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Phil Gaimon’s year in pictures

  • By Phil Gaimon
  • Published Dec. 15, 2011
  • Updated Jan. 5, 2012 at 1:39 AM UTC
  • Gainesville: January. Gainesville, Florida. Fled the great frozen Baltimore for some warmer weather and change of scenery. Looking out my front door, I remembered one thing that never changes. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Olustee, Florida. Sign at a gas station on the group ride. If you’re permanently out of gas, perhaps you should rethink your vocation. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Saw a gator on the ride to welcome me back. The first time I saw one up close was after my first class at UF in 2004. It was an 8-footer, hanging out right next to the driver’s-side door of my car. I got in the passenger’s side, and scooted over.
 Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • I’ve realized that there will be a lot of blurry wildlife in this blog entry. Deal with it. There’s something funny to me about a pack of wild turkeys in the mist. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Took a trip down to Boca Raton. Good riding, if you hate turning, and you like stopping for lights and yachts all day. I’d watched “Blues Brothers” recently, and was almost inspired to go for it on this one. Almost. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • My friend let me leave my trailer in her parking lot, and this is how I thanked her. Classy. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • February: Deland, Florida. I had just won a local race and gorged on BBQ when I took this one. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Kenda Training camp in Clermont, Florida. Jake and the other pale northerners exposed their skin to the sun for the first time in months. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • co-Sponsor! Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • March: Heading back home from training camp, I saw a tow truck, towing another tow truck! Only 25 years old, but my life is complete. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • April. Redlands, California. Can’t complain about this. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Baltimore. I found a dirt road near home in Maryland. As I rounded a bend, I noticed a…smell. Turns out this was the source. I was almost home, so he got the rest of my Enervit bar. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • April 3: I wasn’t going to hurt him. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Got our new GearGrinder jackets just in time for the team presentation, and I attempted an Abbey Road photo. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • We were all afraid to get too close, and then a 5-foot-tall woman came over banging a pot and a spatula to scare him away. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Tour of California, stage 1. And they almost didn’t cancel it. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • All the Euros gathered around the laptop watching their teammates at the Giro. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • This was hanging up in one of the hotel rooms, and I had to stare at it for thirty minutes while I got my massage. The leaves are green and lush on the trees, but brown and orange on the ground. Is this some sort of deep message I’m missing, or can we just chalk it up to crappy hotel art? Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Team race radios for ToC. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • One more stage left, and I couldn’t stand the idea of another race meal. Luckily, there was a taco truck. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • June. Back in Baltimore. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • “What?” Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Remember in the Looney Tunes when they’d run over Wile E. Coyote, and then the paint truck would always come by? It’s like that, only morbid. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Drive three hours from Vermont, and suddenly you’re in France, and you have no idea how to order at a restaurant. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Cascade Classic. Bend, Oregon. Got some appropriate dish detergent. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • One of my fans passed me a beer after the crit. First drink of the season. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • View from the host house. Is it bad that I wanted to skip a stage to go fly fishing? Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Shipped my bike home, and Fedex ran it over with a truck, apparently. They still owe me money for this. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • July. Hull, Georgia. Happy to be back in the south, where there is no unsweet tea, because who on earth would drink unsweet tea? Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • July: Friends in Athens. This photo epitomizes the south. Don’t worry, it’s just a BB gun. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • I have an English degree. How do I apply for the job of “guy who writes church signs.” My other dream job is to write the blurbs on cereal boxes about how to have a heart-healthy diet. As far as writers go, I would argue that these folks have more readers than any journalist. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • August. Did a race in North Carolina with Spencer, and he forgot the pump for his air mattress. Idiot. I did the same thing a couple months ago, to be honest. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Massachusetts. Brad Huff and Jeremy Powers putting up signs for the Gran Fundo. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Another wildlife shot: Cyclocrossers in their natural habitat. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • September. Los Angeles, California. I stayed with Mike for a few days while I raced Elite Track Nationals, and sold his mom some Podium Legs for his birthday. Next time they say I can crash at their house, I’m going to take it literally. I’ll ride into the living room, run over the cat, and endo onto the sofa. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • I convinced Roman to go to Chick-fil-A after a track race. It was “kids eat free night,” and I thought he was going to murder me. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Rainbow: Spencer sent me this picture of a double rainbow. It’s fake, though. They were just filming a Skittles commercial. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Quick visit with a friend in San Diego after track nats. There’s something deep in the human brain that makes us love to stare at the ocean. If you die of old age with a penny in your pocket, and you haven’t seen the sunset from Torrey Pines, you messed up. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • November. My car is totaled. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Stumbled on an autographed picture of Frankie at The Hub bike shop in Athens. I didn’t know he used to race. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Taiwan: Roman sent me this photo from the scenic highway in Taiwan.
 Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Taiwan: Finished with the last race of the season, I wore my straw hat to the 7-11, where I bought some store-brand beer, called “The Beer.” Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Shared a room with Roman in Taipei that night. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • Offseason. This is the only bike I rode for a few weeks, and even then, I went slow. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • I love my grandmother, but I have to admit, she kinda looks like Yoda. Photo: Phil Gaimon
  • I know the year is almost over, because that’s when I always realize that I somehow lost all my left gloves. Photo: Phil Gaimon

Editor’s Note: Phil Gaimon, 25, is a Velo magazine columnist and third-year pro racer for Kenda-5 Hr Energy Presented by Gear Grinder. He has an English degree from the University of Florida, and owns online stores at podiumcycling.com, podiumlegs.com, and sharethedamnroad.com. Check out Phil’s previous blogs

I figure everyone will do a “Best of 2011” blog, so I thought I’d mix it up, dig through the photos on my cell phone, and tell the story of 2011 that way. If you follow me on twitter, you’ve probably seen some of these already, but let’s face it, you have a bad memory, anyway.

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