Todd Wells

Vegas

I watched "The Hangover" three times on the flight from Europe to the U.S., well parts of it at least. That movie has to be one of my new favorites. I've seen it a few times already but when you're heading to Vegas, it's like watching the Tour before you go on a ride. 

The World Cup finals party was awesome. Susi, the Dart and I wore our sweet bathrobes from the hotel out to the party. It was at a disco right next to the course and it was packed! There had to be thousands of people in there and it was about 100 degrees. We hit the dance floor hard and I think I lost about ten lbs in water weight. Best WC party I've ever been to. I was so sore the next day from dancing(if u can call it that), best core work out of season. 

Now I'm in Vegas trying to get on U.S. time. It's always hard the first few days back but with the dull light in the casinos, no open windows and the perfumed/smoke filled air pumped in the buildings it's extra hard. I did make it out for an urban ride, checked out the CX course venue and did some laundry about a K off the strip. That was interesting. The best thing I heard in the hour I was sitting in the laundromat was "Woman, I work hard for my money and you spending it all on laundry". Way more entertaining then washing it in the tub in my room. Speaking of bathrooms, it's so nice to have a shower that doesn't require flooding the room every time I use it. 

I also hit the pool here at the Palazzo for a little while today. It is about 100 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Great weather for sitting at the pool but a little hot for racing. Gotta get use to the dry air too. Not much moisture here in the desert. 

I will say the one good thing about jet lag going from East to West is not being hungry during the day since my body thinks it's night time. Maybe I can loose some weight. 

I wonder if Winston is getting sad since Meg started packing....

Season Over

The season is officially kicked. Didn't end it on a high note the way I hoped but that's the way it goes, I guess. Bad luck today ended my hopes of a good finish. Had to pull the plug on the 2nd lap. Odds are if I'm feeling good something will go wrong. 

Tomorrow I'm off to Vegas for the bike show. Hoping I don't have jet lag for too long next week. Tonight is the big end of the season party and everyone is amped for it. I have a feeling I'm going to be suffering tomorrow.

I wonder what Winstons' doing today...... 

Grey Days

It sure is cloudy outside. The Dart may have won some races the past few weekends, had a birthday but he still has a lot to learn about traveling. Check out his suitcase. Also note the GIANT jars of nutrition products he brings with about 3 scoops of mix in them. The best is when the bike box goes straight to the trailer and he as to carry all his clothes from the truck to the hotel with no bags. Classic..

So the hotel has this great water slide. I hit it the first day we got here but haven't been back sense. It's just nice to know it's there. 

The hotel also has tons of christmas cards from the Govenator. I wonder if all Austrian hotels are on his christmas card list. He even sent these guys a christmas plate. 

I need to buy a new camera. We were looking at some photos from the Olympics last year and I had so many good pictures. Since I don't have a flash or zoom on my phone I feel like my picture quality this year has dropped drastically. I mean I can't take a photo like this with my phone. 

I have to go get a massage now. Not the kind where you listen to music with the lights low but the kind where Claire tortures me with her thumbs and calls me a baby when I whine. 

The course was really muddy today. The type of mud that's like Nutella, it sticks to your tires and just doesn't clean. It's hard to get traction on the steep climbs and off camber ski slope descents. I hope it dries out a little or I might not be able to ride the 29er this weekend. 

That's enough for today. 

I wonder if Google is going to hit 500 by Friday....

Grey Days

Eurobordem

I hit the wall today in terms of boredom here in Europe. I even slept until almost 9am and still have had nothing to do all day. I'll start with the trip down yesterday. 

We stopped by the Specialized office in Munich, here is a shot of the crew that works there. It's pretty blurry but probably better that way. 

We also stopped by the UCI in Aigle to drop off some pumps and stands and pick up one of Susi's bikes. There is an indoor track there and here is one of the motos used for some of the racing. 

That's how big my granny gear felt on Sunday when I was crawling up the main climb. Wish I had that motor on there. 

