L'Avenir, Italy, Worlds

Ok, ok. I know, it's been a while. Unfortunately it's not over either and I'm still running in the red so I'm going to have to keep this brief.

L'Avenir was tough. 9 days in northern France racing against the best u23 riders in the world is not exactly easy but team USA got along just fine. We ended the race with Tejay taking a big 2nd over all, a 2nd in the tt, 2nd on the 3rd stage, and a 3rd on the final stage. Not too bad. Only issue with doing that well is how close we were to winning something big. So close. Tejay lost the damn race by one second! So close. For me personally it was a good experience. Made the break on a couple of days, did plenty of work to make sure captain Tejay and Pete were where they needed to be and managed to have a good time doing it. Looking forward to trying to get some legit results for myself there next year.

After L'Avenir team USA made a quick trip to Belgium to drop off/pick up some stuff, did a sweet, "beer ride" and quickly made our way down to Lucca, Italy for a little R & R before heading to Switzerland for Worlds. Before moving on to Worlds I just want to say that if you ever get the chance to visit Lucca, take it. The area is an endless maze of bike path sized roads winding through, around, and over every little hill and mountain in the area. Damn good riding. Great place to be after suffering in northern France eating crappy over cooked pasta for breakfast and dinner for nine days.

Worlds. Nice hotel, fun atmosphere, beautiful area, crazy course, less than stellar result. What can I say? I had a blast but I am definitely less than satisfied with our team's performance in the U23 race. Broken spokes, and a few flats offer a couple of excuses. But for those of us that didn't have any bad luck I can't really offer up any reasons for the less than stellar performance other than the fact that it has been a long season. I'm cooked.

I may be cooked but it ain't over yet. I have one week at home then it's off to the Suntour in Australia on the 6th. Race is from the 11th to the 17th. Should be a tough one. Cool part is, is that I will be racing with the ProTour boys. No shame in getting bottles for Mr. "4th place at the Tour De France" Wiggens.

Pretending to rest,
Alex