Tour de Beauce - Pre race check-in

Many exciting things have happened since last I brought you all up to date. I am now sitting in the race hotel in St Georges de Beauce the day before the first stage. I just got back from a training ride ith my German teammates, who I just met for the firsttime at breakfast today. Let me go back to the (sort of) beginning.

About two months ago I signed on with a new sports management company in Ottawa called the Revolution Council, the goal being to get me to Europe to do some real racing on the road. One step in that direction was to do the Tour de Beauce this season. Beauce is Canada`s premier stage race and typically attracts some very good teams from Canada, the US and some foreign teams as well. It turns out the a German-based professional team was coming over and needed a rider. This worked out well because they are primarily a cyclocross team and, as those of you who have read this blog before know, I spent some time racing `cross in Europe last winter, thereby making me a little more interesting to them. Negotiations were done and I signed a contract with Stevens Racing for the remainder of the 2005 season in Early June. Hopefully things go well here so that I can return to Europe at some point later this year for more racing.

Anyway, things seem to be good. My form is coming on again and I just won my first race for my new team on Saturday, a criterium stage in the Charlevoix stage race in Quebec. Hopefully my legs still feel good in five days!

I`ll let you know how things go this week.
GR