Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Such is Life

"Man, thats a bummer." That is pretty much what I am saying to myself after the weekend. If you remember from around a month back, I had some bike issues. Well, my local bike shop did what they could do to get me going, we all knew it was not a permanent fix, but one to get me by. It certainly got me by for 4 weeks, but it did not make it through the weekend. Long story short, I raced for two days on a singlespeed back essentially. My shifter is busted and well, that makes shifting a bit difficult. I was either spinning my legs a hundred miles an hour or barely moving them. I finished both days, but nothing special.

On to more pressing issues. I got myself moved back into my place today, lets see if I truly get to rest there for more than a few days. The Giverny festival starts this weekend and I have an odd feeling something might just pop up.

And in even greater news, now that the end of August has arrived, so has nice weather. Today, I have had myself a day in the sun and actually got to wear a short sleeve shirt out on the town today. This is much better than wearing a jacket like I was last week or racing in leg warmers.

I leave you with a neat image that I took last night while out on my evening walk with the dogs. I headed up into the forest above my village and this is what greeted me as I was coming home. A clear sky as the clouds are receding and the rain with it.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Blunt Crayons

Got a good one for ya folks. Once again, the fun just keeps on rolling. Had myself a nice little ride this a.m. as I am getting ready to go race tomorrow. Nothing special, just a bike ride. But, mid ride I realized that I was out of bed and would need myself a baguette for lunch. I must say, when I return to America, the fact that I am not going to be able to run down to the boulangerie and grab myself a baguette or two is going to be pretty tough to swallow. There is just nothing that compares to a hot, fresh baguette and a bottle of nutella. It is a match made in heaven and can make the time go by so quickly. Sorry, where was I, I had to wipe the drool off the table there. Anyways, I pedaled on into town to go grab that baguette and before I knew it, BAM, someone is on the ground. No, I did not wreck but, I nailed and I mean nailed some dude walking across the street. This guy just walked out into the middle of the road from behind a car without even looking and I had myself about 2 seconds to do something. That something was realize that damn, this guy is going to get hit. My options were either drill him or well, that was the only option. Thankfully, I did not go down and had not a scratch on me, but when I actually composed myself to see if he was alright, all he kept saying was "why are you riding in the road?" What? Can you believe that, this guy walked out into the middle of the road where there was no crosswalk or anything without looking and got hit. When I asked him what would have happened had there been a car coming instead of a bike and he got hit then? He said that would not happen because he would hear a car coming and would not step out into the road. Had he been in a crosswalk I would have been paying attention for him, but given the situation, the last thing one expects is a idiot to step out in front of you. Fortunately, he was not injured and the people walking by that got to see it were treated to a bit of a funny moment for their Saturday morning. At least a few other people were heckling him at the same time for making such a retarded move. There is a reason there are crosswalks and everyone stops at them for pedestrians. At first I generally felt bad about hitting the guy even though he was at fault, but given how he acted I no longer feel bad for him at all. More than likely he has been hit a few times previously is my guess.

The whole time I was just chuckling to myself as a friend of mine, who will go unnamed nailed an old Belgian women earlier this year. At the time of that accident, myself and the other USA guys could not stop laughing when hearing about the details of his accident. This just goes to point out that across the board no matter what country you are in, you will encounter people that are not the sharpest crayons in the box.

But, back to the whole reason that I was in town, and if you were wondering, the baguette was quite amazing and made a wonderful sandwich. I would have taken a photo of it, but it was just too good to let it sit there idle, even for a few moments.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

I was wrong

I lied folks. I am going to be the first one to admit it. I know that a few weeks back I said that nothing would surprise me anymore. Well, I got one upped and well, I am downright shocked. I headed out for a nice couple hour ride this morning, nothing too special other than a few flats. Damn, those sure are happening a lot lately. But the kicker is what I came home to.

















