It takes a village to raise a child… or every village needs an idiot?

After a two hectic weeks of finishing law school applications, training, then planning and packing for my move, I’m finally here and slowly adjusting. We’re currently in Alkmaar, Netherlands for a few days training at a nice indoor 250 and staying a cheap hostel before heading to Dortmund for our first big race. Last night we raced the monthly omnium night with some “locals” including 6-day pro Peter Schep, the Amsterdam 6 winners from Australia and their coach Matthew Gilmore, and various members of the Dutch national team. It was not really “fun” considering we were pushing 36hrs without sleep, but it was good to get acclimated.

Taking a few steps back, I had three big successes last week, the first being securing Cane Creek as a sponsor for the season. I’m really excited to work with them as they are now focusing 100% on track wheels and have assembled quite the quiver. This winter I’m using their 30mm aluminum clinchers for training and the Sprint 85s for racing. They both use the same proprietary hubs with straight-pull Sapim spokes that place the nipples at the hub for reduced rotating weight. I’ll post some ongoing reviews once I start racing, but so far I’m really impressed with how they feel. I was shocked how good the bearings are, just because they aren’t really expensive wheels at retail and typically the bearings tend to be overlooked when costs are low. But when the wheels were on the truing stand for gluing they spun longer than my Zipp disc, and that’s on wheels all across the range.

Moving along, the second pleasant surprise is that I’ll be living with my cousin and his wife, Csaba and Emese Harasztosi, in Tübingen, Germany. They are somewhat removed family on my dad’s side—I think third cousins at this point—but they are still fairly close just because the Hungarian side of my family isn’t very big. Csaba is in a research position at the University of Tübingen, and Emese is finishing medical school. Tübingen is supposed to be quite nice, it has the youngest population of any city in Germany and more than a quarter of the ~80,000 residents are students.

We’ll be in Alkmaar training until Thursday, when we drive to Dortmund and start racing that night. After Dortmund we’re going to Bütgen where there’s another indoor track with a sports hotel next door. We’ll train there for a few days leading into Munich, then go to Tübingen for a few days before our last race of this block in Geneva. Once I’m used to the time and my head is less floaty I’ll get to taking pictures and including some less pragmatic information. So far the only bizarre thing I can think of is coming out of the track last night to see a giant white goat casually walking around the foyer. The sixes never disappoint in the novelty department though, so I’m thinking this is just the calm before the storm. In the meantime I’ll leave you with my final success of last week—getting out to an early Halloween party. Coffee to the first person to name my costume, and no cheating by looking back to my previous post.