Yesterday was my last day in California. I’m heading back to Kansas today. Since I can hardly ride my bike, it will do me better to be home and just get everything ready to head to Louisville. I’m going to miss the riding in shorts and short sleeves, but this trip didn’t work out too well for getting that last bit of form. But, that is the way bike racing goes.

I would love to be heading to Cincinnati this weekend for the UCI race. Did you see the start list? Short, but sweet. I surely wouldn’t mind toeing the line with Niels Albert this weekend, but it wasn’t to be. Eric Tonkin is going. That guy better not get any UCI points, thus disqualifying himself from riding 3 days later, 90 miles away in Louisville.

I’m not exactly sure when I’m going to be driving over to Louisville yet. Sometime this weekend. I’m moving a little slower than normal, so it might take me a little longer to prepare everything.

I’m not spending half my day in the bathroom, but this stomach thing is lingering and it’s starting to stress me. Okay, I have to pack up my bike and get moving.

Sue sitting with her two babies, Kaya and Ranger. Between the two of them, they have two eyes. They are both survivors.

Kaya ate this whole container of chocolate one night, thus having to spend the day at the emergency vets.

Don was mounting a new bike rack on his Ferrari. He didn’t get the one in Austin during the F1, he flew out to New York for this one.

This is a
Sea Sucker bike rack that is going to be awesome for the Ferrari.

I was woken every morning to these guys who are putting up a new retaining wall in the back. I was itching to help them.

This is Ranger. He acted as a blanket during my time of need. I appreciated the companionship enormously.

You can’t complain about the sunsets here.

There is an interview at Velonews.com with Jonathan Page. He’s training in New Hampshire, which I’ll never understand. I sort of understand it if he’s just resting, which is most likely the case.

Anyway, the article wraps up with this-

VN: What are your expectations for Louisville?
JP: I don’t really want to say. Talk’s cheap. I don’t want to say, “I’m going to get this place.” That’s bullshit. I’m just going to go ahead and look for a magical day and that’s it.

That is one of the big reasons that many of us race bikes. That elusive, magical day. I nearly had one a couple weeks ago in the Chicago UCI race. I had 1/4 a day, which was great.

The weird thing about these days, is they rarely occur when we would like them to. Being elusive, they tend to stay just below the surface, popping up their heads for a few moments, every once in a while, then resurfacing, sometimes for months.

That is one thing I don’t understand at all about the usage of drugs in sport. I don’t know how these guys can trade something as trivial as money for the experience of attaining that magical moment. They never know whether the moment is theirs, or the moment is chemically induced. I couldn’t image spending my whole life training for the magical moments, knowing that I’d never experience one from my own doing. It’s so sad.

Anyway, when these magical days do fully expose themselves, on the biggest stages, such as Louisville will be for Jonathan, that is a very special event. I’m wishing him the best of luck, because that is much of what it takes, for the stars to align themselves in such a manner to allow his special, magical day to surface.