2 Mar 2005
Since Christian Foster and I are teammates, and thus are at team
training camp together, please excuse any redundancy amongst our
journal entries. That is for the few out there who might be
reading his journal.
So, the flamboyant Aussie Jeff Hopkins (aka Big Red) flew into
Nashville on Feb. 21 and concluded his 24-hour stay the next day
when he, Christian, and I left for Athens, Georgia. After
fighting our way through the sprawling nightmare known as Atlanta we
arrived at The Hub bike shop at 5pm and started putting the
finishing touches on our new Louis Garneau machines. Brian,
our mechanic, had everything ready to go and we didn’t have to do
much at all. Wow! Did you just catch all 3 sponsor
plugs?
Then, it was off to our separate accommodations. I’ve been staying
at David and Gaye Crowe’s house with my Canadian teammate Geoff
Kabush. For those of you who know anything about mountain bike
racing, the name probably rings a bell. If you know nothing,
K-bomb was the NORBA professional champion for 2004. Not bad.
Anyway, the next day was 60 degrees and sunny so the team decided to
do a 4 hour tempo ride with everyone getting used to their bikes and
each other. I’ll tell you, I’ve been on pro teams since 2000,
and I can already feel that this year is different: better support,
better management, better riders, and a better attitude all around.
The rest of the week consisted of a day off on Thursday, a fast
3.5-hour ride on Friday, and a race at the Greenville training
series on Saturday. The boys raced all out in an attempt to
make the race hard and also to have fun. Everyone is going
really well, and it’s hard to tell who will stand out once the
season gets into high gear. Later that night was the Team
Launch party and presentation held at the Jittery Joe’s Roaster.
This was a great setting with Micah’s UGA interns setting everything
up and a live band providing the music. I saw a lot of old
faces from my years in Athens as well as some new ones that made the
trip from Nashville. Thanks to John Gilbert, Jo Ellen, and
Ramsey for their support. It was a fantastic evening that
really impressed the riders with how much team support there is
before the season has even begun! I’ve had a number of the
guys comment on how they’ve never seen this much fanfare for a pro
cycling team. We’re just hoping to provide you folks with some
great racing… Of course, the remainder of the evening will have to
stay locked up in the secret annals only to be divulged in casual
conversation.
Sunday was a dreary and cold day that turned into a well-deserved
day off for everyone. A day off the bike that is; we still
attended a few team meetings concerning sponsors and the overall
structure of the team. Do you see yet? It’s not all fun
and joking around, there’s serious business here. Whatever.
Because whatever rest and boring activities we had to endure,
Monday’s training was anything but boring. This consisted of
4.5 hours in the north Georgia mountains, surveying the major climbs
in the upcoming Tour of Georgia, in 38 degrees and raining.
Just when it surely couldn’t get any worse, the rain turned to snow
as the riders ascended Brasstown Bald to over 4000 feet. I
only wish I had a camera to show you the photos! It was so
socked in that you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you.
Unfortunately, I had to cut the ride short. You know, knee
problems and all. All told, it was a ten-hour day
door-to-door.
Now, as I sit here on Tuesday afternoon, only seven guys rode at all
with three feeling under the weather. Very surprising.
That’s all right; overall the team is riding very strong. I
only hope we can carry the form and build on it over the next 2
months. Keep an eye out for the boys at the Giro del Capo in
South Africa March 9-13. In the meantime, I’ll be seeing some
of you folks around Nashville. Till then…thanks for reading.