The last few miles of La Vuelta were extremely exciting to watch. I can only imagine of what it must have felt like to be in the middle of the peleton as you sped through the city. Although most of you riders made this whole event look easy, I know it probably wasn’t, so congratulations on what you’ve just accomplished.

Being in one of the cars with the Vuelta staff, I heard lots of stories about people who had difficulties last year and came back this year to conquer. I love those stories.  I know that another rider, Bill Gifford from Bicycling Magazine, only found out he was coming to this event a few weeks ago. With very little time to train, Bill wasn’t expecting to finish the whole tour, but finish he did. Nice job, Bill!

Thanks to all of you for the inspiration. I can’t wait to get back to Oregon and start training for my own cycling season. If I’m going to be able to ride with you next year, I’ve got a lot of work to do.