Back to the Old World

Rolling in Style

Greetings from across the pond where Mary and I are settling into the latest segment another season of international racing. The next few months will see us based out of our little RV while continuing forward with a diverse and exciting schedule that will be first and foremost about our team having another go at the Cross Country World Cups. Alongside this we will be attending international XC and Marathon races in many a country and filling any remaining gaps with team and solo stage racing and or attending several of the larger European bike festivals.

Up to this point the season has been on par with our busiest, with travels already covering Chile, California to Argentina to Massachusetts to Europe. Since all of this has come without ever really calling any place home for more than a couple days or weeks at best it has felt a bit over booked. Perhaps it is not so strange that now here in our compressed living situation things seem to be settling into place. No doubt car camping has a certain confinement to it but we are always glad to be back to our preferred mode of operations.

Sometimes we score the perfect yoga spot.

Sometimes we just make due

Sometimes tuning the bikes outside is great

Other times it brings more of a challenge.

It is a struggle to consistently be "on the road" and away from the many comforts of home/ home town but Mary and I are really happy to have the opportunity to spend the majority of another MTB season over here. We feel that we can make the most significant impact with our long term commitment to be one of the few American MTB outfits to consistently attend national races across a wide swath of the Old World - now for our tenth year! We continue to be a geographic anomaly here and thus are especially well received and often utilized as a feature in the press. As Mary and I act as agents of marketing and representatives for our esteemed sponsors any special attention translates directly to being better able to pull our weight and this makes us all the more excited for how we have laid out the season ahead!

Mary does not mind getting a bit of extra attention!

We opened things up over here a few weeks ago with the "Bike the Rock" Festival in Heubach, Germany. A busy and exciting event that was well attended by spectators and by many of the best MTB athletes in the world. It was kind of like a mini world cup and this drove home the feeling that Europe is really the place to be for all things regarding bike competition.

"Bike the Rock" festival was an incredibly muddy experience! The type of conditions that made us choose to not even go out for a pre ride on the course. Lucky we had the layout in our heads from racing here a couple of times before.

Mary headed to work in Heubach, Germany

Mary really showed her early season fitness by making the top 10 even though, in her own words, she was "riding conservatively" and thus not taking the type of risks that are pretty much mandatory to do well in XC competition these days. I also rode OK for someone just off the plane but I suffered from my mid pack start position that resulted in getting caught up in the swarm immediately at the outset and unable to make the right moves in the critical first moments. All in all a great reminder of what we will be up against for the duration of our time spent here.

Our next moves brought us a couple hundred kilometers to the south to one of our favorite MTB festivals of all time - The Oetztal Bike festival in Haiming, Austria. This event is a premier example of a high level race that is run "the right way" by friends, family and an incredible grass roots effort of the local HaiPower Bike Team. We were treated to some great weather for the majority of our time there and this really helped us to enjoy this exceptional MTB town. Its not that we particularly mind riding/racing in the rain but the weather really plays an important role in overall morale when living in the car!

Mary headed to work in Haiming Austira

Racing wise Mary was really on in Haiming, she was motivated by the all natural technical course and though I saw her get caught up a bit by some start lap aggression she had a great ride! Though the leaders made the most of a clean get away off the gun Mary held her own among some of worlds the top contenders and was able to move forward to a solid 6th place finish.

After a less than ideal start of my own I was able to rebound and claw my way back into the action, fighting individual battles for the entire race and finished at least somewhat satisfied with a 29th on the day. More than anything we were happy to represent at this great event and feel like we really made a positive impression for our team, our sponsors and as American representatives.

We shifted gears this past weekend and attended out first major MTB festival of the season - The Garda Bike Festival in Riva del Garda, Italy. We initially came to make an appearance with our team, see our European sponsors in attendance, and to check out what is known to be one of the premier festivals in Europe.

We quickly found that the north end of Lago di Garda is one of the most impressive and beautiful places that we have ever had the good fortune to visit with our mountain bikes in hand! We immediately took advantage of a ride opportunity with some eager friends and got out to experience some of the vertically endowed terrain that literally towers over head in every direction from the north of the lake. A Seriously STUNNING place to ride!

Lago Di Garda

Loving the steep rocky single track at the North of Garda

Beautiful spring at lake level

Snow at 6000 feet!

There is a lot of riding between lake level (250 feet) and the peaks (6000 feet)

On Saturday evening after a fun day of catching up with many of our industry friends Mary and I made the last minute decision to take part in the Garda Bike Festival Marathon race. We initially entering into the experience with a laid back attitude and with hopes of getting in a solid training ride, mostly because we realized that we would be starting behind 500+ people due to our late entry into the race.

Over the course of the 93km and 3,800 meters of climbing (ouch!!) Mary and I clawed our way through the crowds, subsisting on neutral feeds and filling our water bottles by hand. Even so by the end of the day Mary managed to take the WIN in the open women's "Extrema" category! I was also quite happy to end up in the top 20 against the open men!

Still smiling after a long day in the saddle

Podium City at the Garda Extrema Marathon

This extended effort pushed the limits of our XC trained bodies but really turned out to be a positive experience. Passing over so much beautiful terrain so quickly in one ride made a deep impression and we are now looking forward to being involved in more marathons style events as we can find the time.

We are now recovering in a nearby campground, not all that disappointed that the weather is preventing us from getting in a whole lot of miles as we are beginning to taper down for the soon upcoming XC World Cups. There is still plenty to do and much of it is quite literally in our faces and at our fingertips though the dirty laundry is doing a good job of covering everything.

Every day of living and racing from our mobile home here in Europe brings some sort of adventure that takes us out of our version of what we expect or want to happen and into just going with the flow to make the most of a constantly changing situation. The Bike along with the familiarity and community that we find surrounding our sport and at the weekends races is often the glue that holds that whole program together.