my teammates takes the Jersey!

…and tapping away over an obnoxiously large “cappucino” that could only be found in the US. Even comes with free wifi.

Portugal wrapped up on Wednesday with a TT. While most of us cruised in easy just to finish the race off Danny gave it a serious dig and ended up 7th, a killer ride on a rain/diesel slick course over rolling terrain against some guys going really, really fast. Impressive. For me successfully finishing the race was a great feeling after my crash on the 2nd day and a bit of a battle to get the body going again. We started the race expecting 5 or maybe 6 of us to finish and ended up with all but one making it to the end, hard to explain, but something of a victory for the team. Everybody jokes that Portugal is the fastest race in the world and if you can finish Portugal you can make it through the tour. As a durability test it was a good one and as prep for nats it couldn’t have been better.

Yesterday I flew back to the states and managed to sneak in a quick ride, mainly in search of Chipotle. After 7 weeks in Europe a hankering for “Mexican” food gets pretty strong. My standard barbacoa fajita burrito, black beans, corn and hot salsa, lettuce and guac couldn’t have tasted any better while plopped down in front of the tube back at the Marriott. Now I have a day to get the body back to fighting form here before the Downers Grove “Warm-up” race tomorrow and then Pro Crit on Sunday. I haven’t done a single crit all year and it’s gonna be a bit of a shock to the system. Regardless, it’ll be fun catching up with friends and getting going again on US soil before the road Nats fast approaching. With Meatball and Huff both on some good form for the crits we’ll have our work cut out for us and a repeat of last year’s victory for Brad would cap off the weekend in fine style. We only have 5 riders racing, while the team limit is 10, so it’ll be some serious work but with a bit of luck on our side maybe we can geeet rr dun.

There have been a number of comments and e-mails coming my after I pulled my little “Moment of Zen” post. An explanation: Knowing better, I shouldn’t have put it up in the first place. At a certain point one runs the risk of becoming a little self-riechous and losing the ability to actually have a positive impact, instead just becoming a pain in the ass that people laugh at and skim over. As for what could I have done in said situation? Not much really. Whatever this random dude did he didn’t win the race because of it and, while good for a laugh, had something been said nothing would have resulted from it. In some places there are courses of action to accomplish something, in Portugal not so much. So it is. Moving on.

My coffee stimulated state of alertness (doping?) is wearing off and it’s time to walk back up to the counter here and see what’s next. Then it’s off on the roads into the endless suburbia that is Metro-Chicago…

Forgot to post this up when it first went on the web. Probably a bit late, but better late than never I guess.

Portugal is truckin’ along. I’m finally feeling back to normal and by the end of this week should be bandage free, save a wad of non-stick over that elbow hole. Racing here has been straight-up silly, but there’s no better training than clinging to the wheel ahead for 4000kjs a day and I couldn’t ask for better prep for USPROs. 3 stages left before heading back stateside and a brief layover in Chicago for the Pro Crit Champtionships before getting home. So close yet so damn far away.

Far more important than any bike racing BS however, a big congrats goes out to Ryan and Kat Guay on the birth of their daughter Claudia!