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February 25, 2007
CSC Training Camp Day II
Day two of the training camp started with me rolling down to breakfast about 7:40 or so. I sat with Kevin who informed me that he and a few others were heading out for a two hour ride in about 10 minutes. So I wolfed down my breakfast of eggs, oatmeal, fruit, cheese, and coffee and then went to grab my bike and head out. There were four of us and we headed out to find some hills. We got lost and hit a couple of dead end roads, then we back tracked to where we rode the day before and found some decent roads. We rolled along at an easy pace until we came upon a super steep, short hill that we rode to the top and then back down before continuing our ride. We double backed and hit that same hill again. This time we continued through the neighborhood which was full of some huge houses a few more super steep hills. Once we topped out, we were able to coast downhill pretty much back to the hotel where we met up with the team for the days ride.
Once again, we headed back out towards the same roads but this time we were with the team! We had two cars following us. One was the official photo car and the other the support vehicle. We broke up into two groups just because we were about 50 + cyclists in total. The first part of the ride was over some decent hills and was at a much faster pace than what I remember last year. We were cruising along at about 20+ miles an hour. We stopped briefly for a bladder release about 10 miles into the ride. As we got going again, Bjarne gave me a nice push off.. Not a word was said (as Bjarne does not talk too much), but just a simple smile. You can tell he just loves being on the bike. Not long afer we stopped, maybe 10 miles later we were held up by some construction. There was a triathlete that was also stopped, and she must have been surprised to see such a large group of cyclists, all with the same kit, speaking multiple languages, and generally goofing off. After we got going again, the pace was pretty high and I was just sitting on the back of the firs group. My rear brake was giving me a lot of problems, so I pulled over reluctantly to fix it. Luckily just about when I was done, the second group rode by. I hopped on my bike and the support car dropped back, told me to stick to the bumper and then they pulled me back up to the group. It was so cool, as I felt like I was in a race getting pulled back up to the peleton. About 5 miles later we all stopped. This was the turn around point for the 'guests' and the team was going to head out for a few more hours. The ride back to the hotel was at a nice clip, but nothing too hard. We finished in a total of about 2.5 hours which gave me a solid 4.5 hours in the saddle that day.
Back at the hotel, it was a shower and then off to lunch. After lunch I just relaxed and took a nap before a dinner event which had us off to a local winery, Clos LaChance. We got a chance to taste all of the wines of the Clos LaChance and to mingle with the Director Sportifs of CSC. I spoke quiet a bit with Jørgen V. Pedersen. He is an ex-professional that raced during the days of Greg Lemond and had won stages of the Tour de France. He was a very nice guy and could cruise along the bike quite well. I purchased two bottles of wine and before long were were back at the hotel to call it a night!
Posted by kermisch at February 25, 2007 1:26 PM