Made it... barely

It has been a while since I updated, but perhaps I can do it in the next few days. Nonetheless, the latest is that I traveled today to Denmark for "Post Rundfart Danemark" (or something like that). For those speaking English, that would be Tour of Denmark. Anyway, the day was long for many reasons.

First is that I began travel at 8am this morning and did not get to the hotel until about 730pm this evening. It was quite horrible. The first plane in Barcelona was delayed 1 hour because of some documentation error. I think basically they did not have our flight in the system and they had to figure all of that out. Nonetheless, because of this minor inconvenience, we missed our connection. When I say we, I mean 3 of my teammates, 1 HTC guy, 6ish Garmin guys, and myself. What a pain! We were able to get a later flight with a different airline to make it to our final destination, but then baggage was lost and all the problems involved with that situation began. Just let me say it was nice to arrive, although I really wish I could have ridden today.

Dinner was nothing to write home about. Typical fair of veggies/salad stuff, rice, pasta, sauce, chicken, fruit, and some dessert. The lesson was learned tonight however, that in Denmark they finish eating at 9pm SHARP. We had hardly arrived at dinner when they were cleaning up. Some of our guys didn't even get food. It was quite the commotion as people tried to get the situation sorted. I don't really know what happened, but I got my food and am ready for bed!

Tomorrow is stage one and it looks like it will be a bunch kick. I think that is the majority of this race. There is one stage with a hard finishing circuit, but other than that, I think it is just gentle rolling hills and finishing circuits every day. For me, I think I will be looking for some breakaway opportunities and then just working for the other guys who will likely do better in the bunch finishes. I hope to find better legs than I had in San Sebastian. It was a bad day on the bike for me and I just didn't have the go. With that behind me now though, it is time to look forward and do the best I can.

The worst and most important reason for today's long travel is that it began with me leaving Girona and Lisa. Yes, Lisa's summer vacation has ended and on Thursday she will be returning to the US. This is one of those major drawbacks to this lifestyle/career, but unfortunately it is part of the job description. It has been a wonderful summer with Lisa here in Spain and I am sad to see her go, but I also look forward to our future time together in the US and here again in Spain/Europe. There are sure to be many adventures ahead! Ok, bye bye.