give a cm, they take a meter

Well where do I start. today was my first euro race and oh my god. I spent 4 hours staring at the wheel in front of me in god knows how many echelons. I knew it was going to be interesting-last night the news had bad weather coming in. Today it never got above 1 degree and the wind was a steady 75 km an hour. I can honestly say that I have never been this scared racing my bike before, but it made it go by quite quickly. I did spend many moments thinking today what the hell am i doing, but I am absolutely convinced that this is the best way to learn how to race in hellish conditions. I expected my first experience to be better, but from the bottom the only way out is up. Heres hoping to figuring out how to race in echelons better.

pre race

getting ready for the race in the morning. Just got done with my evening massage and lets just say they are a bit different here. To start, instead of undressing with the masseuse out of the room, they just stand there and wait for you. That was a bit weird, but the craziest was instead of having numerous sheets to stay covered-I have a hand towel for my southern regions. Things here are certainly a bit more relaxed when it comes to the body. Looking forward to finally testing the legs in a race and kicking some ass.

Stay Tuned for results.

1st solo ride

This morning had a chance to get out on a ride by myself. Needless to say, you learn fast. I ended up on a road for about 20 km's that was a paved doubletrack through some forest which was pretty awesome. I played a game of go out and ride for half the time that I want to and stop, turnaround, and try to get home. Well, the first half went really well but on my way home I was going through one of many little towns and took a right instead of a left somewhere. This resulted in an extra 30 km on my ride and getting nice and lost. This is going to prove to be the best way to learn the roads here, since America's nice grid system is nonexistent here. I am having a difficult time keeping my rides at a set time, because i want to keep on riding and exploring.

race reconaissance

This morning I got out to check out the parcours for my race on Sunday-Paris Evroux. The race is officaly 160 km long, but it does not seem it. I lost track after about town 40 of riding through, towns here are about 2 km in length and come it seems after about 5-6 km of farmland on a constant routine. The race is going to be crazy as the whole time there is traffic islands and roundabout and roads wide enough for one little peugeut. I can't wait. The whole time there was not a single road that was straight nor flat, always turning and up or down. And because of that, just when I thought I knew where I was at the end of my ride and coming in from the East, I was on the West side of my town. Its going to take awhile to figure out the roads here.

new life lessons

things I learned today: 1-trying to shower and shave legs in a shower that is 1 meter by 1 meter is easier to do when awake. 2-your first experience with teammates always involves some form of game of who has the biggest junk on the first uphill-by the way, i did. 3-shopping for food in a new country is quite fun, I get to learn all new brands. 4-We do not have a peanut butter aisle, we have a nutella aisle. 5-french farmer markets are awesome, i found all my fruits and veges easily and cheap. 6-old women at said market seem to love it and laugh when i horribly butcher their language but still give me food with a smile. 7-while butchering language still, being fully immersed and having this as my only english outlet, my french speaking skills are jumping leaps and bounds.

So there goes my day, starting to kind of get a feel for it here. food is good and the riding even better. every road is tiny, i even rode for 5 miles today on some road with 2 paved tracks for wheels and that was it. hopefully i get one less laugh at my language every day

France baby

Where did I leave off, yes that’s right the TSA bike box repacking. Well, when I started out in Boise, I had a mad scramble to get rid of some stuff because United jack off guy was skipping to his own beat which meant screw everyone else. But, I the got bike box in and TSA ended up letting me put some stuff back in down the line-Ha take that United-you probably got a 51.4 lb bike box. Anyhoo, well the repacking ended up not so right and when I opened the bike box, a driveside cone nut for my wheel was rolling around and my packing around the other side of cones was gone so that when something may have hit that side hard, well stuff comes loose. Bike shop will be open in the morning, but until then lots of praying that a new powertap is not broken since the whole freewheel now easily disengages from the driveshaft and hub. Otherwise known as damn. Why doesn’t shit happen when at home in familiar settings?

on the way

Looking back on my travel day from Boise to Giveryn, a few things stuck out. One, united airlines is willing to nickel and dime you everywhere.If a bike box is 50.5 lbs instead of 50 lbs, add another 150 dollars or have people stare at you funny in the airport as you pick and choose what to leave. Two-sleeping on an airplane blows, you either have a kid crying or some sick woman hacking a lung up. Three-avoid the Chicago O Hare shuttle women if at all possible, I have used it 4 times in my life, and all 4 times, the women always are yelling at someone. And lastly, remember that however much your butt hurts or your tired on travel day, the reward of arriving where you want to go will trump your bad feelings most of the time. That is until you get to your house and unload your bike box and see how TSA decided to “repack” it for you.