one last time

well folks the end is here. all that i have left to do is pack my bike and im leavin on a jet plane and dont know when ill be back again.
this will be my last post from here, after my week or two off from the internet i will resume, however probably not withthe same frequency. so feel free to keep checking back.
this has been a good experience for me. the cooking for myself, not spending to much money on everything (not that i do that anyways...), going to a bigger school, speaking german, and most importantly riding my bike. without my bike i would have had nothing to do, without her i dont think i would have survived. plus it gave me the oppurtunity to meet some cool people that i would not have otherwise. and of course the racing and all, and so on...
but since i have gotten good at elaborating on things on this blog i decided photos are better, so i have below 13 of my over 500 photos. they either are my favorite ones, or show somehthing that is important.
enjoy!

paderborn

dear france, i love your food...

a visitor

my faithful friend and i

this represents dads trip as well. just a cool picture

oh switzerland.

rollin out

i like downtown konstanz

world cup

king of the mountain

i do love a good baugette

thanks for all guys (especially sascha, chris, alex whos not pictured)

a good end

this morning i went around town and cashed in on some free stuff from some coupons i had. i also am no longer a resident in germany.
after just sitting around for a long time it was finally time to go to my last european race. hopefully just for now.
we got there quite early cause we had a younger guy with us. and he started before. this was good. i got a chance to get a really good warm up in. a really solid half hour. i decided since this was my last race i would attack whenever i got a chance, and when my legs were able.
at 7:15 we were off, intstead of the usual full blast start it was pretty slow. only 30 or 35 km/h. so at about 200 meters into the race i thought hey why wait, and attacked to get the pace up. i was away for almost a whole lap when the peleton finally picked it up. then for the next 13 laps i sat near the front, or pulled in attackers, or attacked a bit myself. every 5 laps (of 30) there was points on the line. on the start of lap 18 the pace slowed a lot for some reason, so i blasted off. i soloed the next 2.75 laps and took the sprint points. that was pretty fun. then i chilled out and recovered for the next 4 laps. with 11 or so to go some guy attacked, i went as well and tried to bridge up to him but couldnt quite make it. two other came after me and caught me right before the line. the initial attacker slowed up just a little and me and one other caught up to him and i said lets go. and thats exactly what we did. so for the last 10 laps we had a 3 man break. we worked really quite well together. the guys from my team said they were doing some work to help us out too. so thanks to them we got a 30 second gap pretty early in the break and held it the whole time. the last lap i pulled through on the back stretch and the others decided that they should not come through anymore. figures...so i tried attacking off the front and got a little gap but got caught again on the final stretch and passed by both in the sprint. crossed the line in third. ive decided my final lap tactics suck. i need to work on that. but in the end i pulled a second place. and for how many times i attacked and spent energy i am fairly please with that. this was a much better end to racing here then the race on sunday. apparently i found my legs again, so thats always fun.

a few of the boys. left to right, rinus, sascha, me, chris, chris

tomorrow is packing day...

a little bit of this, and a bit of that

my time here is quickly coming to and end. this morning i rode my pre-race loop for the last time. my legs were weird. i would have energy for a sprint or two, then nothing for another. then something again. this trend continued while riding around town.

after the bike ride i went and picked up the money that i lent out for gas for the team car the other day. saw the prez. of the bike club for the last time.
after that i went to the grocery store for what i think is the last time. i have a ton of food still, so no need to buy more of that.
then i came home and exchanged bikes (crap for good) and took off to the chocolate factory. its just to much work to haul the P.O.S. up the hill to it...
i got a lot of chocolate.

after doing that i came home. ate some lunch thought about what to do. ate some watermelon, then decided i was tired of sweating so i went down to go swim in the rhein.
i did what is very popular and jumped of the bike bridge. its was great. it was high enough to get the weightless feeling, but not so high to hurt when hitting the water without shoes. i approve. the water was also really nice. while i was there some girl sliced open her foot on something, it bleed quite a bit. no worries shes fine.

