Last night one of our team Aussie’s, Hannah Banks, finally arrived in Oakland. She is too cute! We went out for a team dinner and then I got to take her grocery shopping at Safeway. It’s her first time grocery shopping in the US, and I was a little disappointed to take her to plain old Safeway – kind a sad showing of the American grocery store. Of course, the Berkeley Bowl would have been ideal with their huge acreage and selection of produce, bulk, deli, cheeses, and organic everythin’ but it was late I didn’t have the energy to fight the nuts and granola hippie moms of Berkeley.

But it was still a fun trip to the store. I asked Hannah what she wanted to buy and she responded in Aussie speak, “Just some biscuits and muesli bars.” Ok, well thats new. Of course I can translate into Martina speak that means crackers (maybe?) and granola bars. The bar selection is weak and expensive in Safeway, so I take her to the snack/granola bar/sugary cereal aisle for some ride food. After I taught her what the “S’mores” flavor was all about (I’ve never been more proud to be American as when I was explaining exactly what the word was derived from . . . little piglets we are), she picked up a box of chocolate chip granola bars and of course, one of S’mores.

After that I showed her around frat row in Berkeley (she was actually really interested in these and she wanted to know about the secret hand shakes? Must be from the movies!). Then we cruised around the UC Berkeley campus and a little bit of the hills before I got her all settled into her new host house at the Cal MTB house (Thanks guys!).

Today we are heading out for a ride and then later maybe I will teach her how to drive my scooter around town. If you see a cute little Aussie girl on the wrong side of the road, please get her going in the right direction!

Ooh, that really sounds like the title of a real news article. And here are the pics:

and I have to show her off. This is how I feel now in Fresno. The sun is so bright here and I am too adjusted to temperate bay area weather.

So the ValueAct Capital Team is in Fresno now, staying at the home of the one and only Marky Mark “Pro Ho” Purnell. Press breakfast this morning, team ride later, work on bikes in the afternoon. Tomorrow is a hilly road race, followed by a 16.5 mile TT on Saturday, and a downtown criterium on Sunday. Oh yeah.

AKA Princess Camp. This was like the week from heaven. Check out our little shin dig we stayed at for the week, thanks to the generosity of super star sponsor ValueAct Capital:

Yeah, it was a really tough week. We basically got a ton of awesome sponsorship stuff, had a full time mechanic, a follow car on every ride, and the company of our new teammates and team staff. The best part was sharing a bed with Taitt because she kept trying to put the moves on me. Luckily it was a California King bed, or maybe bigger. Maybe it was an Alaska King because it was so big that I don’t think we could have kicked each other if we tried.

Ok, I have to admit that it did rain on us almost every ride. But it didn’t stop us from training like crazy in the rolling hills of Sonoma. The worst part about the weather was that I couldn’t really get any good bike pics of our training rides without risking damaging the camera. Here is a pic of one of the dinners. One thing that I learned at team camp is that my teammates are very multi-talented. Everyone took turns making very gourmet meals that were d-lish! Actually, my dinner came out like a bland, off-white, tofu sludge. Luckily I have a couple other talents to fall back on and my teammates are very polite. The reason we are throwing back the vino in the pic is because we were staying on the Chateau St. Jean winery and they needed the team to do alot of Quality Control while we were there.

So the last thing I’d like to talk about here is one of my new teammates, Missy Super Snazy Svelte and Special Sharon Allpress. And the reason I am singling her out is because she has a very nice blog that has been hidden to me until today, so check it out! Oh yeah, and I wanted to say big thanks to director Huntress, coach Smartt, and mechanic/team mom Mark Purnell.

Here is me and dictator, I mean director, Lisa helping out the men’s HNpbM team at the ToC. I am not sure whats going on with her lately, but she is like always trying to wear the same outfit as me and stuff.