Okay, I’ve been thinking about these for a while, so I think I’ll just get it all out at once in a nice, clean format. I think it’s pretty much self-explanatory.
Three things I like:
The sun: remember? The great giver of light and warmth, and taker-away of wetness and paleness? The one that’s around from July to September? Well, I figured out where it goes the rest of the year.
People: not just people in general, though I’m okay with them too, but people *not* in cars, buildings, at work, etc. People just out milling around for the sake of it. I guess I can see now why train workers don’t want to work past 50… people actually do stuff here.
Hydrogenated oil and corn syrup: or rather the lack thereof. For some reason many foods sold in the US with these ingredients (Nutella and ketchup, for instance), don’t have them when “produced” in Europe. I can’t quite figure out why this is the case since on the whole I think people in the US are more “health conscious” than most Euros. Maybe it’s just the coasts though… I always forget about the red states.
Three things I don’t like:
Paying for stuff: especially the “pay to get in, pay to get out” kind. The quintessential example? Water. It’s impossible to find either a drinking fountain or a public restroom on a ride. The result? Fill up bottles in a fountain in Monaco, where the gold-plated pipes ensure its sterility, and pee in the bushes (but not in Monaco, the whole principality (could you find a more snooty word?) is under video surveillance). Hmm, maybe I should change the title of the blog to “interesting places I’ve peed, funny places from which I’ve peed, and different things I’ve peed into.”
Coffee: and I don’t mean coffee in general, just coffee here. Mostly it’s because so many euros have proudly told me about how great coffee is here compared to the US based on their experience with the coffee they drank at a Motel 6 just outside Tulsa. But on the whole the coffee I’ve had is quite stale, acidic, not very strong, and overpriced. I mean, four bucks for a cup of coffee at home is about three bucks more than I’d like to pay, but at least you get a liter of it and it’s free trade organic in a recycled cup and served by an unemployed PhD. And there’s free wifi.
Scooters: I was on the fence about this one because of the “at least they aren’t cars” argument, but I finally oscillated back the other way because “they could be bikes.” But apparently scooters are actually cool here, or at least their owners believe them to be. The fashion seems to be creating café racers by installing oversized scooter-racing tires (?), anodized motocross bars (yes, anodizing is also still cool), and stripping much of the “body work.” Not quite the same as Steve McQueen on a Norton. But hey, tell that to the kid wearing gold Pumas, jeans with a dozen zippers on each leg, a pink sweater with a popped-collar, and about 6” too much mullet coming out the back of his motocross helmet. I guess it’s the Euro answer to fixies… unmuffled two stroke engines vs. hipsters practicing skid-stops on capital hill? Toss up.
Three things I’m ambivalent about (aka, an insult sandwich):
Nutella: it’s so tasty, turns anything it touches into a delightful snack, and you don’t even have to refrigerate it. But it’s basically just margarine with hot chocolate mix stirred in. And come on, hazelnut spread? It’s the sixth ingredient and by your own admission makes up just 2% of the deliciousness.
Garbage: everywhere I’ve been there are dozens of little golf cart sized street sweepers rallying about cleaning, and the result is a nicely primped look to all public spaces. But now that I’ve started to look around I realized that in general people are much more careless here with littering. I mean, US cities on the whole have more visible trash, but that’s because there’s not really a system to pick stuff up, it’s just self-policing for the most part. For instance, there’s not even a communal “trash day” in the apartment, people just take out bags when they’re full, leave them on the sidewalk, and within 12hrs the trash fairy took them away. I guess it creates jobs, but it also creates sloppiness.
Rallying: street sweepers aren’t the only ones, pretty much everyone here rallies about. Sometimes it’s nice because you don’t have to stop for red lights or the stogy little red man staring deep into your soul and forbidding you to cross the empty street, but other times it’s not so nice because you almost got run over by some 14 year old punk on a scooter. Germany and Nice seem to be on two opposite ends of the spectrum, but both are better than Seattle where you can’t get away with anything on a bike but still almost get run over by some vitamin-D deficient a-hole driver in an Escalade juggling a 24oz. Americano and an iPhone.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Au revoir, seasonal affective disorder
Riding today was pretty awesome. I put in a solid few hours in the velo going east along the coast, first to Monaco then into Italy and around a bit there. The real story was the weather though… perfectly sunny and in the mid to upper 60s. One sign I passed said 24c, but I think it was in the sun. Regardless, I rode sans legwarmers and with just a long sleeve jersey on top, and when I got home I was still covered in salt from sweating. And it’s the end of November! For everyone in warmer parts of the world this might not be so significant, but for those of us in the PNW slugging out 5hr rides in horizontal rain, this is not a trifle matter. I think I’ve also found the cure for vitamin D deficiency and SAD… get the hell out of Seattle. I mean, seriously. No wonder our state is the capital of coffee, grunge, intellectual hip hop, and meth. Is there anything worse than about 3 months of straight rain? Other than being out riding your bike in it every day?
The best part is that the sun is still intense enough to be warm and to give a tan. From just my ride today I already came back a shade darker. Watch out Mason lake, I’m going to be that guy riding in shorts when it’s 33 and snowing just to show off my winter bronze. The south-facing shore and low sun angle also means that you’re riding in the sun constantly. Oh, incidentally, for the cycling fans who watched this year’s Paris-Nice, my ride today was the last part of the final stage when Contador soloed in. And speaking of cycling fans, there were huge packs of cyclists out riding. Except instead of Discovery and US Postal kits and Treks, everyone was wearing Credit Agricole kits and riding Looks. I think next weekend I might try to hook up with some cagey old locals to figure out where to ride.
Other things happening… the weekend is huge here, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise but at home it seems like things are really quiet in general on the weekends and people crawl into their cocoons. Again, perhaps a function of the weather. But here everything is hopping… traffic is way worse than even mid-week rush hour, the streets are totally packed, etc. Yesterday they inaugurated the new tram which from what I can tell runs only about 3km and is sort of pointless, but it was open to ride for free so the were HOARDES of people jamming themselves into the little cars and mayhem in general. People were literally putting their kids on the tracks in front of the oncoming tram to take pictures. I don’t know about these Euros sometimes…
I’ve also spent a fair amount of time getting acquainted with different parts of the city, figuring out some recipes from the new food selection, and working on my French. Nice isn’t a super expensive city but some things are ridiculous. Beef, for instance, starts at about 20 euros/kilo from what I’ve found. And the cheapest pre-paid cell card is 55 cents/minute within France and you have to pay 30 euros just to get it. For comparison, in Germany it was 5 euros for the card and 14 cents/minute.
