Back to the Grind

Well, after a full 24 hours of traveling Brady and I have made it home. The trip was relatively uneventful due to the fact that poor Brady was sick as a dog (sick as my dog that is. My poor little puppy can hardly walk right now). However, no such thing as completely listless international travel, hence we were not spared from some heavy Georgian accents (the guy at passport controls was almost impossible to understand. He had this to say when I told him of my Belgian imports, "fi'ty derllers wort' o' weffles! I hoop ya do not inteeeend ta consuuuuum fi'ty derller wort' o' weffles aaaall by you's self!") annoying little kids on the air plane, air port foot ball, and a French man that sat stiff as a board for nine and a half hours and the only word he said was, "cafe." He didn't even get up to relieve him self. Crazy French.

Any ways, 3/4 of the TIAA-CREF/Clif Bar European 'cross team (Brady, me, Toast) are safely home and getting back to the grind of everyday life. The forcast for the future reads, "school, school, school, unpacking, school, training, school, recovering from jet lag, and school." And on that note, I just wanted to say thanks. I suppose I can't legally speak on behalf of the whole team, but I can make the assumption that, like my self, all those who received the opportunity to participate in such an amazing and once in a life time experience, will be forever grateful to all those who helped make it all possible. So, many thanks to all those who have helped us along the way and thanks for all the support.

Check back for posts related to Troy's adventures in Europe, and the rest of the team's preparation for worlds (not to mention worlds its self!!!),

Alex

Newts growth

Now that everyone has left except for myself aka tdub Dan aka danimal and Jesse aka wicked cocky things have been pretty uneventful. Yesterday was my second rest/sick day which means I pretty much tried to do nothing. Danimal and I woke up around 11:00 and help Newt get ready to go off with his mechanic friend for the rest of the time before worlds. I helped newt get his bikes down from the bike room since he can't reach them. Than Danimal charted Newts growth and discovered Newt stopped growing @ 5 yrs old. Newts friend brought me a present that Dubb left with him for me such as cables and chains since racing 6 races in 2 weeks will destroy a cross bike.

After we saw Newt off me and Danimal had an intense playstation battle followed by a walk down town and visit to panos. At panos Danimal purchased the alcoholic coffee drink (cocky) I stayed with the norm. Panos is pretty cool b/c it is a public coffee shop that is actually smoke free hard to find in Europe. On our walk home we thought about getting Charlyn a b-present but we decided against. We figured it would be like getting a present from your relative u never see and it ends up being something that she would never use.

Els came to get us for the b-day party @ like 6 b/c we had to go to the store to get some supplies to make margetias. Once at the house of Noel and Els, Danimal, W-C(Wicked Cocky) and I began trying to make margetias. It turned into trial and error with Danimal being the main test drinker. He was basically loaded before anyone else even got to the party. Noel and Els have a really nice house and we have some good pics I'll put up next time from the festivities.

Rode my bike today all i can say is i flatted 4 times danimal 1 flat and W-C 1 flat it sucked.
Go to http://www.thedanimal.blog.com/ for the whole story. Tdub goes to sleep now.

House Report

So the cross camp stage race is over. With the end of camp the house is pretty much empty. Trebon, Wicks, and Powers went to Monaco for a romantic week with the stars. Everyone else has left for the states or leave tomorrow. There is nothing really to report on except for the fallen soldiers report.

Jesse- Healthy after he had been sick for 4 day earlier in the week 20th in Holland.
Troy- Sick with cold DNF in Holland yesterday after 15min.
Adam- Sick with cold DNF after hitting tree in Holland. Mild concussion @ world cup only remembered 1st lap.
Alex- Sick with cold 8th in Holland.
Brady- Something died in his body. Smells of death!!! Lapped in Holland.
Tonkin- Sick with cold finished in Holland.
Dan- Thinks he's healthy. Lapped in Holland.

