Here in Portugal

It's Monday already and I just finished breakfast at the Curia Hotel, official rider hotel for Worlds Masters. I finally got a full nights sleep after a long Saturday through Sunday plane flight. We left Sat. At 2:30 and got to Lisbon about 8:00 A.M. Got through customs, what is in the box sir? Bicycle, ok, got the rental car and thankfully fit all the gear into it. Of course we got lost some getting out of Lisbon, wrong turn at the round a bout but made it to highway A1 and drove north about 2 hours to get to the Anadia area. It's a very small town area, smaller than I expected and looks old and quaint. We needed to get the phrase book out and ask someone in town how to get to the Curia Hotel. Found it and unloaded some gear and talked to a few racers about where the track was. Basically they couldn't tel me how to get but could lead me there. Off I go without telling Vera what was happening. 20 minutes later and I am at the Velodrome, very cool and very new. I will post some pictures soon but it looks like it really isn't even finished yet and is located kind of out in the middle of small town nowhere. It is very impressive. I tried to register but they were closed for lunch. There was only a few hours until my practice time so I figured I could assemble the bike and just stay and ride, only light training laps anyhow. I got everything together and got registered only to remember that Vera had my shoes in here luggage at the hotel, dam. 45 minutes until track opens for me, rush back to the hotel and then back to the track, getting lost on both trips but made it back by 3:15 so suit up and on the track. Being new, the surface is fresh and untreated and VERY smooth, should be fast. I have connected with a bunch of racers from USA masters already, Kim E., Mark R., Larry and a bunch more. I got at least an hour of ride time in before it was time to be done for the day.