splash

a ways down

i was notified that the german national champ was not actually at the race, just the junior national team. and also the guy who won was the MTB worldchamp in 2004. out of the 206 that were on the start list only 102 finished. there was no peleton finish, all small groups or solo...


final tour haul

we have lift-off

disco

toasted

well today was harder than i ever imagined it would be. first of all the course was almost the exact same as the german national championship course from 2 years ago, in fact you could still read the names painted on the road. i saw zable, voigt, jan... the hill was hard. really hard. it was only a bit over 2 km, but really steep. then once at the top intead of a nice decent it went slightly down, then up a bit more, before finally going down a decent descent. after two smaller hills and the start finish it went gernerally down with a few short uphills for quite some time, but no rest since there was a strong headwind that whole time. after that it was rolling hills for another 7 or 8 km, then back up the big hill.
there was no rabobank or milram team today, but the german junior national team was there. and i heard a rumor that last years national champion was there racing too, but it could be the junior national champ. then some super fast french guy. someone said mtb world champ, but again i might have misunderstood. regaurdless some fast guys.
during the first 10 min of warm up my legs felt pretty good, but after that they got heavy really qickly.
at 12 we were off. i was able to sit in the 206 man peleton until the bottom of the hill. then the climbing legs i needed were simply not there. i think it was because of riding in the mountains hard. i managed to stay with the pack up the hill the first time. and the rest of the lap and the second lap until the bottom of the hill again. there i and lots of others got dropped and passed by the caravan of team cars present. the third lap was spent chasing the peleton with the smaller group, and we caught it right before the bottom of the hill. then of course i got launched of the back for the final time. the next 2 laps or so i either was alone (during and after hill) or with small groups that caught me on the downhill/rolling sections. on the 5th of 6 laps i was just on the verge of cramping really bad, but somehow i held it off. and a got with a few guys for most of the last lap. and again just barely avoiding catastrophic cramps made it home.
so that was my first experience racing with people who are basically pros, and all i have to say is they are really fast.
in the end it was 120 km raced in 3 hrs 25 or something like that. i think i was 20 minutes back at the end. some crazy amount of time. i ate plenty today. but i went to easy on the drinks. i had 5 bottles, but with the heat was not nearly enough.
and now my excusses for not doing better... ha.
legs tired from going hard in the mountains.
just plain tired from not sleeping well because of the heat.
the heat.
i think something is wrong with my back wheel, on the downhills when with people i would coast in drafts and loose ground. thats not right.

but despite my excusses i also just have to say im not that fast. haha. maybe someday ill be able to keep that pace. but not yet.

this was my last race in germany, for now. but wednesday i am going to try and race in switzerland again. hopefully that works out.

now it is time to sleep.

oh yeah, well done floyd.