Yes, that is my stuff put outside of my place. I have kept to a 20 minute rule in that I never unpack, I just take out the essentials and then keep everything in its place. What you see is that. Whatever is in little bags is my essentials that were out. Apparently, this next week is a big music festival here in Giverny and the people that own the place where I am staying can make big bucks by renting everything out. Thus, they took my stuff out and put some new higher paying folk in. Yep, you got it. I got the boot. A little bit of heads up would be nice, but that just seems to be too easy. Fortunately, I know someone in town, my director, and will be staying with him for a unspecified amount of time.

To put it frankly, I am feeling like these little guys right now.














I truly feel like that rod that got shafted into me a few weeks back is still in there and I am just along for the ride. I am twisting and twisting around just like these little chickens and someone is just watching to see at what point I am really going to go from raw to done, to really done, to fried. Stay tuned as we venture along this ride. I have no idea at what point it is going to take to get to that fried state, but from here on out, the choices are pretty limitless.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

What happened to logic?

Gotta say, Erik is really starting to get tired of stupid french logic that he does not know where to even start. Shall we begin?

Yesterday was set to be a shit show of shit shows. I headed off to do a night time crit (remember that it is dark at night) on cobblestones. Thankfully only half of the course was cobbled, but the other half of the race was on a road under construction. Once I got to the course, I saw nothing in the way of lights on the course, nor did I see the organizers making any attempt to get rid of the cars that were parked on the course. Upon further inquiring I was told to be aware and just swerve around the cars. Nice. Thankfully it was a full moon last night and we had some light from that and some light from all the cafes and bar lining the course, but nothing else in the way of lights. Certainly made it interesting.

For the racing I was pretty content in the fact that I knew most of everyone there and knew that I was stronger than most of them. Schweet. Given what had happened the day before with cars, it was pretty funny to hear people at the start saying "hey, there is no cars to use today." However, this only added fuel to the fire from the emotions of the day before. This is where french logic or lack of really starts to kill me. In the race no matter what I did, there was a plethora of racers that would just follow me, not work, just sit on my wheel. Be it in a breakaway-no working. Be it pulling a break back-no working. Apparently orders are to not work with the American I have been told. We let 2 guys go up the road and with 10 teams in the race, that leaves 8 to pull it back. Nope. The french have this love affair with arriving at the finish solo and not working. Whatever I did on the day, nothing would work. Riders would just try and attack by themselves, flame out come back and try again, again and again. Had they worked with me, they could have had a shot at the win. The worst part is that they probably do not see that at all. And so the day went, lots of yelling, hand gesturing and general mayhem pouring over from the day before. Back stateside this is called negative racing and well, here its just called normal.

My frustration levels are pretty darn high with these people and my reserves that I have to tap into to deal with them are quickly dwindling. But, I was happy to see that the guy who won is a good mate of mine over here and I had no issues with that. The 2 eventually lapped the field and I helped him out a bit in the finale. Next weekend, he and his director said the favor will be paid back. Unfortunately, I got my ass chewed out after the race for this. Apparently, the French can make deals, but I am not allowed to. If I couldn't win on the night, I wanted to at least secure some help in some upcoming races.

Oh and those cars on course. Some people are going to be quite surprised to find some dents in their cars as people traveling at high rates of speed on bikes leave quite a mark when nailing a car dead on. But, I guess that the bright spot might be that it did not rain heavily on us or the night would have been even crazier. Alright, bring on this weekend and some climbs so I can do my thing. And so go another unique race over here.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Busy

Sorry folks, I have been a bit busy lately. Like I had mentioned previously, I was going to be racing on Sunday, Monday and today, Tuesday. I finally have a free couple of minutes to let you know how the past 2 days have gone. This was Sunday. Victory.
















The day was pretty straightforward. There was 1 climb on the circuit for every 8 km's. My plan was just to be at the front all day and I eventually made the break of the day which you can see. Not trusting the others in the breakaway, I eventually attacked by myself with 10 km's to go and just barely got caught after the line. All that matters though is that I won and I am quite pleased with that. But one has to remember to not the highs get you too high nor the inverse of lows get you too low.

