Singing a Different Tune!

What a difference a day makes!!! I've moved on to a different Jimmy Cliff tune!

The norteamericanos have been dealing with a very sticky visa situation for, well, three months now. It's been a pitched battle against a kafkaesque bureaucracy and right up until yesterday it looked like we'd all have to fly back to our respective home countries to complete our applications. That would mean throwing a huge wrench into our training and missing the a good chunk of amazing racing. Well, after a few trips to Germany, an amazing 11th hour effort on the part of Raleigh UK, and a little bit of luck we finally got our hands on those sweet, sweet visas yesterday. It feels like I'd been wearing a compression jersey for the last few weeks and I finally took it off. Total paradigm shift.

A few days ago I was trying to work out how I'd swing a trip back to the states and organize a visa application while still managing to train, race and see my fam. Now, instead of tacking on hours and hours of transatlantic travel and logistical headaches I'm cleaning my bike and raedy the race kit for my first ever UCI race tomorrow: the Ster van Zwolle, a 1.2 in Holland. It's been a bit of trick to go from visa grind to full on race mode in just 2 days, but like it or not it's gametime. Lucky for me I like it. In fact, I'm pumped out of my gourd. I don't even know if Jimmy Cliff has songs upbeat enough to convey how stoked I am to have a home in the UK and a UCI sufferfest tomorrow! I'll have to see if DJ Sparls has anything appropriate.

On a totally different tangent, have you guys heard of Team Exergy? Well now you have. This is an Idaho based Continental team that is definitely going to be my second favorite team in pro cycling. Tad and Remi, the guys running the team, are two of the best guys in the biz. And that's not just because they actually know how to run a show. They're a cut above because on top of their professionalism they also have a great respect for riders and an amazing and supportive attitude. And not only is this team run by great management, it has a solid roster featuring some good friends of mine, like Erik Slack, one of the most pure-blooded Idahoans you'll ever meet in cycling, and Sam Johnson, whose prowess on the bike is outdone only by his skills with the blog. The icing on the cake? Their wheels sponsor is none other than Keith "K-money" Williams, or Big Willy as I like to call him. Yup, that's the same man who helped me chase the dream and is in large part responsible for me being where I am today... which is freezing my balls off in Holland. Thanks (?), Keith! Anyway, these guys clearly kick ass and they drove that point home by winning the first race they entered this season, taking down Stage 1 of the Calville Bay Classic. I'm totally pulling for these guys (until we're in the same race) and I think that win is the first of many, many more to come this season.

Sitting in Limbo

Do yourself a favor and put "Sitting in Limbo" by Jimmy Cliff on in the background. Beside the fact that it is a stellar song in it's own right, it's really hitting home with me these days. Oh man, did I just write "hitting home"? That's my mind playing tricks on me. I've been living abroad for 7 weeks now and I've spent 4 of those 7 weeks on the road. Don't get me wrong here, I signed up for a life of adventure and I'm still all systems go on that front. I just wish we had a little inkling of what the plan might be. I don't mind rocking out; hell I enjoy living my life in a state of controlled chaos, but it's nice to have some end goal in sight to keep me focused. Like I said, Jimmy is really singing to me these days.

But the fact that I don't know what continent I'll be on in a week hasn't kept me from enjoying the here and now. JJ and his family have gone above and beyond by taking us into their home and making us feel like part of the family.(I guess when you live in somebody's house with them for long periods of time without paying rent you're typically some kind of family or some kind of pest. I hope I'm the former.) If it weren't for them I literally do not know where I'd be. They're amazing, and I feel incredibly lucky to be staying with them.

Their house is absolutely gorgeous and aside from a few flights of stairs reminiscent of an M.C. Escher deathtrap it's exceedingly comfortable. It's close to town and close to some great riding. All in all, it's hard for a cyclist to ask for more. Um, well, I might ask for some slightly warmer temps, or some slightly thicker clothes, but I don't think even the most generous hosts are obliged to provide those. (If by chance someone reading this post does have control of the weather where they live they may have just won the honor of hosting a training camp for (a) professional cyclist(s)!!!! Write me to claim your prize.)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a Dutch photomix:

Jesus-birds? No, it's just really, really cold.

Nijmegen constantly regales us with classic, cobbled Euro-streets.

...and winding, wooded paths.

