Bonjourno!

It's nice to have a chance to write in my blog again. It means that team support and the travel that goes with it is starting again. This trip starts the 2012 team support with a Dutch team called Vacansoleil-DCM.

The first camp of the year is always interesting. There are new riders, new equipment, and new sponsors. Riders are figuring out their new bikes, mechanics are learning the nuances of the equipment, and I'm here to make sure the nuances are manageable for the team and the riders and all are educated enough as to not create a major disaster. The fun of having a fairly technical product.

12/14: Most people expect Italy to be beautiful. I'm sure it is normally, but I can't say for certain since it's been dark and rainy since I arrived. It's been raining and windy the entire week. The hotel is an interesting one.  It's connected to a half full mall. It was probably nice at one point. This actually works out nice though, because I'm able to do some my work in a large "bike room". The only downside, is that the only light in the room is a small floor lamp. Oh well, at least it's out of the cold, wind, and rain. 

12/15: It's still raining. Today for the training ride, I went with one of the directors. It was cold and windy, but guys were still able to ride about 5 hours. No problems came up during the ride, so that's always nice. It means we did a good job of redesigning the new hub. Post-ride, I found some more "birds" to tend to, which means a little more time in my bike room. Thankfully I'm getting pretty good at getting rid of the birds. After this I spent a few hours talking with the riders and getting them up and running with our software. It's a little challenging when internet is slow and spotty and best, but I was prepared, and got almost everyone straightened out. 

12/16: Another day of the same. Another 5 hours in the car, another bird to kill, and check in with the riders before dinner. It's nice to sa

12/17: It was finally nice! Sunny and mostly warm, which is to say in the high 50s probably. Instead of going with the riders I stayed with the mechanics today to get the race bikes ready for the Tour Down Under next month in Australia. It's the first race of the year and always a rush for the team to get everything ready in time. 

12/18: Some of the riders left yesterday after training and the rest had an easy 1.5 hour spin this morning before heading to the airport. So with that, my work was done. A very successful camp! Now what? It's 11:30 in the morning and my flight isn't for another 18 hours. How about go to Pisa and see the most famous tower in the world? That sound like a good idea and it's only 35km away. Easy. As it turns out, there's more to Pisa than just the tower. There's a cathedral too. And it's surrounded by a wall, which I guess is pretty typical of medieval Italy . I didn't go to the top of the leaning tower, but did go inside the cathedral, which was impressive to say the least. The Pisa Marathon was today too, which was, well, just like a marathon on the states. It was lunch time so I stopped at a little ristorante and had a spicy salami pizza. As I expected, it was fantastic. It's hard to beat to true Italian style pizza. I easily found my way back to the car and hopped back on the A11 back to Montecatini-Terme, where the training camp was. I'll hang out here for the rest of the afternoon before getting up extra-early tomorrow morning.

Well that's it. My week in Italy compressed into 1000 words or less. Ciao!

Now that I've had some rest and I know where I am, I'll continue writing. So Saturday we tool the train into London's Paddington Station. It's an impressive building with super-tall ceilings with what looks like wrought iron ornamentation. Very intricate stuff. We knew where the hotel was located, but had know idea how to get there. Thankfully, we hopped in a cab, because we would have gotten lost, dragging our suitcases down the sidewalk. Our hotel was in Central London, across the street from Hyde Park. Amazing. London has to be the most international city I've ever been to. In any direction there was a different type of cuisine. We did a bit of walking around, but unfortunately most of the shops were closed since it was late-ish on a Saturday. But still, the streets were packed. We stopped for some snacks at a French-Lebonese restaurant, which was pretty good. I had no idea they speak French there. From there, we walked back to the hotel to get a sweater and headed to dinner. We ended up at the best Indian restaurant I've ever been to. The food was all French inspired as well. Of course, I had to try the filleted duck breast in a red curry sauce. It had a fancy French name which I could pronounce, but can't remember. Wow, was it good. So that was London. Check back for more on other cities as we make our tour of Europe this week.
Sent from my BlackBerry

Because half the time I travel, I don't always know where I am. Literally and figuratively.

Let's look at yesterday as an example. Work is super busy right now, as we're getting ready to launch an entire new line of products. Our sales team is in town to learn about the products too. And I have other work responsibilities to take care of too. All that, means running around like chicken without a head. And oh wait. It's time to fly to Europe for a week of distributor training.

Transatlantic flights aren't too bad when you've done it a gazillion times. I do my best to sleep, but this time was a little harder. It's not easy to sleep when you're not tired and it's still sunny outside the plane. But I managed. Anyway, after leaving the airport, we immediately headed to our distributor to give the presentation on very little sleep. Had some Mediterranean dinner and called it a night at 10.

Now it's Saturday, so after breakfast we were able to get a nice 65 km bike ride in through the English countryside. We stopped about halfway for tea and a muffin along an old canal. Pretty cool. And since it's still Saturday, we're taking the train to London, where we'll spend the night.
Sent from my BlackBerry

Another week, another trip

By the end of this week, I'll have flown about 27,000 miles since January 1st this year.  It's a pace that can be tiring, but at the same time I get to see a lit of cool places.  This week started by heading to the sunny state of California, where I spent a couple days at Specialized, getting their pro triathletes riding on PowerTaps.  I also had some time to chat with them about why they should train with power and how to use the fancy yet not so complicated Joule computers.  Usually when you talk to pro athletes about product, their eyes kind of glaze over and they don't usually ask many questions.  This time, we actually had a pretty good conversation.  Training with power is key and triathletes really need to embrace it, so I'm glad they asked questions.  After all, they're training for three disciplines at once, not just riding their bike around a business park or empty country road.  Plus, when age groupers see the pros training and racing with power, they'll want to pick it up too.  