On to Monday, and with that little bit of advice in the back of my mind, I set off to do what I could do. Unfortunately, the day was pancake flat and super windy-not my forte. Thankfully though I found the breakaway once again and spent the last half of the race stressed out of my mind. I should have known that the day was going to be hectic when at the start line, we had not yet even began racing yet and everyone was arguing with each other. The minute that the breakaway was established it was game on. Dudes were punching each other, pulling on pockets and general mayhem. I was doing my best to stay as quiet as possible thinking of the win, but I was not immune. I have to say there was one guy just super obnoxious and the center of the ruckus. This dude was super strong, but had caused a few wrecks. With one lap to go, 8 km's again, we had another wreck in our breakaway, cutting it down to 11 guys. We looked back and "knew" that the guys who went down were not going to be getting back to us on their own and we were dialed. Once again, the final 8 kilometers is always full of stress with everyone thinking of the possibility of a win. I was set and with 200 meters to go in the sprint, was passing the guy that was the idiot all day. Without any disregard, before I knew it, he was pushing me farther and farther into the barriers to not let me pass him that he actually wrecked himself out in the corner and forced me to stop. Because of this, I ended up second and not the first that I was in at the time. Damn. But, the best part is that the guy who won, was in the wreck with 8 km's to go. Do the math on that one folks. Everyone in the race cried foul about someone using the cars to get back into the race but the officials would have none of it. This is where the day got real interesting with people yelling, punching, and even more mayhem. The winner is Irish and well, his dad is not doing anything to help the Irish cause. I cannot imagine a time where I had someone straight up get into my face and start yelling at me like that. I was talking with some of the other teams as the directors were speaking with the officials, when the winners' dad came up all raged out and had to be held back. If there is an upside to this, in that 20 minutes, the new words and phrases that I learned are endless. At that moment, there were 2 protests going on but nothing came of them and I ended up second. But, on the plus side, the guy who was trying to wreck me ended up last in break and every team but his team and the winners team congratulated me after the race and told me that I was the real winner. At least a bit of respect is coming. To lose a race in a clean race is one thing, but to lose a race to dirty racing is a whole nother ball game. But, second place is not what I came here for and I am even hungrier now for a win tonight.

On to tonight, I am off to go do a night time criterium. I am pretty excited to get out there and race. Even better yet, I just found out it is on cobbles. huh. this might be interesting.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Not settled

Sorry folks for the tardiness, I have had myself a busy past few days. As you are aware, I had the opportunity to be a house sitter for the past 2 weeks which was great, but I am back at my place now, wait a second, I am not. Why the confusion Erik? Well, funny story guys. So when I went back to go to my place across the village I found out that the people who own the house had rented it out for the next 4 months and that I was going to be going elsewhere. Bam! This has been my fifth different rental residence in Giverny in only 6 months, do the math on that one. The longest that I have rested in 1 place has been 4.5 weeks. So onto the new place. I do not have any photos yet, but I promise they are coming. From what I can tell you it is in the Medieval quarter of Giverny according the the local tourist pamphlet. The building is around 400 years old and I am living in the attic. Bitching. While it may sound bad, it really isn't too bad. Its a bit unique and one just needs to watch their head when walking around. I have a toilet in the closet which is pretty classic, at least it is not a outhouse like one of the places I have been this year had. I did not have to use it, but the fact that it was there was still great. But, it is pretty fun crawling up and down a set of stairs/ladder to get to my room as need be. I am not bummed at all about it though as this is just another aspect of the experience of racing and living over here. This all only serves to make me a better person and grow over time. On that note, if you have a free ten minutes check out this article, it will certainly be worth your time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me


Not to let that be my only moving fun, my director and his girlfriend got home on Monday and to my surprise, there was also a large UHaul. Apparently, the parents of Martine, Lionel's girlfriend, sold their vacation house in the southern part of France and since they were down in the South, they loaded everything up to bring North. Given this information, Erik became co porter to help with moving furniture and boxes of just about everything. Thankfully, Lionel had his brother from a few villages over to help out too because this little guy just is not that strong. But hey, I can say come the next day I certainly found some new muscles and could barely walk.

