On the Road Again: Family Bike Tour of the Twin Cities

Ok, so Lisa and I woke up on Sunday morning after a fun race and night at the Cheqamegon 40, stuffed our bellies at breakfast, and were off to the Twin Cities to meet her family for a bike ride. I wasn't sure the ride plan when we showed up, but it turned out to be a great ride. We started out by Lake Calhoun and rode a bit of the way around it, then we ventured off toward downtown Minneapolis. We followed an impressive network of bike trails that took us into downtown, along both sides of the river, and back out a greenway to the Lake Calhoun/Harriet trails. We went past the Twins stadium, the Gopher's new football stadium, Mike and Jann's first apartment, the Saint Thomas campus, and managed to catch a Sunday afternoon show by the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. By the end of the 2.5hrs, my legs, mind, and body were more than kaput! Upon arrival at the house, we drummed up a delicious meal of salmon with a wild rice stuffed squash: YUM!

I spent one WHOLE day (excuse the sarcasm) in Glencoe before shipping off to Worlds on Tuesday. My travel here was relatively painless actually. The first bonus was that I didn't have to travel with a bike, which always helps getting to/from and through an airport 100 times easier. The second bonus was my big score on sleeping a solid 4.5-5hrs on the flight. Not sure what it was, but I am sure I listened to the same music coming from the arm of the airplane seat at least 4 times. After arriving in Brussels, it was an easy 75 minute drive to the team hotel in Maastricht where I have been since.

I've done three rides with some assortment of all the guys now, and the team has a good vibe. There are a lot of athletes here from the USA between the juniors, U23, and elites of men and women. It is awesome to see the new generation coming up. And I am definitely pumped to be a part of the current generation that has an obviously bright future with prime examples being the recent performances of Taylor, Tejay, and Andrew. I hope I can continue to be a part of this team as it grows and matures to hopefully be contesting these races each year.

Yesterday we rode the circuit, and it is relatively straight forward. The streets are narrow as always here, but they have thankfully removed the road furniture from within the circuit. Today we rode the first 100km of the race, which is the start to the beginning of the circuits, and it is pretty much what could be expected here: narrow, twisty, turns, road furniture, and in the final 25km some big rollers. It will be an exciting race I imagine. The weather is pretty "fallish" with temps in the 50s/60s and light winds. The rain is holding out so far, and hopefully it will continue to do so through Sunday. Tune in for a fun race!