My current techniques for learning French are perhaps unorthodox, but so far they’ve been working pretty well. My first day here I bought a dictionary, two bike magazines, and a parallel translation of the Old Man and the Sea. The bike magazines are easy to read because I can look at the picture and figure out what the article is about, then learn words because I pretty much know what they’re saying. The Old Man and the Sea is great because I can read one page in English, the look over and read the same thing in French and if I get stumped just go back and forth. Hemmingway also writes in a style quite helpful for the marginally-literate reader such as myself. I’ve also been watching the French show called “Are You Smarter than a 10 Year-old,” which is great because all questions are pretty basic and half the time they quiz people about English.
That’s what I’ve got for now. I’m hard at work on another movie that is going to blow some minds. I found a bunch more editing “things” and have a fresh new soundtrack… Dan and I are also confirmed for Zurich now, and I posted the start list above if you didn’t already see it. Also, God willing I hereby vow to avoid all Nice/nice puns for the duration of my stay and encourage all of you to do so as well. To ease the transition I will give everyone one free pass then after that I’m cutting you off. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
The best part is that the sun is still intense enough to be warm and to give a tan. From just my ride today I already came back a shade darker. Watch out Mason lake, I’m going to be that guy riding in shorts when it’s 33 and snowing just to show off my winter bronze. The south-facing shore and low sun angle also means that you’re riding in the sun constantly. Oh, incidentally, for the cycling fans who watched this year’s Paris-Nice, my ride today was the last part of the final stage when Contador soloed in. And speaking of cycling fans, there were huge packs of cyclists out riding. Except instead of Discovery and US Postal kits and Treks, everyone was wearing Credit Agricole kits and riding Looks. I think next weekend I might try to hook up with some cagey old locals to figure out where to ride.
Other things happening… the weekend is huge here, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise but at home it seems like things are really quiet in general on the weekends and people crawl into their cocoons. Again, perhaps a function of the weather. But here everything is hopping… traffic is way worse than even mid-week rush hour, the streets are totally packed, etc. Yesterday they inaugurated the new tram which from what I can tell runs only about 3km and is sort of pointless, but it was open to ride for free so the were HOARDES of people jamming themselves into the little cars and mayhem in general. People were literally putting their kids on the tracks in front of the oncoming tram to take pictures. I don’t know about these Euros sometimes…
I’ve also spent a fair amount of time getting acquainted with different parts of the city, figuring out some recipes from the new food selection, and working on my French. Nice isn’t a super expensive city but some things are ridiculous. Beef, for instance, starts at about 20 euros/kilo from what I’ve found. And the cheapest pre-paid cell card is 55 cents/minute within France and you have to pay 30 euros just to get it. For comparison, in Germany it was 5 euros for the card and 14 cents/minute.
My current techniques for learning French are perhaps unorthodox, but so far they’ve been working pretty well. My first day here I bought a dictionary, two bike magazines, and a parallel translation of the Old Man and the Sea. The bike magazines are easy to read because I can look at the picture and figure out what the article is about, then learn words because I pretty much know what they’re saying. The Old Man and the Sea is great because I can read one page in English, the look over and read the same thing in French and if I get stumped just go back and forth. Hemmingway also writes in a style quite helpful for the marginally-literate reader such as myself. I’ve also been watching the French show called “Are You Smarter than a 10 Year-old,” which is great because all questions are pretty basic and half the time they quiz people about English.
That’s what I’ve got for now. I’m hard at work on another movie that is going to blow some minds. I found a bunch more editing “things” and have a fresh new soundtrack… Dan and I are also confirmed for Zurich now, and I posted the start list above if you didn’t already see it. Also, God willing I hereby vow to avoid all Nice/nice puns for the duration of my stay and encourage all of you to do so as well. To ease the transition I will give everyone one free pass then after that I’m cutting you off. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
Friday, November 23, 2007
A ride through Nice...
Here are some video clips from my ride today. Biking through Nice proper is sort of like playing a video game because so much is happening at once. Unlike Germany, it's definitely okay to jay walk and run red lights here... and people do so with great passion. I look forward to exploring more, and as much fun as it is, getting out of the city more as well.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Nice: a long shot, or just a long trip?
It was a long way to Nice, and not just in kilometers. I woke up at 5:15 to make an early morning train that would get me to Nice with just one transfer and all high-speed trains. I got to the train station and was told that because of strikes the only trains running to France go to Paris. Yes there are trains listed as being unaffected by the strike, but she assured me they actually are not running. Hmm, seems like that would be good information to post somewhere?
So I walked a few kms through pre-dawn Geneva in search of the bus station. There’s a bus going to Nice, but it leaves in four hours, I have to change three times, buy a new ticket half-way for some reason (controllage she says?), and I arrive at night. Thankfully I had a pocketful of Francs from the prize money so I could afford to blow a little on a few cappuccinos and chocolate croissants while passing time watching all my stuff and trying to not fall asleep. And to add insult to injury, I heard about five times on the radio that trains to Paris are the only ones running from Switzerland, and today is the first day at that. Another example of the insular existence that is bike racing.
The buses were pretty good and to my pleasant surprise it was extremely easy to carry a bike plus a big suitcase. Short trips within Europe by plane are by far the worst and it’s nearly impossible to avoid oversize fees that exceed the cost of the ticket. Trains have worked well, but you have to move really quickly and usually scout around on the cars for a place to stash your stuff. Except for taking a long time, buses seem to win on overall simplicity and definitely on cost.