On to more pressing matters, I have found out that starting Sunday, I am going to have 3 days of racing. I will have to drive a bit to get to all of them, but I have 3 more chances to do what I came to Europe for-Race my bike as fast as I can.

And folks, I hit a pretty sad point the other day. Please look at my bottle of good ol' U.S. peanut butter.














Thank god I have a second jar waiting for me in the fridge.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Sour Taste

Where do I begin? Check out this little video, this is what the past 2 weeks have been like for me at home? Where did the warm summer go?








It has been pretty crazy, in July it was upper 20's here and I was even able to bust out a pair of shorts on a few occasions. Now, it has not broken 16 degrees, around 60 degrees and I have essentially put away any short sleeved shirts. Craziness. Everyone is saying how bizarre it is and that September will get better, I hope. It is certainly not fun having lots of stuff wet all the time.

But, on to more important things, what I came to Europe to do, race my bike. Oh yeah, fun times for sure. Headed off to a race today with my teammate. I was pretty darn excited to get to a new area today and I got to pretty much race on the coastline of Normandy. Given all the rain lately, it really felt like I was on the Oregon coast. The only thing that I am missing was some salt water taffy and tillamook ice cream. Yummy. But, back to the racing. I knew that it was going to be super important to be attentive all day long given the fact that it was wet and people would not be all that excited. Thankfully that attentiveness got me into the breakaway in all of about 4 kilometers and bam, things are setting up to be a good day. Little did I know that I was settling in for 3 hours off the front of the race. At times with the wind, it was pretty damn disappointing to look down and see that I was barely going 20 kilometers an hour as hard as we could go into a headwind, man oh man. But, the 7 of us were at least moving and even though we were working pretty poorly together, we were still distancing the field.

Let me give you some background right now. I am racing in the amateur division right now and there is another level above me. I have quite a bit of motivation in my races because I have spoken to a few of the teams above me and they all say that I need 3 more wins to move up to them, well all be damned, I am going to work my tail off to get there.

Back to the race and things are looking pretty. I am at 20 kilometers to the finish and thinking about what I need to do to win this thing when boy, this just got really hard, whats up. I look down and uh oh, I am a bit squishy in that there front wheel. Well damn, I pull off super quick hoping to get a wheel change, remember my director is still on vacation. But, a few guys in the break with me have flatted today and got back into the race, no worries. First car passes me and I look at them but nothing, second car passes and nothing. So goes the process until there are no more cars to look at.

It is at this moment that I realize, no one is going to stop for me and I have just watched my chance of winning this thing ride away from me. I can taste my breakfast as the gut wrenching realization sets in. None of the other teams' cars stopped to help me and I had to wait until the rest of the field caught up to me for help. To try to explain the thoughts that ran through my head in that minute will never be possible. All I can say is that the one minute felt like days. Little did I know, that one teammate had quit the race already after a flat and another had flatted but got back in. With the rain, flats were common today if you haven't noticed. Eventually I rolled in with the rest of the field to finish the day pretty bummed.

So I sit here now at home, I did everything right today, just luck was not on my side. There was nothing I would have done differently. I had a plan, executed it to best that I could, but there isn't anything that can be done about flats. Onto the next race now.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

On My Toes

Boy was yesterday a wild ride. Somehow I ended up at a race that I wasn't even planning on being in. Let alone, 300 kilometers away. Lets set the scene, its a good one.