We had some expresso at the offices in Munich. It seems like everyone in Europe has a cool expresso machine and there is always time for coffee. Not the to go kind like we get at Starbucks but the sit down and chat kind. 

Bubbly water is a must too. 

So the drive was really long from Champery to Schladming. We left at 9:30 and didn't arrive until 7:30 with all our stops. The Canadian team took the train though and it broke down so they missed their connection in Germany. It took them 14 hours so I shouldn't complain but they weren't trying to translate Sandy speaking Scottish to them the whole trip either. Plus it was raining. 

I have to say the Sporthotel here in Schladming is sweet. The rooms are the biggest Euro rooms I've ever stayed in. For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of Euro accommodations, let me tell you the rooms are small, the beds are smaller and they are about 2 inches apart normally. This room has a couch, almost 2 feet between the beds and an entry way with a separate door. That's big time. We also have 5 course dinners which require 3 forks, 3 knives, 2 spoons and about 2 hours. 

Part of the reason I'm so bored is that Susi and the Dart aren't here yet. They decided to ride to Susi's house from Champery yesterday. It was a 5:30 hour ride on their road bikes through the Alps. I wanted to go but considering my lack luster performance last weekend I thought I should take it easy this week. Plus I only had my MTB and the Dart was the fastest mountain bike racer in the World 2 days ago so I wasn't going to get myself into that one. 

So getting back to me being bored. Lene and I went for a ride this morning, I only did an hour since I'm still trying to recover from the weekend. Walked around town a little bit, went to the grocery store twice and tried to go to the laundromat but the person that works there is sick today. Or that's what Lene said the hand written note on the door said. Laundromats are hard to find here and if the hotel does your laundry it's 4 euro per shirt or about $100 for a weeks worth of cycling clothes. I decided to do it myself. You haven't raced in Europe until you've done your laundry in the tub and tried to dry it by hanging it up outside in the humid air. Luxurious I know. Here is my days work. 

The hotel has a huge pool/water-park area attached to it. I'm going to check it out after the Vuelta finishes up here. It's hard to pull myself away from it even though it's a flat stage and the commentary is in German. Hatrick would be loving this water-park, I'm going to have to find him and invite him over for some giant flume slide action. 

Meg's feeling a bit under the weather today so I hope she feels better. She was third in her race this weekend and won some Starbuck's coffee and Joe's coffee mug. 

I wonder how many kilos I'm going to weigh tomorrow.... 

The Dart Wins!!!

Big Congrats to the Dart for taking the "W" today in Champery. It's his first World Cup win. He caught, passed, and dropped Absalon in the last K after spending much of the day in 2nd. 

My race didn't go quite so well today. I don't know what happened, I felt normal but was just going no where. I didn't have a very good start, maybe 40-45 the first time through the start/finish. I finished up 25 but never really turned on. I was losing about 1 minute every lap. That's not good for the moral when you see that on the board each lap. I don't know how I went from having a great race last weekend to a crap one this weekend. I'm hoping it flip flops back the other direction next weekend. 

Riding around in the back wasn't all for naught as we scored the team competition win. I finally got to stand on the podium this year, albeit at my worst race but I'll take it. I rode the Dart's win and Susi's solid 10th place for all it was worth. 

I rode the Epic today and it worked awesome. The course was very slick and rough since all the roots and rocks got exposed after yesterday's rain and this morning's women's race. The LK tires hooked up great in the mud too. Dylan and Sandy had the bikes dialed in perfect, there were a lot of mechanicals out there but none on our team. 

 

Tomorrow we're off to Schladming. Susi and the Dart want to ride 4.5 hours through the Alps to Susi's house, eat lunch and then get in the van and drive 6 more hours to Schladming. After today's race that doesn't sound like too much fun too me. I don't know what's worse, sitting in the van for 10.5 hours or riding 4.5 hours with the Dart and Susi on the their road bikes while I try to keep up on my MTB. And then drive 6 hours. 

Shultz tied his best World Cup result today with a 16th and Craig had a good ride to finish 6th. Lene had a good ride today too to finish 3rd. She lost the leaders jersey but came back strong at the end to finish 3rd after starting pretty far back. 