Col de Joux-Plane

the tour is always more fun to see in the mountains. just really fun. i think part of it is being able to see what happens to yourself when riding up the mountain. so after a 6 hour train ride, an hour. 5 of biking up a mountain i did not know exsited and a good nights sleep in the cool mountain air. Lars and i took off to get to the base of the Col de Joux-Plane. as expected it was pretty busy, after weaving around the village at the base trying to find the right road to go up (was basically an alley at the start). eventually the polka-dot sign was found and off i sped. up i went past the devil, past all the walkers, past all the other bikers, out of the big trees to the top i went, watering the hot ground the whole way up. it was great. i felt good pretty much the whole time. even the steep parts just flew by. i hit the summit at 48:50 with quite a lot of energy left. but my goal for this HC category climb (11.7 km @ 8.7%) was under an hour. i did that without problem. and unlike last time i climbed a french alp hard i did not get passed, it was great. at times people would try to hold my wheel but would never last to long. one guy that did saw me at the top a bit later and said well done. hahaha
after that it was time to wait for the big boys to come. we set up camp about 50 meteres after 1km to go, in a space that stayed nice and deviod of other people, then waited and waited while the road began to melt. it was crazy. some of the rubbery heel on my shoes actually melted. when people rode by on a bike (expecially mtn) it sounded like they were riding on glue.
eventually floyd came, and went. haha. it was cool to see how far he was ahead. he just smoked everyone else. this time i decided to watch the tour without the aid of an LCD screen, so i did not get many pictures. good for me, bad for you! ha. it was great to just not really worry about pictures, just cheer. there were some basque guys by us, they pushed a bunch of guys then got stopped by the police. they even did a relay for one guy. haha. life without barriers is sweet.
quite a bit after floyd the peleton went by and that means i can get on the bike again. after a bunch of waiting at the top it was finally time to cruise down to morzine. people were sure dumb on the way down, i almost hit multiple people that decided to step out in front of me because they were to lazy to look. but i made it.
then it was dinner, then watched the fireworks that were shot off from the mtn.
this morning the start line was quite near to the hotel. we (lars and I) walked around a bit to see what there was to see, then he wanted to stand near the line. i did not want to stand in the sun, so i walked around a bunch more looking for team buses and that kinda thing. i wanted to get a picture of the mechanics working on all the bikes. but never got a chance. i however did meet the chalk board guy. so that was pretty cool. he gets more t.v. time then anyone! ha
eventually i made my way back to the start line. found a nice open spot. waited about 45 min, and the riders started lining up. i did not get to talk to any though. oh well.
now pictures.

i conquered it, not the other way around.

a heavy haul

back in the dots

a bit of help, also notice the road looks wet. thats melting tar.

peleton

i ate lots of baguettes

team beat at Le Tour

mr. chalk board

bike and leg of mccewen

happy hincapie

maillot jaune

everyones ready to go

tomorrow

well soc. class is over, kinda. the prof. did not like my paper or at least how it was organized and parts of it. so i have to reorganize it which is not to hard, and the write a bit on social capital theory and/or social network theory, so if anyone want to do that for me. that would be wonderful! ha.

after that i sat around a bit avoiding the sun cause it was so hot. then at 3 30 i left to go really early to get a good spot to talk to the witch hunting prof. i was 5 in line. but it went fairly fast and i got that paper all turned in and told him no more class for me. so that was that.

then i quick came home, caught the last 5 km of alp du huez. and then went on my own bike. it was absolutley gorgeous out. a bit cooler due to it being 6. no wind clear skies and horizons. i met the norwegian and he rode with me for a bit. made me push it more than i wanted up a hill, and i found my legs were not quite ready yet. he had to cut off early and i continued on. up the nice hill and it was really really nice. mountains in perfect view with a few hot air ballons floating here and there, birds singing, a bit of cool air here and there. ahhh. a nice relaxing ride.

tomorrow its off to france! tour time! should be fun. no internet, oh shucks. haha. im sick of the internet, i will take a break when i get home.

i was requested to put this picture up.

apparently my dogs learned how to write while i was gone!

easy

today was my last test for grammar. the prof. made it up just for me, she must have been lazy. it was not very long at all. just a paragraph on one page, then 10 sentances on the next. the first part was easy. the second part i had to think a bit, but i think i did well. i have one grammar class left, next monday. to pick up my credit certificate, nothing requiring me to do any more work.
after that it was to the grocery store. it was really crowded for a monday morning, and people were really really grumpy. and there were a TON of people muttering, it was crazy. not very pleasant either. so i got what i needed and got out. then i went for a really really easy 60 min bike ride, just enough to stretch the legs and loosen up.
after that the only thing left to do was laundry, so did that. then after a bit of sitting i ate watermelon, it is good.
my entertainment a while (youll see why) after eating was to take some pictures of the lovely compost.
only one good one came out, so enjoy! (Hope you didnt just eat).

whatever you dont eat, these guys will...

by the way, my email is being weird. i can send messages, and recieve from big companies. but personal mail is not coming in. so if you sent an urgent email or plan on sending one, call instead.

