Travels

I know, I know, volcano this volcano that. Unfortunately, watching the news here it seems that this is now the only thing that is getting covered. Every news story has to cover some story about French nationals stuck somewhere around the world, often times New York and how its just so horrible for them. People are downright in tears over the thing. While it sucks, sure, there is moer going on in the world that I want some coverage of. It has even made its way into the cycling race coverage. For the cycling coverage, it sure has been pretty funny to read about cyclists here in Europe that cannot get to fly to the races but actually have to drive. Gasp! This week there is a large block of professional racing up in and around Holland and many folks have had to either drive or take the train across France from Spain or Italy to get there. While this sounds like a long way folks, we are talking about less than Boise to LA. I essentially made that trip 3 times this winter, once in December, once in January and once in February. The fact that some of these racers had to spend more than a few hours in a car was just god awful for them. I have to think about my former team driving from Boise all the way to New Mexico, a good 2 day trip, to race the Tour of the Gila this next week, a race I am going to miss participating in. All of this just goes to some of the big distinctions from racing back home to racing here. They will not travel more than an hour or 2, 3 hours tops to go to a race here, while back in Boise, I cannot count the hours I had in a car over the past few years. I really do feel that the time in cars with teammates provides a great opportunity to bond with each other and get to see how everyone reacts under varying circumstances.

Sorry to go off on a limb there, just trying to figure out some of the odd thought processes here. Well, looks like it might hit 40 degrees today, so off to go ride my bike now.