just returned from the VIP/Media Party

The invitation stated that presentations start promptly at 7pm, so naturally i showed up at 6:57. I think i was the first one there. I brought my host housing guy, Geoff, with me as my beard.

Eventually the stars poured into the room - jonathan page (who looks like he's recovered from his shoulder crash that required surgery earlier in the season), ryan trebon (aka tree farm due to his super tall lanky build), tim johnson, marc gullicson, todd wells (current national champ), matt white, jonathan baker, barry wicks, and a bunch of others. On the womens side, I saw mandy lozano, dierdre winfield, josie beggs, rebecca wellons, and a few others.

We finally sat down at a table with Jonathan and his family, Frankie (fellow belgian and former manager of Navigators team who flew from belgium to support JP), Curtis - Geoff's teammate and a couple other folks. Within two seconds of getting comfy in my seat, I had three bare ass photos spread out in front of me. They were of women's asses - all of them had road rash. I was told to choose which one was sexiest. Of course i did what anyone would do in this awkward situation - I chose one.

Moments later, they started the presentation. Since i was # 1 on the charts due to uci points, I was last to get interrogated by the oversized microphone and blinding camera lights. I normally am a talkahaulic until I'm put in these situations. And to make matters worse, the acoustics in the place were so bad that I didn't really hear any of the questions posed. But it didn't matter because i don't think anyone heard my answers either. I stood up there in the spotlight for at least an hour - OK, well maybe it was only five minutes but it was long enough for me to feel the beads of sweat making their way down the middle of my chest, filling my belly button.

Once it was over, I went back to my custom meal - plain pasta with tomato sauce and a loaf of bread. I brought my own habaneros.

I was glad i attended. It's always fun to see cyclists in real people clothes. Although the styles varied quite a bit from very formal to hip hop, you could still tell they were a bunch of cyclists because they all looked so comically thin. After the food was gone I left.