LG in the house...

Greetings cycling fans. Well the last few days have been very interesting to say the least.
With Tasha gone to PEI I had to fend for myself in Cornwall and already started missing her on Friday. I did a ride with the Cornwall boys on Saturday and it was really cool to ride with a different gang and do a good ride before heading to Beauce, in which I will be racing the Tour for the third consecutive year with the LG formation.

Louis (Garneau) invited me to stay at the Condo across from the Factory in St Augustin, right where Montreal-Quebec finishes. Once there I met up with J Schiller and Otavio Bogarhelli from Brazil. His English is pretty good but we are trying to corrupt him and show him all kinds of slang like...well, all kinds. The condo is pretty boss as well. There is enough room to sleep 2 entire teams, and there are pictures of Louis in his hay day, racing all over the World, some really cool photography and medlas, trophies plaques that the team have won so far. Pretty frigin cool. Not to mention Louis, who is a super cool guy, for a millionaire kind of franchise mogul.

Today we met up with another LG teamate Aroussen and we did a few laps of the MTL-Quebec finishing circuit and did some pace line and I almost had a heart attack as we were cruising!

Off to the LG factory to pick up my kit bag for the race. N ow I'm going to add some pretense to this. Usually I get a pretty sweet bag, but this year, you have no idea how spoiled I was. They asked me for my shoe size and bike measurements and they were going to put together a full Dura Ace road and tt bike for me. I was a little hesitant of this as I 'm sensitive with equipment, in the fact that I need certain measurements, but I did accept test out some Dura Ace wheels and Vittoria tubs, no problem on that!

So I won't waste your time with all the details but I basically got three bags full of pink gear! I think they are hoping I will do a good tour as I have never ever had so much unwrapping to do in one day. Don't get me wrong my current sponsors take very good care of me, I love the Opus that I ride and I think the RWR kits are are great and Glen has done his best to support me, not just with stuff but also in more of emotional kind of support and personal support which are ultimately more important than swag. But I have to say it's really fun to crack open 3 sets of bib shorts, two helmet boxes, sun glasses, dufflebag, countless socks, gloves, jacket...track suit, tee shirts...I could go on but alas time is of the essence.

Anyways, I was a little hesitent to open all the bags as I have have worked hard for everything that I have in cycling and feel like I was given all this stuff for just a week. Last year I did a whole season on one new kit and a used skinsuits! But I frigin have smile on my face ear to ear. Ok maybe I won't be able to use some of it past this week, but none the less, it just makes you feel good. So after cracking open all the stuff, Sandra , Louis assistant, who is so helpful, told us we could lunch in the caferteria for free as well.
One of my goals this year was to get at least one new skin suit, (I think I have 3 or 4 now) and not not look fat in at least one picture, as for some reason I look fatogenic.

So skinsuit check, fingers crossed that there are a few good pics this week. Results? Basically I found that when you look good , results follow as you are confident, haha. ALso I think my hair is good this week, feeling very think as the conditionner is really good. Not as good as Curt Harnett's hair back in the Pert days, more like Ed Norton in Fight Club.

So what is the moral to this story? I'm not really sure. I work hard for this. That's all I know. Wheather or not I get one kit or two or three, it doesn't really change my desire to perform, that is constant. Sure it makes me happy to feel special to get all this attention, who wouldn't?
But it does feel good to get some stuff everynow and then when you work so hard to get where you are. It's kind of like my racing results, I've earned every single podium I have stepped on.
There have been no flukes, just hard work. For real.

Also the boys noticed I was more tanned than the Brazillian, way to go Cornwall!
Derrick

I spoke to Tasha she said the TT was "ok" in PEI, she's still not 100%, but I think she'll come around as the Tour goes on. She is having good times in PEI and said it is beautiful there.