This is a photo from Germany. Turns out even the horses in Germany have saucy Euro-mullets. I'm just surprised they weren't shod with leather hi-tops.

This next one is for my brother. He was telling me about how awesome he is because he got a personal tour of the White House. Oh yeah, Dan, guess who else has been to the White House. This guy! Boom! (In case your Dutch is a little rusty Het Witte Huis = The White House.)

The family Janssen has been preparing some amazing meals (I need to get pics from Phil) so we decided to return the favor. We wracked our brains trying to think of a tasty, traditional American meal... and came up with tacos.

Speaking of food, we had heard strange Dutch whisperings of a mythological burger/sandwich that was said to exist in this wondrous, faraway land. Imagine that a Subway footlong made sweet, patty-slapping love to a Triple Whopper and you would get this delicious love-child:

So we decided to set out in search of this fabled burgerwich (and possibly a few pints and lasses) and took traditional Dutch transport:

Double-Dutch (Jeroen and his brother Michiel)

That's about it for now. I'll leave you with this little gem. Below is (I shit you not) a Dutch school bus:

Hou Je Van Nederland?

Emphatically, YES! We've slipped from one cycling paradise in Mallorca to another in Holland aka the Netherlands, home of the freaky-deaky Dutchman, Jeroen "JJ" Janssen. And not just his home country, but his literal home, complete with amazing parents, delectable home-cooked meals and sibling guest appearances. Most Excellent!

Holland is amazing. I know that it's totally cliche and completely played out, but I can't stop myself from noting how incredibly bike friendly this country is. I've seen more people riding bikes around town in two days than I would back home in a month. Or maybe a year! It's straight loco! I saw a 60 year old woman do a cyclocross dismount yesterday that would have put the whole NorCal B's field to shame. It's beautiful to see cycling embraced as a viable form of transportation, but with infrastructure like they have in Holland you'd be an idiot not to ride a bike. In Holland you can just cruise your fiets down to your town center:
You can speed along a fietstraat, or bike street, reserved for bicycles:
Or slam along an open country road. Davis, California, eat your heart out!
We rocked over into Germany for a little bit on our first ride. I thought that was pretty sweet. This is me SUPER-STOKED on my first time in Deutschland! JJ picked up both the country line sprints. Recon pays off.
JJ and I were both feeling a bit out of place in a high end coffee shop in Nijmegen, but Jamie has an addiction and we're here to support him. (Note: his addiction is to coffee and not the other stuff you can get in Dutch coffee shops.)
As I discovered on my ride today there are numerous canals and waterways crisscrossing Holland. I ended up having to take a ferry to get home, which I though was an absolute kick in the pants. I guess I'm racking up quite a few firsts here in Holland.
Perplexed and a bit tired on my ferry ride. This was my first real ride post Mallorca and I may have forgotten there wouldn't be a team car with drinks and treats...
Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how incredibly beautiful the women in Nijmegen are. Nothing like having a seemingly endless line of tall, fit women parade past you on bicycles while you sip coffee in a cafe. They are gorgeous and fashionable, and as I write this I'm working up my courage to actually say something to them. Don't worry, I've been studying Dutch. De gele zon is groot. That's gonna just knock 'em dead!

More dispatches from wonderland soon. I swear I took photos of German ponies with euro-mullets and when I find them I'll post 'em up. Until then, as the Dutch say: Hakuna Matata.

PS Mooney has been shooting from the hip with what was once and iphone and is now a glorified ipod touch. He's got some good stuff up on his twitter.

Better Know a Teammate

I can't say there's much news to report. I continue to have my mind blown on a daily basis by the sheer awesomeosity of the training camp here in Mallorca. I've never had better riding or more quality training than in the past ten days. Cherie, Eddie, Helen and Pete have done an amazing job of taking care of all the logistics and organization leaving me and the other riders with no worries beyond smashing ourselves on the bike and making it back up the stairs to our rooms. Every other detail has been worked out, every necessity provided, and it's the huge efforts on the part of those four that have allowed us to have such an amazing camp. Huge thanks to them!

Eddie and Chez playin' it cool:

Pete: this guy knows his schiz.

Helen, always willing to go the extra mile.

