Made it to Boulder just fine the other day. It's been nice meeting the new guys on the team. Luckily, I am rooming with Dave Zabriskie because he has no problem with helping me put on shirts or button my jeans. Half the time we are laughing. That guy is really funny! The other day I got fitted for the tailor-made Paul Smith suits we all got. I also was fitted for our custom Pearl Izumi racing clothes so that was sweet but painful with my collar bone being broken. I am proud to say that I have the largest biceps on the team - crushing guys like Magnus Bagstead by 2 inches. We also all got Blackberry cell phones so that ACE drug testing can always keep track of us no matter where we are in the world. I found out most of my schedule for the year which I will post fully when I get it sent via computer. I'll be doing races such as, Tour of California, Flanders, and Paris Roubaix. I am so excited to be picked for races I used to watch on TV and had always dreamed of doing. For today, we mostly are sitting in meetings all day - a bit boring but important. I just can't wait for this collar bone to heal so I can start training. I am more motivated than ever now!

More to come,

Steven

At almost the end of one of the craziest years of my life, it just got even more nuts this past Saturday. Allow me to rewind back to the start of my off-season break. After racing in Mexico, I took two weeks off for just fun "down time". I went out with my friends, attempted but failed my solo attempt at trying to climb Mt. Shasta, got poison oak in places my girlfriend hated (can't go into detail on that one), sadly watched a life-long family friend die at 93 years old and then broke my collar bone while getting knocked out again in the greatest freak accident of my life. I was mountain biking this past Saturday with my buddy Kyle and girl Callie. Since Callie was with us, I knew it was just going to be a fun and super slow-cruising riding day. I was taking all the downhill’s cautiously riding behind Callie. One minute we were going super slowly on a downhill trail and then the next moment I found myself lying on the ground in pain. I can recall the point of trying to get up off the ground, but for the next 15 minutes or so I can't recall a thing until talking to a lady and getting into her car. My brain doctor says that the recorder was turned off in my brain. Yeah weird and scary! Later that day, I actually heard what happened. So I crashed and right when I hit the ground I started yelling Callie's name then stopped. She found me laying head downhill face up. They said I was chatting my head off worried that I had screwed up. Callie said she just started kissing me as I cried in fear. I knew my shoulder area was messed up and was worried it was my neck. Once they got me up, they walked me down the hill for about 15 minutes until we reached the road. Kyle said I was talking the whole way saying "Where am I?" and "What happened and am I going to be able to ride again?" He said I was even walking around rocks and said, "Hi!" to a Mt. biker coming uphill. I even knew to put my arm in my zipped-down jersey like a make-shift sling. We finally made it to the road and Kyle raced back to his truck 6 miles away. Callie was able to wave down a woman who took us to a hospital. This is the point where I started remembering. What is so weird is that I don't remember even walking or even being with Kyle or Callie. Talk about weird. Well the good news came at the hospital when I learned that my brain was fine with a minor concussion and broken clavicle. I say, "How lucky!" and I’ll hopefully be back out riding after Thanksgiving. For now, sitting upright on the trainer is where I ride. It's totally boring but what can ya do but make the best of it. After going to my brain doctor he says I got smarter this time from hitting my head so that is great news, (just kidding). I am excited because tomorrow I leave to go to Boulder for our team's major kick off and training camp. I am bummed that I will not be able to ride with the guys but I am hoping there will be plenty for me to do. I am a bit concerned however - I don't know who I will get to button my jeans now that I won't have Callie helping me do everything.

Thanks for reading, with more news to come from camp

Steven