a hard weekend

saturday: i love breakaways
we got up to the race area about an hour before the start. it took a while to get the numbers picked up and put on, so after that i had 20 minutes to warm up, 10 of which i adjusted my handelbars since they were not straight. i suck at making them straight. but i got to ride the course a few times which is always good.
Course was basically flat only rise of any significance was the bridges of the river. it was pretty curvy, 6 main corners with not straight straightaways. the finishing straight and the section after an s-turn was into a decent wind. 45 laps totaling 80 km. (a long crit).
at 12:30 the race was off and the pace hot just like the weather. the first 30 minutes or so i was not warmed up and was feeling it a bit, but after the magic 30 min mark i felt wonderful. so around the loop the group went, nobody successful at getting away. it was like this for a good 20 laps or so. everything being determined by sprints. sometime, i think with either 23 laps to go or 21. i heard the bell which means this lap is worth something. i had been slowing moving up for a while, and studying the group the whole time. i found that after the s-turn it was usually a bit strung out, plenty of road space to work with, so at this point i attacked, it was the best attack ive ever had. coming from about 30 people back i got everyone to start screaming and a good gap. it was the perfect place to attack since after 1 sweeping and one sharp corner i had a tailwind till about 300 meters from the line. only 2 others were able to respond enough to be near me, but i kept myself out front and got the preme (15€) the other two who came with and i stayed away for another 3/4 lap or so before being caught. for the next 8 or so laps i recovered, and then around then i responded to an attack which did not go anywhere except to the front. so i sat up about 6 back for 2 laps or so. someone did a weak (i thought), a few of us at the front responded. i thought the field was there and did not bother looking back, a few minutes later i did look back, nothing there. cool. 7 of us had gotten a decent gap. after a few laps of not working together at all we got it kinda down. it just so happened that everyone in front of me was good to go, but the two or 3 behind me were not so strong. everytime i got to the front id be pulling at least twice as long as the others. i was feeling great despite this. eventually it was the last lap and now no one wanted to lead so i tried an attack but because of all the other leading it failed miserably. and i ended up leading everyone out for the sprint and came across in 6th or so. in the end we had over a min. on the field. which was pretty good for that course. during the break i got third in another preme, getting me another 10€. so 25€ total. apparently i did not get any points though, crits anger me sometimes.
Race time: around 1 hr 50
distance: 81
avg: 43.4
after the race, to the youth hostel. did not eat a good dinner (chinese food, chicken fried noodles, i wanted rice.) then there was a fest in the city. i found 20€ on the ground. daily income of 45€. paid for room, race fee, dinner, and a bit of todays fee.

sunday: lesson learned
woke up not feeling really rested as the street below was loud and the matress uncomfortable. then it was bread and that type of thing for breakfast. with last nights dinner my fuel tank was pretty low.
got to the race expect a small hill. nope. crit course of death. a 1.5 km loop that went down, then up. pretty steep too. 45 times. oh shit, was my first reaction. standing on the start line my stomach was very unhappy. the field started at around 90 or so. and immediately it was single file. the first 3 laps i was really struggling. on the 3rd i threw up a little (just a little) and after that i felt much better. except my legs were not feeling super strong. after 10 laps or so 1/4 of the field was gone, another 10, 1/2 field was gone, another 10 3/4 the field pulled. it was insane. i was really struggling to hold on at this point and a bit after that i cracked and slowed. some other guy cracked at the same time. since we could still finish the race we kept a mild pace. i got lapped by the leaders twice. and what was left of the field once. but because i finished i did decently. ha. but it was a hard day. and i have learned my lesson about eating properly before a race, hopefully i dont make that mistake again. i was not to mad about the race, because i knew what was wrong. and i still finished. luckily my teammates all dropped out so i had water boys. instead of 2 water bottles like i drank yesterday, i drank 5...
in the end i did 72.2 km in 2 hrs 8 min. that shows how much harder this course was.

the top bit of the hill.

looking down from the same spot.

