From sunburn to frostbite!

It was a great day to be a yooper! As we were on the start line the temperature at the pass was 2C! It was raining hard and everyone was worried about being too cold. In the back of our minds we knew the descent would be the coldest. As we neared the top there was fresh snow on the ground. Luckily it has only been since April that we had snow so it wasn't such a big deal. That and it must have been 5C by the time we reached the top. We were relieved to be over the top but that was only the first 30km of a 95km stage! It wasn't long and there was a group of 20-30 riders flying down the valley. Kind of like a road race on mountain bikes which many would argue is not fun at all, but there is a certain amount of adrenaline when you are going nearly 50 mph into switchbacks. It's kind of scary!

It was a good day though. We were 81st today which should have us somewhere around 90th after three stages.

A teaser...More to come

Mayrhofen!

Well we are sitting at a cafe in Mayrhofen now. The day went very well after our lessons learned about the importance of pacing ourselves. We were able to move up throughout the day and were very excited to see the finish line.

All of the riders that we have had the opportunity to talk to have been very pleasant, exactly what you would expect from mountain bikers. The organization is doing an incredible job making sure that everything is perfect (well almost, the pasta dinner last night was relatively pathetic but oh well). We are looking forward to tomorrow. It is one really long climb and one really long downhill, very welcome after todays three climbs...

I will try to post photos asap, however, the internet is not liking the size of my photos. I promise you though, it is beautiful here!

Internet! (first post of a couple...)

We got onto a huge ferry to cross from Sweden to Germany. It was a pretty neat ship called the "Peter Pan." There was a guy singing in the lounge area, he was Swedish but he only sang American oldies. Very interesting. 

When we woke up in the morning we ate breakfast. Early. "If you are first in line you do not have to wait," said Dad. Well we were not quite the first in line but we were pretty close. The song "Boombox" by The Lonely Island would describe it best! The boat docked soon after and we were on our way through Germany. 

The drive went well. It was hillier and more rural than I was expecting. However, there was no lack of traffic. Apparently everyone is going on vacation. We stopped at a restaurant along the freeway to eat. Warning: Germans have taken Capitalism to a new level! At this particular restaurant they were charging to use the bathroom. One justification for this is that they do a very good job of cleaning it. After we passed through Munich it wasn't long before we could see the Alps in the distance.

It didn't take long for the Alps to become extremely large! As we wound through them they grew taller and more intimidating. Within kilometers of Mittenwald (the beginning of the TransAlp) the first thought in my mind was OOPS! We checked in and Oskar's parents found a place to stay for the night. We found the gym that we were sleeping in for the night. It was in a military camp which was nestled under the menacing mountains. Off to bed!

Waking up was not an issue with a couple hundred others waking up early as well. We found the chow hall and discovered a great breakfast waiting for us. They were not messing around in that camp! Oskar also pointed out our second clue that this would obviously be a difficult adventure, EVERYONE looked similar to Hemstad! Off to the start.

The huge number of riders was a little overwhelming. The start area was extremely crowded. At 10 am they let us head off to decide our own fate. Not going to lie, seeing those mountains around us made me a little nervous. However, once we were well on our way up the first climb (a measly 900m) we realized that it wouldn't be so bad. After cresting the first climb there was a pleasant surprise awaiting. The downhill was pretty incredible and also very technical considering it was a 2-track. It was all very loose rock and very steep. A challenge to go fast, not to mention if you screwed up it would not be pretty. The mountain sides are extremely steep. As we quickly dropped down into the valley we were reminded to be careful when we saw a rider on the side of the trail that had slid off a high speed corner and caught a tree (less steep here). He was being taken care of and we hope that he will be alright. We could see the next climb in the distance…

After the first aid station the second climb started. This was not as long, only 700 meters or so. I began to feel the legs here, Oskar was a great teammate and encouraged me along. Eventually we made it over the top and started down the other side. This was extremely steep. The grades were beyond 20% and quite sketchy. The turns were very sharp and the 29ers did not handle these nearly as well as the 26" bikes that a majority of the field were riding. It is safe to say that my triceps have never cramped because of steep downhills. The Ergon grips were life-savers for the hands! Eventually we wound down for a long descent toward the final climb to the finish. We were able to get into a paceline with a few others until the climb. It was a rough climb. At this point I was pedaling through leg cramps and Oskar was seemingly fresh. He says his legs were getting tired but he may have been trying to make me feel better…We made it to the top of the asphalt then they sent us down another 2-track. Good! We are almost done! Nope, they are cruel here, they say this is difficult for a reason. We still had another 1.5 km to climb up to the finish. Eventually I had to stop and shake out some cramps. We began to walk up the climb. I couldn't handle being passed anymore and we began pedaling again. Oskar was pushing me up the hill which was very welcome. The finish came soon after. We made it and we are sitting in 99th place in the men's race. We think we are somewhere in the top 200 overall and yes, we did get girl'd. They are fast here, as a shirt said, "Raised to Race." I think maybe the word born was lost in translation…

Hopefully tomorrow goes well. Today was only about 2100m of climbing over 95km and tomorrow is around 2900m in 68km. We saw the profile of the entire course and learned that we will be doing 21,000m of climbing before this is over.

I will add pictures when I have faster internet...

Off to Deutschland!

I will explain the pictures from yesterday. The picture of the airport is Amsterdam. It was crummy weather and I was happy that I didn't have to be there for very long. That and flying in I realized how flat it is there. After Oskar picked me up, we stopped at the Swedish Mtb Nationals. As it turns out there are not that many people that mountain bike here. However, the top guys are very competitive in world cup races. The one picture is the winner of the men's race, this is his website http://emillindgren.com/ He is on the Giant/Rabobank team and has some pretty impressive results. The field in the men's race was only around 40 guys. The other picture is of the set up at the event and as you can see it is not very big.

I found it funny, the restaurant we ate at is called Pizzeria Hawaii. It seems that the Swedes have an obsession for Hawaii. It is also ironic that pizza, which is obviously Italian, would be labeled as American because of the crust...We ate Kebab's from there. They are not kabaabs by any means. These are sandwiches. I have attached two pictures (for you Hammie!). One is the sandwich which is around 8-10 inches in diameter and the other is of the meat used in the sandwich. It is cooked by spinning it and they shave it off for the sandwich. They are really good!

We have started traveling south with Oskar's parents. We will sleep on a ferry tonight and when we wake up in the morning we will be in Germany.

Made it

 

Travel has begun!

Travel has finally begun! A huge thanks to Pete and Nina Karinen who were nice enough to allow me to travel with them to Steve Pribyl's house, where we are all staying the night. They are flying out to Sun Valley, ID for the USAC MTB Nationals tomorrow (Tuesday) morning bright and early. I hope that their races go well! A huge thanks to the Pribyl family as well! 

Pete and Nina race this Friday and Sunday, here is a link that should have results at some point: https://www.usacycling.org/events/2011/mtbnationals/

We relaxed while playing some pool which was a good time. Here's Steve showing us all how it's done.