Unlike some of the fancier events happening just prior to the TOC, HealthNet's team in store visit showcased the team's friendliness and accessibility...

Saturday, I met up with HealthNet at Cycle Sport in Oakland about 1 hour away from the Palo Alto Prologue.  This was a low key event and only a few fans showed up.  Prior to arriving they were cheering up kids at Childrens' Hospital of Oakland. I brought my 6 year old daughter - who is a huge Tim Johnson fan (really). As soon as the van pulls up, she starts hopping up and down as she sees Tim riding shotgun.

Read more on the flip...

Out of the van piles Tim, Karl Menzies, Phil Zajicek, Roman Kilun, , Matt Crane, Frank Pipp, John Murphy.  Only Rory couldn't make the visit.

Tim starts talking to my daughter right away. Like I said only a few people were there, so nobody was under any pressure.  I asked Tim about his early career. He went over to Europe in 1995 at 18 years old.  As a junior, he said he quickly found luck in 4 seasons moving from 52, 57, 10, 3  (this could be wrong, doing this from memory).  He didn't feel any special pressure as an American, except the typical change of environment you hear from lots of Americans.  He also mentioned his long time friendship w/ his mechanic and relationship with cyclocrossworld.com.  I asked him about Bart Wellens and Tim said he was a good friend.  Next, I moved on to this year's CX world championships. We agreed that Lars Boom was an animal. I asked about that steep hill that everyone was having a hard time getting up. You couldn't tell from the TV coverage but he said the run-up was bumpy, off-camber and not an easy shot up. He guessed about 12-15% grade.  He must have watched the coverage afterward because he even knew that Lars was running on fumes on the last lap and had to make a run up the last time.  As for the TOC, both Rory and Phil will be going for GC and depending on who is doing better will tip the scales.  He said they will be hunting for some stage wins and would be excited to get a top 10 finish in the prologue from Rory (didn't happen but John and Karl rode well).

I next spoke with Matt Crane, who Tim introduced me too.  Matt is a really nice guy. Recently coming up from juniors. He rode the Tour of Missouri and this would be his 2nd big stage race.  We chatted about road bikes and mountain bikes. He showed me their TT machines and pointed out the Mavic carbon front wheel that runs $5000.  When asked about Stage 3, he said "I will be shredded by then".  Here's a good story that Matt pointed me too: http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=3435

I spoke with John Murphy briefly also (see article). I asked him whether he ever thought he would be signing autographs; he said "I always dreamt so!" Perfect. John rolled the prologue in 4:05 -20th place.

Phil was friendly also. Coming over from Naviagtors from last year. He mentioned that he and Rory pre-rode Mt Hamilton (stage 3, category HC). Not only a big climb but he let me know that the road surface on the descent is skectchy.

I asked Karl about what stages he was targeting; he said "the flat ones." Classic. Karly rolled the prologue in 4:02  - 15th place.

Last, I spoke with Roman Kilun. Roman lives locally so we chatted about pizza, and favorite local rides. Roman recently passed the bar exam, so he's officially a lawyer.

With a bunch of conversation in, it was time to say goodbye. My daughter and I walked out the door.  5 steps later, she says "dad, I didn't say good bye to Tim". So back in we go and say goodbye to Tim.

Drew, we got a special gift for you. Email me your address and I will send the original to you. rdpark201@yahoo.com