Not now chief, I'm in the zone!

What a week its been. Remi, my team captain, and I are spending the time between Kelly Cup and Somerville/Ricola in Somerset NJ at the most amazing hotel on the planet. Sometimes life really throws you a bone, and this is one of those times. We got it for $44 a night, it’s a two bedroom furnished apartment with free breakfast and free dinner with wine! (we’re taking it easy on the merlot, some really long races coming up) So right now a typical day includes waking up having a nice breakfast, followed by an hour or so laying in the sun in our yard, then a good long five hour ride timed to end at free dinner, a quick nap… then maybe BBQ-ing with our friend Greg Cardasco over in Basking Ridge (the promoter of the Ricola crit) for a second dinner then off to bed to rest up and do it again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JMOh-cul6M So this video was emailed to me in preface to my spending a week out here, check it out, but be warned its pretty rough humor. It highlights some of the classic stereotypes of Jerseys dudes and its hilarious. After watching it ten times in a row and nearly peeing our pants Remi and I spent the next few days hunting down these kinda’ dudes; the buff arms with too much spray tan, way too much hairgel, super tight black shirts and normally drinking a bottle of muscle milk. We have definitely found more than a few.
After a good couple of days of ‘Jersey-dude’ spotting we had a realization though, we might be a little more like them than we might have hoped. Remi pops his collar and has frosted tips in his hair, I drink muscle milk after hard rides and wear diamond earings… whoa, the truth hurts! As fun as it is to poke fun at regional differences across the country, all of the locals I have met here are really good folks and always quick with a laugh and a hand shake, such as the bike cops we rolled around with this afternoon who taught us a thing or two about using the bicycle as a weapon of self defense!