California vs. Italy

Ciao Tutti !!!

Hello everyone...you know, Cindy and I are really lucky. We get to live in one of the best places to ride a bike in all of North America, the wine country of Northern California. We're looking forward to having the new Amgen Tour of California come to Santa Rosa next Feb. 20. The weather here is pretty ideal year round for training...heck this week I rode with Levi Leipheimer on Wednesday (he tore my legs off and he just got back on his road bike!) and today we had a fund raiser for the local Junior team and we rode and chatted with Fred Rodrieguez and Chris Horner!!! How much better can it get?

But you know, in mine opinion it still doesn't hold a candle to riding and racing in the Veneto region of Italy. Yes, I know I'm biased, as we hope to see you all at Velo Veneto in 2006 and beyond. (We'll have the camp open from early June until early September 2006), but I honestly believe that and for those of you who have been to north eastern Italy before, you know what I'm talking about !!! (Am I the only one who falls asleep at night sometimes dreaming about the roads around the Monte Grappa?...LOL)

So I hope that your training is going well and that you have plans for a wonderful 2006 of cycling, wherever that may be.

In boca a lupo,

Pat