So I was thinking about doing a mass start mountain time trial near Innsbruck this weekend. It sounded like a good idea, you know, do a little race, make it part of a big training day, all that jazz. It was raining yesterday, so I figured I’d stay close to home and ride till I got really miserable, so why not ride this here Hinterhorn climb?

I rode on over there and started up the paved farm path and it was steep to begin with. I shrugged it off, lots of climbs start out steep, it’ll surely level off a little bit. No, it didn’t. If anything it got steeper. I swear it took me a few days and at least four different weather patterns to get to the top. Each kilometer was marked off precisely and brightly in new spray paint in advance of the race, so I had a great idea of exactly how far I hadn’t gone. 1k, 2k (yay, a third of the way there!), 3k (oh god am I only halfway?), 4k (make it stop), 5k (ok I’m about to turn around now), and the final kilometer all horrible steep, straight bit of it, was marked with 500m, 250m, and then I could see the farm, but I still thought I wasn’t going to make it.

I had planned on doing a three climb ride, but I was so destroyed after this one effort, I turned around (I will spare the details of my 20mph descent…steep, narrow, switchbacky descents aren’t very fast…especially in the rain), tail between my legs, and limped home…2.5 hours of bikin. I was tired.

BUT! It was also one of the more beautiful climbs I’ve ever done. It was eerie as I ascended through the clouds, sometimes they’d part and I could see wayyy below, other times it was just me and my giving birth-esque panting, well, there was always me and that horrid breathing, just sometimes it was accompanied with a view.

I just did the math…5.9k, 700m (2310 ft) elevation gain = 12% average.

So I learned my lesson…climbs to farms = not such a good idea. Maybe if I can find a compact crank and a 13×29 cassette…or a mountain bike! That’s the ticket.

Today, the weather finally looks to have cleared-ish. The weather report calls for sun, but I don’t see any sun, just higher clouds than normal. Either way, I’m going to Brenner, by way of two climbs, then one more for good measure. I think they should be ok climbs though, they look like normal roads (at least on Google Maps).

I wonder how Ashley’s hike is going…I’ve been reading a lot in my Hiking Austria’s Alps Hut to Hut book and I get more envious by the hour.

k bye.

I went to my team’s website and there was a small little blurb on me at the bottom with a funny picture from the first evening’s dinner. Check it OUT at the bottom of the page. I’m going to try and go biking now. It’s still raining. Maybe I’ll go check out the mountain time trial I’m going to do this weekend…that’s close to home and not nearly as high as Brenner. I really don’t want to get snowed on. Yes, I said snowed on.

Yeah, I kinda lost that writing feeling for a little bit. In the midst of all of the moving and traveling and great fun, there’s the Tour de France keeping me very occupied over yonder at PEZ, so that’s my excuse…ish.

Anyhow, so we are indeed in Innsbruck. Our apartment is very nice – a bedroom, bathroom, and a large room doubling as a living room, kitchen, and the office. We have two tables put together with a computer on each end. It’s funny. It’s especially funny when I have to run  back and forth between computers to do my work since my website editing program, Dreamweaver, doesn’t seem to work on my computer anymore…but it does on Ashley’s.

I’m already meeting a lot of great people, everybody on the team is super warm and welcoming. The manager of our apartment, Franz, is already rapidly becoming a good friend. I went out to the local restaurant right across the street to have a beer and food the first night with Ashley, and then again last night as well. It’s great.

The management guys from the team have been incredible to me. When we arrived in Muenchen, Walter picked us up at the airport and took us straight to a gorgeous Gasthof – the Hofer Stub’n. We were met there by the press manager, Wolfgang, and the team manager Thomas. We enjoyed a great dinner with some good conversation, and we had Schwammerlgoulasch. Schwammerl are these small orange-ish Austrian mushrooms. They’re great.