So after a couple days in Morgan Hill, I headed to the metro Dallas area to do some clinics to do some product clinics for the staff at Richardson Bike Mart.  They start tomorrow and then I head back on Friday afternoon.  Now I'm going to watch a show about shark attacks.  

I heart Tucson

Tucson is awesome in probably more ways than I know, but here's why I like it. It's 4 PM and the "wind chill" is 85. Without the 20 mph wind, it's 89. That's awesome. I wonder how hot it was when we were riding at 1? It also has mountains and the hotel's altitude is about 2700 feet. Cacti (I think that's plural for lots o' cactus) are 25 feet tall and are everywhere you'd expect a tree to be. They have gun shows. For my work friends that read this, that isn't referring to Thursday lunch rides. The riding is amazing. Roads go up and down and have swooping turns. There's hills that last for miles. For example, Mt Lemmon is a 2 hour climb. And my favorite thing about Tucson is the food. I think Mexico is about 50 miles away, so there's lots of Mexican food. Not Tex-Mex... The real deal.

So back to my job. This morning was typical for a camp. Breakfast, relax, hurry up and get everything ready, wait a bit, then ride. The campers are pretty easy to work with and seem interested in training with power. That's always a plus. After getting everyone setup, we headed out for a ride. I spent the first part of the ride hangin with the Matt Lieto-led group. He's a great guy with a great story about how he became a top-level triathlete. The second half I hung with Linsey Corbin and Matt Dixon's group. This one was a little faster pace and Matt was nice enough to have me leading the group for a while. It's a good thing I can ride at a steady pace... It was nice to get some hard efforts in, too. Then we went up the steep side of Gates Pass. Think 17+% for the last 1/4 mile. I crushed it. Seriously, I think they were a little surprised to see the guy from "flat" Wisco flying up the hill. Then 30 minutes screaming downhill. Also awesome; it's a good thing the Euskaltels gave me some practice last month.

Now time to watch the UW basketball game, which is a little more fun because of all the fellow 'Sconnies staying at the hotel. I can't have too much fun though, my flight leaves at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Ugh.
Sent from my mobile device

March madness

Typically, March Madness refers to college basketball. For me and my com padres in the cycling industry, it means training camps and season opening sales. In past years I've done my time selling racks to all those buying new bikes. Now, I get to support training camps. Score! First March Madness reference. After spending most of the day on an airplane to Tucson, and as it turns out, the tourney is in town. Second March Madness reference. I was able to get a short ride in, which was nice. It's good to start short here. I mean, we're in the desert after all. After checking in with those running the camp, it's time to sit at the pool and relax a little. Oh, and the UW basketball team is staying at the hotel. Third March Madness reference. Well I'm starting to lose function of my thumbs (this is written on Blackberry). Thanks for reading.
Sent from my mobile device

Day 3

Today was my last day with the team. Not really a very nice day, but thankfully I was able to borrow a rain jacket and rubber gloves for the ride. It was a relatively easy 2 hour ride. What is relatively easy ride for a pro team in the cold and rain? 25kph. Not slow, but a pace that I can ride for hours on end. If only I had worn the bibs they gave me, any onlooker would think I was part of the team. Pretty cool.

So after cleaning up after the ride, it back to work for a little bit before heading to the airport. All in all it was a good trip. The only thing that could have made it better was being able to speak Spanish. Maybe by the next trip I'll know a little more. Until then, thanks for reading and I'll put a few pics up on Facebook when I get home.
Sent from my mobile device

Day 2

Today was nice. It was sunny and probably in the mid-50s before the start of the ride. There was some media, similar to our VeloNews. The ride was good, but hilly. Nothing like 5k climbs to kick you into shape. For me the ride lasted about 90 minutes before I was slowed by a mechanical, then paced back to the group behind the follow car (by the way, that was pretty cool by itself). After more shifting problems, the mechanics stopped and fixed the problem, although I decided at the same time just to call it a day. I wasn't sure how many more of those climbs I could have taken.

So eventually I got back to the hotel, cleaned up, ate, and did some other work with our Spanish distributor, ate again, and off to bed.
Sent from my mobile device

Land of the Euskaltels

The last two days have been crazy. Here's a quick recap. Arrive at Madison's wonderful airport at 9 am Monday. Thanks to Chicago's wonderful weather my flight is delayed until 1, which means I'll miss my connection. So I get on the phone with the very helpful people at United's frequent flyer program and after trying to figure out how to get to Alicante, they rerouted my entire trip. It turned out okay. My layovers were a little longer (which means a little less stress, especially when connecting through Madrid) and arriving 8 hours later. And after 36 hours, I made it to the hotel just in time for dinner. That may not seem bad, but pro teams eat around 9 PM. So after some good appetizers, and okay pork dinner (I wasn't about to have fish after my last experience), and a couple glasses of good, Spanish red wine, I was off to bed by midnight.

Fast forward 8 hours (yes, I slept 8 hours). I've traveled to Europe so many times over the past year I don't really get much jet lag, but it was nice to sleep laying down, for the first time since Sunday. Breakfast was good. Bacon, eggs, croissants, and of course coffee. The coffee here is amazing.

By now you're probably wondering, is he ever going to go to work? Ah, right. After checking in with the mechanics and making sure everything is AOK, it's time to change into my riding gear and go for a spin... With the team. Right, we'll see how long that lasts.

I guess I forgot to mention that I'm at the Euskaltel-Eskadi training camp in Alicante, Spain. I'll write more later.
Sent from my mobile device