It's also allowed us a bit of extra time and I've managed to steal a brief interview with none other than DJ Sparls. I wanted to ask him about his goals for the season and his riding style and what kind of food he likes before a race, but he wasn't going for it. I tweaked the questions a little bit and what follows is the result. I'm really hoping that I get a chance to interview all of my teammates, so hopefully I'm presenting you with Part 1 of the 11 part series: "Better Know a Teammate." Enjoy.



Ready for a more wacky antics from JSparls? Head here, or here.

TRMTCD3&4

Jaime (that's not a spelling error) has done a pretty awesome job of documenting this Mallorca excursion so far, and if you haven't already done so you need to go check out his witty ramblings.

Here's a few more shots to fill in the blanks. In no particular order:

Hotel Shot

This is what you get when you translate Russian to Spanish to English. Nice steps, though...

Hot chocolate comes with TWO sugars!

Matt Jones makes sure to tag even when he's on the road.

Turns out the real Spanish Steps are in Spain.

P$ Mooney. Yes, it really is this nice.

Recovery ride with the OG

This is what addiction looks like.

Busted. That's a whole plate of mussell shells and THREE bowls of dessert.

"Why are there two toilets?" -JJ

Brian from Raleigh America taking in the view from Randa.

Earning that view.

Put 12 guys in tight quarters and they revert to children. Yes, I got punked.

Shot from a bit of TT practice. Rickety Cricket doesn't even need a draft.

Today we're making a summit attempt. Hells yeah.

Somebody Pinch Me

I'm pretty sure I'm asleep and having the best dream of my life. Well, okay, it may not be the best dream I've ever had, but it's pretty damn sweet. In this dream I'm a pro cyclist at training camp in Mallorca. I don't believe it either.

We busted a 7am flight out of Liverpool on Monday, which meant a little hotel stay Sunday night, which in turn meant fire dancers out front of the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
A 7am flight meant a 3:45am wakeup call. Here are the lads at the airport, and they're about as stoked as they look. Trust me, guys, just hang in there and it'll be well worth it.
The flight to Mallorca was shorter than the drive I have to do in Idaho if I want to buy new pants. Sweet. Customs were a breeze and we walked out onto Palm Drive, which got me all nostalgic and whatnot thinking about the beginings of my cycling life. But that's another story. (Flying Dutchman earning his name in the foreground.)
The hotel we're staying at is pretty primo. We've been tearing through a surprisingly nice all you can eat buffet, and I've made it a point to hit double dessert every night. Eat big to win big. The hotel also has a sweet antique TV that seems to magically pick up shows from the past. My roomie Matt Cronshaw was amazed, and we even had some WWF going on the other day.
Here's a snap from above the hotel on my first short, spin-out-my-legs-because-I've-been-traveling-since-3:45am ride. Mallorca is amazing. People drive on the proper side of the road, and it seems they've passed a law that all roads must be scenic and awesome. The views are spectacular, the weather has been spot on and the quality of the roads rivals anything I've ever ridden. It reminds me a lot of California, with small roads twisting up long climbs as well as big open stretches where the wind is king. It's nice to watch the little jockey sized climbers who've been ripping your legs off on every incline for the last 3 hours fight a strong headwind.
We finally got in our first long team ride today and we snaked through hills, across rolling countryside and then came back along the beach.
I don't want to rub it in, but it turned into one hell of a February day and we snapped a few more pics from the hotel veranda post-ride.
All that talk of verandas reminds me of the "Three Amigos," and a quote therefrom.

Rosita: I was thinking later, you could kiss me on the veranda.
Dusty Bottoms: Lips would be fine.

God, I love that movie.

My resident Gretzky-loving DJ, and housemate Jamie has some more killer photos from today, and a generally hilarious blog. He updates it regularly and, not to tell you how to run your life, but it's worth a few minutes of your time.

I'm gonna jet, but let me leave you with a few highlights:

-Finishing my ride and leaving the bike with our mechanic Pete, knowing it will be tuned and shining before the ride tomorrow.
-Being handed a mussette bag full of delicious recovery grub immediately after handing off my bike.
-Massage from Helen, our soigneur. Supreme-o.
-Did I mention the all you can eat buffet of deliciousness.

Old jaded pros may be scoffing as I write that stuff, but I'm not used to being pampered like that and having those few things taken care of makes my life soooooo much better. Stoked. So, so stoked. I'm loving this dream and I don't want to wake up.