There are some downsides however. The biggest one this trip was simply time; the route from Geneva to Nice goes through numerous mountain passes, so the whole trip was on small, twisty roads. Because of that the drivers locked the bathrooms and kept everyone seated the whole time. And because of the strike and the sudden influx of bus traffic, all the buses were late. The net result is that you can’t pee while in transit, nor can you go at the stations because everyone is running around to make their connections. I think it’s fine for your average chronically dehydrated Euro (remember, water costs more here than gas, and even that is pushing $8 /gallon), but it wasn’t working for me. About halfway through my first long bus ride I thought I was going to explode, and finally just pulled my coat over my lap and filled a liter water bottle right then and there. Thankfully during one of my transfers I had the foresight to pour it out, because sure enough I had the same problem (and same solution) on the next bus. I’m pretty sure no one noticed, except at one point I did have to remove my liter of pee from the seat next to me so two lovely French girls could sit down. They gave me and my mysterious bottle of ice tea a funny look and probably against better judgment decided to sit there anyway.
There were quite a few more tribulations along the way, including not having any food and eating little packets of peanut butter I pinched from the hotel breakfast in Alkmaar a few weeks ago. But what it all comes down to is that after 17hrs in transit and about an hour of wandering around Nice in the dark to find this place, I’m here, the apartment is incredible, and there is a boardwalk with palm trees. I’ve also managed to take care of quite a few shop items, including getting a new cell phone chip (my number is below), finding a grocery store, buying a dictionary, signing up for French lessons, finding free internet, and doing a whole bunch of laundry. This was a pretty dry post but once I get settled enough to start running amock things are going to get interesting… and once Dan get’s here in a few weeks things will be completely out of control.
My new address:
Adrian Hegyvary
C/O Csepreghy
11 Rue Alberti
Nice, France
06000
And cell (including country code):
+33 06 42 74 5132
So I walked a few kms through pre-dawn Geneva in search of the bus station. There’s a bus going to Nice, but it leaves in four hours, I have to change three times, buy a new ticket half-way for some reason (controllage she says?), and I arrive at night. Thankfully I had a pocketful of Francs from the prize money so I could afford to blow a little on a few cappuccinos and chocolate croissants while passing time watching all my stuff and trying to not fall asleep. And to add insult to injury, I heard about five times on the radio that trains to Paris are the only ones running from Switzerland, and today is the first day at that. Another example of the insular existence that is bike racing.
The buses were pretty good and to my pleasant surprise it was extremely easy to carry a bike plus a big suitcase. Short trips within Europe by plane are by far the worst and it’s nearly impossible to avoid oversize fees that exceed the cost of the ticket. Trains have worked well, but you have to move really quickly and usually scout around on the cars for a place to stash your stuff. Except for taking a long time, buses seem to win on overall simplicity and definitely on cost.
There are some downsides however. The biggest one this trip was simply time; the route from Geneva to Nice goes through numerous mountain passes, so the whole trip was on small, twisty roads. Because of that the drivers locked the bathrooms and kept everyone seated the whole time. And because of the strike and the sudden influx of bus traffic, all the buses were late. The net result is that you can’t pee while in transit, nor can you go at the stations because everyone is running around to make their connections. I think it’s fine for your average chronically dehydrated Euro (remember, water costs more here than gas, and even that is pushing $8 /gallon), but it wasn’t working for me. About halfway through my first long bus ride I thought I was going to explode, and finally just pulled my coat over my lap and filled a liter water bottle right then and there. Thankfully during one of my transfers I had the foresight to pour it out, because sure enough I had the same problem (and same solution) on the next bus. I’m pretty sure no one noticed, except at one point I did have to remove my liter of pee from the seat next to me so two lovely French girls could sit down. They gave me and my mysterious bottle of ice tea a funny look and probably against better judgment decided to sit there anyway.
There were quite a few more tribulations along the way, including not having any food and eating little packets of peanut butter I pinched from the hotel breakfast in Alkmaar a few weeks ago. But what it all comes down to is that after 17hrs in transit and about an hour of wandering around Nice in the dark to find this place, I’m here, the apartment is incredible, and there is a boardwalk with palm trees. I’ve also managed to take care of quite a few shop items, including getting a new cell phone chip (my number is below), finding a grocery store, buying a dictionary, signing up for French lessons, finding free internet, and doing a whole bunch of laundry. This was a pretty dry post but once I get settled enough to start running amock things are going to get interesting… and once Dan get’s here in a few weeks things will be completely out of control.
My new address:
Adrian Hegyvary
C/O Csepreghy
11 Rue Alberti
Nice, France
06000
And cell (including country code):
+33 06 42 74 5132
Sunday, November 18, 2007
C'est fini
Well, the first part of the trip is over. We finished racing today and Brian took off to stay closer to the airport for his flight tomorrow, and I'm still with Florent until my early morning train to Nice tomorrow. Things went pretty well for us today. Brian was second in his first ever derny race, though he actually won (according to the commisaires as well) because a swiss rider took a lap when the race was still neutral. They ended up sticking to the result though... for some reason... I was fourth in my derny race and can now give my solemn word that they actually are extremely difficult. As simple as it sounds, it feels exactly like motorpacing on the track alone except it never seems to end and you never quite know how fast you'll be going.
My points race heat went well, though again I was only fourth. But I took a lap and placed in a lot of sprints, but it was really tough racing in general today because the swiss riders started to work against us. The last madison was actually extremely boring except for another attack during the neutral lap. We didn't know going in but there were no sprints, so it was essentially a "chase" to see if anyone could take any laps. Swiss teams held the top three spots though so we all just rode tempo and looked at each other. We ended up 5th overall, tied at something like 192 points and on even laps with 4th place, who happen to be Jackie Simes and David Wiswell. After three days of racing and a ton of events, it came down to the final sprint placing in the final race. Pretty nuts.
For our efforts we came home with 300 francs and some leftover cokes from the concession stand. Actually we've been bumming food from the organizers the whole time, who for some reason took pitty on us above the other racers. Maybe it's because everytime I saw them and there was food within about 30 meters I grinned and said something like "you looking to get rid of that?" In any case, we ended up getting clandestine free meals the whole race.
