Off To Spain

These sure looked nice (and new). Too bad I'm in economy on my eight-hour flight to Europe.

Atlanta – It's "Groundhog Day" in the cycling world. The time of year when everyone ventures off to training camp before the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

For me, this means a flight from Omaha to Atlanta, then on to Paris, and finally to Valencia, Spain. It's a much longer haul than most of the staff and riders (who are mostly exclusively in Europe) have to endure. But it's one I have been making since December of 2010. And for sure, the warm temperatures in Spain will be a nice change from the (sometimes bitter) cold of Omaha.

The south terminal at Eppley Airfield was nearly deserted Saturday afternoon.

I've never heard of this place, but the food was pretty good.

The view from my seat in Delta's Sky Lounge in Atlanta.

Two Weeks Of Fun Ahead!

The girls woke up early to send off Danielle at Eppley Airfield.
(Lauren didn't want to be in the photo.)

The girls and I are looking forward to a terrific time this month. For the next two weeks, they'll be living with me while Danielle does some missionary type work in a foreign country. I wasn't sure if the girls wanted to wake up at 4:15 a.m. to see their mom off, but as you can see in the photos, there wasn't a tired eye around.

The girls were happy to pose for a send-off photo.

Off To Spain

Only two days after returning from Utah, I am back on the road again. This time, Spain is my destination. Omaha mired in sub-freezing temperatures, so it's a good time to get away.

Back To Europe

Sunny skies (with a few clouds) for departure from Eppley Airfield.

"Working lunch" at Chili's.

So it's time to head back to Europe. Just one more trip after this one, so I hope the rain that is forecast for the entire week of Vuelta al País Vasco does not materialize. It's going to only make a hard race that much harder.


Just getting out of Omaha was a bit tricky. My Delta boarding pass for the third leg of my trip (Paris to Bilbao, Spain) printed three times for me. When the reservation agent tried to get the first two legs to print herself, it was the same: more boarding passes for the third leg. Eventually, she had eight of them (plus the three I printed). Twenty five minutes and four phone calls later, she finally got the missing boarding passes to print out. But she couldn't explain why I didn't get an upgrade on my first leg. Fortunately, the agent at the gate just told me to "sit in 3A" and voila, I was in first class.

Fluffy bed of clouds over Minneapolis.

There is still snow on the ground in Minneapolis. Ick.

Here is that boarding pass that kept printing out. I learned 1A is a good seat.

First Race Trip Of 2013

I'm (hopefully) leaving the snowflakes behind today as I fly to Minneapolis, then on to Paris-Nice.

Trip to Belgium

It was sunny (but a bit chilly) in Minneapolis.

The 2013 season is officially underway for me, as I made my way to Belgium for planning meetings. It seems like I just left there, but it's really been more than a month (late October). Despite not being on the road for only a month, I was a bit out of sorts when it came to the normal travel routine: checking boarding passes, layover times, gates, etc.

My itinerary took me from Omaha to Minneapolis to JFK (New York) and finally to Brussels. We were on time leaving Omaha and the 47-minute flight went well. I arrived in Minneapolis to learn I had been upgraded to first class for the two-and-a-half hour flight to JFK, which was nice. That meant a meal on the plane. What was supposed to be an early arrival – after a late departure due to a computer problem – turned into a later landing due to fog. So my more than two-hour layover there was much less.

The flight from New York to Brussels was more than nine hours, six or so that I slept through. I watched "Adjustment Bureau" and had what I thought would be a nice 80s playlist of music going for my bedtime. That is until a few Bon Jovi songs I put in there woke me up. I rapidly switched over to "spa sounds" and was back to sleep. And in the recline category, my initial plan to put the seat all the way back (because no one was sitting behind me) was foiled when I discovered someone had taken the seat right before dinner. So it was a bit of a restless sleep. The other bad part of the trip was the intercom system, which kept cutting in and out. By the end of the flight, even the pilot sounded frustrated (at least from what I could discern).

I enjoyed first class seating on my 47-minute flight from Omaha to Minneapolis.

Flying over one of the Great Lakes on the way from Minneapolis to New York.

Here's my lunch. That's a chicken sandwich, which looked strangely dark.

Cadel Evans and the BMC Racing Team are in the Delta in-flight magazine this month.

It was foggy (and dark) upon arrival at New York's JFK.

The new 767s feature a headphone jack near the video screen, instead of the arm rest.

Heading Out

The plane (at Eppley) we waited for to arrive from Minneapolis.
There is always so much to do when you know you're going out of town for more than a couple days. In my case, it seemed to be a race against the clock all the way down to the trip to the airport. It's also a good thing I double-checked my Omaha departure time because it was about 30 minutes sooner than I thought.

My rush to the airport (thanks for the lift, mom) was all for naught as the plane coming from Minneapolis was late. Snow in "MPS" meant my flight to the Twin Cities was about a half-hour late taking off form Omaha. We made up some time in the air, but it was hardly enough to ease my fears of not making my connection. Once off the plane, it was a brisk walk to the connecting gate and boarding my international flight to Paris. I made it with 15 minutes to spare.

Perhaps most interesting of the entire trans-Atlantic experience was 1) no filling out a customs card on the flight; and, 2) no questions in Paris about what I was going to do in Europe.

The flight to Minneapolis was full.

We had to de-ice before take off from Minneapolis.

Not sure what the green liquid is. Probably cancer-causing.

Once up in the air, we were greeted by sunny skies.

I told my mom I'd take a picture of dinner. It was good.

I tried to get a picture of this last time I was in Paris.

Compare this shot over Paris...

...to one taken just before landing in Valencia.


Check out how empty my flight was from Paris to Valencia.

Don't know if you can see it, but I got off the plane in the back.

The Return

The view from above near Salt Lake City.

This is what greeted me when I arrived at Eppley Airfield.

The Departure

My trip to California is off to a good start – aisle seat and exit row.

Plane for second leg of the trip: Salt Lake City to Los Angeles.