Chill(ing) in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Hey dudes, there has been very little action here in the last week or so since I arrived, other than a lot of training, and cold weather. It has been great staying with Bob, the man behind Advantage Benefits - one of our team sponsors. We are staying in a great house, a bit out of town, and it is really peaceful and country-like here.

After recovering from our epic series of flights across the country (where you can see Rich and I made ourselves comfortable at the airport with the lap top set up as a movie theatre), we set out to find all of the good roads in the area to go training on. We are currently having a break from racing after the California leg of the NRC, and soon head off to Georgia to stay at teammate Eddy (the Body)'s house, where we will have a training camp and get ready for the criterium series that follows Tour of Georgia. Somehow our team missed a start in Georgia which is frustrating, but we will be out to prove we were worthy of a start through the rest of the season.

This is a photo of Rich and I at the top of one of the bigger hills in the area. As you may be able to see, it is an epic ordeal just to reach the top, and provides us with heaps of different options for our descent! This picture also depicts the great variety of scenery Michigan has to offer in the early Spring - basically dead trees, fresh off the snow season. Before arriving here, i was told the area was dead flat, but its far from it - you are always riding up or down, just like in the picture below, and all of the hills are 200-500m long, although i should say 600-1500ft!

When we went to the mall the other day on a particularly cold and wet day, as we got out of the car, we had to run to the mall entry to escape the snow fall - talk about cold! Its good too though, as that is one thing we dont get to experience too much in Australia!

After a lot of searching we have come up with a few circuits that cover all of the hardest roads in the area, and we will do laps of that during the week. Weekend rides start from Bob's house, and all of the members of his club team head out for a bunch ride. It is good to go training with a group to break things up, but we have to deal with constant attacks from the bunch with everyone trying to race us! One of the other potential hazards I have encountered while training is the 'deer stampede'. As Bob's house is out of town, there are plenty of wild animals about (including Bob), and three times this week I have had a heap of deer run out across the road in front of me, the first time there were at least ten, and the next two times about six or so - this only happens within a kilometre of getting home. In this picture, you may be able to make out the deer on the road between the two trees, they seem to like Bob's backyard, but are a bit camera shy, so i haven't been able to get up close yet.

Coming up now I will put in another solid week of training, and we will have our Priority Health media event on Thursday, so that should be good having an 'official' team launch, then we have Easter weekend, and then head off to Georgia to begin another couple of months on the road racing all over the place. I'm looking forward to leaving the winter gear at home and training in the sun down at 'The Body's' place. It will also be good to be back together as a team again and to have a bit of fun with all the boys.

Next entry should have some photos of the team presentation, our bikes, and the team kit we race in. -Laters