Susi had some Nascar style pit stop going on at the start line. He decided to change tires/wheels on the start line. Sandy was cutting knobs off his tires with 2 minutes till the start. 

Meg and Snoodle did a running race in D-town yesterday. Meg took 3 minutes off her time from last year. Awesome job!

Here is a Dart quote from about 2 minutes ago "I'm not going to lie, it feels good to be me right now". No way? 

I wonder what Winstons' doing right now....

Alps Showers

This has to be the best possible scenario if it's going to rain. We have had awesome weather all week for training and a few hours ago it started pouring here. We didn't have to train in the rain at all this week but we'll get to race on a muddy course. It's cold too. 

I don't really like riding in cold rain but for some reason I seem to race better the worse the conditions are. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it keeps dumping. The course is going to be super slick with all the roots and mossy rocks if it keeps raining. Should make the euro shoots interesting. 

Sat in the river today for an ice bath. I got some strange looks from the school kids walking across the bridge since I was in a full thermal jacket sitting in the freezing cold river. Ah, what we do to try and be better. Got a nice massage from Claire today. She takes it easy on me the day before the race. 

I think the race will be on Freecaster, we race a 2:30 Euro time so that's 6:30am Colorado time, girls race at 11:45 euro time. 

Saw the German today, he just arrived yesterday. It's funny to see the German in Europe. Even though he is from Europe, I'm not use to seeing him outside the U.S.. The Vuelta was exciting today, Cadel had some bike problem that took them over a minute to get sorted out. Needless to say he lost a lot of time on the G.C.. At least he take away the fact that the only country that will let Valverde race is Spain. Between that and Operation Puerto they're really tough on doping. Not!

Got the new JayZ album today, all songs seem pretty good. 

We have a HUGE jar of Nutella for the pre-race meal tomorrow. I hope we don't eat too much of it tonight. I will need some serious energy though to make it up the super steep climb each lap. 

Heard this guy has been training a lot lately. Looking forward to seeing him soon. 

I wonder what's for dessert tonight....

Chill'n

Ah, the Dart did have my phone cable so now I can post all the pictures I've been taking. The Dart, Susi and Benno also brought the bad weather. It has been beautiful here all week, they show up and now there is a giant cloud just sitting in the valley. Typical. 

This is what the road riding looks like around here. 

Those are some serious mountains in the background. Lene has a new kit to wear this weekend since she's the World Cup leader and the number 1 plate. Man the riders on this team are good. 

Switzerland has some cool architecture. I love the houses here but they are all the same. I wish my grass would grow like that and my flowers too. 

Sandy on top of the mountain, 1,600 meters up. Well I should say, top of the gondola, as you can see from the pic the mountains just keep going up here. 

They have signs everywhere too for hiking trails. You can ride or hike all around these mountains and not get lost. That would be good for me. 

This is one of my favorite views. Check out the glacier on the mountain, probably won't be there in a few more years. Better enjoy it now. 

Busted out a few laps on the course today with the Dart and Susi. They didn't have a flat section of it marked the other day when I rode it so it's a little bit longer then I thought, still short though. The start loop is a 1.5 K road climb. Should be good for moving up or back, I'm hoping to move up. 

Just finished watching the Vuelta in Spanish, maybe it will help mine out but I doubt it. If Rosseta Stone can't, I doubt some guy talking a million miles an hour is going to do much for me. 

That's about it from Euroland. One more day until the race and then we're off to Schladming, another cool town in the mountains. 

I wonder what Winstons' doing right now....

Europe

I might have to do two blogs today if Burry has my phone cable with him so I can download all the pictures I've been taking. It's another post card day here in Switzerland. This is the largest ski area in the World. Now ski areas are different here in then in the U.S.. Here you have a small town with a gondola going up into the alps. From the top of the mountain you can ski to another small town with another gondola and repeat the process. You could start here in Champery and ski to Le Gets which is maybe a few hours drive way. That's cool. 

