Friendship Visit and Practice Ride

This is a good picture of me and Paul, the very fun and enthusiastic 8 year old that I got the pleasure of meeting at our last friendship visit.

Today was our our practice ride! We had great weather, about 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We hear from the locals that we should not expect that much longer. We had a great 25 mile ride around a beautiful lake with many hills and a lot of construction to practice around. I was the one of the two "sweeps" for the ride today meaning that we were the last 2 cyclists to make sure that no one got behind us. After our trip we had the opportunity to ride in a velodrome (a cycling track). Our cycling coach took us on the track and taught us how to ride on it. It was a ton of fun to be on the track and you can really get going after a couple laps. We get a great dinner tonight from Bucca De Beppo to get us ready for our kickoff and 75 mile ride tomorrow.