Happy New Year

I nearly killed myself today during my training ride. It has been rather cold the last couple of days (sub zero) and I was quite surprised when it started raining on me about an hour into my ride. Well, rain isn't that special this time of year but with temperatures at about 25°F it was kind of unusual. Anyways, as you can imagine with a solidly frozen ground, it didn't take too long for the water to turn into ice (about 5 min or so). At first it wasn't too bad but after a couple of minutes the roads were covered completely with a solid layer of ice... those 23C tires are NOT made for ice, let me tell you. I had enough on my plate just to stay upright but apparently driving a car in those conditions isn't too much fun either as quite a few cars swerved by me in a somewhat uncontrolled manner. Nevertheless, I survived the ride (it took me 2h to get back home, the same way I had ridden out in 1h...)and made it back home safe and sound. Let's just hope that next year will get better ;-) That being said: Happy new year!

Oh, and here's a little something to cheer everyone up. It's kind of a tradition in Germany (at least with the people I know) to watch this little video on new years eve. I also plays on tv every year on the evening of the 31st. So, without further ado (do you spell this like that?), here it is:

Who would have thought...

that I am a celebrity? Well, I didn't but apparently I am because I now have an official "fan page" on facebook. I'm not exactly sure who's behind all of this but I've got some ideas... Thanks anyways, I'm flattered.

Check it out!

Cold... FREEZING COLD!

Ok, usually I would not complain about the weather as long as it is dry. On top of it all, we had really nice sun shine and clear blue skies the last couple of days but it has been darn cold! According to some online conversion thingy, the highs yesterday and today were about 24° Fahrenheit… that is measured on the SRM, not some theoretic numbers the guys from the forecast came up with.

This time I really had to pull all my tricks to stay warm but I still managed to get 4h plus rides in both days, so we’re good. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Well, we’ll see…

Christmas Ride

Christmas is a holiday... yeah, right. At least I didn’t have to go out on my own as my cousin Johannes was there with his dad for Christmas. He too is a passionate cyclist, even though his studies and woman keep him off the bike more than he would like. Anyways, we got a couple of hours in before the big feast. Good times.

Side note: today, Friday, is my off-day. Now, guess what kind of weather we have today, compared to yesterday. Any ideas? Correct: today we have sunshine and a clear blue sky; yesterday (on a 4h ride) overcast and just plain nasty. Oh well, what did I expect, right?

 

Enjoy the rest of the holidays! Let's go ride.

 

Happy holidays everyone.

For those of you on the team, take the opportunity to indulge one last time before getting really serious about this upcoming season (yes Peter, that would be you ;-) ), for all the rest, just have a good time with family and friends.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mercyfull Weather-Gods

After a week of absolutely miserable weather with snow, sleet, rain and temperatures around 30, the weather gods had mercy with me last Sunday and we actually had a clear blue sky and temperatures in the mid 40s for the last long ride of the week. I rode with some friends in a group, so I had some company, at least for some three hours out of the six. By the time I got back home I had actually managed to clock my first 100-miler for the season… Yey!

 

This week will be a little less time on the bike and more time spend trying to get all the stuff for Christmas. I guess that I won’t have time for that once the off week is over… so better get it over with now (once I made up my mind what to get everyone here). 

Getting Lost in France

Well, not exactly but my ride today took way longer than anticipated. I’m in Freiburg, Germany with my girlfriend at the moment, which is pretty close to the French border. The river Rhine actually forms the border between Germany and France here and - big surprise - it is nice and flat, perfect for base miles. Unfortunately, you need bridges to get over a river (at least one as big as theRhine). And exactly this was my problem today. So what basically happened is that I got stuck on the French side for much longer than I had hoped. Actually I knew how far I had to go to get back over but there was a darn strong wind blowing right in my face and I hardly made any progress… Anyways, I finally made it back, just shy of 6 hours and about an hour after the sun had set. Needless to say, it was snowing all day long and being out there in the dark was just plain nasty. Fortunately I came prepared and don’t even take off my back light during winter training, so I was somewhat safe at least.

Anyways, I made it back all right but I am really looking forward to a day off tomorrow and the whole next week for that matter: off week! I guess I’ll be busy anyways with Christmas shopping and all… maybe the bike sounds better after all. 

Oh, by the way, here's the forecast for today and let me tell you, it was pretty accurate.

For those of you non-metric-people: 0°C = 32°F

Some Pics from Sunday

more to come