There are also signs for hiking letting you know how far away the next town is by foot. It gives you the distance in time rather then miles. In addition to that, you can be hiking on a trail and be in the middle of nowhere and a small hotel and restaurant will appear. You can stop, have a beer or coffee, maybe some lunch and continue on your way. Or if it's late, you can hole up there over night and continue your journey the next day. 

Susi talks nonstop about all the free ride trips he does over here and I can see why. The place is so rad. I would love to come over here and just go ride for a week. You just need a small pack, an Enduro and a credit card. Maybe next year. 

I was checking out facebook today and I think Max Plaxton has the best profile pictures. Check out his profile pics if you're on there. I was happy to see the Durango Telegraph giving Willow the "Thumbs Up" for her medal at Worlds. 

The only english channels we get here are BBC and CNBC. I've been catching up on world news and the stock market. WIll Obama get a new health care plan passed? Is the Dollar ever going to strengthen? Did the hostages make it off the hijacked plane in Mexico City? 

This is in complete contrast to my usual. Is CSI Miami going to be new this week? What is Mark Rosy Cheeks Roncceti going to tell me about the weather? Have I seen this Royal Pains?

Today I'm riding down the 15K climb from where we are staying to the valley below to do a little ride.

Lene and Sandra already left and we are all getting picked up by Claire at the UCI head quarters for a ride back up the mountain.  I wonder what Megs' doing right now.....

Champery

Well my new banner for this site is coming along very slowly. I've been meaning to put up a new one since the beginning of the year so at least I have a start. 

We made it to Champery after the longest travel I have ever done at once yesterday. It was brutal. We flew from Canberra to Sydney which wasn't bad but then from Sydney to Singapore, 8 hours, 30 minutes off the plane and then another 12 hours to Frankfurt just about did me in. I don't know if it's a requirement but there were a bunch of screaming babies right next to me. The entertainment system had to be rebooted about 10 times during the 2 main flights as well. Right when I'm in the middle of "The Proposal" the movie cuts out. Now you can't leave me hanging in a Sandra Bullock romantic comedy. 

We flew Qantas from Australia to Europe so there was no chance of an upgrade. I couldn't believe how sore my neck was after sleeping sitting up for so long. We had to pay so much money in excess baggage just to get out of the country it was incredible. Flying to Australia everything was free but going from there to Europe the excess baggage cost about twice as much as my ticket. 

I managed to stay awake last night until 9pm which was good considering I didn't sleep well on the plane and I was awake from about 2am Euro time on. I was able to sleep until almost 8am too which was great. 

Champery is awesome. This place is incredible, right in the middle of the Alps. There are huge mountains all around us with some snow on the very tops. We're at about 4,300 feet and the mountains go up to around 11,000 I think. There are waterfalls everywhere and picture perfect Swiss meadows with their famous cows. I took a bunch of pictures today but lost my cord to download them. I did manage to get a few from Flipper from the race. 

Here's one at the start trying to move up. 

There were a bunch of people at the finish. 

Here is what it looks like to be Lene or Willow standing of the podium in the women's race. Must be an amazing feeling 

Speaking of the women's podium it's pretty damn good looking one. 

This is through the eyes of Flipper before the race. I was getting my music dialed in for the warm up and the Dart was rocking the new gear. 

Benno was doing live updates on Facebook through out the race on the Iphone. His last bill was huge and he was trying not to use it much in Australia. Then when the races started he couldn't help himself. Here he is burning up that data plan. 

Almost forgot, Dylan left his wallet 130 Ks away from where we're staying in Champery in a jet lag haze. He had to drive back to the gas station last night were he left it at, got lost and managed to get a police escort to the station. They identified the wallet by calling it "the one with the picture of the girl" since he has a big picture of his girlfriend in it. All the money was still there since I guess they couldn't spend SA Rand. 

The Vuelta is live at 4:30 everyday here. Yesterday's stage was a dosie(?) with the last few Ks of the climb between 15-20%. TommyD was looking good until the very top where he lost a few seconds but was still an impressive ride. 

I wonder what Megs' doing right now...