March 7, 2005 ¡Venga, vaya, vamos! Rain, champagne, Sugus, dreamy mechanics, broken-down vans, 250 boxes, fashion show More about the weather Where should I start? Lots has happened in the last few days. After Monday's snowfall, we were ready for anything. I just have to mention how incredibly glad I am that I had the sense of mind to pack all of my skiing clothes: Gore-Tex jacket, fleece jacket, fleece pants, touque, gloves, scarf... because I've needed them all. It's not at all uncommon for me to make the morning trek from the apartment to breakfast wearing tights under my jeans, two long-sleeve shirts, a fleece jacket, my Gore-Tex jacket, a touque, gloves and a scarf. Can someone remind me again why I'm here? No, other than the uncooperative weather, this place is great. I'm very focused and motivated because training is pretty much the only thing I have to do here, other than working once in a while at the sport shop and guiding a maxiumum of twice a week. There aren't many distractions because the resort is sort of isolated and the U23 Swiss National Team doesn't have any distracting members, if you know what I mean (Ha ha). Also, I save lots of time since I don't have to cook (because you know, when I cook, I COOK)! Some more about the weather and training On Tuesday the weather wasn't happy either, so I opted to do a trainer ride inside -- in the new fitness facility! After two hours on the trainer, I went for a great run up into the hills. I passed several ruins and got a bird's-eye view of the area. I managed to find quite a bit of snow and ice up there in the hills. Wednesday I did weights and an on-bike strength workout inside. Apparently I am super strong -- I managed to rip my cleat bolt out of my shoe! So I ended up buying new shoes.... Peter, the genius mechanic, had to do a little bit of creative work to make it all work, since Northwaves don't come with the Shimano cleat adapters, yada yada yada. Let's just say a vice, hacksaw and file were involved, but it worked!! I now owe Peter a life-long supply of Sugus candies -- you'll find out why if you read a little more.... Favourite things My new favourite post-workout snack is choco muesli with coconut yogurt. However, I just discovered this yogurt that comes in a glass jar... ooohhh... trouble. The other night Martina didn't come up for dinner and I found out later it was because she'd eaten her entire 500 mL jar of hazelnut yogurt and she wasn't hungry anymore! My new favourite past-time is doing laundry -- no, not really, but it seems like that's all I ever do! I'm glad the Bikeholiday (Bikeholiday.net is the company I work for) clothing order finally came in and I got some more cycling duds. Someone made fun of my pink Kappa shorts the other day because they apparently look a bit old.... I don't think they're see-through yet, but I can't actually see myself from the back, so ya never know. 250 boxes Speaking of Bikeholiday clothing, at 9 p.m. on Friday night, the truck finally arrived from Barcelona carrying 250 boxes of clothing that we had to first unload and then unpack (the unpacking isn't done yet). We made a human train from the truck to the storage room and did things ever move at a good clip! Those boxes were unloaded within half an hour. Boy of the Week Our boy of the week, lets call him Urs, is wearing the new Bikeholiday jersey. Jass comp For those of you who don't know, 'Jass' is a Swiss card game that I'm really bad at, but can sort of play because my grandparents taught me. Anyway, Martina and I played Simon a.k.a. Eddie a.k.a. chico guapo (who I'm sure will be boy of the week one of these days) and Martin one night and we won. I have to admit we didn't play very well at all. We played several different rounds and the one that secured us the game was called 'Misere,' where the goal was not to win any hands. We cleaned up -- didn't win a single hand, and because Simon had mistakenly written down that Misere was worth 10X points instead of only 5X, we took the game. I think we lost every other round. However, the next night when we played again, we lost EVERYTHING. The next day, I went to Tossa and bought a box of UNO cards. I'm gonna show these folks how it's done! (Props to my cousin, Marcel, for teaching me. He has some mad UNO skills.) Work Thursday I guided my first group with Martina. The Prologue is a 66-kilometre road ride that starts along the winding ocean road of the Costa Brava (Wild Coast) and heads inland at San Feliu. We started out with four guests and some other Bikeholiday employees who just wanted to tag along (Ursula Brunner [the boss's wife], Margarit [massage therapist] and Etienne [head of the French-speaking contingent]). Within the first few hundred metres, one of the guests (an older guy who showed up late, was wearing track pants and running shoes and whose helmet was way back on his head) was already suffering. It took us 50 minutes to ride 13 kilometres. Etienne and Margarit saved the day and talked the guy into turning back with them. Whew! He was a super sketch pad, going over the centre line in blind corners, riding onto the gravel shoulder, swerving, dropping his bottle. The rest of us continued on and finished the loop in 3 hours. It was a very relaxed pace. The next day I did a 75-kilometre ride by myself that included an extra mountain pass. It only took me 2:50. As for the shop, it hasn't been very time-consuming now that everything's set up. Therese (Martina's Mom) and Ursula had been manning it, but now Ursula has gone home for a couple of weeks, so Martina and I will be taking turns working with Therese. On Saturday morning we had quite the bustle as new guests arrived