After waking up at 5h45 and not getting back to sleep i dragged my bike, bags, computer down to the car, filled the tank, bought some fruit for the road and headed off to Pierre's. If there is one thing that can put me in a horrid modd it's starting the day with bad coffee.....some women talk about bad hair days, I talk about bad coffee days! Thank goodness Pierre is well equipped with a very good coffee machine.

After the second coffee, a bit of discussion on his new bike (Bbox will be riding EPS Colnago frames in 2010), a phone call to the mechanic to sort out a few sizing issues.....we took off for an 80kms spin in weather that was amazingly mild for this time of year. The sun was out and we rode along the Loire and then off into the country side.

Pierre is riding a fixed gear as I have most of my rider's do their first 1000kms back on the bike. His pedal stroke is already much more fluid than it was last season and it's nice to see him taking pleasure in spinning as opposed to grinding a huge gear.

As for me, after not riding my bike for 2 weeks to focus on the marathon, my bike felt like a stranger for the first 25kms.....by the end of the ride we seemed to recognize each other again and all was well....

As you can see I'm not an iphone camera ace but these photos are of Pierre and I after the ride.


Before leaving, we went over his training between now and the end of november when we'll see eachother again at our team camp. Having 25 riders to keep tabs on is a mission but via www.trainingpeaks.com I'm able to keep track of everyone and when I transfer their data to WKO+ I can zero in on their progress with amazing efficiency.

Pierre, Marion (his girlfriend) and I finished the morning with a salad and off I went 250kms towards the south west to see Franck.