Post Tour de France Success
It's been a while since I've touched base with you on the blog. I was intending to do it on my holiday, but never really got around to it. I was either laying on the lounge chair at my friend's house in Mallorca or playing with the kids. With Victoria in school and July being Tour de France time, August is really the only month we can take a true vacation where it doesn't effect her school schedule.
I'll open the blog with a quick Grand Slam for Zambia update. Thanks to Fatty, Team Fatty and other generous friends, I'm happy to announce that we are approaching the 1,000 bikes milestone! Amazing to think that collectively we are close to changing 1,000 lives. An email is going out this week detailing in a very simple fashion what life is like for Zambian children WITH vs. WITHOUT a Bike. If you haven't seen it yet, click here and you'll see the Power of Bicycles.
As many of you know, Eva and I had the opportunity to go to Africa last year and it was truly a life altering experience. Fatty and The Hammer (as he affectionately calls his wife … Don't know many men who call their wife "The Hammer") are going to Africa as a thank you for all their leadership in spreading the World Bicycle Relief mission. And assuming we reach the 1,000 bike milestone / $134,000 by end of day Sunday, a lucky donor of the Grand Slam for Zambia will randomly be chosen to join Fatty and The Hammer on an all expenses paid trip to Africa. But as much as I'm excited for Fatty to experience first hand the great work he's done, I also want to see for myself the progress being made in Zambia. So Fatty, if it's ok with you - Eva and I will be joining you, The Hammer and a lucky donor (we hope) this Fall in Africa. We'll be together for a little over a week, so I hope you have some good stories to entertain us all!
In addition to the Africa trip, we have probably the best prize list (in quality and quantity) that I've ever seen. Many thanks to the sponsors who have supported WBR by making prize donations.
You have till Sunday night to donate to have the opportunity to win the following:
• World Bicycle Relief Africa Trip: Given if we hit the 1,000 bikes milestone
• Trek Travel 2012 Tour de France Paris Trip (includes airfare & hotel)
• Official 2003 Tour de France Yellow Podium Tunic Signed by Lance Armstrong
• Team RadioShack Trek Madone Bike (Race Ridden)
• SRAM Red Pro Gruppo
• HED Ardennes SL Wheels
• Giro Aeon Helmets (two winners!)
• $50 Road ID Gift Certificates (20 winners!)
• Specialized BG S-Works Road Shoes, donated by Boa Technology
• 16Gb White iPhone from RadioShack
• Garmin® nüvi® 1390T 4.3 GPS from RadioShack
• US Pro National Champion Team RadioShack Jersey signed by the 2011 Amgen Tour of California squad
• Signed jersey by Chris Horner
• Strider No Pedal Balance Bikes (two winners!)
• Entry Into the 2012 Breckenridge Epic Stage Race
• Smartwool: Socks, Armwarmers, or Kneewarmers (30 winners!)
• Honey Stinger Smorgasbord (two winners!)
• Club Ride Apparel (two winners!)
• Team Radioshack Merchandise and Signed Items (four winners!)
• World Bicycle Relief Apparel (three winners!)
Ok … We now go from bikes that change lives to bike racing:
From my vacation, I headed to the Vuelta start in Benidorm. When I saw that Jani had a problem in the first few meters of Stage 1's TTT, I thought to myself "Oh no, I thought we left the bad luck at the Tour." Of course, it was crucial that everyone remained calm and did not panic. Riders can sense the panic over the radio and no one wants to start the Vuelta in a state of stress. Despite the fact that we had to wait approximately 30 seconds for Jani to catch back on, the team rode a good TTT.
Overall, it's been a good start to the last Grand Tour of the season. Irizar and Busche have found themselves in good strategic breakaways that stayed away and Jani and Haimar are in a good GC position. Jani came from the US where he podiumed at the Tour of Utah. He spent some quality time at altitude and comes in very motivated (he always is, but even more so after crashing out of the Tour). Haimar is also important for us. I don't know why, but many people seem to forget about him. Maybe because he's a relatively quiet guy, but I'm more than happy if people "forget" about him or don't mention him as a GC threat. He's been top ten at the Tour de France a number of times so he definitely has the ability to attain a high GC placing. As for Klodi … Though we were hopeful he would be able to contend for the GC, Klodi admitted prior to the race that he was not fully recovered from the Tour crash and that his condition was not at his best. The first few days have reconfirmed this. I do think and hope that as the race goes on, he'll improve and be a valuable support for Jani and/or Haimar.
I know there are a lot of questions about Matt Busche. Though he did well in the break, there's no pressure for him. It's his first Grand Tour and while he's a good climber and time trialist, I'm having him focus on being a good teammate and gaining experience. As I've said before (and we have seen), a three week Grand Tour is completely different than a one week stage race. Normally, we'd send the US Pro Champion to Colorado, but we thought it was more important for his future to get accustomed to racing at this level. We want to see him get to Madrid and then we can build from that.
As for Machado (another one I get a lot of questions about). This is his second Grand Tour and I think he'll take a lot of the lessons he learned from the Giro and apply them to the Vuelta. He's very talented and I think having a Grand Tour under his belt will serve him well.
Besides the Vuelta, I'm immensely proud of how this team responded after the Tour de France. Levi, who was caught up in a number of crashes in July is having a great August in his home country. He took the overall victory in Utah, won yesterday's stage in Colorado and is currently leading the overall. Team RadioShack has won the two "major" US races (California and Utah) and hopefully Levi can make it all three later this week. Jesse Sergent won the TT in Eneco and Robbie McEwen showed that he still has those fast legs with a sprint victory in the Tour de Wallonie. We also added a Team Classification victory in Eneco. So to date, we have 26 road victories and 6 team classification titles in 2011. Despite the Tour, this has been a great year … And still two months of racing to go!
And while 2011 has been great, I'm working on an even better 2012. Lots of people are already wondering about what the team will look like next year. We'll be announcing this very soon. Be patient my friends!
I'll write soon.
JB