As you can tell we are living large right now in Izegem. Tonight we had some amazing chicken with pasta and tomatoes. Els also treated us to some home made waffles for desert. Tomorrow morning I will awake and it will be only Jesse, Dan, and I for a week. Tomorrow night we go to Noel and Els house for Charlyn 18th B-day. That is the big one in europe. I think we are having mexican food which will be good.

Into the barriers 

Out of the saddle 

Chance Noble over the barriers 

Howes powering away 

Around the corner 

Through the woods 

Alex getting ready 

Brady out of the saddle 

GP De Ster Sint-Niklaas

The U23's and Elites all raced together yesterday in Sint-Niklass, Belgium at the GP De Ster. The course was a super fast circuit around a lake. The start was pretty crazy, a lot of shoving and yelling, it was great fun. I rode most of the race with Mitchell, it was good to have a fellow American to ride with. We got lapped, with a lot of racing left. Oh well, Sven Nys is a beast. Troy had a good ride. He got lapped with about 1/2 a lap left, not bad though. Fellow American teammate Brandon Dwight also raced. He had a good ride, just a little ways behind Troy. He has been writing some diaries on Velonews - http://www.velonews.com/diaries/rider/articles/9339.0.html I think he is having a good time.

No juniors race so they spent the day out crusing the town and shopping for stuff. I hear they found some cool euro clothes.

GP De Ster Sint-Niklaas

The U23's and Elites all raced together yesterday in Sint-Niklass, Belgium at the GP De Ster. The course was a super fast circuit around a lake. The start was pretty crazy, a lot of shoving and yelling, it was great fun. I rode most of the race with Mitchell, it was good to have a fellow American to ride with. We got lapped, with a lot of racing left. Oh well, Sven Nys is a beast. Troy had a good ride. He got lapped with about 1/2 a lap left, not bad though. Fellow American teammate Brandon Dwight also raced. He had a good ride, just a little ways behind Troy. He has been writing some diaries on Velonews - http://www.velonews.com/diaries/rider/articles/9339.0.html I think he is having a good time.

No juniors race so they spent the day out cruising the town and shopping for stuff. I hear they found some cool euro clothes.

Brady

Anyone out there in the land of cyber-space ever ridden through oil covered peanut butter? Well, I can't exactly say that I have either but today was pretty close. Fortunately, the nasty slick conditions played to the U.S.A. juniors who walked home with some amazing results. Coming across first for the Americas was Bjorn in 4th who was closely followed by Toast in 5th. Alex and Chance both started finding their legs and came across the line in 11th and 12th. The best part of the races was the fact that this race was a Gazette Van Antwerp (GVA) race which is part of a series that is second only to the world cup series. Basically, it was wicked rad.

Well, right now our internet is spazzing out over the place so it takes 1.5 hours just to right one post and I think we are going to go out and celebrate new years (and my birthday!!!) a day late, this should consist of going to the wall (biggest vending machine in the world) and loading up on candy and sugar waffles and maybe going bowling, I must bid you all good night.

Happy new year,
D'Howes

Anyone out there in the land of cyber-space ever ridden through oil covered peanut butter? Well, I can't exactly say that I have either but today was pretty close. Fortunately, the nasty slick conditions played to the U.S.A. juniors who walked home with some amazing results. Coming across first for the Americas was Bjorn in 4th who was closely followed by Toast in 5th. Alex and Chance both started finding their legs and came across the line in 11th and 12th. The best part of the races was the fact that this race was a Gazette Van Antwerp (GVA) race which is part of a series that is second only to the world cup series. Basically, it was wicked rad.

Well, right now our internet is spazzing out over the place so it takes 1.5 hours just to right one post and I think we are going to go out and celebrate new years (and my birthday!!!) a day late, this should consist of going to the wall (biggest vending machine in the world) and loading up on candy and sugar waffles and maybe going bowling, I must bid you all good night.

Happy new year,
D'Howes