I am also once again sold on couchsurfing. Though it's a great way to find a place to sleep, it's even more incredible socially when one is welcomed into another, random person's life. What I'm finding is that it's quite a self-selecting group of people who sign up, so whomever accepts your request is super welcoming, open, and of course curious about what you're up to as well. Every night when I go to bed I've completely forgotten about the racing because it's so engaging to spend time with our hosts. If you ever have a bad day and run into too many jerks, just go couchsurfing for a few days and it will restore your faith in humanity.
So tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my winter. Now that I start thinking about it is somewhat intimidating to be moving to a new city where I don't know the language, don't know anyone, and don't even have the key to the apartment where I'll supposedly be staying. Hmm. It's time to go nose to the grindstone on French and finding buddies becuase otherwise I'm in for some alone time. Maybe if I just find a nice French girl that would solve both problems.....
My points race heat went well, though again I was only fourth. But I took a lap and placed in a lot of sprints, but it was really tough racing in general today because the swiss riders started to work against us. The last madison was actually extremely boring except for another attack during the neutral lap. We didn't know going in but there were no sprints, so it was essentially a "chase" to see if anyone could take any laps. Swiss teams held the top three spots though so we all just rode tempo and looked at each other. We ended up 5th overall, tied at something like 192 points and on even laps with 4th place, who happen to be Jackie Simes and David Wiswell. After three days of racing and a ton of events, it came down to the final sprint placing in the final race. Pretty nuts.
For our efforts we came home with 300 francs and some leftover cokes from the concession stand. Actually we've been bumming food from the organizers the whole time, who for some reason took pitty on us above the other racers. Maybe it's because everytime I saw them and there was food within about 30 meters I grinned and said something like "you looking to get rid of that?" In any case, we ended up getting clandestine free meals the whole race.
I am also once again sold on couchsurfing. Though it's a great way to find a place to sleep, it's even more incredible socially when one is welcomed into another, random person's life. What I'm finding is that it's quite a self-selecting group of people who sign up, so whomever accepts your request is super welcoming, open, and of course curious about what you're up to as well. Every night when I go to bed I've completely forgotten about the racing because it's so engaging to spend time with our hosts. If you ever have a bad day and run into too many jerks, just go couchsurfing for a few days and it will restore your faith in humanity.
So tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my winter. Now that I start thinking about it is somewhat intimidating to be moving to a new city where I don't know the language, don't know anyone, and don't even have the key to the apartment where I'll supposedly be staying. Hmm. It's time to go nose to the grindstone on French and finding buddies becuase otherwise I'm in for some alone time. Maybe if I just find a nice French girl that would solve both problems.....
Friday, November 16, 2007
Au revoir, Allemagne...
...et bonjour, Swisse! Our train down to Geneva went swimmingly and we've been here for two days now. It came down to the wire on finding a place to stay, and we were beginning to lose faith in couchsurfing after many non-replies and rejections (all with compelling excuses, however). But things worked out at the last minute and we're staying with an extremely nice French ex-pat named Florent. Florent is in his 40s, lives alone, and runs a small massage business out of his flat. Our stay has been great for a number of reasons, among them post-race massages and seafood risotto. We're also pleased to not be staying in the bomb-shelter provided by the race, if for no other reason than to save 10 francs a night.
The racing has been good, though more of the same in the leg and lung department. I feel like I've been chasing fitness since arriving... first getting behind the eight-ball from the flight, then from not being able to ride for a few days, and now from being sick. We're stuck in a rut of needing to ride into things over the first two days then try to compensate on the final day, but in a three day event you can't really afford to have an off-night. That said, things are going better here. We've had only individual events so far, but both of us have had some top-5s and we're sitting somewhere around there overall. The small track definitely takes some getting used to, and I've had to gear down quite a bit to keep from bogging in the turns. For the individual events an 87" gear has been feeling big, and I'll probably ride an 86" for the Madison tonight.
Geneva itself is pretty nice, and quite different than I expected. In general Switzerland has a very amusement-park, overly-manicured feel to it, and certainly there are parts of Geneva like that. But it's not all cookie-cutter, and there are some more interesting parts of the city that we've walked through with more ecclectic architecture and people. It's still quite expensive on the Doner index (like the Big Mac index, but for Europe), as the cheapest ones here run around $8 compared to about $3 in Germany. But it's still not as outrageously expensive as say, Copenhagen. We've also been pleasantly surprised at how nice everyone is. We have yet to find any jerks, which unfortunately can't be said of the other places we've been.
Florent has also been helping me with French, and has even told me a bit about Nice as he used to live there. In fact I've run into a number of people who've lived in Nice and all of them gave some useful insights. Geneva is warmer than Germany, but all this talk about Nice and the ten-day forecast makes me pretty excited for the move on Monday. Keirins and Madisons coming up tonight, then tomorrow morning we'll take a crack at Derny racing. Anyone have any recommendations? And don't say hold the wheel and turn left.
The racing has been good, though more of the same in the leg and lung department. I feel like I've been chasing fitness since arriving... first getting behind the eight-ball from the flight, then from not being able to ride for a few days, and now from being sick. We're stuck in a rut of needing to ride into things over the first two days then try to compensate on the final day, but in a three day event you can't really afford to have an off-night. That said, things are going better here. We've had only individual events so far, but both of us have had some top-5s and we're sitting somewhere around there overall. The small track definitely takes some getting used to, and I've had to gear down quite a bit to keep from bogging in the turns. For the individual events an 87" gear has been feeling big, and I'll probably ride an 86" for the Madison tonight.
Geneva itself is pretty nice, and quite different than I expected. In general Switzerland has a very amusement-park, overly-manicured feel to it, and certainly there are parts of Geneva like that. But it's not all cookie-cutter, and there are some more interesting parts of the city that we've walked through with more ecclectic architecture and people. It's still quite expensive on the Doner index (like the Big Mac index, but for Europe), as the cheapest ones here run around $8 compared to about $3 in Germany. But it's still not as outrageously expensive as say, Copenhagen. We've also been pleasantly surprised at how nice everyone is. We have yet to find any jerks, which unfortunately can't be said of the other places we've been.
