Day 1

My first day went something like this; fly 4200 miles, then spend another 330km in the car getting to the various places I needed to be. Renting a car in Europe is a great way to see new places. Even though my handy Garmin gives me turn by turn directions, I still manage to get lost. I don't mind though, because it's a great way to see places I might not normally see if I had someone driving me around. So back to my first day. I arrived in Brussels around 9:30 am and thought it would be fun to go to the start of the race in downtown Brussels. So, without any directions, map, or any idea of where the race was actually starting, I drove into downtown Brussels and immediately found the start. Score! Then I found parking 3 blocks away. Score #2!. The start was pretty cool, but totally chaotic. I'll try to figure out how to upload a couple. Then, drive to the hotel where CTT was staying to meet the Cervelo Race Engineer to discuss the plan for the next couple of days. Oh wait, I don't have a hotel room yet. The very nice receptionist was able to find me a room at a different hotel about 30km away. No big deal. At least I have a place to stay. I drive there and guess what, it's not in Liege, BE where the team is staying, but in Holland. Cool, another country and city I've now been to. At this point, I'm running on 4-5 hours of sleep, so I take a nap and then head back to Liege to meet CTT and get the bikes ready for the next stage. This means taking the freshly washed bikes and making sure all of their speed sensors are properly functioning. Although it is still Belgium, the weather was beautiful. After successfully making sure everything works, it's time for dinner. Dinner with the team is always nice. It's healthy and usually a pretty good variety. I had steak. By this point it's 10pm and time to meet Allen Lim at his hotel, which is 15 minutes away (in the different direction from both my hotel and CTT. Think triangle). He's the physiologist for Team Radioshack. There were some odds and ends the were forgotten back in the states, so I brought them over for him. It was also nice to sit and chat with another American for a little. Well it's 11:45 pm now and I need some sleep. It's a good thing my hotel is another 30 minutes away. Finally back to the hotel at 11:45 and it's off to bed.