How come Minneapolis has such a killer airport? The MSP airport is huge it has functioning shuttles, quick check in, better than average security lines, tons of shops and it clean with adequate seating at the gates. Why is San Jose’s airport so lame? SJC has 4 stores, lines everywhere, horrible parking, horrible security lines, horrible seating, and very angry check in people. Why? I imagine the population of San Jose is 3 times that of Minneapolis? Wouldn’t that create demand for a good airport?

We finished off Nature Valley Today. The last crit is pretty hard, its pretty much up then down for one hour. Healthnet controlled it all day. I suffered through it and managed a 6th.

Afterwards, Dietrich, Martin, Dan and I went out to the lake with some good friends of my dad’s. Tim and Mike took us out on the boats and we hit up some swimming and some wake boarding. It was much better than adding more Super 8 lounging hours to this weeks log books. The water was a bit choppy so it wasn’t as great as it might have been but, it was a good time. All in all the best day we have had since we got here.

Here’s some random pics:
Make your house a billboard






Dietrich needs special assistance.






Carney’s new do.

Today wasn’t so good. Windy. Healthnet put it in the gutter and it split twice. and both times none of us made it. I made the gap the first time it split, just tailing off the end, and sure enough some dude gapped me off the back. The next time it split I tried to double echelon with the guys and it didn’t workout and I went out the back.

We worked with Jelly Belly just to see if we could bring it back but, never shut the moved down. Came into town and we were all shattered.

J-Al went into KFC to use the bathroom today, and some dude who thought he was Australian was really happy that he was in the bike race. He was so happy that he told J-Al to pick out anything on the menu and he would buy it for him no charge. J-Al responded with, “I’ll take a beverage then”. The guy gave him a good old Amurican “Liter a cola!”.






We got a new team chair. Larry tested it out today:

We did the Nature Valley Crit tonight. A wicked storm rolled in a few hours before the race and made for a very wet and windy race. We started just between storms but, about one lap in a killer thunder storm came over us. We were staying up front and trying to stay safe. There was a little crash about 15 minutes in which took out a few health net riders and we eased up a bit just out of respect. The next thing I know, as I am sitting in the top 5 and just passing the announcers booth, something is announced. I didnt hear it as we had already passed the booth but, all of a sudden some guy comes blazing really hot into the first turn, chops everyone, and everyone hits the breaks as he looked really uncomfortable in the turn. He got a good gap. A turn later I hear on the radio “this might be the last lap, it probably is”. Health net must not have got radioed yet as they were still just tempoing and probably preferred this random guy in red off the front so he wouldn’t chop them in the turns anymore. It was just passed probably 1/2 to go that Healthnet actually responded and realized it was one lap to go. The random dude held it to the line for the win.

This dude didn’t just win a bike race, he really rubbed it in with his celebration as he finished. From what I could see and others from the sidelines tell me, he was waving his hands all over the place and pointing back at the field as if he was Tom Boonen and just took 7 bike lengths out of a world class field and they all sucked. I guess the dude must of beenback far enough in the group to where he could actually hear the annoucer say it was one to go as he passed the start finish.

I still can’t get over the celebration this guy put on as he won a 20 minute criterium, it was crazy, maybe it was his first win? Who knows.

I was bummed myself because I felt good and never expected them to just cut it to one to go after we crossed the line and none of us heard it. I thought they might shorten it by saying 5 or 3 to go but never 1 to go. Man I still can’t believe the excitement in that dude’s celebration dance.

Nature Valley kicked off today. We did a 5 mi flat TT on a nice stretch of road along the mississippi river. We haven’t seen any results yet and it is now 11:00 oclock but, we know we didn’t do that well and none of us cracked the top 5. Ben would of ripped this course up but, he was sent home due to a knee injury.

I wonder if ever in the future cycling governing bodies will require promoters to post and send out results soon after they are finalized for riders, fans, and others to see?

So, Mike Dietrich, probably one of the coolest guys on the earth, has been my roomate for weeks now. He introduced a new saying “You ain’t American!”. Its pretty funny he says it in a hill billy/ redneck accent and its pretty funny. I have worked on mine and though I can’t master the accent I have a pretty good one. I also shout the South Park saying abit, “They took our jobs!”. We have shouting matches on whose American enough in these voices. Its kind of annoying everyone on the team but us. I guess I personally have burnt it out but, what the guys don’t realize is I am just starting to get better at the voice and probably won’t stop it until a new saying comes up or I completely master the accent to Dietrich standards. It is particularly cool to shout at the foreigners like J-Al and Marty Gilbert.

Here are some pictures from my phone:

Dog wears helmet




J.C. enjoys Fu-Fu desert





Good o’l Amuurican Gas Station





Dietrich sizing up a white blazer