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March 16 |
Hi everyone! We are having a great time in Switzerland.
Fresh hot bread every morning. Hot chocolate in the sun on
the ski slopes. After just a couple of days skiing between my
legs or next to me holding a pole, Emma can already ski by
herself! She likes "racing" around the gates on the junior
hill and enjoys scaring the crap out of her mom when she
decides "I don't WANT to make turns mom, I want to go
FAST!!"!!! I am very proud ,as it's what I have always hoped
I'd be able to teach my kid(s)! Milo can walk now and doesn't
miss a chance to walk over to me at the bottom of a run and
grab my legs as if to say "take me too!!". So I take him up
the little hills and he smiles and laughs the whole way down.
When we leave our skis on the snow, he holds our hands and
tries to put his little feet in right where they should go!
He's ready. Cori says no...:-)
On to the team stuff...I still have nothing to report except
that the final deadline is Wednesday!! I've gotten a lot of
emails asking me about it and I'm sorry. One of the main
sponsors is hoping to bring in one more sponsor and it has
been a longer process than I had hoped. With or without the
other sponsor, I have a great team!! And with or without that
other sponsor, the main sponsors and I have agreed that
Wednesday is it. We were hoping for a big bang with all the
press releases going out simutaneously but if that can't
happen by Wednesday then it can't happen! No big deal. Sorry
for the delay! Until Wednesday...
JP |
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Jan 23 |
Well everybody...this has been a LONG season and the worst
one, at least stress wise, to date. Actually, it was pointed
out by my mechanic and friend Franky that results wise, it
wasn't bad. I argued, but later, sat down with my results
from the 06-07 season and compared them to the results of the
07-08 season. Turns out, Franky was right. AGAIN. What I
saw surprised me! The power of the negativity of this
year's team leaders was realized after I
compared December through February (because of my shoulder
injury last year I was unable to compete until then) of the 2
seasons. I was better by far this season. I had a higher
placing in 7 of the races from December to Feb. this year than
last year. I bettered my own American World Cup record by one
place this year from 9th to 8th. I stood on the podium again
a few times throughout the season. The only thing I DIDN'T do
this year that I did last year was stand on the podium at
Worlds. And in the early season, which I have nothing to
compare to from last year, I won 2 races in America and had a
handful of top 5 and 10 placings over here. In addition,
I did a decent road season with some stage wins in the USA and
even 2 podiums in a big stage race in Belgium. So, while I
didn't have a stellar season by any means, it was better than
the one before, better than I've ever done. I improved! But
instead of seeing the positives, this team chose to see just
the negatives. And unfortunately, it seems that some of the
public, and even myself, almost followed suit...
Of course I have a lot of stories to tell...but I'm not going
to tell them all now. I do however, need to get one thing
cleared up and that is this: I was not "fired" as the manager
tried to say. The real story is that I wanted to quit in
November. I didn't want to "go to work" anymore in the
conditions I was "working" in. As many of you pointed out,
almost no one would stay at a job like this one. Anything
good I did went almost unnoticed whereas everything that
didn't meet the mostly unachievable standards, was met with
threats to fire me or make my life so miserable that I would
want to quit. In addition I was in the media almost
daily with stories blown out of proportion and "plumped up"
with full on lies. I didn't care about getting paid. I
didn't care about anything except getting as far away from the
negativity and strange actions from the team manager as
possible. He didn't and doesn't know me or my family (in
fact, when my mother in law was here, he met her and said "you
must be Jonathan's girlfriend" despite having met Cori several
times and only having 8 riders to keep track of). But yet he
tried to publicly humiliate me and my family and my coach.
But instead of being finished with the team in November, my
agent had a long meeting with the manager of the team and it
was decided that I would stay, but just until the end of this
season. In exchange for me staying, the manager had to stay
away from me at all times, including at races, and wasn't
allowed to dictate which races I had to do or which training I
had to do. Also, neither of us was allowed to say anything
negative in the media (he didn't exactly adhere to that but it
did get slightly better for a time) and I wasn't allowed to
tell the real story and instead I had to agree that all I
would say was that we had "come to an agreement". He later
turned that into a story of how he was a nice guy for letting
me stay on the team until now. Not true. Not true at all.
