Exploration

Yesterday I took about 30 minutes to walk around the city streets near our hotel. It feels relatively safe during the day... I wouldn't do the same walk at night or alone.

Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia with a total population of 3.5 million which includes the surrounding areas. From my view, the only surrounding areas are the mountains. We are high in the Andes, about 5,000 feet but it feels way more tropical to me then the mountains of Colorado. The humidity is pretty high (to me) and there is a late afternoon thunderstorm everyday.

For all you track racing geeks like me.... this all means that the air pressure is pretty similar to LA and therefore, I feel like, the speeds, gears, etc. will be similar to riding at Home Depot Center. Oh, I also take into consideration the "Alpenrose" character this track encompasses, i.e. bumps.

More pics:

Sidewalk stores

Tropical beauty in the middle of lots of urban commotion.

I love checking out homes in the different cities. They say a lot about where I am at that moment.

Does this mean I am possibly not safe at this moment? Hmm... put away the camera gringo.

Local moving company.

I wasn't kidding.

We are surrounded by mountains and security.

One of the keys is to stay hydrated. Check out the coach's post for today and there personal note at the bottom.

Racing starts tomorrow! Points race for me. Scratch race for Kit Karzen. Team Sprint for the sprint boys. 500m for the sprint girls.

About that...

Yep, I have done it again. I promised for more blogging and then I failed.

The truth is that when I was home for 3.5 weeks, I didn’t have that much free time. Week 1, I slept the whole time… day, night, whatever. Week 2, I started training again but was still tired and, therefore, I slept a lot. There was also that whole thing about the real world that got in the way. Week 3, the real world took priority over sleeping.

And that brings us to now… in the southern country of Colombia via a couple days in Los Angeles.

I am preparing for Pan American Championships in Medellin, Colombia which start on May 1^st.

A blog in pictures:

Let the crazy bike travel begin

With 6 athletes and several staff members all flying out of LA, it was a circus.

Once we landed in Medellin, the unhealthy snacks were abundant.

Our bike limo.

View from my hotel room.

Bike rack, South American style.

Yep, that's how we roll.

Famous Tela. Oh, and, she is the only US athlete that speaks spanish.

Outdoor track! The vampire might get sun.

My buddy and old training partner, Michael Blatchford.

Outdoor concrete 250m that rides like Alpenrose. Carnival style!

The velodrome guard dog. I call mine at home Moochie but I am afraid to approach this one... they took off his mouth guard.

Home... for now.

Back in Boulder as of last night and up early with my friend, jet lag.

I have tons of pictures and blogging to catch up on and it will happen little by little this week.

Here are some teasers:

Sold out crowds!

Cool little interview here. On that website you can also scroll around and find other great videos from Track Worlds. I love this one , not because it is a crash but how they are picking splinters out of the guys back and then send him back into the race. Oh, track cycling!

Ok, off for a sunrise hike at Sanitas Mtn. I love me some Boulder!

Nice Timing!

A friend of mine, one who doesn't read CyclingNews and most likely has no idea I am waiting to race the biggest race of my career thus far, emailed this picture today. He was cleaning out his inbox and came across an email/picture from Greg after I had my first Elite Track Nationals Podium... Bronze in the 500m.

Wow! That caused a pause and some reflection.

Bronze in the 500m on October 4, 2007.

3 years and 5 months and 19 days later I am about to race at the World Championships. Holy! It's been quite a ride and I expect the excitement to continue!

Thanks for the reality check email Geoff... if you even read my blog.

Last night was opening ceremonies. Basically, the build of excitement and an introduction of Nations.

3 year and 5 months and 19 days ago I had no idea who Eddy Merckx was...

That's it... racing starts tonight!

Here in Holland

Apeldoorn specifically. Home of Elite Track World Championships and lots of other bikes. Everyone rides bikes. Holland loves bikes.
There are bike lanes and bike lights and drivers that yield to bikes. Amazing.

Bikes are even used as decorations. Every other light post on this major "highway" has a painted bike hanging from it.

Not unlike where we were in Germany, Holland is very agricultural. This guy and his many friends live right outside our hotel.

Don't ask. I don't have an answer to this sign but I have ridden my bike past it several times and yet to see a frog.

Today was our first day in the velodrome. This may be my favorite track EVER. Hard wood, smooth, steep, round. The facility itself is maybe the nicest I have seen as well.

Again, a country that treats track racing with enthusiasm. I have seen a couple billboards with some of their local stars... this one is one of their women sprinters.

She's getting ready....
Ready to go fast!

Manchester Flashback

Since today was a rest day here in Germany and as promised, I will wander back a month or so when I was in the UK for the 4th and final World Cup of the season.

We got there a day earlier then normal which gave us a bit of time to actually check out the surroundings. Apparently Manchester is a very industrial city but we happened to stay very near the city center which seemed metropolitan.

Super old buildings... of some significance I am sure. We didn't have the time or energy to actually be real tourists... just ones who are in search of a good coffee shop.

In the city center.

My first event was the Team Pursuit with Kim Geist and Kristin McGrath.

As a team, we rode a PB (personal best). That is me 2nd wheel.

It's hard to explain to people in the US how big this sport is in other countries around the world. This 3 day event sold out each day/night session. I would guess the facility holds 3k-4k people. Pretty impressive and fun to race with that many people cheering!

The most talked about event from this World Cup was this little incident. Don't watch if you are squeamish or my mom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rltqF-HT9iU

What should have been the most talked about event from this World Cup was Sarah THE HAMMER dominating the women's omnium. She never fails to amaze me... and inspire me. Congrats to Sarah! More rainbow stripes in her future! (for the non-cycling people- you get a "rainbow stripes" by winning a World Championship which happens to be a big deal.)

So, the second race of the weekend was the Scratch which didn't end up how I had planned. For once, I actually had the confidence of winning a race at a World Cup. Yes, seriously. I just said it out loud. I actually thought I could win it. Damn it for crashing! Thank goodness for not being injured but damn it for crashing. No splinters for me though! Congrats to my teammate Jennie Reed for taking the podium. Let's hear it for recovering sprinters in the scratch race!!!

So, that's Manchester in a nutshell. I am still not done filling you in on the rest of February...

Architecture

This morning I went on a solo recovery ride and had the chance to pull out the phone for some pictures.

What's this? Doesn't look like anything is in the picture. Exactly. This represents the area of Buttgen and surrounding towns.

These are agricultural communities. I was still shocked to see farm animals in the middle of towns.

Again, in the neighborhood.

Yep, I wasn't kidding. More farm animals in the hood.

Up close.

Now for some shots of the architecture. Any time I travel, I love checking out the homes.

Pretty traditional. Everything seems to be dark... brick, brown woods, dark roofs.

A little newer but...

Very typical town home type living.

A contemporary twist on the traditional townhome.

A little modern home using old materials I found in the middle of some random town.

A found several examples of people trying to add color to the monotone. Newer homes have painted brick or white stucco. This home tried to splash some color out front so everything didn't look so grey.

Even this random wall had some attempt at color. Can you see the colored squares?

I like this attempt!

Signing out.