So Damn Beautiful

Lotta hype…..some crazy guy had this crazy idea to do things a little differently.  JV's vision for a new direction in the sport of cycling draws press for sure, a lot of it good, and just as much of it bad.   Floyd Landis had some choice words for our team recently, I asked JV what kind of an effect he thought Floyd’s interview would have on us, his prompt answer was that it would, if anything, make us look better.  I wanted to shove it in Floyd’s face that this shit was going to work.  And, it has been apparent the past couple of weeks that it has. (you can check out Floyd’s interview on VeloNews)  

 I have come to realize, now, after spending a bit of quality time with one of my European directors, Lionel Marie, that things are just that way with this team, different.  He worked as a race director for Cofidis the past year, maybe more, I am not sure.  But synergy on that team was non-existent.  They won races, were successful in ways, but that isn’t the point. The point is that you can win races and have an appreciation for life.  On this team, oh yes, it gives me great satisfaction to say, it is working out.  We had an excellent debut in Qatar, with the exception of the sacrifice of a stage-winning collarbone, in Magnus.  That would have been great to stick it to Quick-Step in a race they have owned over the past couple of years.  No matter,  we won two stages in the Bahamas, in Tyler, and Dave.  We podiumed with a third place in the opener of the European season, Ryder took third in Marseille.  Damn, it’s only the first month. 

Tomorrow we start the Etolie de Besseges,  a  five-day stage race in southern France.  It’s a good place to continue the recent momentum the argyle has pumped up. 

This place is so beautiful, in a “wow, I am in France” kinda way.  Today was sunny and fresh as Johnny Weltz would say, and we rode a bit extra because it was as such.  Pat and I agreed, today was a good day to be a bike racer.