and we had to check them in and give them their packages, as well as hand out the newly arrived clothing to everyone. An extra perk... Yes... perk.. if that's what you'd like to call it.... Apparently I am required to be a model in the fashion show every Sunday night. Last night was the first one, and I've gotta say, I felt a bit strange, parading on the stage in front of the guests. Luckily everything was very tasteful. No bikinis, thank goodness! Getting ready to race! Saturday we commandeered a Bikeholiday van and Juerg (Martina's Dad) drove Martina, Andri (Martina's bro) and I to San Feliu to pre-ride the Caixa Girona race course. It was sunny out, but windy as usual. The course was quite dry and the ground here is rather sandy (this yellowy-orange sand that's like sandpaper -- courser and lighter coloured than Moab sand), and it was quite sketchy. There were several steep, loose climbs and descents. The course in general was fun, but the climbs were steeper and the descents less technical than I prefer. The whole ride, my bike was not shifting happily, so Saturday evening, I took it to Peter. He took one look, shook his head and said: "This won't do." To make a long story short, within an hour, I had his rear wheel w/ cassette and disc, chain, cranks, BB and chain rings on my bike -- and it shifted like butter! Peter is the hero of the week!!! He is currently putting a new 'budget' drivetrain on my bike so I have a functioning rig until my new one arrives (which I hope will be SOON)! Race day On Sunday, race day, I woke up at 7 a.m., loaded my gear into the van, and had some muesli, fruit and coffee for breakfast. We drove off at 8. By the way, the commandeered van (a Ford) has been ailing ever since we arrived. I think I will call her Mildred. Before driving her, she has to be warmed up for half an hour so she will run semi-properly. She has no power and takes about the same amount of time to get to San Feliu as I do on my road bike -- if she gets to San Feliu.... So we (Juerg, Martina, Peter-the-wonder-mechanic and I) were driving (slowly) in the San Feliu direction, listening to Daft Punk on the radio. Martina was enjoying the slowness, because she easily gets carsick on the windy roads. We were about halfway there, when all of a sudden, on a climb, Mildred gave up and died. Juerg tried to start her again, but she wouldn't turn over. He tried to build momentum while rolling (backwards around a corner) to get her started, but it didn't work. That's it. Mildred limped to the side of the road, we unloaded the bikes and our packs and Martina and I rode the rest of the way. We arrived with enough time to register (The race only cost 5 Euros and included a free T-shirt and food!) and get ready, but not really to warm up. It was sunny, but super windy and cold. It had rained overnight, but the sand soaked it up nicely. Juerg and Peter arrived half and hour before the start (they called the hotel and got one of the drivers to pick them up and drop them off), so we had support! Race Report: I placed second! I felt really good. The race was short (around 1:15), so I knew I had to hammer -- and I was able to! My legs responded! I think I averaged 194 BPM and I often saw my HR over 200 on the climbs. Course conditions were good. The rain packed down the sand down a bit and made it grippy. There were only about 7 elite women, but we started en masse w/ a bunch of men, so I was racing a lot of them -- passed a lot too. I had a pretty good start. It started on a pavement climb and then turned right into a rutted fire road where suddenly people had to dismount (it wasn't that steep, but they got stuck in the ruts). I managed to keep my head and weave my way through all the people who were walking. I never actually had the leader in my sights, but Juerg told me that her lead was always the same. She was at about a minute after the long climbing sections, but I usually managed to pull her in significantly (to like 20 seconds) on the descents. Unfortunately I never saw her! Juerg says she was only 10 seconds ahead at the finish! AARGH! 10 seconds is nothing!!! I won a very cool trophy and we each had a bottle of champagne on the podium -- my first one! Too bad I had to spray it all at the crowd. I did manage to get a couple of sips at the end... and then I rode home.... I need to practice the champagne-spraying. I may have to buy a case of cheap stuff, set up a makeshift podium and do some champagne intervals.... Unfortunately Martina had bad luck. Her cranks came loose about halfway through the first lap and she was obviously unable to continue. Next time though! She rode super strong and clean in the pre-ride on Saturday. She definitely has good form! Thanks to Juerg and Peter the mechanical genius (at the end of the last lap, Peter jumped on his bike and rode behind me, cheering and making me work my butt off) for their help and Peter the chauffeur for getting the support crew to us in time! I race again in Banyoles at the Copa Catalana #1 (a bigger race, I think it's an E1) this coming Sunday. Music If you guys discover some cool music that I NEED to hear (especially peppy music ideal for training), please feel free to send me a CD of MP3s. I'm running out of tunes. Or if you want to send me anything else.... See the mailing address at the top of the page. Thank you, you're dreamy!!! Signing off So, sorry for the incredible length of this post, but what can I say? I always tend to write novels. I won't be offended if you don't have time to read it all, but if you're interested and you have nothing better to do... go nuts. Looking forward to getting news from everyone! And now for the visuals...