Hardening Up.  After Houffalize the Non-Europeans on the team retired to our team manager, Leo’s place on the northern Dutch/German border for a workweek.  I was starting to feel normal again and super keen to get back to training/ playing catch-up.  Fortunately, the weather was continuing to, well, exist.  Cold wind and rain in the flat lands is a tough transition from Mallorca, but being able to ride made it seem strangely pleasant.  I’ll have to remember this hardening up for the next time utopic bike riding seems difficult…

Shakedown.  How’s this for strange times- Two normal-looking people pull up to a German Autobahn rest stop for fuel.  Transaction complete, they begin to depart, at which time the Polezi flag them down.  Informed that they’ve been selected for a random check, passports are handed over.  Intentions become immediately clear with “May we look through your belongings?” and  “Did you smoke any weed while you were in Holland?”  Ultimately, they interrogated us, searched our stuff, demanded to know if vitamins were disguised drugs and forced me to take a urine test for drugs in the bathroom.  Whoa, Dutch plates really get the treatment in Germany.  Good thing I passed…

The Alps.  Nothing makes you appreciate returning to an idyllic mountain setting more than a few days spent in the flatlands.  We raced in Haiming, Austria after the Great Grey North and it felt so good to be in the hills.  The solidly awesome course in a beautiful forest made the continually cold/wet/snowy weather unnoticeable to this kid.  I rode slightly better, 12^th in the softest HC-class field race in Europe all year.  Fabian and Emil went 1-2.  Dang, fellas.  The sun shone on Monday morning, enabling a tidbit of local beta to produce one of the best loops I’ve ever ridden.  Seriously.

I got a new whip in Austria.  Anthem X Advanced 29.  Carbon fibre comes to big wheels and shocks.  Making every ride a pleasure from here on out…

Team Training Camp.  Excited about the prospect of getting a leg up on the competition at a new World Cup venue, the Rabo squad spent a few days in La Bresse, France checking out the freshly constructed course and dialing it in with the help of skills coach (and former DH honch) Oscar Saiz.  We had some little chalets up on the mountainside in which a bunch of good meals were cooked with the help of Michiel, snowflakes fell and sun shone.  Some pretty radically good riding elsewhere in that corner of Alsace as well…  I’m glad Remy Absalon puts on an Enduro race there in addition to doing a bang-up job on the World Cup XC track.

Bundesliga. I’ve never raced a German National Series event. Strange that I’d missed that in the last decade. What better one to sample than the biggest, Heubach. We knew we were there when the BLASTING AC/DC was interrupted with a synth voice-over announcing “BIKE THE ROCK!!!” which is what we were about to do, evidently. Up and down the rock a bunch of times, actually. A nearly World Cup level field took frothingly to the 10min up/3min down course while I tried to continue getting in shape. Improving for sure, but still not ready for 70min of climbing and 20min of reward, yet… 18th. Fabian almost won before German Champ and fellow Cape Epic dropout Milatz Moritz punched his ticket. Lots of people were real fired up to watch the race and drink beer. Lucky folks.

Driving. There’s something about driving around Europe that I sincerely love. Being in an area of such condensed beauty and infrastructure means you can always find something to look at or comment on. In the last couple weeks we’ve driven from Holland to Austria, then just across the border to France, back into Germany, and a pit stop in Switzerland on the way back to France, the Alps this time. Along the way delicious, fast, nutritious meals were eaten at rest stop Marche restaurants, people drove fast and courteously, and the GPS didn’t send us wrong, even though we don’t have a friggin’ map to confirm it’s blind directing…

Friends of Friends.  I like people.  Meeting them, finding out what they do and about their neighborhood.  Just this week we’ve had a buddy of the Northwest Shred Posse, Rob Hamilton-Smith, turn us on to an amazing train-assisted ride along the shores of Lake Geneva, then introduce us to the guy, Sam Morris ofhttp://www.bikevillage.co.uk/biking.htm to ride with and get beta from in the Beaufortain who subsequently set us up with Anna from Massage Me, who did just that in the little village of Nancriox while I gazed at a massive avalanche crown line on a 3200m peak.  And shoot, I haven’t even met Ash Smith of Trans Provence yet, but he’s already gotten us set up with a place in Bourg St. Maurice in addition to providing what I assume will be the best bike racing week of my life with his event this fall…

Trains take you here!

Weekends off.  There haven’t been many, but they sure are nice, in addition to being productive.  This one in Bourg St. Maurice is exceedingly so. The progress that can me made in place of racing is always impressive, and rejuvenating.  I’m pretty sure this final block of prep for World Cup rounds 3 and 4 (my last chance to ride like I know I can and make the Olympic Team) is going to set up a solid finish to this long, rollercoaster of a trip.  8 weeks of 10 down, time to get stuff done and then go home!