Florent has also been helping me with French, and has even told me a bit about Nice as he used to live there. In fact I've run into a number of people who've lived in Nice and all of them gave some useful insights. Geneva is warmer than Germany, but all this talk about Nice and the ten-day forecast makes me pretty excited for the move on Monday. Keirins and Madisons coming up tonight, then tomorrow morning we'll take a crack at Derny racing. Anyone have any recommendations? And don't say hold the wheel and turn left.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Kalt. Bitter, bitter kalt.
So, I'm not sure why I didn't read the memo before leaving home, but apparently Europe is really really cold in the winter. Crap. Today we rode about 1:30 through the snow because we're racing friday and don't want a repeat of last week. I'm getting over my cold but it looks Brian and I should have layed off the snuggling these last few days because now he has it. I'm thinking today's excursion didn't help his condition. On the plus side he has lots of Mullermilch to keep him healthy. To those out of the know, Mullermilch is probably the single most delicious thing in the world, at least from the malty/chocolaty/dairy drink category. He waxes poetic about it on his blog.
Tomorrow we're taking the train to Geneva for our last race together. It might prove more complicated than anticipated because apparently all of Europe's railway operators are going on strike out of solidarity with the French train operators who can no longer retire at 50 and receive state pension. France is running on about 10-15% of capacity and apparently Germany is at about 50%. Couchsurfing.com has also let us down somewhat because we don't yet have a place to stay in Geneva. I have to work on my form a little because we've received about ten rejections so far. Come on Switzerland, don't less us down!
And speaking of French trains, I have another very interesting bit of news from the last few days. Thanks to a family friend there's a vacant apartment in Nice where I can stay for free through February. Who could say no? So rather than return to the deep freeze Germany seems to be plunging into, I'll just continue south to winter on the Mediterranean. Pretty sweet. It looks Dan Harm will also be my partner in crime for the next chunk of racing (including any combination of Vienna, Maastricht, Zurich, and Rotterdam), so that will be rediculous. REDICULOUS. And if anyone from the Netherlands happens to know someone in charge of the the invitations for Maastrich and Rotterdam, we could still use a hand getting in there. In return we can do things like move around heavy objects, perform quality control at the cafeterias, and chaperone podium girls.
I think that's it from Tubingen. It's been really nice staying with Csaba and Emese and I'm sad I won't be living here after all. Geneva also looks like a great event, the track is only 166m long and they've put together a full schedule including points races, scratch races, eliminations, keirins, and even derny racing. I'm a little ambivalent about doing my first derny race on a 166, but I'm not without a strategy; I figure if I can just push a bigger gear, at a higher cadence, for longer than anyone else, I should be able to win. Yeaaah.
Tomorrow we're taking the train to Geneva for our last race together. It might prove more complicated than anticipated because apparently all of Europe's railway operators are going on strike out of solidarity with the French train operators who can no longer retire at 50 and receive state pension. France is running on about 10-15% of capacity and apparently Germany is at about 50%. Couchsurfing.com has also let us down somewhat because we don't yet have a place to stay in Geneva. I have to work on my form a little because we've received about ten rejections so far. Come on Switzerland, don't less us down!
And speaking of French trains, I have another very interesting bit of news from the last few days. Thanks to a family friend there's a vacant apartment in Nice where I can stay for free through February. Who could say no? So rather than return to the deep freeze Germany seems to be plunging into, I'll just continue south to winter on the Mediterranean. Pretty sweet. It looks Dan Harm will also be my partner in crime for the next chunk of racing (including any combination of Vienna, Maastricht, Zurich, and Rotterdam), so that will be rediculous. REDICULOUS. And if anyone from the Netherlands happens to know someone in charge of the the invitations for Maastrich and Rotterdam, we could still use a hand getting in there. In return we can do things like move around heavy objects, perform quality control at the cafeterias, and chaperone podium girls.
I think that's it from Tubingen. It's been really nice staying with Csaba and Emese and I'm sad I won't be living here after all. Geneva also looks like a great event, the track is only 166m long and they've put together a full schedule including points races, scratch races, eliminations, keirins, and even derny racing. I'm a little ambivalent about doing my first derny race on a 166, but I'm not without a strategy; I figure if I can just push a bigger gear, at a higher cadence, for longer than anyone else, I should be able to win. Yeaaah.
Monday, November 12, 2007
I think this picture is pretty savage... It also captures our swanky Cane Creeks well, which have drawn a lot of attention of late. A lot of the pros have been looking with their hands and the head mechanic for T-Mobile asked us for a pair. So far they've been great to ride and seem particularly well-suited to this style of racing--high average speed but with lots of accelerations.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Bizarrrrrro
The last few days have been pretty nuts. The short story is that we finished racing in Munich, parted ways with David on some very strange/rocky terms, and are now staying with my cousin Csaba and his wife Emese in Tubingen, Germany. The long story is yet to come, but I'll at least recap the stories from the races.
Night two was another highly underwhelming evening of racing. During the day there was some friction within the team that led to us not getting much time on the track and our heads being elsewhere (more on this later, as it unfolds). Another very significant factor in not getting much track time is that I forgot my shorts back at the "compound." Lucky for me I wore underwear that day, and even luckier that they were black and could pass for bike shorts... from afar anyway. I used safety pins to attach my legwarmers to the bottoms and close up the fly, but I still showed quite a bit of inner thigh while riding. But hey, it's Europe, this thing is totally cool, right?
This is a good lead-in for my feature video which you will find immediately below. It is the result of having lots of time, pictures, and dubstep on my hands, then deciding to put them all together in one place for my beloved blog readers. Anyway, the first segment when I'm riding is taken in my skivies, and there is also a picture at the end of the full ensemble. Don't worry, the whole thing is very much PG, even by Euro standards.
Moving along. The last night in Munich was by far our best race yet. We scored in four sprints, took a lap with a small group at one point, and in general were making ourselves a factor in the race and not making stupid mistakes. One problem with racing in Europe, however, is the exchange rate. Not just the half-again Dollar to Euro exchange rate, but the way foreign riders are scored during the race. For instance, if a foreign team, let's just hypothetically say two handsome young lads from the US on the red team from the 2007 Munich 6 Day, were to score 10 points and finish at 2 laps on the final night of racing, in the results they will show up with 7 points and at 3 laps. Got it? The same exchange rate is also applied to all other non-German teams, even those on the Euro.
