If you started racing bikes at a young age you’ve depended on the generosity of others to make it work.   I couldn’t start to count the number of floors I’ve slept on and how many different places I’ve stayed over my lifetime.  Host housing is what allows many racers the freedom to be able to travel to races.

Host housing saves a ton of money, but in reality, the relationships you get from it are what matters.  I have to say that many of my best friends in this world started with them offering a place to stay during a race.

I was thinking of this today, since it is Walberg Road Race.  I’m not sure what year it was, but I think it was 2005.  It had been snowing in Kansas and I had around 500 miles.  I’d done a couple races in Austin the previous year and realized they were the next weekend.    I decided to go.

I called up the promoter of one of the races, Barry Lee, and Barry was super nice.  His team was sponsored by the Hotel San Jose and he said that he could give me a room for a week.  I’d heard about the hotel and thought that would be a great place to hang.  But, Barry kept telling me that he had some super host housing and that I should consider staying there.

I told Barry I wasn’t big on host housing, I’d given up on it since the last couple times I’d had bad experiences, mainly kids being sick, thus, I got sick.  Barry told me that he was fine with me staying at the hotel, but I should really consider host housing.

Finally, I realized that Barry really wanted me to stay at his host housing so I gave in.  Barry gave me an address and phone number.  I drove down there with Trudi, Catherine and Bromont.  I called the number and the woman that answered the phone had a thick southern accent.  I told her we had a dog and she said that was fine, since she had a dog too.

That was the first time I met Ann Riopel.  She was just into riding bikes and was a pathologist. Barry had warned me not to talk to Ann about doping, especially Lance, since she was a very generous to the Armstrong Foundation.

Soon, my whole team showed up and nearly invaded her house.   Ann was too nice to say anything.  Ann is from Charleston and is super smart and engaging, very easy to talk to.

Probably the 2nd night, over a glass of wine, Ann said something about Tyler Hamilton and how idiotic his defense was. She said that she did the test of two types of blood in a person and that the only way a man could have that would be by putting someone else’s blood in.

Then she started questioning my thoughts on Lance.  I was pretty outspoken on it, but heeded Barry’s advice and kept silent.  Finally she took me upstairs to a signed photo of the US Postal team time trial team  at the Tour, she had in her workout room.  She said that everyone of the guys on in the photo, other than Lance and George had tested positive, so how could it be that they weren’t doing the same, since they were better than the other guys.  So I told her everything I thought. Barry was wrong on this, she could make her own decisions about doping and cycling.

I’ve stayed with Ann more times than I can count.  We’ve drank a bunch of wine together, I’ve been to her Christmas parties, I trained there alone for a couple weeks in January before I raced Master’s Cyclocross Worlds in Belgium.  We’ve met in Las Vegas and really need to meet up more often, in cool places.  I love her dogs, past and present, and she was one of the first persons I called when Bromont got diagnosed with cancer.  She is a good friend.

Anyway, I would really like to be racing today and tomorrow in Austin.  Not because the races are so good, which they are, but because I haven’t seen Ann in such a long time.  She got married last year and moved into a new house a mile or so away from her other house.  I saw the house when it was getting remodeled, but haven’t seen it since they moved in.

I’m so glad that Barry talked me into host housing.  It is funny how small decisions you make, like whether to stay is a hotel or host housing can affect your life.  But, that is life, forks in the road, millions upon millions of them, that lead you to unknown places.

At Ann’s Christmas party.  She is in standing in the middle with the glass of champagne.

Ann’s old dog, Stanley, and Bromont at Starbucks near her house.

Stanley and her new dog Lulu, on an outing.

                             The Hotel San Jose on South Congress, where the stars hang.

I can hardly wait for Lulu to meet Tucker. Lulu bugged Bromont to no end. I think Tucker will do payback.

Yesterday I rode over to Lawrence to start my 2016 race campaign.  I would have much preferred doing a long road race with moderate climbing, but instead, did an hour criterium, points race no less, in 25 mph winds.  Exactly the opposite what I am trained for, but obviously what I need to work on.

It is 25 miles each way to the course from my house, plus the hour race, so it worked out to be nearly 80 miles still.  I didn’t feel that great riding over.  John-Jack and Bill were pulling a group of us, with cross/tailwind, and it felt like they were hauling ass.  That is never a good sign.  I think it was because it seemed so hot, in the mid-70’s.  I can’t believe that in a couple months, that will feel cool.

Anyway, we got over there way quicker than I had anticipated, so we had about an hour to wait until the start.  I remembered from a couple years ago how guys get so excited early season that they start crazy hard.  And it was the case once again.  I think after 15-20 minutes, I looked down and had a normalize wattage of 380.

Since it was a points race, there were 3 sprints during the race, plus the final.  I sort of tried all 3 times, with not that much success.  I sort of am riding a little within myself because my left hand isn’t working all that great, thus the front brake is kind of non-existent.  There were 4 places and I was 5th the first two sprints.  After the 2nd one, I took off, and John-Jack came with me.

He pulled thru the first time so hard I could barely stay on, but I had just sprinted.  My heartrate was staying pretty high for me, so obviously I wasn’t recovering very well.  We only rode a couple laps off the front, but that softened up the Olathe Subaru team, that had 6 guys.  They had gotten 1-4 in the first two sprints, I think.

Before the 3rd sprint, Bill came up and asked me if he should lead me out.  I told him that I was okay, but he should attack after the sprint.  I started the sprint later, and got a little crossed up right before the line, but finished 2nd and got some points.  I could tell everyone was dead.  The field of 30 or so had be whittled down to something like 12.

Right then Bill and John-Jack came flying by and that was sort of it.  The Subaru guys were trying to catch their breathe from sprinting and Bill and Jack got an okay gap.  One other guy from Groove Cycling, a Colorado team, jumped a couple laps later and bridged up to the front two in a couple laps.

And that is the way it stayed.  I figured that Bill finishing top 3 in the final sprint was as best as we were going to do.

I finished 3rd in the field sprint, there were 8 places for points.  Bill was 2nd in the final sprint, so finished pretty good.  We had to leave before the results were posted because it was going to get dark.

I think we probably finished 4 and 5th, but could be off on that.  It is amazing how hard bike racing can feel when you haven’t done it in a few months.

Today we’re driving 3 hours to Columbia Missouri and doing a road race.  It is 63 miles, but is going to be super windy, so lots of gutter riding.  I think I am in better shape for gutter riding than sprinting, but we’ll see.  Early season you have to pay your dues.  And using racing to get race form is one of the ways, no matter how painful it is.

It was Tucker’s first bike race.

He wasn’t so sure what to make of it before the start.

He was pretty zonked after the full day.