Here’s a story from espn.com about a few different things. Met up with Bonnie Ford on Sunday morning before the final stage. It’s rough to get out of bed that late into a stage race and try and be coherent…Hope you like it.

California in January can be hit or miss, this year it was a huge hit.

Just finished up training camp camp with the OUCH presented by Maxxis boys in Temecula. After having a pretty average camp there in ‘07, there were some uneasy feelings about going back, but we didn’t take into consideration the fact that Floyd knows every inch of road, good and bad in the area. He took us into and through some hilly neighborhoods around town that left us gasping for air and unsure if the 39×25’s were going to be small enough to get up them. By the end of the week we had spent enough time humping the bars at 8kph digging over the rises that 400 or 500watts felt pretty damn easy. That doesn’t even take into consideration all the dirt roads that we hit, uphill and downhill. It didn’t matter. No one was sure whether or not we’d hit dirt around the next corner. Or blast over a little rise to find out that the downhill following was going to be 50kph over loose gravel. Always on our toes we were.

The team is great, everyone showed up ready to work, smile for the cameras and ready to do battle on the bikes. There was also a bit of karaoke tossed in there for the benefit of those unlucky enough to see it, live. Definitely a great vibe.

At 5:30am the final morning of camp, I woke up to log onto cxmagazine.com and helped commentate with Jake and Myles on Cyclocross Worlds. I stuck around to chat afterwards and answer questions. It really sucks to miss another worlds especially after seeing the course and knowing how I’ve felt on the bike in recent weeks, there was alot of regret bubbling up. I’ll get back to race worlds again soon. My 1st one was back in ‘96, so there’s plenty of memories to fall back on in the meantime.

Way Back, 2002 Zolder

I’m in Santa Barbara with Lyne for another few days before heading up to Sacramento for the start of the Tour of California. We’re enjoying the great riding here, our friends and now are waiting for the rain to stop so we can get outside.

Keep an eye out for the OUCH boys next week. I’m sure you’ll see us all over, trying to get on the podium at the biggest race of the year.

Look for Team OUCH for news