Erik is deep asleep thinking of dry weather (its been raining non stop for last week) and just generally out of it. 7 a.m. rolls around and Erik is awoken to the sound of the phone, who could be calling me at this god awful hour he thinks. Stumbling down the stairs he answers the phone and is surprised to hear the sound of his director. Basically conversation goes like this. Lionel-"Erik, the race that I told you that you were not going to do, now you are. There is a ride that will be picking you up in around an hour, try and get ready." Erik-"oh my god, um, thanks, gotta go." Well, crap, thank god, I did laundry the day before, but my bike is set up for training, not racing. First thing first, stuff some food and lots of coffee down and get bike ready. An hour of running around and I am sorta ready. Did I eat a ton-no, but I will get some bars down in the car.

8 a.m rolls around and alas, my ride shows up and it is a competitor that I know that was visiting some family in the area. I should have expected a unique day when I saw a laptop, numerous maps and general chaos in the car, but hey he is French right, he will know the way. Upon arriving, I am told that he has little idea of where we are going and I need to drive after the first hour so that he can navigate, since after the first hour it is all new territory for him.


What was supposed to be a 3-3:30 hour drive turned into a 4:30 hour drive with a few wrong turns along the way. It was certainly a trip, Alexis nose deep in maps, Erik driving blindly and having absolutely no idea of where he was. Thankfully we got to the race with about an hour to spare and all was well. When I went to get my numbers, I am told that I am not on the start list and that I needed to register earlier in the week. Not knowing that I was even racing that was not possible, but fortunately they ended up giving me numbers, they would not turn down Euros.

Remember how I said that it has been raining for the last week, well mix in heavy rain and these friendly guys and you have a pretty crazy day.













Honest to god, there was a cattle auction going on in town and so naturally the road was covered in cow dung and wet-nice and slick. I was feeling super motivated for the day though and even got myself a decent start position in the first 1/3 of the 160 man field-all was good. Not a minute into the race all that can be heard is the sound of carbon sliding across the road and the moment that sound is heard, the race just goes faster. And so goes the day, a crash happens and whoever is at the front hits it even harder. I was fortunate to make it over an hour before getting caught in a wreck. It was more a matter of luck on the day as many riders much better than I even got caught out. I was fine, but my bike needed some love and there was no love out there for me, there is not much I can do with a bent derailleur. Another DNF on the day and by the end there were only about 25 guys who got to finish the day. I was pretty bummed to have a mechanical happen from a wreck, but such is life. The guy who came to race with me only lasted about 20 minutes before being caught up in the mess.

I am now only a half of the way through the day, as we now need to get back to my hometown, good times. Well, once again, I was driver, he was navigator and he found a "short cut." Ha! Once again, we got ourselves lost and instead of going home the same way, we tacked on another hour onto the drive. We ended up driving by the same beach that I spent my vacation back in June though which was pretty neat. I got home last night around 11 o clock and well, a bit tired from the long day. But, there was one good thing about the drive home last night. I was starving, dinner was going to be a long way off and so I did what I had to do.

































And yes, it was the first burger I have had since America. A big mac here though is like a quarter pounder back home-so disappointing. But it still goes down amazing and I am not one bit guilty about it at all.

And now today, well, I spent the morning getting the bike all squared away. Unfortunately, my local bike shop is on vacation for the next 10 days and totally closed. The whole vacation thing still baffles me here. But, hoping for some more luck to come my way in the next little bit. Sorry for the long post, just another day of living and racing in France. Its always an adventure.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Shafted

Once again, I have been taken, and I most certainly do not like that feeling.

I had myself a fun little race today, about an hour away in a different department than I am living in. We tried our best to make sure that we arrived to the race at a decent hour to give us ample time to get ready and we accomplished that goal. I got my numbers, albeit with a bit of Anti Armstrong rhetoric given the latest accusations against him, I am certainly getting tired of the doping thing. Thankfully I got in a bit of recon on the course and had some idea of how the day was going to go down, but boy was I wrong. Knowing that the course was a little circuit on pretty much a one lane farm road, being at the front was going to be important all day long. I got myself to the start line well ahead of most everyone minus the one racer that I am worried about trying to beat, but at this point Erik is feeling pretty darn good about himself. By now other racers are starting to line up with me and enter Mr. Anti Lance man again, same guy that if you remember earlier in the year did not allow me to start a race because I was not French. He tells me that I cannot start on the front and I must start at the back. I know that this is not right, but no amount of arguing will help. Before I know it I am starting at the back with many other "non" french riders. HUH? It was hands down the weirdest and longest call up I have ever experienced for a race, all riders essentially were put into their place without much order other than personal preference. But hey, at least the other guy I am worried about is somewhat near the back with me, he is from a different department than which the race is being run in also. Thankfully, we are buds and tell each other we need to move up as quick as can be.