sweaty day.

new tape

last night it was hot. and for some reason i drank juice (sugar) right before going to be. i dont know why i did that, ive done it way to many times. yet i always keep doing it...but anyways. it took forever to fall asleep. then this morning it was still hot so i was unable to sleep past 8. and apparently last night i drank a whole waterbottle. but i dont remember doing so. weird.
despite not sleeping well i woke up with a good feeling about today. after a good break fast of wonder zimties i went over to kreuzlingen and bought some new bar tape. mine was pretty dirty. after getting back i went up to the uni. used the stupid printer again, which i screwed up and printed some massive paper that was not mine. luckily the girl who it belonged to was next inline and paid me for what i spent on it. eventually i got my witch paper printed. then i went to go talk to the soc. prof. but she was not there so i email my paper to her instead. after that, a nice short 60 min bike with sprints. felt pretty good today.
once home and clean. instead of the normal wipe down for the bike, it was time for a cleaning fiesta. i even used soap to clean it. its really shinny now. then i greased up a few parts that needed it, then changed the tape, it was worse then i thought it was. i mean it was disgustingly ugly. but why take my word for it...

see bad.

dont worry, its better now.

after taping i went and watched the last 10 km of the tour. it was an attack fest in the break. very fun to watch. discovery finally got a stage.

thursday

well, probably one, mabye two days of grammar left. and then at least 2, maybe 3 days of classes. then im done. wahoo. papers almost done, just a grammar test, then a small presentation.

luckily class was in the air condidtioned room today. had it been in the other room i might have gotten heat stroke. its been really hot here all day, and pretty humid. and the thunderstorms keep missing. in fact its warm enough still (8 PM) that my chocolate is right on the verge of melting.
after class i went for a really easy 90 min bike. resting up for this weekend. its always fun to go easy after a hard day. then i got back watched the tour. the captains came out to play today. it was a fun stage to watch. the group just falling apart on the mountains. floyd was looking really good today, when the others attacked it did not really look like he had to work super hard to catch up. im sure he was working, but he did stay in the saddle most of the time.
after that i worked a bit on my paper. only the conclusion is left. it will be done tonight.
for some reason i was craving a cheeseburge all day. so i made one of those with green beans and "swiss rosti" which is basically hashbrowns with a spice. was good. topped it off with half melted chocolate and now its finishing up that paper time.

yesterday i noticed the weather for northfield. i like how noaa desribes it.

it's goin

This morning was my last day of speaking class. very nice to have one out of the way, i gave the prof. the forms i need to have filled out to get credit at olaf and i pick them up tomorrow. witch hunting was not to fun. the real prof. was gone and for some reason they use subs here. so he asked a lot of questions and the room was hot, and i am done with my papers for it. so basically worthless for me to be there for exactly an hour an a half (thats how long the classes are).

after class i was really hungry, and needed to go biking. so i ate a banana and my left over mashed potatoes from last night (which came back to haunt me). thunder clouds were building in the distance so i decided to go soon after eating. my throat was all good today so i decided to do some intensity. most of the intenseness ended up going up, which was just fine for my legs. but the potatoes were fighting hard to see light again. luckily i managed to keep them down the whole time. today i did the "new" loop i figured out the other week, with a bit added on. on the top fun road some new gravel had been put down for some reason. i enjoy riding on gravel so i went on it of course, it only lasted a few hundered meters. i guess thats ok since it becomes a curvy downhill soon after. after that i finished up intervals then decided to take a new way home, it was a nice little road that went through some tiny villages. i think the houses were just numbered 1-a few since i only saw one road. kinda funny. after a bit i found a trail id ridden before. being in the mood for gravel still i took it. it was nice. then i popped out at the top of a nice decent right into my border crossing. oh i forgot to mention this is all in the land of the swiss. on the final decent i was able to look out across the lake and it looked like some big thunderstorms were going to hit very soon. but somehow they missed. oh well.

