Adam Craig, TEAM Giant, Check in From World Cup #2 Finally, a hot, sunny, dusty race. Not that I´m a fan of those conditioins, but it´s always nice to have a race in the early season that gets you into the summer heat groove. The Casa de Campo venue in Madrid is unique in the fact that it´s a city park, a really big one, but still about 1k from downtown. The course is a fast rolling affair consisting of some doubletrack and a bunch of fun, flowy singletrack with tons of STEEP short climbs, all thirty seconds or less. The crowds were out in force, tons of people enjoying a Sunday afternoon in the park screaming "VENGA" at the riders. Kelli Emmett and I arrived here on Thursday after learning a bit about the ins and outs of the Italian Airport Shuttle service. Lessons learned: Just because there is a van in the picture on the website doesn’t mean that a van will pick you, and you’re bikes, up. Maybe a lady in a Mercedes sedan will show up, not keen on tying the bikes to the roof… Also, it is possible that in a Region called “Lake Garda” it IS possible that there are more than one town that use the root “Garda” in their name, these towns could be on opposite ends of the lake, it is possible. Aft! er that it was smooth sailing, above average size euro hotel room right in town, close to aforementioned pizza, things shaping up well for a week spent training, relaxing and taking in the culture. And doing a little race…. The men´s race started in usual fashion, fast and furious. Fortunately, I lined up on the outside of the first turn and swung around a bunch of guys just in time for it to string out along a narrow doubletrack. I settled in and waited for the dust to settle as the leaders drove it from the front. After the first lap I had hooked up with Bart Brentjens and we were moving through the field in the teens, about a minute down on the lead group. After two laps we were up in the low teens, 45 sec down, the trend continued for another lap as we touched the top ten and closed the gap to thirty seconds. The lead group was still about five strong and shelling riders for us to pick up, which was good for morale. Unfortunately, I was so excited that I was riding fast and having a good time that I forgot it was indeed the first hot one of the year, and I needed to drink alot more... I started looking for my Coke, but it wouldn´t com! e until two to go, at which point I was really hot, and had goosebumps, and had fallen into the low twenties as I rode essentially backwards on all the key flat sections of the course. After the caffeine kicked in I started feeling better and was able to pick off a few of the other unfortunate souls who were cracking in he waning minutes of the event. I actually felt pretty strong again on the last lap and was able to catch Lado Fumic, Miguel Martinez and a few others to move back into 18th place. It´s always good to finish a race feeling strong, even if you couldn´t have that feeling the entire time... Getting back in the top twenty was nice as well, should set me up for a good start for rounds #3 and #4 up north on some proper cold weather muddy courses. I´m fired up with my form and prospects at this point in the year. Julian Absalon won the mens race, Gunn Rita Dahle took the womens Kelli and I took a plane to Barcelona last night, where we´ll stay for a couple weeks until we head back up north for the next world cups, and possibly a swisspower cup or coupe de france tuneup the weekend before those events. Ít should be nice, and its definately nice to have someone to travel with, schralping your bike case on and off the metro is much easier with another set of hands....