As we start the race we do our best to get to front, but take into account a one lane road and 100 guys, it takes a minute or two. Not five minutes into the race we make it on up there to only find that a group is already up the road. Damn!! We take off in pursuit, but for some reason cannot find anyone to help us out, not even our own teammates! After awhile it us just the 2 of us, 30 seconds behind the front group neither making time, nor losing it. As the day went on, we would have people catch up to us, but no amount of pleading for assistance helps. All we get is how much? In terms of how much will you pay me to help, since I am getting paid x amount to not work. Yep, I cannot even pay off teammates to help out, let alone competitors. Given the fact that they have entered into an agreement with someone else and are still looking for more just tells me that they cannot be trusted at all.

Long story short, my friend and I could not close the gap and came in with some other folks. Is it a coincidence that the guy that put select folks in the back also helps with certain races and many of the riders at the front were very talkative with him before and after the race and that many riders in the field were being paid to not work? I think not. What can I do about it, not a damn thing. Am I disappointed? You bet I am. I will just keep doing my best and hopefully it will pay off, there is nothing that one little American kid can do over here to change the system. At least others got the shaft too right-Japanese, American, Polish, and even certain frenchmen from different regions.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Walking the Walk

So far, housesitting has been absolutely great. It must sound weird that I am enjoying having things to do each day, be it taking care of the yard, making sure that all the flowers in the garden get watered or just every day menial tasks. Why is this good you might wonder. Well, frankly, much of this past year over here I have been swimming in my thoughts where much of the time, the success of my day is based on whether or not my training was successful. Something that I have come to find is that with life there are always good days and not so good days, and my legs also adhere to the same principle. Thus, having the chance to do some other stuff has been great.

Though, you had to know one of these were coming right? Well, all year long, I have been on my directors schedule or his girlfriends schedule on getting into town. My little village neither has a bakery or grocery store thus I have to go into "the city" all 20,000 people of it. Bummer part, being that they have been gone all week and will be gone for just under 2 more weeks. Unfortunately, I am certainly missing a few key things in life that I have come to really appreciate.

The first is a car. With this wonderful invention, it is quite easy to get to where I need to be. I neither have one of these over here nor will I use someone elses. So I go onto the second best invention.

While I have my bike, it is quite nice and I would feel pretty horrible just leaving her outside of some store while I am in shopping for an hour or so. The best way to fix this would be to lock it up, but alas, I have no lock, my second key thing.

So, what is Erik left to do to get the ten kilometers to the grocery store. He has two pretty awesome legs to get there right. I can make the trek there in just under 2 hours and get as much as my backpack can fit and make the trek back home, normally that is just a bit over though. Little walks are nice, but I am not a huge fan of these undertakings. It is amazing how 4 hours walking and 4 hours riding can be so different. One is an eternity and one I look forward to all the time. Thankfully though once I have had someone stop and ask if I wanted a ride, that generosity was certainly appreciated. Lets now hope that I can keep on with that luck for a bit.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Solo

Gotta say, really enjoying being alone right now. After a few weeks (4 actually) of living with others, being back by myself is great. It is so much more relaxing and easier to keep everything clean and functioning. No more of the game, where did this or that go? you just know. But for every good thing in life, there has to be something out there keeping it in balance right? Well, let me highlight my train ride back to France the other day.