once home i watched the end of the tour stage, a new yellow jersey today. then wrote some paper. then had a nice german dinner of späztle with pork and sauce. the secret to späztle is to buy the stuff thats not dehydrated. just though it in a fry pan to warm up and horray! now its back to the paper which has almost 1200 more words then it did last night at this time. its goin pretty fast

1062

the number of words i have so far on my paper. i think ill be able to finish it sooner than i thought. ive written that much since 2 this afternoon.

i decided to go biking before class today, partly cause it was already quite warm at 9 this morning, so this afternoon it would be really hot. and also so after class i could just do my paper. but it was a nice bike ride, not to hard. tomorrow if my throat does not hurt at all i think ill go hard. or maybe ill get to race, but that is unlikely.
after biking it was off to class. which was hot, and not to entertaining. the professor told me basically that i was a little to specific with my topic, and gave me some info. which is related to it. but it just so happens to be her field of expertise. nuts...oh well all i need to do is pass the class!
i took a little break at 4:45 and watched the last 20 km of the tour. i think if the break aways would not have attacked each other, and instead worked together they might have made it. but with all their attacking they got caught.

now its after dinner and time to get working on my paper again.
oh and tomorrow will be for sure my last speaking class and maybe the last witch hunting as well.

another dose

well my throat finally cleared up. dad says i probablly had coxsackie,it sucked. just swallowing was incredibly painful, thats not even with food or water, just plain swallowing. i never realized how much i swallow. but anyways it hurt, thus i did not want to eat as much cause it hurt and blah. glad thats over.
but now the only bad thing is this soc. paper that is hanging over my head. gotta finish it by friday, not because its due but because of whats to come.

this weekend i have 2 races, unfourtunatley both crits. but at least itll be good racing. they are up by stuttgart so instead of driving up, back and forth. we are just going to stay up there. also no getting up at 4 in the morning. and that makes me happy. on monday i need to study for my final grammar test, which i will be taking on tuesday morning since ill be gone wed, thurs, fri. where will i be gone too? well i will be at the tour again. apparently we (norwegian and i) got one of the last rooms in the town of Morzine, France. the finish to stage 17 and start of 18. so thats lucky. as well i bought my train ticket to get there. so im set, another dose of the tour. i think we will probablly watch the race on the last big mountain of the tour, the Col de Joux-Plane to be exact. an H.C. climb which is 11.4 km long at 8.7% average, a good place to watch i think. then since we are staying in the start village, hopefully some meeting pros at the start.
once i get home from that it will be late the 21st, i might do a hill race on the 22nd, but for sure i race on the 23rd again. an ABC race. so possibiluty of mixing it up with the continental teams.
after that a short week of who knows what and ill be home.
its lookin pretty busy...

not much

happened today. went for an hour.5 bike. and for the first time in a long time i did not cramp up after a day off. so that was nice. other than that i watched the tour a bunch. i found out that i am not racing tomorrow, the guy that was driving decided it was to far. i guess its ok with how my throat is acting up, probably good actually.
now its off to go watch the germany game.

oh, mom talked some sense into me about the tour. she said its a lot more expensive to buy a plane ticket then a train ticket. good point. so now all i have to do is find somewhere to sleep...

shopping adventure

today was the first plain old rainy day since about april i think. despite the rain i got out and did what i was planning on doing today (besides bike).

