Schweizland

Life is great, but there haven't been any thrilling individual events to blog about for a while.  This post might turn into sort of a ramble, but if you just want to know what I've been up to feel free to read on.  Otherwise you should probably go back to looking at pictures of people you don't know on facebook.

My stay at Bernina Pass was nice and I handled the altitude better than I was expecting.  I took it easy for a few days after finishing the Tour de Namur.  After some rest I was able to join my teammates for at least some of their riding.  They had all been at altitude for a week before I arrived, so while I wasn't expecting to be riding much with them I was still able to get some pretty decent training in.

Our director, Marcello, evaluates Nate's mini-golf technique on our rest day.

After a week at the top of Bernina we drove for a long time to do a one-day race in Italy called the GP Poggiana.  I was pretty stoked, there were some steep climbs in the middle portion of the race that I figured might suit me well.  The race started out with 55k of flat roads within some large start circuits.  I managed to work my way into the 30 rider breakaway/field split that escaped after 15k of racing.  Going into the first of the big climbs after 65k we had 3.5min on the peloton.  This was real great.  We started up the first of the categorized climbs and I was riding near the front.  This was real great.  We were within 1k from the summit and I was still up front and looking to make a run for some KOM points.  This was real great.  All of the sudden we were at the top and I followed 2 guys that knew where the summit was, so I was 3rd over the top and picked up some KOM points.  This was good.  Then we started descending.  This is where things turned terrible.  Maybe the 3rd or 4th corner was one of those corners that just keeps on cornering a bit more than one expects.  I was going way too fast, didn't make it, and then summersaulted into a ditch.  I thought I was okay and my bike seemed okay so I tried to get going quickly and rejoin the front group.  The problem was this descent was not yet over.  So I rode off the road two more times on the way down for good measure.  When I finally got to the bottom I think I was about a minute behind the lead.  I tried to pedal real hard up the next few hills in hopes of getting back on, but my right hip was complaining about what I'd done to it a few minutes earlier.  That was pretty much it for me. Eventually the peleton caught me and with my reduced pedaling capablilty I was out the back.  I rode back to the start by myself.  I was real sad for about half an hour thinking of what could've been.  Next I realized how I hadn't crashed in a road race in more than a year.  I got over it.

The next day we scrambled out of Italy and back to Switzerland.  The team wasn't headed back to altitude though so I've been graciously hosted by my friend Christian and his family for the past week.  Christian stayed at my house several times for the Starcrossed cyclocross race in the Fall and recently retired from racing.  It's been great to hang out with him and his family this past week.  While I also have tons of fun hanging out with my USA teammates it has been nice to feel a little more like I'm "living" in Europe.  I'll trade a hotel room for a place in a house any day.

Swiss kids play with tractors.  I think that is so cool!

On Wednesday I met up with my teammates for the local Wednesday Night World Championships in Brugg.  Perhaps one of the coolest things about cycling is that nearly every place has some sort of week night racing series in the summer.  Usually the entry fee is very low and it's mostly for fun and training.  Switzerland does it big though.  There was a good sized grand-stand full of spectators that were able to see most of the 1k long course.  The race was run as a sort of points race. I think it was 2pts for the leader of each lap and then every 5 laps or so there was a sprint for 5pts to the winner of that lap.  It was something along those lines at least.  I was stoked to be racing a criterium again, even if the corners were very rounded and without curbs.  The race started fast and I picked up some points where I could without putting any huge efforts in.  Right at the halfway point my teammate Evan Huffman and I both followed an attack by another rider that came immediately after one of the bigger points sprints.  We got a small gap and starting working well together.  The chasers kept us at about 10sec for a few laps until suddenly the elastic snapped and we were half a lap ahead of the field.  Evan was absolutely killing it and spent far more time on the front scooping up well deserved points.  They announced over the loudspeaker that he was in the lead and we just kept on rolling to the finish.  Evan won and I finished 3rd in the points standings.  Our average speed for more than an hour of racing on the flat and fast course was 29.5mph!

The break with Pirmin Lang and Evan Huffman.

Wednesday Night Worlds podium action.  Serious business here in Switzerland.

I've gotten some great training in over the past few days on some of the longer climbs around Christian's house in Tuggen.  I'm feeling good and having a great time.  A week from tomorrow I'll either be starting a big stage race or heading home.  Only time will tell.

Looking down upon the town of Schwyz and the Lake of Lucerne.