Get to train station at 2 o clock to get ticket-okey dokey no problems, get TGV ticket from Lille to Paris, women at counter makes note of "long travel day with suitcase and bike huh" (remember this comment she makes). Ticket is for a departure time of 3. Sweet.

2:45 comes and I get on said train, slight problem, there is no bike rack so I sit in the cargo area with my bike. One of the train conductors said no problem.

2:55 Huh, more important train conductor sees said person sitting in cargo area with bike and kicks him off the train. "This is not acceptable, you cannot sit here, you must wait for a later train with bike racks" important man says. Erik then gets to watch the 2 conductors argue over it and eventually the boss wins the argument and the American (me) really loses out, even though there was ample space for me. And remember, the ticket women knew I had a bike and still put me on this train too.

Thankfully, the first conductor takes me to back office and pulls some strings to get me onto the next train an hour later there is a specific bike room, but only catch is that I have 20 minutes to make my connection train in Paris. That is from Paris Nord to Paris St Lazare. He thinks it is possible, but cannot promise anything. I am set to get into Paris at 5:30 with next train leaving at 5:50

4 o clock and I am leaving Lille heading for Paris, schweet.

5:30 comes and goes and I am still on the train trying to get to Paris. We do not eventually get in until 5:45, and my conductor flat out says I will not make my connection and gives me a sheet basically saying "accidents happen, put ticket holder on another train"

What I did not think about though was trying to get from one train station to the other at rush hour in downtown Paris on a Monday night with luggage and a bike. Time from entering Subway to finally exiting-1 hour 15 minutes.

I am now time wise at the time that had I followed my original schedule, would be sitting at home relaxing with a cold beer, but no, I am stuck in a line trying to get a new ticket.

7 o clock and I finally get a ticket to Vernon on a commuter train with a cargo room. I get to stay there with my bike and finally I get into Vernon at 8 o clock, original arrival time-5:40. AWESOME!!

But, alas, all is not done. I still have 6.7 kilometers to go from train station to home. Remember, this is France and July or August are holiday months too. My director is on holiday in southern France, many teammates are gone and unavailable. Where does this leave Erik. Well, he has a suitcase with wheels, a bike, only 1 backpack, and a decent road to get home. Off he goes rolling down the road on his bike with said suitcase rolling next to him. It is not fast, nor is it efficient, but it gets the job done and gives passing motorists something to laugh at. All I am thinking is that there has to be a market for ceramic bearings in suitcase wheels and I need a pair.

But, getting home felt so nice and now I am getting to house sit for my director for 2 weeks. And guess what, that cold beer tasted even better given the circumstances.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

HELP!!!!!!!!

Can anyone help me with this problem? The french can offer no solutions and I am without a bike!!!!!!!!!!!


Monday, August 2, 2010

Blah

Yep, blah, that is about what my body was last week. I went up to that race hoping to have a decent ride and never once during the week did I feel ok. That was hands down the hardest and fastest race of my life and well, I came out of it even more tired and trying to comprehend what happened. It is pretty cool though to be racing some of the best pros in the world, even if I am just trying to hold on and finish.

But, I did get the opportunity to visit a new amazing part of France that I had heard about yet never visited. The Alsace region is quite popular for its white wines and boy was it neat to be able to have our hotel nestled in the heart of the vineyards. It would have been even nicer to be able to sample the wines there, but I will have to wait until this week to undertake that task.

Never in my life have I been a part of a race where we had daily team presentations in such picturesque areas nor had the amount of people cheering us on. It is quite amazing that no matter how far back you are they still cheer for you. Way up high in the mountains were tons of hikers and folks cheering on the climbs and it is pretty darn easy to hear the American tourists out there cheering their hearts out. Here are a few select images from last week that should give you an idea of the week that we had. Once heavily dropped on Sunday, I even had my camera with me to get some neat photos. You cannot forget the dance ensemble serenading us to Billy Ray Cyrus's "Achy Breaky Heart" either. CLASSIC