No place like home away from home

There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like my home…away from home.

The first road stage of the Volta a Catalunya started just a few km’s outside of my new home away from home, Girona, Spain. Yesterday, we raced on roads that we have trained on for the past two years. I’ve done race after new race on roads I’ve never seen before in places I have never even heard of. Now, finally, I got to feel exactly what the Euros feel in almost every race they do. I finally got to enjoy the home field advantage.

I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was to ride on familiar roads. Normally, we do our best by going off the profile and listening to our experienced teammates and directors. But when you are out there on the road, it’s extremely easy to waste energy trying to second guess the unfamiliar. But this time, the tension of positioning was off and the focus was 100% on what was around each familiar corner. It’s only a matter of time I will be this comfortable on every road in Europe!

Each day I will be trying to give you, the viewers, an up-close look at the stage with my Garmin Edge 705. I hope you enjoy the data.

Here’s my first Garmin Featured Ride: stage 2 from Selva to Banyoles.