Best Day Ever.

So today wasn't the best day ever because it was nice and sunny, and we had an awesome ride, and got to see Discovery out on the road training again. No, it was the best day ever because I got to meet Ivan Basso in person and even got to take my picture with him.

See me in the pink...


I got a real picture with him too. Could I be grinning any more? I was like a 13-year old girl at a Backstreet Boys concert. "AAAhhh Ivan, I love you". I'm pretty sure I'm going to get fired tomorrow because I made an ass out of myself getting all google-eyed and starstruck at Discovery's hotel. Well, it's not like I asked him autograph my bra or anything...

I got to meet Eki too, but he's pretty low on the hot meter compared to Basso.

All through dinner the guys kept giving me crap about how much I was in love with Ivan Basso. Kurt even made some doodles for me.

Meanwhile he ate his sausage with laughter.

After dinner we had a little staff whiffle ball game. My team, of course, won. Lehman will try to tell you I bobbled the ball and it wasn't a fair catch, but that's just sour grapes.

So I'm having to seriously cut down on my picture taking for the rest of the week. The battery on my camera is almost dead and I forgot my charger, dammit. Also didn't take the camera on the ride yesterday because it was raining a bit.

So we went to Maddy's Tavern again last night, this time with the camp athletes. That place is really cool, and the chef made us dinner from recipies from Chris' Food for Fitness book. Who knew it'd be that good.

During the staff meeting Steve once again amused us with stupid human tricks.

"Thanks guys, I'll be here all week"

Day 2 of camp. Today one of my athletes made a guest appearance at camp which was very cool. His name is Bruce and he's on the Canadian Paralympic team. We like him eventhough he's from Canada.

This was the most exciting thing I say all day. Ivan Basso chasing back up to the Discovery Team ride after a flat. Really it's him, I swear. I saw Lance too, but who needs another picture of Lance?

We lucked out that we didn't get rained on, but unfortunately Jose did when it started raining after we got back.

Before dinner we did some video analysis of yesterday's ride. You can see me giving the Robbie Hunter elbow to this guy showing him how it's done in the skills ride.

Kurt enjoys some local flavor from the Sandstone winery to unwind from the long day.

Later that evening Steve entertains us with the Robot.

So today was the first official day of camp and we got out for a little ride in the cold, misty weather. It wasn't too bad. I mean it was a lot better than 20 degrees and snowing.

The big man himself, Chris Carmichael, gives some pre-test instructions. When I have a chance remind me to tell you the story of the flight attendant giving the pre-flight instructions on the way to Santa Barbara. It's pretty funny and invovles me almost getting thrown off the plane.


We did some skills drills on the grass today. Here Chris and Jimmy are demonstrating the Robbie McEwen head butt.

At dinner, Tom Danielson from the Discover Team came to talk to us. It was very cool, and he was really nice about it.

A few of the guys were so enamored by him that they bowed in his presence, but I'm not sure what this guy was doing.

Then after he left Kurt stole his water bottle. It'll be up on ebay later today.

Finally we wrapped up the day with a little staff meeting. You can tell Steve and Jason are really interested in what's going on. Seriously I think they're just tired from the first big day of camp. These young pups are camp newbies and we haven't really initiated them in to the camp club yet. We will....

Wow! That's all I have to say about Katie Compton getting second at Worlds today.

Tomorrow camp officially starts so the mechanics had a busy day today unpacking and washing bikes. Unfortunately for them a few of those dirty bikes were the from the coaches. We got real dirty riding in the rain today. The coaches always do a pre-camp ride to psych up for the week ahead. Usually there's a little more liveliness to this ride, but today the wind and rain kind of sucked the spirit out of us. It still beats 20 degrees and snow, so I'm not complaining.
Last night we went out for this totally sweet dinner. Here Kurt is shown eating his annual big slab of meat. His wife is a vegetarian so he doesn't get to eat the good stuff at home.

The best part was when the chef brought out this big plate of desserts for all of us. That's the worst thing about camp (or the best), there's always dessert.

There's a couple other groups and conferences in the hotel now. Here's Steve is reading some literature from one of the groups in the hotel. Yes, that does say Equine Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer. Interesting stuff.

Some people were almost late for their plane this morning. Seems as if Jason's alarm didn't go off, so he and Steve were almost late. Good thing I have an awesome roomate who took me to the airport on time in the wee hours of the morning.

Steve waits for our little tiny plane to take us to Santa Barbara.

Cool special effect in the San Francisco airport. This is an indoor tornado.

So we've finally arrived in Buellton. I'll have lots more updates and pics as the week goes on. Good fun!

Eff!


6 hours until I'm on a plane getting the Eff out of here.

Bye Mike! Mike's going to Germany for 10 weeks to do some uber training at SRM. I wish I had a cool job like that, to sent me to Europe for months at a time. My cool job only sends me to California to ride my bike for a week in the middle of the winter. Yeah! I leave tomorrow.

What's that!

Why it's me riding my bike outside for the first time in 11 days!

Breakfast Cake.
Today was Steph's birthday, and because I'm such an awesome roomate I braved the frigid, artic cold this morning to get Steph a Wooglin's muffin for breakfast. (of course the minor benefit to me for doing that is that I also got a muffin for breakfast...yum!)

Later, we had more cake. Leslie, Tom, and Amy came out to dinner with me, Mike and Steph at Sontero.

I think this is when Steph cast a majic spell on the cake to remove all the calories. Mike stares in disbelief.

The Dunlaps' reactions to cake majic. Odd to run in to them at Sontero as the last time we were here was for Greg's birthday.

An Ode to Snow

I woke up in the morning today

And saw the skies were cloudy and grey

Once again it was snowy and cold

This is really getting f****ng old

If it doesn’t stop snowing real soon

I’m going to turn in to a freakin’ loon

I know I’m being a big, whiney complainer

But I can’t spend one more hour on the trainer

So, please, please let me get the hell out of here

or else I'll have to drown my sorrows in a ton of beer

Some guys feel the need to half-wheel even when riding the trainer. Here Dean and Jim are getting ready for camp by putting in some trainer time. (ooooh, only 7 more days until camp in California)

Since this is like the hundreth day in a row that it's been too cold and snowy to ride outside, the CTS trainer class had it's biggest night yet on Thursday. I think there were something like 28 or 30 people in class last night.

Even little baby Tullous made an appearance.

Have a nice day.

Yes, that's water pouring from the ceiling again. Why, you ask? Because the guy that lives upstairs is a f#*%ing idiot. He's been gone for several days and turned his heat off again. You know, it's a funny thing; when it's subzero for several days things freeze, and when water freezes it expands. You think he would have learned that when the pipes burst last month. This time it's even better since we couldn't get a plumber to come until tomorrow. So I get to swim in to my bedroom now.

Tip of the day: Don't leave Diet Coke in your car when it's only 1 degree outside.

Froggy says "Brrrrr!" We never even made it to the forecasted high of 16. Currently 6 degrees. That's not Celcius either, that's Fahrenheit.

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Look, it's Beth, and what's that behind her? Why it's Pikes Peak. Yes indeed Beth did come down to the Springs to ride today because the roads are still pretty crappy in Boulder from all the snow.

We headed, way, way out east.

"Are we there yet?"

"No we're not there yet." (he, he, he)