In any case, it made not such a significant difference in the overall standings after two crappy nights, so even if we wanted to dispute it in our best German it wouldn't have been worth it. But we were satisfied in knowing that it had finally clicked for us and that many of the strong teams at the race congratulated us on riding well in the finale.
This morning we bid our humble dwellings in Oberschleissheim goodbye and took the three-hour train to Tubingen, which is about 40km south of Stuttgart. In spite of having to lug around our big bike cases it went really smoothly and was actually quite a fun day. We finally got a chance to see more of the countryside than simply the flickers of light coming through our airhole in the back of the hostage van, and it was much faster and more comfortable to boot.
When we arrived Csabi picked us up at the station and we were welcomed to an amazing three-course Hungarian lunch complete with multiple rounds of dessert. We'll be here until Thursday checking out the very lovely city and finding our next Couch Surfing hosts in Geneva. I also came out of Munich with a nasty cold so I imagine a nice block of R&R is in the cards as well.
And stay tuned for stories from the Real World Munich 6-Day once the dust settles... is Adrian in for a repeat of kerekparsport.blogspot.com? Will Brian continue his lucky streak? Only time will tell.
Night two was another highly underwhelming evening of racing. During the day there was some friction within the team that led to us not getting much time on the track and our heads being elsewhere (more on this later, as it unfolds). Another very significant factor in not getting much track time is that I forgot my shorts back at the "compound." Lucky for me I wore underwear that day, and even luckier that they were black and could pass for bike shorts... from afar anyway. I used safety pins to attach my legwarmers to the bottoms and close up the fly, but I still showed quite a bit of inner thigh while riding. But hey, it's Europe, this thing is totally cool, right?
This is a good lead-in for my feature video which you will find immediately below. It is the result of having lots of time, pictures, and dubstep on my hands, then deciding to put them all together in one place for my beloved blog readers. Anyway, the first segment when I'm riding is taken in my skivies, and there is also a picture at the end of the full ensemble. Don't worry, the whole thing is very much PG, even by Euro standards.
Moving along. The last night in Munich was by far our best race yet. We scored in four sprints, took a lap with a small group at one point, and in general were making ourselves a factor in the race and not making stupid mistakes. One problem with racing in Europe, however, is the exchange rate. Not just the half-again Dollar to Euro exchange rate, but the way foreign riders are scored during the race. For instance, if a foreign team, let's just hypothetically say two handsome young lads from the US on the red team from the 2007 Munich 6 Day, were to score 10 points and finish at 2 laps on the final night of racing, in the results they will show up with 7 points and at 3 laps. Got it? The same exchange rate is also applied to all other non-German teams, even those on the Euro.
In any case, it made not such a significant difference in the overall standings after two crappy nights, so even if we wanted to dispute it in our best German it wouldn't have been worth it. But we were satisfied in knowing that it had finally clicked for us and that many of the strong teams at the race congratulated us on riding well in the finale.
This morning we bid our humble dwellings in Oberschleissheim goodbye and took the three-hour train to Tubingen, which is about 40km south of Stuttgart. In spite of having to lug around our big bike cases it went really smoothly and was actually quite a fun day. We finally got a chance to see more of the countryside than simply the flickers of light coming through our airhole in the back of the hostage van, and it was much faster and more comfortable to boot.
When we arrived Csabi picked us up at the station and we were welcomed to an amazing three-course Hungarian lunch complete with multiple rounds of dessert. We'll be here until Thursday checking out the very lovely city and finding our next Couch Surfing hosts in Geneva. I also came out of Munich with a nasty cold so I imagine a nice block of R&R is in the cards as well.
And stay tuned for stories from the Real World Munich 6-Day once the dust settles... is Adrian in for a repeat of kerekparsport.blogspot.com? Will Brian continue his lucky streak? Only time will tell.
Ich liebe Deutschland!
There are a few great things about Germany, including the wide assortment of yoghurts and sandwich meats and cheeses. But also great is the occasional, but complete disregard for subtlety or diplomacy:
This little pearl comes from the daily newspaper for the Munich Six-Day, where we’ve just finished our first day of racing. Things were mediocre for us on the first night. The track is a huge improvement over Dortmund, though it’s a touch slippery because the entire surface is painted. I’m not sure what they have against just leaving the wood exposed, except perhaps to try to match it to the rest of Munich which has a very apocalyptic, industrial feel to it. Anyway, due to circumstances outside of our control we weren’t able to ride for two days going into the race so we both felt like crap. Brian was bonking because we thought we’d be fed dinner before the race, but it turned out to be after so he was racing on a seven-hour fast. I store enough food from breakfast in my cheeks to make it through, but I felt like someone was choking me the whole race since it was the first time I used my lungs in a few days. The field here is much more level though, and last night was still an improvement for us in our riding partnership, so hopefully we’ll pull it together and get a result one night.
Our accommodations are a bit of a step down from the Hilton from last week, but they’re still pretty cool. We’re staying north of town in a little place called Oberschleißheim, which at first sounded like a cartoon caricature of German name, but in fact turns out to be a real place. The “facility” is a dorm built next to a 2km man-made lake that was used for the crew events at the 1972 Olympics, so the rooms are hotel-sized but have 4-6 beds each. We were a bit worried they’d all be occupied at first, but it’s just one team to a room so there’s plenty of space. Our biggest complication is that there is one bathroom on the floor for each sex, and we were all swinging both ways until an unfortunate incident in the shower when one rider discovered that someone brought his mother along. So now one end of the hallway smells like an open sewer and those of us on the other end of the long, un-lit, horror-movie hallway pee out of our second story windows. I should perhaps note that I don’t actually have any evidence that anyone other than me has peed out the window, but it’s just so much fun and so logical that I can only imagine everyone else is doing it.
Taking a step back, we left Dortmund on Wednesday morning for the six hour drive to Munich. It was a little sad to leave our new buddies in Dortmund, not like sappy-sad but more just that we had a lot of fun and sitting in the back of a cargo van for a few hours isn’t. That said, one perk of our few days of debauchery is I slept the entire way on an ill-fashioned bed of wheel bags and bike cases. Then, in perhaps the most disorienting three minutes of my life, I awoke inside the Munich Velodrome, about 30ft underground, to bright blue lights, industrial/apocalyptic music playing in the giant hall, and some guy riding a 85cc dirtbike inside a giant steel freedom ball. Why can’t bike racing be like this at home?
