We made it to St Anne. We left at 8:30am and arrived at the condo at 8pm. That's almost 12 hours of travel door to door. It is much longer then driving but pretty relaxing too to fly.
The course here uses most of the same trails as in the past but goes different directions on them. They have built the coolest bridges I have ever ridden over in a race. They are usually squared off edges with no transitions, just 2 ramps up on a table type of design. These bridges have sweet transitions and they are more like something you would see in a skate park. Rad! All course bridges should be built like that.
The course is also completely dry and where there is usually mud even if it isn't rainy there is 5 inches of dust/sand. I'm going to ride the 29er Epic because this course is rough when it's wet so when it's dry it's really rough.
I didn't drop at all in the UCI ranking after last weekend so I'm number 13 and should start number 12 since the little Footlicker is racing U23. That will be my best ever start position for Worlds and due in large part to the good race I had at Worlds last year finishing 8.
The Dart and I played some golf after training yesterday and it was a blast. He is really good for never playing since the last time he swung a club was in Durango before we went to the Olympics in 08. No course records but I did play with some real "wooden" woods that are smaller then the irons of today.
Claire has been making her famous lunches all week and my knee is almost completely healed from the Leadville crash so I can get massage on my stomach with out wincing. The Dart and I are doing the Team Relay tomorrow so we're going to do some more course recon and pin it out there for a bit today. The last time I rode the team relay for the US was in 2001 when Worlds were in Vail and it was my first season back from the Corporate/School world. It's an honor to take part in the relay and I hope I can do a good time for the team.
I might hit the pool today for a a few minutes to get ready for my South Beach trip a week from Friday, there is always something to train for.
Big thanks to Ken Bell for the copy of "Chasing Legends". Ken made "Off Road to Athens" with Gripped Films I believe and it was the coolest XC movie I've ever seen. The CL movie is about the HTC team at the Tour in 2009. It is also an awesome film I would suggest it to anyone that loves cycling.
That's all from St Anne. Did I mention the condos here now have A/C(new for me for this year) and the temperatures have been in the 90s and humid, strange for this time of year in St Anne. Everyone's grass is brown and none of the lakes have any water in them either.
I wonder what Winstons' doing right now......