Good morning. I'm in Atlanta airport and on my way to Tour of California. It has been a whirlwind last week going from Switzerland to Barcelona to North Carolina and now on to California. The last two stages of Romandie were tough, but I made it through the race in one piece which was the ultimate goal. I had moments of serious suffering, but I also had moments of good sensations that gave me hope that my fitness will be ok for a good performance in California.
The travel home after Romandie was a little crazy. My flight back to Barcelona on Sunday night was easy, but then the fun began. Lisa picked me up in our rental car and we headed to our hotel. It was about 10 pm when we stopped at a gas station to refill the car and discovered our rental might have a bad starter. After trying several times ourselves to get it going we ended up trying to ask for help. Of course, as soon as our new amigo walked over to take a look... it started. He was quite proud of himself, telling us he was a "muy bien mecanico". We debated heavily about trying to get a different car, but it was 10 pm, we were getting up at 6 the next morning, and we had a baby (and parents) who needed to sleep! We risked it that our car wouldn't start in the morning, but luck was on our side and it did. We made it to the airport to begin the circus travel day in earnest. The gate agent told us we were already delayed an hour. After that extended to almost 2 hours we knew we were at major risk to miss our connection in Paris. We landed in Paris and hopped on the terminal transfer bus. The bus drove us to our assigned terminal but when we arrived they wouldn't let us off the bus! There was a lot of people talking in French and waving their hands around and the driver was on the radio with someone inside, but after 15 minutes stuck on the bus waiting and trying to understand what was happening, the bus just started driving again. We had no idea what to do! Having no way to communicate and not understanding what was happening, we realized we had definitely missed our flight and there was nothing left to do but just laugh a little and go along for the adventure. It turned out there was no one at the door to let us into that terminal securely or something like that so we had to drive to the next terminal and unload there. We eventually got sorted and rebooked, but our day was already getting long and we still had the long flight ahead of us! The rest of the day went a bit more smoothly, but by the time we made it to our house after 24hrs of travel (and short 3 of the bags we started with) we were more than ready to crash. Luckily Noah felt the same and slept surprisingly well.
Being home for a few days now has been awesome. The weather has been great, training has gone well, and life just feels good. Noah is getting more interactive every day and developing such a personality. He's going to be a handful when he gets bigger! It's hard to leave Lisa, Noah, and home, but I'm excited to continue racing in California. The team is going to be strong and it should be a good week. Overall I'm feeling quite positive heading into the race. My preparation hasn't been the standard "ideal", but maybe it was just what I needed?! Whatever the case, I'm going to give it all I've got!
The travel home after Romandie was a little crazy. My flight back to Barcelona on Sunday night was easy, but then the fun began. Lisa picked me up in our rental car and we headed to our hotel. It was about 10 pm when we stopped at a gas station to refill the car and discovered our rental might have a bad starter. After trying several times ourselves to get it going we ended up trying to ask for help. Of course, as soon as our new amigo walked over to take a look... it started. He was quite proud of himself, telling us he was a "muy bien mecanico". We debated heavily about trying to get a different car, but it was 10 pm, we were getting up at 6 the next morning, and we had a baby (and parents) who needed to sleep! We risked it that our car wouldn't start in the morning, but luck was on our side and it did. We made it to the airport to begin the circus travel day in earnest. The gate agent told us we were already delayed an hour. After that extended to almost 2 hours we knew we were at major risk to miss our connection in Paris. We landed in Paris and hopped on the terminal transfer bus. The bus drove us to our assigned terminal but when we arrived they wouldn't let us off the bus! There was a lot of people talking in French and waving their hands around and the driver was on the radio with someone inside, but after 15 minutes stuck on the bus waiting and trying to understand what was happening, the bus just started driving again. We had no idea what to do! Having no way to communicate and not understanding what was happening, we realized we had definitely missed our flight and there was nothing left to do but just laugh a little and go along for the adventure. It turned out there was no one at the door to let us into that terminal securely or something like that so we had to drive to the next terminal and unload there. We eventually got sorted and rebooked, but our day was already getting long and we still had the long flight ahead of us! The rest of the day went a bit more smoothly, but by the time we made it to our house after 24hrs of travel (and short 3 of the bags we started with) we were more than ready to crash. Luckily Noah felt the same and slept surprisingly well.
Being home for a few days now has been awesome. The weather has been great, training has gone well, and life just feels good. Noah is getting more interactive every day and developing such a personality. He's going to be a handful when he gets bigger! It's hard to leave Lisa, Noah, and home, but I'm excited to continue racing in California. The team is going to be strong and it should be a good week. Overall I'm feeling quite positive heading into the race. My preparation hasn't been the standard "ideal", but maybe it was just what I needed?! Whatever the case, I'm going to give it all I've got!
1 comment:
Best of luck in California! You're ready for it!
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