Back on the Bike

After enjoying some three weeks of laziness, complete with tons of home-made food, sitting around in coffee shops and just plain what-ever-you-do-don’t-touch-your-bike time, I’m ready to get back to work and hop on the bike again. Today was a beautiful day here in Heidelberg, Germany (low 50s but sunny) so I joined one of the local group rides with some friends to rediscover how it feels to ride your bike. Now, for those of you who have never done a group ride outside the USA, this ride was a real no-drop ride, i.e. easy pace and multiple regrouping points which we didn’t even need as the whole group stayed together (yes, even on the 1000+ foot climbs). It was a great ride, giving me a chance to chat a lot with friends and catch up with what is happening on this side of the ocean. Despite the easy pace I was ready to call it quits after 2.5 hours (and cold feet) but decided to switch bikes and go for another easy mtb ride with my girlfriend Christine. Turns out that even an easy ride isn’t quite as easy if you have ridden a couple of hours with a group before it but the views at to top of the climb and the following downhill were well worth it.

Right now we are packing up and I’m getting ready to drive Christine back to School in Freiburg (about a 2h drive). If the weather holds, we’ll go for another ride in the morning. Freiburg is one of the coolest places in Germany for cycling with a lot of pros living there; riding there is pretty good and the weather usually the best in all of Germany. So, I’m looking forward to another day of fine riding.

Home Sweet Home

I know, it has been a while but I’ve been busy getting everything sorted out before leaving the States for Europe for the winter. I’ve been on a packed schedule but, after sleeping off my jet-lag, things finally seem to quiet down a bit. But first things first.

We didn’t stop racing with Metro after HHH (something you might have thought as that was my last post…). We raced three events since then, the TX Tough GP, Cotton Patch Classic and the USA Crit series finals in Vegas. We had planned on doing the San Francisco Twilight instead of Cotton Patch but unfortunately half the team, including Andrew, went down hard at TX Tough and we decided on staying in Texas instead. That being said, TX Tough didn’t go too well for us.

Cotton Patch was pretty good, Peter got some upgrade points and Andrew got his long-awaited first win of the season. After that, it was off to Vegas. Las Vegas itself was pretty cool, we saw some interesting new things at Interbike and the crit, the main reason we went there, sucked big time. Apparently it was my turn to take extensive ground-samples and break some wheels. It was a rather sketchy course but the main issue was the sketchy riders. I didn’t even make it past the first turn in the first lap without hitting the pavement (even though I was sitting top 15 or so). Got up, changed bikes and jumped back into the fun, only to have the same thing happen to me a couple of laps later: turn one, some highly-skilled-rider swings wide and runs squarely into my rear wheel (take notice: we were already THROUGH the turn, I was already standing up to accelerate out of the corner…). Well, the bike stopped again underneath me and I went flying again. Fortunately, I only ended up tearing my skin suit to shreds and loosing some skin but no major injuries. I even managed to finish the race (after Nathan “persuaded” to get back in and sitting out another lap or two). So, the crit was not so hot. We had a lot of fun after that though…

After Vegas I flew back to Dallas, packed the rest of my stuff and hopped back on the plain again. Right now, I’m back in Heidelberg, Germany. How I have missed the European fall (NOT!!!): 45 F and rain, perfect.

Well, for now I don’t need to ride my bike, so I get to enjoy some off time. Not that I would get bored though: it’s been over a year since I’ve been home, so I’ve got a lot of catching up with friends and stuff like that to do. Besides that, it has been a long season anyways and a little time off the bike feels pretty good right now anyways… but, then again, I’m already itching to get back on the bike and get ready for next spring.