My Return to the Land of Startbucks, Large Belts, and Sunday Shopping

Sitting here in the Stuttgart Flughauf(airport) awaiting my flight back to the US of A for a 2 week Urlaub with family and friends. It’s a strange feeling. I am definitely looking forward to visiting home and seeing everyone but a part of me will miss the great friends who are like family here. I’ve always said that you need a support system in order to reach your potential. My “family” here has definitely provided that for me during my quest for adventure and worldly experience. Departure in Sept will be sehr schwerig.

Over the past few days I have been to the far reaches of Baden-Württenburg from Heidelberg on Samstag(Saturday) to Freiburg on Montag(Monday). All in all, B-W is a shön region of Germany. In Heidelberg, Karin, Sandra, Heinz and myself set off on taken in the beautiful old city. We started out first with a scenic auto ride along the Neckar. Which I must say is probably one of the most beautiful places I have seen in Germany thus far. In Heidelberg we took the tram to the top of the Berg which overlooks the city and north for many kms. The tram had an insanely steep grade too it, 22-42%. Pretty cool stuff. The system that brings the tram up and down was fairly interesting. It was basically a giant pulley system with some intense tensil strength in the steel cable. Half way down is the old castle of Heidelberg. I said to everyone that this is my home in TN…That lie lasted for maybe 10s. The outside is pretty weathered and possibly war-torn. We took to some essen(eating) at a biergarten adjacent to the castle. It was sehr gut. We managed to time our arrival into Heidelberg just perfect to counter the onslaught of Japanese and American tourists that came in the busloads later. The König Strasse is a massive shopping street with just about everything. The coffee roastery people looked like they could use a happy song. Unfortunately our pleasantries proved worthless despite the opportunity to smell fresh roasted coffee all day. Visited my first German hospital also on Saturday. As a visitor not a client =) Very interesting architecture and quiet. Much unlike the chaos that is an American hospital.

Sontag morgen(morning) we rolled down to Villingen-Schwinnigen for an LBS Cup KT/A/B/C rennen(race). 260starters? Course was pretty tough with rolling terrain and sick wind. I had good legs which translates into I am part of the race rather than pack fodder. By km 50 of 130 I had some mechanical problems. On the tailwind runin section to the final uphill I was stuck in my 53x14. Holding wheels proved difficult and the cord finally snapped. Going 54k/h at 120+rpm is nichts gut for me. Pretty frustrating b/c I’m suppose to be a mechanic. I guess it just wasn’t my day. The race comm gave me the white flag at km 90 so my race ended a little prematurely. Cê la Vie! My teammate Leif Lampater won the race so that was cool. The über awesome teammate Erik Tischler offered up his house for us to crash that night and cooked up some excellent post-rennen nourishment. Of course we celebrated a little bit with the 5L mini-keg of Rathaus Bier that Leif earned as part of his win. I had 1 full glass and it was good.

Montag was freiertag here in Deutschland. Teammate Timur and I had an early departure of 5:30am to get to our race just north of Freiburg in Merdingen. Let’s just say that if you ever wanted to experience the Dukes of Hazardesq driving conditions all you need is a rush to get to the race, a Mercedes Wagon, Landstrasse(think tiny farm roads), and Timur at the wheel. I won’t disclose details but let’s just say that it was another German experience =) The course at Merdingen reminded me of the race in Mallorca except this time it was in German not Spanish. We started out with 110 starters? I think we were left with 60 after the first lap. Within the first 5km, we climbed through a Weinberg and took on some insane descending. Sure it would be okay alone but with a hundred riders scrambling for position and taking that little bit of extra risk it was pretty crazy. Fortunately the race organizers recognized this and strategically placed bed mattresses in the water drainage ditches along the side. But they only covered the holes before they went underground. So if you missed the hole or the dropoff on the side then well you were lucky and got right into bed. Otherwise, it would have been no bueno. I kept making the front group each time. So I was looking good on the final run-in to the finish. Then I experienced my first European bike race crash. Kind of like a badge of honor. Fortunately only a small scratch on my elbow. The rider who took me out cushioned most of my fall as I landed on him. But I was chivalrous and gave him a hand to get up. Then I jumped back on the bike and began my chase. Unfortunately I was 3km from the finish and I was making ground but in the last 500m the jets were turned on and it was over for me. Ohh well, despite positioning myself well in the front, shit happens and that is bike racing. I’ll be back to fight another day. Later the rider apologized to me which was quite the reimbursement of chivalrous ethics =)

Back in Backnang, Heinz, Karin, and Kai cooked up a delicious bbq. Kai demonstrated is worthy skills as the grillmaster. It was sehr gut and with the good company it was great post race time. I can tell my german is improving b/c my joking and sly commentary is keeping par. Last night is 4-3 me over Heinz. I am sure it will be reversed =) I’m going to give myself 30minutes of German practice every day. I know I will lose a little bit but I don’t want to come back and be clueless again. So my family will be getting daily instruction. It will also boost my ego as I will feel like a superstar =)

Last Friday was pretty stressful which is why it’s taken so long to keep my followers updated. I got a haircut. It was much needed but it was a little terrifying inside. I had to pick the perfect time to go so I wouldn’t have any problem getting my locks manicured. It all started out well and I gave the barber my desired look. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a photo to give a better description. So it would become another “lost in translation” moment. You might say that everyday I have one. As we were nearing the end, the sweat began pouring down the back. The look I was going for was reinterpreted as an 80s Val Kilmer. Hair was pulled back and blow-dried which gave lots of “volume” that is stylist talk. I thought it was going to finish with me being a Val Kilmer lookalike. Fortunately, the man demonstrated his styling knowledge and rectified the situation. All was good. Kein Problem.

Tschuß,
Claw