Getting Ready

In the run-up to this sports travel adventure, I've made sure not to miss a single hour of workouts for the past 6 weeks. Since I broke my collarbone at the end of May, it seems that my fitness hopped up to a new plateau. Notice the previously misshapen bone here - and the new break across it.

I had just wrapped a job working on the Giro d'Italia for Universal Sports. Getting to combine my passion for bike racing and my job as a television producer must have gotten me super motivated because I was sitting on my trainer 10 days after the fracture - three weeks later I was back on the road. I've been training between 12-15 hours a week building to some racing for the past two weeks. Now I don't really know how tough it's going to be in Europe, but I suspect that the competition here in Southern California is a good test of fitness.


Take for example the guys I was racing against in my second race this past Sunday. Looking around at the 140+ man field, there were former US National, Australian and World Champions. The guy who got second place (Thurlow Rogers) is a former Olympic roadrace USA Team member. I cracked the top 20. Here are the results.

If I've ever been ready to really test myself it's now. The fitness is good and I'm motivated. Now I just need to avoid getting flattened by some SUV here in Los Angeles and give it a go in Western Flanders.