So, I am not going to send out a press release or anything
but, I feel I have the right now, to tell the real story to
you all because you support me. I know that I am lucky to do
what I do for a living and to have the support of my family,
especially my wife, and friends and fans. I'm VERY
lucky!!!...but this year, it just wasn't a healthy or fair
situation to be in. Not for me and not for my family.
Psychology 101...or even lower!!!
I have had to re-think "life dreams". My biggest, longest
time "life dream" was to make it onto a real European
professional team. I finally achieved that goal this year and
it wasn't a dream at all. So now what? Maybe dreams aren't
so great after all? I don't know. I've been doing a lot of
thinking, assessing and reassessing. I think I need
Psychology 201 or higher for those answers...
But at least the season is finally over and I am SO SO
thankful!! From now on, I want to focus on the positive
things: I have assembled a "team" of personal sponsors again.
Just like the old days. They are all VERY positive supportive
people and have worked hard to put packages together with my
best interest in mind. I CANNOT WAIT to announce them on
March 1...All great people. All excited to be involved! All
very helpful as is seen by the early "finished" date of March
1. I am happy to put my bike away for a while but I am also
looking forward to next season already. That's a good thing!!
For now, here is what I'm up to: Friday at 5:30pm, I will
board the plane with Cori, Emma and Milo, for Tunisia for 8
days. We are going to spend some real family time. I hope
there will be no stress and we can all have a 100% mental
vacation. Before that time, I will already have things in
motion for my new team so that when I arrive back in Belgium
on the 1st of March, my sponsors and I will be able to send
out a press release (maybe even with pictures!) to announce
everything. I owe all of you some good news after a year of
bad news...:-) Then, 2 days later, we are headed to
Switzerland for some skiing, more family time, and some early
season inspirational training in the Alps for me. We are
lucky because as some of you already know, our good friend has
a house in the Alps in Adelboden, a World Cup ski site. The
house is a 1min ski to 2 different lifts...Saturday, April
12th, we will be back in the USA!! For Cori, it will have
been 7 months away so she is really excited. For me, it's
only been 4 but I'm also really excited! We'll spend some
time visiting Cori's sister in Wisconsin to welcome our 1st
nephew, Nathan Russell Johnson, born the 28th of January.
Then we'll head to AZ for some warm weather training and
visiting Cori's snowbird parents and grandmother. Then we get
to go visit long time friends in Palm Dessert, CA for a week
stay at Marriott resort!!! We are really looking forward
to the visit! I will be racing starting with the CSC series
in mid May, with Battley Harley Davidson team. I plan to race
with them through August and then stay to do a few cyclocross
races (CrossVegas is for sure! on the 24th of September!!)
before heading back to Belgium for what I hope will be a
better season!
Thanks again to everyone who has supported me the last years!
I've said it before but I'll say it again: without all the
support, I wouldn't be doing this anymore!!! THANKS!!! Look
for updates throughout the road season as I'm sure "the webguy"
will put lots up when I start racing again in May...:-) Gotta
go find my swimming suit and shorts and pack up for Tunisia!!
Over and out!
JP
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Nov 26 |
Hello again. Well, things are getting a little better around
here. My agent worked out a compromise with the team so here
is what I'm doing:
I will stay with the team but only until Feb.28, 2008. After
that, if all goes well, we can talk about re-signing or I will
be free to do what I want. Last week was a busy week but I
hope now, things are getting better. All seems to be well so
far. I'm really glad for that and I'm trying hard to focus on
getting back to being competitive.
I REALLY want to thank everyone that has sent emails of
encouragement!! I really appreciate it and have been working
on writing back to everyone. It might take me a while to
respond to everyone but I have read them all and it's
inspiring to receive so many well wishes!! Thanks to everyone
who took the time!
Tomorrow I head to Spain...I hope. I was supposed to leave
today but last night on the way home from the Super Prestige
in Gieten Holland, we got rear ended in the mobile home and it
now has no tail lights so I have to wait until tomorrow when
the mobile home company is open to get a new tail light and
get on our way. We'll stay in and around San Sebastian for
almost 2 weeks. I'll do the World Cup in Igorre on Sunday
followed by another UCI race in Asteasu on the 6th of
December. Then we'll head back for the Super Prestiget in
Veghel, Holland on the 9th.
Thanks again for reading and for the continued support and
cheers...
Jonathan |
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