after another wonderful breakfast of wonder zimties i suited up for the rain and cold, mounted the crap bike, and took of on my shopping adventure. i started at the bike shop that i get 5% off at to see if they had the bike under jersey thingy i was looking for, they did not so i went through downtown, on the way i came across the farmers market. i bought potatoes since they were cheaper there then at the grocery store. then it was to the train stations to check on ticket prices to the tour. to go from the german station in konstanz it was 145€ without bikes (add around another 20 for those), and to go from the swiss station in konstanz (10 meters closer to switzerland) it was 120€ (with bikes). figure that one out??? but that is pretty pricey, and i dont think there are any hotels available. so that is unfourtunatley not looking quite so promising anymore.
after that i took off to switzerland to stop at a bike shop i pass often, but have never gone inside. it was a decent bike shop. they had the article of clothing i was looking for, but i did not buy it yet. i am going to see if i can find it online for cheaper. recently people have been talking about a chocolate factory in kreuzlingen, so after the bike shop i went and found it. unfoutunately i got there at 12:05 and the shop closed at 12 to 13:30 for lunch. so i went back to konstanz, ate a dönner (turkish version of a gyro, i think), then looked at dessert cookbooks in a bookstore. then i was able to go all the way back up the hill (a good 2 km steep on crap bike) to the factory. the factory store was not quite like i thought, i figured it would kinda be like the one at Rocky Mnt. Chocolate in duluth, nope. a big long shelf of big bags (500g) of chocolate, with some single bars at the end, then behind the counter was crates of chocolate. and it was all dirt cheap. for the 500 gram of hazelnut chocolate i got it was 2.50 francs, (1.59€) usually a single bar (100g) is at the least .75 cents. i also got some reg. milk chocolate (1 kilo) for 4.83 €, again usually a bar is .75 or more. then i picked up some regular bars which were about .55 cents each. overall 12.50 francs for 1800 grams of chocolate, thats under 8 €. the cashier also threw in some little chocolate penguins for free. oh, its also good too. usually milcha makes my teeth hurt when i eat it cause of all the sugar, but this stuff is just nice and creamy.

after that i hit up kaufland (the grocery store) for milk and chicken. then home and watched robbie mcewen cream the competion again.
then i found out i might be able to race this weekend. so that would be nice. although i am going to have to get up at 4...

market

no worries i wont eat it all. it does not expire till september so this will be mixed in with the stuff ill get right before i leave.

the weather was

cooler today. right now i am wearing my scrubs, the first time in a couple of weeks. maybe ill finally be able to sleep.

this morning was grammar, the teacher ran out of things to teach after an hour and 15 min. so that was nice. came home, ate some lunch. thought about my soc. paper, but got no further. the only thing i figured out is how much i dont want to write it. it just does not sound like fun...
after that i watched the tour upstairs for 2 hours or so, then at five went biking with the norwegian. again good to have company. my legs felt pretty good so i went fairly up some of the hills, and sprinted up the smaller ones. its always fun to do that when there is a bit of competition. i hit 57.4 going up one.
after that it was jerked chicken for dinner, with beans and rice. then for dessert watermelon. i cut up a whole one, so i have plenty to eat for tonight, tomorrow, next day.
things are looking good for another visit to the tour, just have to find a place to stay...

tonight i think ill think about my paper. bah.

but some pictures.

last night i found out 5 day old baguettes are hard.

yes i know the bike is fairly light, but common its bread...

for dave and crew (picture take in switzerland)

feeding flies to spiders

was my post dinner entertainment today. its a lot harder than you might think to get them stuck in the web. took me 3 or 4 tries to succeed.

before doing that i had class, i decided it was in my best interest to not go to speaking class. it was just people presenting today, and last time i nearly fell asleep. so i slept instead. then witch hunting the prof went insane cause somebody said a wrong answer to one of his questions. not the best way to promote discussion.
after class the other guys from the bike team and i decided that nearly 3 hours of total driving is to much for a 10 minute race. so i went out in the heat and did 4 sets of 2 min. with 1 min rest, 3 times per set. it was pretty good. i was able to keep it right around 40 for most of the time. and i hit 55 on the very last one. without gravities help. it was quite hot though. my helmet pads only soak up so much sweat, so when i put any pressure on it, sweat just pours out. its a bit entertaining i have to say. feels like biking in the rain! haha.

after biking i found a tv to watch the tour. 7th floor, so ill be spending some time up there.
then tacos, then spiders.

ive decided that if i can find the time and a ticket im gonna try to get to another stage of the tour, hopefully i can do so.
some new info just out on the doping stuff, and if the speculations are correct, it does not look good for basso.

