I've been home from Australia for a few days now and the off-season has officially begun. I'm enjoying it. The best part of being back home is that I stand little chance of being recognized as "the bum guy," as in: "oh my god, you're the bum guy." Those exact words were uttered by one of the Red Bull promotional girls at the last Sun Tour stage in Melbourne.

Those last couple of days in Australia were, as I had hoped they would be, a lot less stressful. I only rode the TT just fast enough not to get time cut. In the final criterium, my main goal was to avoid falling over again. There were a fair number of crashes, so accomplishing that goal was far from assured. I managed it by simply staying near the back and allowing a bit of cushion between myself and the rider in front of me through the corners. Of course, that meant I had to close the gap after every turn, but I was alright with that. It's no way to win a race, but it kept me safe. Eventually the field split and, because of my position at the back, I was at the wrong end of it. My 2006 season ended a couple laps later when the commissaire pulled my group off the course. And so the nightmare year comes to a close.

In Melbourne, the race organizers put us up in a great apartment-style hotel right at the edge of downtown. It's a beautiful city and it was a welcome change after a week in low-end motor hotels in small rural towns. After the race, we had only one night to relax and play tourist, but I think we all managed to do pretty well. I definitely had no trouble sleeping on the airplane the next day.

Now I'm back in Portland, resting up. I've spent the last couple of days drinking coffee, reading the paper, and doing a little work on my apartment. My plan for the rest of the afternoon is to walk to Stumptown Coffee with Adrienne and drink a Belgian beer. That's about as ambitious as I plan to be for a few weeks. It sounds nice.

The picture linked here (warning, it's not pretty) was run on the inside back cover of the Herald Sun, a paper with a claimed circulation of 1 million. As a result, I've gotten a little more attention than I've been comfortable with. Let me explain:

Coming into the finish of stage 2, I was part of the field almost 30 minutes behind the lead group of 16. Trying to stay out of trouble, I had kept myself near the front on the finishing circuits and followed a rider who was clearly motivated for that 17th place. I, however, felt it'd be a little difficult to explain why I was sprinting for 17th, so I decided to stay behind him in the sprint. A Portugese rider behind me clearly didn't share my lack of enthusiasm though, and ended up sprinting directly into the back of me. So then, I discovered one thing more embarrassing than trying to win a bunch sprint for 17th; crashing in a bunch sprint for 17th. And, following that, I experienced the only possible thing that could make it worse: having 3/4 page, full color photograph of the aftermath printed in the Herald Sun. Damn it. Now, I will take responsibility for a couple of the crashes I've had this season, but beyond admitting that I shouldn't have been anywhere near the front, I refuse to accept any blame for this one. The video is posted here (the long version shows it in slow motion), judge for yourself. And yeah, it hurt about as much as you'd expect.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a photo of my naked, shredded ass in a large newspaper did not go unnoticed by many. The next morning, I did a phone interview with some Melbourne based Wacky Morning DJs, a television interview for Channel 10 (it probably shows up in the stage 3 coverage in the above link), and an interview with the Sun to provide them with a follow up story for the next day's paper, which received just as much space as the story about the race itself. I also autographed a copy of my photo in the Sun for some spectators at the stage 3 finish. And just today, while struggling up the finishing climb, someone at the roadside cheered me on by name, then enquired about the status of my "bum." It's been very strange.

Of course, there was actually a race that went on 29 minutes up the road in front of us that day. My teammate Karl Menzies won, meaning that my teammates and I have spent the last 3 days riding on the front defending his lead. It's been a very, very long 3 days. 158km, 178km, then 182km. It wasn't until today's stage 5 mountain top finish that Karl finally succumbed, slipping back to 8th. Today, I ended up getting dropped about 35km from the finish line with a 20km mountain top finish still in front of me. I ended up riding the last 15km of the climb with TdF green jersey winner Robbie Mcewen and my teammate Greg Henderson. I figured as long as I finished with Mcewen, I was sure not to be time cut. It worked.

So this trip has been anything but a vacation. But only a short time trial and a criterium now stand between me and a night out in Melbourne. Then a 16 hour plane ride home. And after that, no bike riding for a good little while.

More later.