In the past I've been accused of inserting photos into my blog that are too big for the format of this website. I admit some of this accused skulduggery has in fact taken place over the years, but in the instance above, that was consciously intended - we in the business refer to this photo as a panoramic shot.A brief extrapolation if you will: during my startlingly brief time at home in NH before shipping (or airplane'ing) overseas immediately after Thanksgiving, I ordered an array of new nifty electronics. I have a new Macbook Air which is whispery light, a new Droid cellular telephone unit (remember how much I loved my Blackberry?!), and a straight up diesel Canon S95 camera. All three are impressing me with their lithe yet powerful technological sorcery; I'm like a nerd in a nerd-store with all my new technogadgets!Among other cool things that the camera does - besides just take pictures - is that it has this rad stitch feature where I an take a bunch of photos next to each other and stitch them together to form a panoramic photo. Perhaps needless to say, that's what I've done above with my new teammate Timmy Duggan modeling to the left of my photo, a big mountain straight ahead, and the San Pellegrino pass running along the entire shot... except now that I look closely I can see that you cannot actually see the road at all. We're up somewhere around 2,000 meters above sea level (or 2,002 meters above sea level at low tide) in this photo so the air was thin.I really want to use the expression in arreas to say behind me but apparently in arrears means being behind in a payment. And that's not what I'm going for. So instead I'll say, behind both Timmy and me in this photo is a massive ski area. It looks like this:We did a bit of sledding and it seems relevant to say that we're professional cyclists and not professional sledders or tobogganers or whatever. And while I don't necessarily want to say that I was the best sledder among us 2011 Liquigas-Cannondale riders I will suffice it to say that I'm by no means at a disadvantage having come from the rigors of youthful sledding in the harsh reality of New Hampshire's icy and granite, sledding bluffs.

Look closely and you'll see some biffing Italians sledding down on a sheet of plastic. I'm way smarter than that, and it's no surprise nor coincidence that I'm vertical while taking this photo, unlike some of my horizontal and snowy colleagues.

Ciao.