This little pearl comes from the daily newspaper for the Munich Six-Day, where we’ve just finished our first day of racing. Things were mediocre for us on the first night. The track is a huge improvement over Dortmund, though it’s a touch slippery because the entire surface is painted. I’m not sure what they have against just leaving the wood exposed, except perhaps to try to match it to the rest of Munich which has a very apocalyptic, industrial feel to it. Anyway, due to circumstances outside of our control we weren’t able to ride for two days going into the race so we both felt like crap. Brian was bonking because we thought we’d be fed dinner before the race, but it turned out to be after so he was racing on a seven-hour fast. I store enough food from breakfast in my cheeks to make it through, but I felt like someone was choking me the whole race since it was the first time I used my lungs in a few days. The field here is much more level though, and last night was still an improvement for us in our riding partnership, so hopefully we’ll pull it together and get a result one night.
Our accommodations are a bit of a step down from the Hilton from last week, but they’re still pretty cool. We’re staying north of town in a little place called Oberschleißheim, which at first sounded like a cartoon caricature of German name, but in fact turns out to be a real place. The “facility” is a dorm built next to a 2km man-made lake that was used for the crew events at the 1972 Olympics, so the rooms are hotel-sized but have 4-6 beds each. We were a bit worried they’d all be occupied at first, but it’s just one team to a room so there’s plenty of space. Our biggest complication is that there is one bathroom on the floor for each sex, and we were all swinging both ways until an unfortunate incident in the shower when one rider discovered that someone brought his mother along. So now one end of the hallway smells like an open sewer and those of us on the other end of the long, un-lit, horror-movie hallway pee out of our second story windows. I should perhaps note that I don’t actually have any evidence that anyone other than me has peed out the window, but it’s just so much fun and so logical that I can only imagine everyone else is doing it.
Taking a step back, we left Dortmund on Wednesday morning for the six hour drive to Munich. It was a little sad to leave our new buddies in Dortmund, not like sappy-sad but more just that we had a lot of fun and sitting in the back of a cargo van for a few hours isn’t. That said, one perk of our few days of debauchery is I slept the entire way on an ill-fashioned bed of wheel bags and bike cases. Then, in perhaps the most disorienting three minutes of my life, I awoke inside the Munich Velodrome, about 30ft underground, to bright blue lights, industrial/apocalyptic music playing in the giant hall, and some guy riding a 85cc dirtbike inside a giant steel freedom ball. Why can’t bike racing be like this at home?
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Brian Crosby: unlucky streak ends!
I really dropped the ball on the race updates from Dortmund, but not entirely without reason. The primary factor was momentum, but what set that process into motion was what can only be described as an “implosion” during the second night’s Madison. Things were over for us before they even started, as I awoke in the wee hours of the morning to hear Brian’s two-Euro mystery-meat sandwich clawing its way back out. In the race we both lacked any semblance of “spark” or “jump,” and spent pretty much the whole time tail gunning while the Aussies literally ran laps around the field. Somehow my head was just not in it and I came under probably ten exchanges in the first half of the night. My strategy when now is just to start yelling when I see it about to happen and hope I don’t take someone out… kind of like and old man running a red light while laying on the horn.
The final day was much better for us, though still nothing too spectacular. We had much better exchanges and rode smarter, but it’s still difficult to pull yourself back up after a bad night with lots of gap closing and chasing. One perk of tail gunning though is that I was able to see all the spectacular crashes on the final day, including one member of our arch-nemesis purple and gold team who managed to ride a nose-wheelie the entire finishing straight before endoing into turn one. That would be the final time they gapped us off… One final note about the race, Dortmund is by far the bumpiest track I have ever ridden, as it’s assembled only for the event and for some reason they placed the connecting joints in the middle of the turns. The gaps are about the equivalent of riding over a pair of recessed train tracks, but with the compression at race speed the overall affect is like getting kicked in the ass eight times per lap. Nonetheless, all of our 40km races finished in between 46 and 47.5 minutes, which equates to an average speed of around 53kmh. I blame the Aussies.
We returned to our hotel Sunday night with a nice surprise from the organizers—the option to either check out immediately or pay 170 Euros for our room for another night. Sweet. Brian and I had already arranged a home stay for the days between Dortmund and Munich via www.couchsurfing.com, and were lucky enough to start a day earlier. Tom Murray, our British sidekick, and his Belgian partner Tim Mertens, both had to go home that night so we parted ways and have been staying in a suburb of Dortmund since. It’s been really great, our host is a 26 year old business student named Violeta. She spent a year living in Montpellier, Idaho during high school and has been a stellar host. The beautiful thing about homestays is that not only do you get a free place to live, you also get to cook, do laundry, and use the internet for free, and have some immediate best-friends. We’ve spent the last two nights running amuck through Dortmund with Vio and her buddies, eating two-Euro Döners and visiting such cultural hotspots as “The Spirit,” a trashy underground nightclub with a 65 year-old DJ playing teenage-angst songs from the 90s. Maybe if they weren’t also serving 50 cent beer (yeah, no joke) people would have realized what they were listening to? Of course there are many, many other stories but as we all know, what happens in Dortmund stays in Dortmund.
The final day was much better for us, though still nothing too spectacular. We had much better exchanges and rode smarter, but it’s still difficult to pull yourself back up after a bad night with lots of gap closing and chasing. One perk of tail gunning though is that I was able to see all the spectacular crashes on the final day, including one member of our arch-nemesis purple and gold team who managed to ride a nose-wheelie the entire finishing straight before endoing into turn one. That would be the final time they gapped us off… One final note about the race, Dortmund is by far the bumpiest track I have ever ridden, as it’s assembled only for the event and for some reason they placed the connecting joints in the middle of the turns. The gaps are about the equivalent of riding over a pair of recessed train tracks, but with the compression at race speed the overall affect is like getting kicked in the ass eight times per lap. Nonetheless, all of our 40km races finished in between 46 and 47.5 minutes, which equates to an average speed of around 53kmh. I blame the Aussies.
