You know it's offseason when...

...45 min. into a road ride you look down and see a spiderweb that spans your handlebars. True story, that happened to me yesterday. It was wasn't even my first road ride back...it was like the third or so.
You also know it's offseason when you travel for something other than bike racing. Rebecca and I took a little holiday to Peru last week. Peru is an incredibly cool country. It is so diverse in culture, ecosystems, and landscape. We spent time in Lima on the coast, Cuzco and Machu Picchu next to the Andes, and Puerto Maldonado in the rain forest. Machu Picchu definitely lives up to the hype. Yes, there are tons of stinkin tourists ;-) but it is well worth the hassle to see such a beautiful area and see for yourself how amazing the Incas were. And where we stayed in the jungle, it was about as untouched from development as I've seen. We saw a lot of monkeys (3 different species) and several big tarantulas among other wildlife. It was the first time I'd slept in mosquito nets and I was glad we had them after seeing the giant cockroaches roaming around our room after dark!
In other big-time news, I am now a proud (part) homeowner of a place in Boulder. Pretty sweet, not gonna lie. Moving always sucks, but the grunt work is over and the only thing left is unpacking boxes and finding a place for everything – no small task.
I've started riding my bicycle again. Splitting time between road riding, cx rides, and hiking/running. If I had to race in one of 3 tomorrow, I think I'd be faster hiking up a mountain, but that's okay. I may enter a cyclocross race this weekend or next. They really should let me enter the cat. IV race (and still get slaughtered but not by as much) but they won't. Oh well, it's good for me to get walloped from time to time. That's what I'll be telling myself next year too. :-)
Happy Autumn!

Update - still lazy

Here are a couple of Worlds pics:
Hour 3 on the "Hot Seat". Exciting yet extremely tedious. Sitting in the same seat, in the chamois I warmed up in, watching a time trial on a little monitor for 3 hours while my legs throbbed. But an awesome experience!



My Belgian body guard Chris "The Fox" to keep the Tifosi at bay. Don't piss him off or...he'll make you cry on the massage table!



I'm still taking it easy here in Boulder. I'm starting the slow process of getting hiking fit again. I went on a 2mi run the other day and felt like I did after a half marathon in my running days. A little pathetic actually. I've said it before but the longer I race my bike, the worse I am at EVERYTHING else. Tho just because my girlfriend can do more push-ups than me doesn't make me any less of a person.

Also, there is snow on my deck. Too early for snow - take it back.

Dunski

I'm at home now in day 3 of offseason and loving every moment. I walked up and down a flight of stairs like 5 times throughout the day yesterday so that was pretty taxing. The hard thing about offseason is that I sometimes forget to shower because I'm not working out. It's tough. And how much coffee is too much? At what point does it become obsessive and where I probably need an Intervention?
Anyway, Worlds was fun. It's nice to go into a race with low pressure, modest expectations and surprise myself. Of course, that can only happen once because the next time I go will expect a medal from myself, but I enjoyed this experience and I'm not dwelling on the fact that I was relatively close to earning hardware. (Or am I?)
And to the family of the bee who stung me during the 2nd lap of the race: Your brother suffered a horrible death and the anger he induced only made me go faster. And sorry about my appearance while crossing the finish line. They should have had a warning of some sort for children and sensitive viewers.
So, thanks for following Bissell and myself along this season and for all the positive vibes and encouraging messages throughout. I may actually (I can't believe I'm saying this) have to start Facebook or Twitter or some crap in order to better stay connected to friends and family next year while over the pond. Ugh.

update

We have a Gold! I use the term "we" loosely.
And...
Just think of how much faster I'll be thanks to Tejay using my head as a platform to express his artistic voice. (sorry HB)

Mendrisio

So I got into Switzerland a few days early for the World Champs TT on Sun. The race is on Thurs. so the idea was to get settled and used to the time difference. However, I had a tight connection in Atlanta en route to Milan, Italy which was made even tighter by a 15 min. delay that resulted in me sprinting through the terminals in Atlanta in order to make my flight. Well, I made it - in no small part due to my extensive running background - but my bag and bike did not. We had to go back to the airport the next day (mon.) and retrieve my belongings. Do you suppose that I'll get any of the $300 dollars I paid to Delta to transport my bike??? BTW, if you have a choice - don't fly Delta. $300 each way for traveling w/ a bike internationally is a bit excessive I'd say. I think they deserve a boycott. Anyway, back to positives - the hotel and area that we are staying in Switzerland is AMAZING! It is so beautiful that my vocabulary is not sufficient to describe it. We are on a lake (lago di lugano) that is surrounded by mountains and small swiss townships. Except we are also next to this little area of land that is owned by Italy (Campione). It is quite the area and the hotel we are staying at is pretty cool too. It's not super fancy but the real estate, service and food are all top notch.
Oh and about the race: I've ridden the course 4 times so far. It's pretty straight forward - very few turns that require thought and/or brakes. It's got one little ring climb in it (but we do 3 laps) and a couple of fast corners but otherwise you can get into a pretty good rhythem. Today is the first day I've felt good so I'm starting to get excited. The weather has been picturesque so far but there could always be rain in this area. And I rode the road course as well and I have to say I'm a little relieved I'm not doing it. It's a 15k circuit with punchy climbs and single-file narrow, windy descents through town. Very good for Bizarro-Zirbel. Okay gotta go. Ciao.
the view from the our hotel


also taken from the hotel, that little town is Lugano

this is the view from the other side of the lake. In the lower right somewhere is the hotel we're staying at. And it's not hazy, the crummy cameraman just doesn't know how to reduce glare.

And here is the entrance to Campione, 2 sq miles of Italy surrounded by Switzerland which is also right outside our hotel (we're on the swiss side).

And this is a Swiss slug making its way across cobbles. It's hard being a slug.

50k to go

Tour of Missouri is over and done with. And as easy as the first 4 days were - the last 3 days were brutally hard. Bissell had a good tour, finishing 4th on GC and 2nd in the team's classification. A podium in GC would have been nice, but let's put it in perspective: the bus that Columbia-HTC drives around probably costs more than our entire team budget. I am proud of the way our guys rode last week. It was a great way to end the season and a good last race for me donning the Bissell colors.
I just found out on Monday that I have 49.8km left to do this season. And I'll be doing it in Mendrisio, Switzerland wearing a USA skinsuit against the best in the world. Pretty exciting. I'm hoping that I can represent well and justify my nomination.
We had a mini Clear Lake High School reunion in Missouri this week. In all, I had 9 friends and family who made the trek from Iowa for the race. Thank you! pic courtesy of Jody - who may just get the nod as the #1 Superfan. ;-)

Today's Lesson

No matter how hard you're going, always keep your eyes up when you're sprinting. The lesson occurs around 8 min. into the video.