Thursday, April 15, 2010

189.9km

When I left the house this morning I was not sure where I was going or what exactly my ride would entail, but I knew it had to be a big one. 6.5 hours and 189km later I returned home from my adventure. Today I was striving for quantity and quality in my ride. I had planned intervals for each of the hours of my ride. They varied in intensity and length, but they certainly built upon one another and by the end I was a wee bit tired!
I have been back in Girona now since Sunday. I finished Vuelta Pais Vasco on Saturday with an exciting ride in the team car following Chris Horner to his awesome overall victory. He entered the TT one sec down on Valverde and rode a perfect TT to win the stage and the overall by 7 seconds.
Immediately following the TT, I hopped in the team car and got shuttled to the airport for the flight home. I flew from San Sebastian to Madrid to Barcelona. Arriving late at night though, I ran into the problem of no trains or buses running back to Girona and I certainly was not going to pay 160+ euros for a taxi. I was resigned to sleep on the cold, tile floor of the airport. I found a spot behind the elevators, partially shielded from the lights and laid down for as much shut-eye as possible.
I was marginally successful in sleeping and woke up to catch the first train back to Girona. I boarded the first train from the airport, but when I got to my transfer station, I realized that the next train I wanted to catch did not run on Sunday, so I had to wait an extra hour for the next one, not too big a deal, just inconvenient. I caught the next one and thought I was home free, but it wasn't so long into that ride that some announcement came over the PA (in Spanish or Catalan). I had no idea what is said, but judging the reaction of the other passengers, it wasn't good. I was able to ask one gentleman what happened and it was something with the tracks ahead requiring us to wait for up to an hour. OH MY GOSH, I JUST WANT TO GET HOME!
Forcing myself to be chill, I got out my computer and began to work on some stuff to occupy my time. After some time, we began to move again and I finally got back to Girona.
Yikes, I am having a little trouble making this exciting/interesting considering the lack of brain function after my ride today. Let's see, what else can I update on. After my experiences and growth at Pais Vasco, I have had a slight change in race program. I have will be doing Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastone-Liege followed immediately by Tour de Romandie. That is all I know for now!

2 comments:

Shane C. said...

I take it as a good sign that you will be doing FW, LBL and the TDR. Good luck, be safe. You have already made us all proud to know ya'!!!

DaveR said...

Holy Moly, you will have your hands full at the next races. I hope you ride safe and can enjoy yourself before the next races begin. If you make it to NM soon we look forward to riding with you.
dave