Woke up this morning and read that Kohl, the third place finisher in the Tour de France this year went positive for a failed doping test in this years Tour.  I can’t imagine how sick all you fans must be getting from all this crap.  I know I’m sick of it.  The only real positive I can see out of this besides a few of the riders is the more of the cheaters that are caught, the more clean riders there will be to fill up the professional racing scene.  The Tour de France has been over for more then two months now and Christian continues to kick ass.  Pretty soon he will be in the Yellow jersey of the 2008 Tour de France if the positive test continue to keep showing up at this rate. 

For me there’s just two races to go.  After Paris Tours I now am starting to feel my good form going back down the hill just in time for the off season.  I was strong at Paris Tours but the race didn’t work out for me as I had hoped for.  A Lot of times in this sport its a lot of luck especially if you are not a sprinter and need to rely on getting away in splits towards the finish of a race.  I did get in a really nice 10 man break with 20 or so kilometers to go but Quick step put in a huge dig on the front and brought us back in no time.  I had one bullet left and used it to bring Tyler our sprinter to the front one last time before the last two climbs.  After that my head blew off and I hit the wall.  It felt good though to get another one of these longer races in my legs for next years classics. 

Please don’t loose all faith in this beautiful sport.  Every year we come that much closer to the light at the end of the tunnel and I hope other sports are soon to follow our progress. 

Italy watch out, here I come,

Steven

Since Worlds I have been back in Girona resting up for the next races to come.  Next up for me and my teammates is the 4 day Franco Belgie race in France and Belgium.  I did this race back in 2006 and really liked it.  It’s definitely not a race for the wimpy.  Its a hard man race for sure.  Well any race within a 100 kilometers of Belgium is a hard mans race.  The rougher and tougher the race the more I like it so I am excited.  Franco Belgie usually is full of cross wind and bad weather but sometimes its sunny and calm.  Since it is always one way or another the outcome of the race can change a lot depending on the conditions.  If its nice weather than I think Tyler our sprinter on the team can be really good for the sprints.  My goal for the race is to use it as a little build for Paris Tours on the 12Th of Octoberin France.  I think I can be good to make the selections for the overall General Classification but I am not going to put to much pressure on myself for it and am looking forward to helping the team out to win a stage if it comes down to a field sprint. 

Since its October now.  Wow I cant believe its already October.  Yes almost Halloween then.  I have a really bad sweet tooth so that holiday is nothing but trouble for me.  When October rolls around every year I’m usually hiking up in the mountains by now doing my own little survival trek but for this year I race all the way until the last race Lombardia on October 18th.  Since this is my schedule its important to be more relaxed now and have a bit of fun.  Like tonight Tom my teamate and I went to this crazy bar with an Archery range.  Ha that would never be allowed in the USA.  We just walked in and started firing arrows like Robin Hood.  I think I’m going to quit cycling and compete in Archery now.  I probably have a better chance at going to the Olympics for that anyways and you can do it at a Bar.  I don’t think cycling at a Bar will ever become popular but you never know in this insane World of ours.

Well I can do my own updates now so I will be posting more frequently or at least whenever I have Internet.  I am horrible with my spelling so please excuse me in advance for any grammatical errors I have made. 

Thanks for reading,

Steven,

Post Script: Thanks to all the kind comments that have been posted on my page.  The support and encouragment goes along way in this sport and helps me more than I can say in words alone.

Why did man have to invent perfume?  I’m being driven to the airport right now to fly to Italy for Worlds and I swear my Frenchman taxi driver took a shower in perfume this morning. Between his farting and perfume, I think I’m going to have a permanent headache. Then, when I tried to get fresh air by rolling the window down, he says “No!” and puts the AC on full-blast. He doesn’t speak English so I say “I’m not HOT man, it’s just that my brain is on fire, my nose is burning and my eyeballs are totally drying up.”  I’m now waiting for the momment when I’m going to blackout.  My hands are starting to get all clamy and I think I’m starting to see the light with God at the end of the tunnel laughing at me. How can this taxi ride from hell cost 150 euro? Jeeze.

It’s been sometime now since I last posted on my site and I apologize to all my fans. This stinky taxi driver just totally inspired me to write something.

I’m pretty stoked to be going to elite Worlds this year. After the race I just did in France, my legs are really strong right now.  It’s still a month to go of racing and I couldn’t be feeling any stronger so I hope to pull something off.

Shoot! The rude California kid in me just put my foot on the taxi driver’s dash board. We almost crashed, he freaked me out so badly. Wish we had, haha - then I could have hitch-hiked the rest of the way.

Well I’ll let you know how Worlds ends up. I’m going to give it some “umph” to get in the early break.

Thanks for reading,

Steven