I know, most bloggers who take a three-month hiatus would tell their readers that they were signing off for a while, but I never expected that I would not have blogged sooner. I mean, there have been so many great things to blog about: like when I officiated Jonas and Justina Carney's wedding (Jonas and I were team mates, and we've remained very close friends). It was a true honor to be asked to officiate for them, and also great to be able to repay the favor to Jonas, who married Christina and I almost five years ago. It was great to hang out with Alex Candelario, Reid Mumford, Mike Creed and their wives, and entertaining to watch Danny Pate crash the party.
Or, I could have told you about Levi Leipheimer's Gran Fondo (http://www.levisgranfondo.com/), held on the same stunning course in Sonoma County, CA we raced on in the Coors Classic back in 1988 (where I took 2nd). 3,500 people from around the country, and even world came to challenge themselves, meet Levi and his wife Odessa, and raise money for two great causes. It was one of those events which was really fun to announce but I've got to say I almost wish I had been riding! Here's a picture of me interviewing Levi moments before the start.
It was also great to see Scott Nydam there (BMC), who's been recovering from a bad accident and head injury earlier this season and Paul Mach (Bissell) my fellow Davis, CA resident. Scott looked like he had regained his old form from earlier this year, and he was the first rider to finish the gran fondo. On top of that, he was getting married two weeks later - congratulations Scott & Jennifer! It seems weddings were in the air.... On the stage after the event, left to right; Levi Leipheimer, his wife Odessa, Scott Nydam, Carlos Perez (event promoter) and me.
Carlos, the promoter, was a great guy who put a huge event together with his crew in just a few short months. This one sold out this year so make sure to register early if you want to do it in 2010.
Likewise, there was the World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland. There was no question that big Fabian Cancellara, the reigning Olympic TT champion and 2X World TT champ was the odds-on-favorite for the TT. He easily won, but oh!, what a day for American Tom Zirbel, who ended the day 4th! Here's a short video of us calling his TT on Universal Sports: http://tinyurl.com/Zirbel-Worlds-TT
Tom is a huge motor who also won the season-long National Racing Calendar in the U.S. this year, and he'll be riding for the Garmin-Transitions team in 2010 - so he'll get a big dose of European racing. Most people don't realize how good Tom is; he beat Lance Armstrong in every TT they both did in 2009 - the Tour of CA (Tom 7th, Lance 14th), the Tour of the Gila (Tom 2nd, Lance 3rd). Granted, Armstrong was coming off of 3 1/2 years of retirement, but that's still a pretty big accomplishment for a domestic pro!
With the conclusion of Levi's Gran Fondo, the road season has pretty much been over, and hence my down time. But things have been ramping back up as of late - talking with teams and trying to figure out which team camps I'll visit to interview riders and staff and hopefully get on a team ride with some of the guys. It's an exciting time of year because it's time to think of all of the team changes for 2010, and also to work on my announcing calendar.
There's been some time for vacationing in Maui along the way. And when in Maui, one resident you always want to try to hook up with for a ride is Canadian Ryder Hesjedal. Ryder had a great year, and capped it off by placing 2nd in a stage of the Tour of Spain, and then four days later winning a mountain top finish stage. I've got some video of Ryder which I'll add under a separate blog entry soon, but I leave you with this picture of good friend, and fellow vacationer, Michael Aisner. Michael used to own and run the largest bicycle race in America back in the 1980s. Most people credit him with putting the U.S. on the modern-day racing map. Here, Michael is at 10,000', atop Haleakala volcano. I know many people will say "10,000', what's the big deal? I've been higher in Colorado!" The cool thing here is that the climb starts at sea level, and Michael's about 5,000' above the clouds, contemplating the view from above - a view we don't see often.
Next week, I'm heading off to the first team camp for Lance's new team: RadioShack. For those of you who haven't heard yet, Lance has left Astana and formed a new, U.S. based team. He has also hired about a dozen of his former teammates to come with him including Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner, as well as a bunch of other international and American talent. In total, there are 26 riders from 16 countries, here's the official team roster:
Lance Armstrong (USA)
Fumiyuki Beppu (JAP)
Sam Bewley (NZL)
Jani Brajkovic (SLO)
Matthew Busche (USA)
Ben Hermans (BEL)
Chris Horner (USA)
Daryl Impey (SAF)
Markel Irizar (SPA)
Andreas Klöden (GER)
Levi Leipheimer (USA)
Geoffroy Lequatre (FRA)
Fuyu Li (CHI)
Tiago Machado (POR)
Jason McCartney (USA)
Dmitriy Muravyev (KAZ)
Sérgio Paulinho (POR)
Yaroslav Popovych (UKR)
Gregory Rast (SUI)
Sébastien Rosseler (BEL)
Ivan Rovny (RUS)
José Luis Rubiera (SPA)
Bjorn Selander (USA)
Gert Steegmans (BEL)
Tomas Vaitkus (LIT)
Haimar Zubeldia (SPA)
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