A preview of next season?

This weekend was the end of the year banquet for the old team. Same people, same bad food, and now I am done with that. It feels nice to know I moving on to a team where I can race some big events. The local stuff is all fine and good, but I can't survive on IP crits. I need something more, and I am going to get it next season. Hopefully I am ready for it.

Sunday was Como. I had a recovery week so on Sunday I was clear to hit the gas, just a little. The front group has been moving pretty good for the last two weeks, and I have been hanging back just a bit, not wanting to push it right now. Well yesterday was a day to let loose a little. The pace wasn't fast, just steady which was good. We got over the Cooks and on the way down into Santiago Canyon, some guy comes flying past motorpacing behind a BMW motorcycle. We all got on. "He" was Floyd Landis. Floyd is out at local rides often, but he was training yesterday. Flyod recently signed with a new team, OUCH Medical. It is mostly the former HealthNet boys, plus Flyod. Anyway, we got on the flats, and were strung out at 42mph. Finally someone gave up on his wheel and he pulled away from us. We went back to riding our paceline through the canyon. I hit the gas a few times on the Dump climb, but there was someone on me each time, so I dropped 4 or 5 spots back and sat in over the top. MJ and some other guy were just 10 seconds up on us, but I didn't want to be the guy who dragged the entire group up to them, so we let them dangle. I got refueld at the meeting point and tore out of there for the second half of my ride. Put in 75 miles in 3.5 hours. Not bad, I was going to do about 75 miles, but I figured it would take me around 4 hours. Guess not.

So Floyd was looking really smooth and good. I am stoked to see him back out training, and can't wait to see him race this next season. The bad news for the big teams in the country is that, if they hope to win any stage races this year they better sign some better racers. I can tell you right now Floyd is going to destroy people next year domestically. I would pick him to win just about any stage race in the country. Time to really start training.