We returned to our hotel Sunday night with a nice surprise from the organizers—the option to either check out immediately or pay 170 Euros for our room for another night. Sweet. Brian and I had already arranged a home stay for the days between Dortmund and Munich via www.couchsurfing.com, and were lucky enough to start a day earlier. Tom Murray, our British sidekick, and his Belgian partner Tim Mertens, both had to go home that night so we parted ways and have been staying in a suburb of Dortmund since. It’s been really great, our host is a 26 year old business student named Violeta. She spent a year living in Montpellier, Idaho during high school and has been a stellar host. The beautiful thing about homestays is that not only do you get a free place to live, you also get to cook, do laundry, and use the internet for free, and have some immediate best-friends. We’ve spent the last two nights running amuck through Dortmund with Vio and her buddies, eating two-Euro Döners and visiting such cultural hotspots as “The Spirit,” a trashy underground nightclub with a 65 year-old DJ playing teenage-angst songs from the 90s. Maybe if they weren’t also serving 50 cent beer (yeah, no joke) people would have realized what they were listening to? Of course there are many, many other stories but as we all know, what happens in Dortmund stays in Dortmund.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Deutschland!
We just finished the first night of racing here in Dortmund and things are good. The organizers sprung for rooms at the Hilton so as I write I'm wearing an embossed Hilton bathrobe with handsome matching slippers and Brian is fixing up my hair with our new Hilton combs. Not really, we combed our hair earlier, I can't concentrate on writing while he's grooming me. But it's well known in Euro circles that nothing creates a stronger bond between madison partners than sharing moments such as these, so we're really making the effort. See what you learn here? This is proprietary sechstage info you're privy to.
Our last few days in the Netherlands were good. Most of our time revolved around training sessions with the Australian and Dutch national teams, who were gracious enough to invite us to their private sessions. Most of those sessions were occupied with us sucking wheels behind the Aussies and the Dutch team pursuit squad, mixed in with fighting over the wheel of a Dutch woman who looks like a blond Bjork. Before the sessions we were occupied with making sandwiches out of the breakfast buffet to last us through the day, then post-training we kept busy by trying to stay awake until 9pm, finding dinner for less than 10 euros, and avoiding the creepy and somewhat hostile group of hippies at our hostel.
This morning we made the three hour drive to Dortmund, and though I had a surprisingly good time in the Netherlands, it still feels nice to be back in Germany. Even though I really don't any ties here and schpreche keine deutsch, it still feels nicely familiar. Hopefully in a few months I'll be deutsching it up and then I'll really be one of the cool kids. Speaking of cool kids, check out the pictures above for a little glimpse into the glamorous life of u25 six-day stars such as ourselves.
And speaking of stars, let's talk racing. We're doing 40km/200 lap madisons every night, and tonight it took us about 100 laps to find our legs. The field is comprised of 14 teams, which is just about right for a 200. I never felt like it was totally roller derby like last year, and there were only one or two teams who were pushing about and yelling. I'm pretty happy with how tonight went, even though we didn't place too well. My reason is that it seems to take at least one 6 to get used to your partner, and that is compounded by Brian being new to the 6-day mayhem. But with that against us, we still didn't miss any exchanges, scored points more than once, and did a decent job of holding position. Ultimately that was still our greatest weakness--getting gapped off in the sprints then missing the moves. We ended three laps down on the leaders, but didn't lose any laps, we simply never took a lap. Laps don't carry over from day to day though, so it's no problem to go down one night since everything is run on an omnium format. Every day we race together I reckon we'll improve though, and we certainly have the potential to factor into the races and place in some once we find our feet and maybe a bit of good luck.
Tomorrow we'll sample the wide assortment of balms, lotions, and other elixers made available to us by Hilton, then rouse ourselves for night two. Stay tuned for all the gritty inside stories from Real World UIV-Cup: Dortmund.
Our last few days in the Netherlands were good. Most of our time revolved around training sessions with the Australian and Dutch national teams, who were gracious enough to invite us to their private sessions. Most of those sessions were occupied with us sucking wheels behind the Aussies and the Dutch team pursuit squad, mixed in with fighting over the wheel of a Dutch woman who looks like a blond Bjork. Before the sessions we were occupied with making sandwiches out of the breakfast buffet to last us through the day, then post-training we kept busy by trying to stay awake until 9pm, finding dinner for less than 10 euros, and avoiding the creepy and somewhat hostile group of hippies at our hostel.
This morning we made the three hour drive to Dortmund, and though I had a surprisingly good time in the Netherlands, it still feels nice to be back in Germany. Even though I really don't any ties here and schpreche keine deutsch, it still feels nicely familiar. Hopefully in a few months I'll be deutsching it up and then I'll really be one of the cool kids. Speaking of cool kids, check out the pictures above for a little glimpse into the glamorous life of u25 six-day stars such as ourselves.
And speaking of stars, let's talk racing. We're doing 40km/200 lap madisons every night, and tonight it took us about 100 laps to find our legs. The field is comprised of 14 teams, which is just about right for a 200. I never felt like it was totally roller derby like last year, and there were only one or two teams who were pushing about and yelling. I'm pretty happy with how tonight went, even though we didn't place too well. My reason is that it seems to take at least one 6 to get used to your partner, and that is compounded by Brian being new to the 6-day mayhem. But with that against us, we still didn't miss any exchanges, scored points more than once, and did a decent job of holding position. Ultimately that was still our greatest weakness--getting gapped off in the sprints then missing the moves. We ended three laps down on the leaders, but didn't lose any laps, we simply never took a lap. Laps don't carry over from day to day though, so it's no problem to go down one night since everything is run on an omnium format. Every day we race together I reckon we'll improve though, and we certainly have the potential to factor into the races and place in some once we find our feet and maybe a bit of good luck.
Tomorrow we'll sample the wide assortment of balms, lotions, and other elixers made available to us by Hilton, then rouse ourselves for night two. Stay tuned for all the gritty inside stories from Real World UIV-Cup: Dortmund.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
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