Some last minute training, and I'm out.

I'll hit the road tomorrow- Simon and I are meeting at the airport for the start of our east coast campaign. My bikes are all set up with the sweet new Easton, Mavic, Chris King, Paul Components and Crank Brothers parts and we've got the new costumes and the crash-hats from Bell.



I've got 2 races under my belt and I think most of the components of cyclocross fitness are in place- I'm a little nervous that I don't have much in the way of high-end power or speed though. This has been the first season where I've stopped road racing in July (!) and just rested and prepared for cross. For the last 2 years I've been ripping at the start of the season but petered out in November. If things go right, I'll start to feel really fast in the next 2 weeks or so and I'll have a better time of keeping steady fitness throughout the whole season.

So with speed in mind, I spent 50 minutes behind the motorcycle last night with Tom Fox. Tom lives in Stinson and we motor-pace along highway 1 around Bolinas Lagoon. Tom and his son Bjorn have been racing and training with me for the last couple years and they've both gotten really quite good- Tom was 2nd the other day at CCCX in the B mens 35+ race and Bjorn had his first win in the 10-13 year old race! The moto is very good for forcing the high end fitness to develop and I think I was doing ok. Tom said we were going as fast as 40 mph at times and I rode in the 46x11 almost exclusively, so I'm happy with how it went. I'll go and do an easy couple hours that will include some transitions and jogging, etc. and hopefully I'll be ready for the Southampton races!

I have a feeling that these races are going to be really hard... it's the week before the first USGP races and it's the final chance for UCI points that will count for the first call-ups at Gloucester. I'm going to need some luck if I'm to snatch some of those!