So, a couple days after nationals and one 7hr flight later, I’m back to the part of the world that doesn’t have peanut butter, on the flip side it does have some tasty pastries and un-deniably the fastest cross’ racers in the world. Everytime I come to Belgium it’s easier on me and I say, “ahh this time around is better” It actually is, I’m not trying to prove anything crazy, I’ve done a good season in the United States and I’m only here to try and get better. Nationals was a trip with some of my friends I’ve met in Belgium coming over to my parents place and then coming up to the race. The weather couldn’t have gotten any nicer, it was so nice to have a dry national championships for a change. So many of my friends came out to nationals to support me, its going to be hard to top that until they come back east again, which I hope is soon. Since I hate flicker, I decided to throw a bunch of pictures in the body of this update, so enjoy those and thank you to Mario for the collection of good photos from the weekend. The squawk will start flying, im sure, but since Jelly Belly is in for Tour of California, I won’t be doing world championships for cyclo-cross and NO, i’m not jumping ship on cross’…leaving my roots, etc. I just have this obligation to my team and so, with that, I should say I was actually allowed to race cx worlds, but I wanted to take this experience of 2 weeks of hard racing with the euro camp and use that versus the 3500 dollars it would cost me or my sponsor to go to the world championships, for only one race, which I’m not sure either of could even afford if I was going that route. So bottom line, I’m taking 10 races with the euro cross scene instead of 1 in February where it won’t really fit into my schedule anyhow. Thanks a bunch to Joe Mai from Joes Bike Garage Every weekend, I would bring my beat cross’ bikes from the weekend battle and Joe fixed em’, no questions asked, I just dropped them off on Monday and by Tuesday, done. It’s nice to have someone as talented as Joe working on my bikes, so if your ever in western Massachusetts and need something, look Joe up, you won’t be disappointed! In other squawk, I just read Jon Page signed his first contract in Europe and he’ll be riding for the colors of Morgan Blue for a year, still riding on Cervelo’. Thats awesome, nice work JP. The first race of the camp is this Saturday in Wachtebeke. I’ll try and give a brief update on how those end up, even if they’re crap. Alright I’ll leave you with this video in case you missed nationals. oh and something I made. A little picture for Ryan and Jen Seeya!

There is one race on the calendar everyone gets ready for and thats nationals! I’m pretty excited for this Saturday since the championships are in Rhode Island and I don’t have to go flying to Portland mud-puddles or Kansas city cold weather. This last weekend was the W.E. Stedman race in Rhode Island. Timmy won again…and I was second, but close, which is a good feeling. Everyone I know showed up to watch, my friends from Connecticut, my old training bud’ Craig Lipka who I spent countless hours with on the roads as a junior and all my family who still live in New England were on course, screaming for me, it was great! What else…? I didn’t race Sunday so I could study for the two final exams I have this Wednesday and then get my bikes and stuff ready for nationals and Belgium. A HUGE thank you to Tom McDaniel, the promoter of the Granogue UCI race in PA. because Tom helped me financially; I am able to head over to Belgium with Geoff Proctor and duke it out with the euro cross’ gods. I’m really excited to get back over to the racing in Europe and hope to get back over there a bit more next year. I downloaded the new eminem cd “the re-up” off itunes this week and if you like eminem, he’s back with his friends and it’s pretty good, so check it. Some friends of mine from Belgium are coming to see New York City, hang out and cheer at nationals, so if you see a big Belgie with Mr.Jelly Belly , be sure to say hi and pick up some sportbeans. Seeya!