oh and last night the germans lost in the last 2 min. of overtime. i think they just got way to cocky about it and played terrible. so despite a few happy italians last night it was pretty quiet.

a scorcher

after not being woken up by alarm this morning in quite some time, i had a new experience. wonder zimties replaced cocoa rice perals. they are like cinamon toast crunch, except with less sugar. they are enjoyable.
after that i just sat for a while. that was nice, then worked on sponsor proposals until class time.
we had a guest today speaking about e-voting. mildly interesting. then our prof. i think had other plans, but the room was a sauna so she said go home, its too hot. so that was nice. but im not kidding about the sauna, i was starting to drip sweat from the head, and my arms were shinny.
after class i went out and braved the heat on my bike. an hour and 25 with sprints. tomorrow weather permiting is a hill TT in switzerland. only around 5 km. but nevertheless i wanna do well. see if i can still go up fast.
soon it is noodles, peppers and chicken, with watermelon after.
tonight is germany vs. italy. if they win its to the final. so hopefully ill get a chance to have a 4th of july party!

racing outlook for the rest of the month:
well my european racing is coming to a close, hopefully just for now. This weekend there is no race for me to attend, i think the races were planned around germany winning the world cup. then the next weekend there are 2 days of racing, both crits i think. but could be wrong. then the following weekend, which will be my last, is first a hill TT 9 km on saturday, then on sunday and A/B/C 120 km RR. im really looking forward to that since the continental teams show up. it will be fun to say yeah, ive raced against Rabobank.

TdF 2006:
well they are dropping like flys, Valverde is out now too (crash, no doping was proven). its looking good for the americans.

its about time

today it was off to class at 8:15. even though i thought last monday was the last student led class i was wrong. so i endured that once again.
after that i went to the grocery store. got what i think is enough food for the week. last week i discovered that i can buy enough for the week all at once. for under 20 €. thats with bananas, water melon, and other good stuff as well. so not just cheap boring food. i dont know why i did not figure this out earlier. then i got back, searched and searched for free tour video on the net. did not find any, so i worked on my Salem paper. and finished it too. 7 3/4 pages, all in german. im pretty happy with it. now for editing...

on the way to strasbourg, on the train, i met two guys who live in the area. both bike, and have their bikes here. one was american and one norwegian. i invited them to ride today since it was recovery day and the norwegian (lars) contacted me. so we set out at 5:15 which was good since it was blasted hot today, and by then it was a bit cooler. it was good to ride with somebody again, hadnt done that besides in races for a long time. we talked about the tour and he did what i shoulda. he found a place to jump the barriers and went and talked with the pros. being norwegian he went and talked to Hushovd, he said he was really nice. the conversation eventually led to how much cars hate bikers. and in norway apparetly its really really bad. he said that a little while ago, the womens norwegian national champ was forced off the road by a truck. somehow she caught him and asked him if he was trying to kill her and he said yes. crazy crazy. so i guess i can live with horns and fingers. also if another stage comes close, we are gonna try to get to it.
so it was a good ride.

since no one commented about my ending the pictures,ill just put two more. i guess they are old news..




d.s. discovery

racing in an oven

is basically what today was. an oven with super strong fans. in other words it was really hot, and really windy. exact figures i dont know. but extreme.
the race went decent. attacked a couple times, dont know if i got any points on this 58 km. criterium or not. the only bad moment was when i had just started my acceleration to attack to get a prem. and i got checked (body checked) off the road into the dirt/gravel/grass side. it really made me mad since i am pretty sure it would have worked, i was feeling great and the line was not to far, with the wind. like i said other than 2, 1 lap breakaways with some others, and a weak attack to early on the last lap i just sat near the front of the 130 riders. thats about it.
now a few more pictures from yesterday.

guy i rode with a long time ago.

rasmussen (sp?)

the less photographed

mayo

mabey ill put more up tomorrow if someone requests. if not there are a few.