Howdy!
I am sitting at the airport here in Santiago, Chile, typing this post! Pretty crazy huh?!

We have just returned from our Toshiba-Santo presented by Herbalife training camp, up in the Georgia Mountains. We stayed at the Hiker Hostel, with some great hosts, Leigh and Josh. The hostel is usually used for hikers of the Appalachian Trail, which runs from Georgia up to Maine, and the Hiker Hostel happens to be right at the start of the trail. It also happens to be right near the start of the infamous “6-Gap ride”.

Josh and Leigh cooked us an amazing breakfast each morning, and the same goes for anyone who stays there!

Our team spent a week up at the hostel, riding in the hilly terrain, and also did a lot of meeting and greeting of sponsors and team mates. It was a great week, and we have a really great group of guys. Everyone has been getting along so well, and there is a great vibe about the team.

Here is the team:

We have the coolest kit this year - red and white, with yellow stitching; it looks so bad ass! Here I got to pose for the first photo taken of us in our new kits, between Hekman and Hagman.

I am going to be riding a full Louis Garneau outfit again this year, from helmet, through bike, through clothing, through shoes.

Yes, they are sitting in the oven! The new model of the shoes are heat-moldable, so you heat them in the oven, put them on, and they mould to your foot – wicked!

We have a great soigneur on board this year, Paco. He is a tireless worker, and we will be sure to have good legs all year with his great massages. Here is a picture of him, although you may only be able to see his head and pants, as he blends into the armchair quite well!

The new outfits look so cool. So does the Toshiba-Santo presented by Herbalife team! It was freezing for this ride, and as you can tell, we had no Winter gear on! The team is going to stand out pretty well this year with the red and white:

One of our young riders, Andrew Talansky, is super keen, and a future talent for sure. He needs his phot on here, just because of his sheer diligence. We did six hours during the day, in the hills. We got home and ate, and relaxed, then he got his kit back on, and from 8.30 - 9.30, he spent his time getting his position perfected on the trainer!

We had a great time at camp, and from the feeling there, it looks like we are going to have a great year ahead of us!

There will be more updating in the coming days, but for now, my battery is running out, and i do not have an adapter to charge it up here at the airport!

I hope everyone is well, and you will hear from me soon…

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.