Then I went and raced the VERY next day. Ouch. It had been some time since I had ridden, and I had done a very  big travel day the day before, so I was in no way set up for success, but they left the option open and they understood that I was going to (for lack of a better term) suck. So I traveled on over to Braunau, which might ring a bell, it’s the quiet, little town where one Adolf Hitler was born. The race was a Tchibo Cup race, which is the national series of races – 10 in all I think. Before the race, I got my new bike – a Specialized Tarmac Pro with a Campy Record/Chorus mix and Eurus wheels. It’s really nice. It’ll take me some time to get used to everything, and that day was rough because nothing fit quite right and I already felt awkward on the bike. It was funny. I rode an hour in the race and then tapped out. It was definitely fast. It wasn’t so fast that I won’t be able to participate in the future, but it definitely was no easy…especially at the back.

I actually felt bad to even try and move up to a reasonable spot in the field. I was just trying to ride around a little and get my legs underneath me, so I didn’t want to be a part of the race in anyway…of course that made it quite hard. The crux of the 10k loop was about a 5k section on a twisty, windy golf cart path sized road. Of course the field went single file end to end and it was hard…then there was a 17% finishing hill of about 500m or so that made it hard as well. When I dropped out a good chunk of the 150 rider field was gone, and by the halfway point of the 150k race, the field was down to tops 40, and by the end, smaller still.

It’s scary to think that that was one of the EASIEST races in terms of terrain. I think I’ll be ok though. I’m back to training hard, I’ve got my SRM on, the bike fits now, all that’s left to do is train.

This is rapidly getting lengthy. It already has. Ashley is in Osttirol hiking hut to hut for a few days with a friend of hers, Edith. I’m crazy jealous and would have gone if it weren’t for that damn Tour de France thing. Ha. I can’t wait to do the hut to hut hiking thing. I love it. I hope she’s getting better weather than we are, because it has rained the last four days straight and it doesn’t look like today will be any better. I assume the sun will begin shining again soon.

Oh, did I mention that it’s absolutely perfect here? It has rained everyday pretty much so far, but there is always a time period where it clears up and the mountains come into full view and I just have to stop for a moment and gawk. It’s unbelievable. I’m planning on going into the mountains today for my first real day of training – up to Brenner Pass, then down, and around to some ’smaller’ climbs, which only gain 1500 or so feet of elevation.

I might ride over to my old stomping grounds of Faschina in Vorarlberg tomorrow. I can do a one-way trip of about 100 miles that would take me right by the old farm that I worked at back in 97. Well, right by it, but about 2000 feet below it on the valley road. It will be a crazy feeling to ride the road that I used to constantly look down upon. I’m planning on riding to Bludenz and then taking the train back. How could would that be?

We might go visit my brother in Puchberg near Vienna next week…still need to figure that out. So much to do, such a great place, I’m back and ready to share!

Pictures coming soon on the flickr site…I’ll let you know.

My packing is inching along ever so slowly towards complete. I packed the bike box to ship to Austria this evening, and I sold my car this afternoon. I’m going to go with that’s a good thing. The problem with shipping my bike tomorrow (which I have to because of the 4th of July weekend) is that I won’t have a bike until I leave. I think this is also a good thing, because my knee has been hurting me something fierce over the past few days. Hopefully a little rest will be good for it. I dunno what it is.

Today was my last Wednesday in Athens. I sold a car. I put the Civic on Craigslist for 600 dollars and I got 25 phone calls within two hours. It was wild. I sold it within the hour to a family who was getting the car for their son, who needed it to get to school. He was really excited. 600 dollars was a pretty nice buy I’d say. hope there’s a 600 dollar car like this one waiting for me when I get back from Austria.

David left today…that was another one of those good byes that sucked. I’ve had to say bye to a lot of people recently and it surprised me that it affected me so much. I guess that’s how it goes. This phase of my life is drawing to a close, and another incredible one is just beginning. It’s kind of cool to sit on the cusp of such a huge change, kinda like the roller coaster inching up to the top, creeping over the crest, and then whooosh. I’m about to get to the whoosh part.

Alright, so that’s all I’ve got. I’ve got some more packing and throwing away to do.