Well, well

Well, well, well, where to start.... I guess it's been a few days since my last post. Sorry about that. I know how me being the center of the universe and all, everyone lives and breaths through my recolections of my mundane existance. Kidding of course. Any ways the past week or so has been plenty of fun. It started with the end of Tour d'Alsase. Great race. I have nothing but good things to say about that race (asside from some of the rediculous cobbles circuts w/ countless speed bumps traffic islands and narrow tunnels...). The organization was awsome and the crowds and start/finish towns were great hosts. In a truly professional style layout, the final day was increadibly hard. Here's part of the post that I typed up on the drive home but neglected to post:

"Well I'm spent! That last stage was a real doozy. I'm not really sure how long it was, how much climbing there was, or how many killijoules I'd did but it was a rediculous amount on all accounts. The day started with a 3 mile climb right off the bat. I survived. Decent. 6 mile climb straight after? Not really sure. My brain turned to mush sometime after the 20km mark. Long story short, I spent all day in the cars leap frogging groups and ended up somewhere in the top 30. It was one of those long days with out a seconds rest. The entire day was spent doing one of 5 things: bleeding from the eyeballs on some climb, playing caravan roullet (I'm getting WAY too good at this game. Bouncing off of bumpers, smacking tail lights, and skimming off the sides of cars (the right side of my body seems to be oddly attracted to the left side of the Ag2r car) are all bad habbits I'm trying to quit), staring in disbelieve at the five separate groups echeloned accross the road, catching and attacking said echelons, and my favorite.... Screaming at those unwilling to work, in what ever language comes to mind."

So yeah, it was tough. But I finished. Which is more than half my team can say... including the 2 leaders we'd all been working for. Bummer. Good thing is my legs are really starting to come around and the power is really starting to shoot up there. Although there is one small problem: No races. Correction: no races for me. Right now the only races the team is doing are in Italy. Only 4 riders plus 2 potential riders for next year went. So if you're not one of the six, you're training. I was scheduled to do a small criterium today but I have a funny feeling that the person who was supposed to pick me up has made other plans that don't include swinging by the apartment. To put it frankly, it's bull shit and I'm about ready to hop on a train and race kermeses in Belgium.

Ok, not Belgium. I'm off to the Netherlands on the 11th to go visit my good buddy Tejay who's been having a killer season this year. Should be fun especially because my other best bud Ryan and is Girly Emily will be up there as well. Should be buckets of fun.

I hope it's fun because Ryan and Emily could sure use some fun. They swung by Marseille a couple of days back during their France trip and I met up w/ them in the train station. There they were walking towards me, 2 people 1 back pack. Someone didn't sut the bus luggage door correctly and now $3000 worth of climbing equipment and travel stuff has found it's self a new home away from Ryan's back. Major bummer and insurance sucks but, it's hard to get that kid in a bad mood. Good to have a friend like that.

Trying to find a train to some BS race,

alex