What:  July 3rd Alley Kat

Where:  The bell tower in Baker Park, Frederick City MD.  Afterparty at Krugs Place, on east street.

When: 6:30 PM

How much?  8 dollars.

Prizes?  Hell yes.  Crappy Prizes?  only for the losers.

What to bring:  A cell phone, a blinky light, a messenger bag.

Last November’s Alley Cat brought people from DC, B-more and of course Frederick out to race around the streets of Frederick, doing log pulls, making up raps on the spot, getting porn clerk signatures, and betting on virtual horses at 7-11.  We have more mad ‘nanigans planned for this summer ‘kat, so head on out, bring your bling, and see what the back streets of Frederick are about.

Prizes for: Overall Winner, Mens.  Overall, Womens, Skid Comp, Track Stand Comp, and DFL.

Questions: ask in the comments, suckers.

I figured we would ride her commute before she had to, to get it down, and if the weather held we could find a better connection from her new job to Točna hopefully with as little road riding as possible.

The commute path was lovely and she was pretty happy about it. So we kept riding. It was nice for a bit, but then we got to some lake where we are supposed to go swimming in the summer and ran out of trail. After a while looking around for a trail we got fed up and pedalled 5 or 6km on a pretty trafficked road.

It dumped us to a town I had wandered to before and I knew a bit where we connected up to some nice doubletrack and singletrack. We rode it for a while, explored a bit more and found plenty more trail. It was all very marked, but with some of the most cryptic marking style I’ve seen. But it was so frequently marked there must be a map of it somewhere.

When we got fed up we turned towards Točna and rode on over. We hit some smooth twisty stuff and Verča was much happier. (She had gotten a little discouraged when she slipped on a wet section of trail and needed some fun parts to boost her spirit again.)

Strangely enough we were confronted by armed local factions three times on the ride.

Anyway, this was a nice fall ride in Brdy, 20minutes south of Prague.
It was about 12° C at the peak, and pretty much overcast threatening rain.
I had to quickly try to get a pic of Verča riding through some stone walls that are a celtic left over. Not sure how old, but somewhere around 2500yrs plus I would assume.

Anyway, enjoy some techy singletrack:

anyway, lets rectify!  on friday evening.  s24o, leaving from the casbah johnson.  you me and the bottle makes 3…  anyway.

details?  oh those!  meet @ 6.30, outta here by 7ish.  bring a headlamp, so we can gather forthly fire sticks and cook hot dogs to a carbon-y finish.  wheres to meet?  new address, near giant eagle: 632 wilson place.  google it, slacker.  back off the mountain sat AM, for breaking the fast at isabellas.

]]> http://ridelugged.com/2009/09/10/not-posting-is-depressing/feed/ 1 http://ridelugged.com/2009/07/09/so-we-hooked-up-with-some-folks-in-vienna-last-week-actually-110-weeks-ago-but-whos-counting/ http://ridelugged.com/2009/07/09/so-we-hooked-up-with-some-folks-in-vienna-last-week-actually-110-weeks-ago-but-whos-counting/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:31:23 +0000 voice of reason http://ridelugged.com/?p=929 _
(note: originally written 19 June 2007)

So for the last week of her full-time work with the research hospital (she has started her new position with the Academy of Sciences now, and still consults with the hospital) Verča had a conference in Vienna, Austria to go to. It was a Wednesday – Sunday deal (6-10 June) , so I tagged along so that we could hang out and do a bit of riding in Vienna if riding was to be found. Also, since I’m not really tied to an office these days, I just put my computer in a bag and was only off work for a day in transit, then telecommuted from our apartment in Vienna.

(Just to warm you this post is about to get long, as I realized I was going to tell a few little stories. You were warned.)

We actually planned to leave on Tuesday morning, but for a series of cascading events that included: me getting a registered letter from the immigration police on Thursday, the US embassy being closed after 11am on Fridays, Mr. President George W. visiting my new home on Monday and Tuesday, then me sneaking into the embassy on Monday morning while W was still in the air(and nobody was looking), getting the signature of the Consul General then getting his signature (and I’ll quote) “super-legalized”, driving to Rakovník and back to pick up Verča’s original birth certificate, registering our marriage in Prague and then driving to Brno (3 hours away) to “really” register it, when the proper office worker wasn’t off at her doctor’s office. Needless to say a more complicated story would need to ensue, before we could go to Vienna.

We ended leaving Prague on Tuesday anyway around lunchtime. We arrived in Lednice on the Czech-Austrian border about 4pm and found a cool little boarding house/pension were we rented a little cabin for something like 14 bucks for the night. It was a cool little one room with a little bathroom. It looked out onto a common lawn and up to the town’s Chateau/Castle.

our little week-end hut

a look across the lake from the minaret

We took a nice long stroll around the big lake/preserve of the Chateau. Verča had studied biology at her university and spent a couple weeks in this region studying in the field, so I quizzed her on some dendrology and she had forgotten most of it, but was able to spout some Latin names. At one end of the lake was a minaret, on axis with the Chateau for no obvious function, other than for some rich guy in the big house to admire. (turns out he wanted to build some Christian chapel, but the church wouldn’t let him, so the old f-you instead!)

the anti-establishment chapel

Anyway we walked around and saw some deer, birds, and lots of fish. The trees and shrubberies were blooming so it was nice. We followed a bunch of signs to try to find a demonstration of birds of prey (falconry, I presume.) But it was a Tuesday afternoon and a bit windy, so apparently no demo for us. We did make it back to the Chateau and wandered around the gardens a bit. On the opposite side from the lake/preserve they had the full-on formal Baroque gardens with 25′ tall 15′ deep groomed hedgerows. It’s a bit difficult to understand how you can justify the maintenance of gardens like this. I mean, couldn’t the old Lord (or whatever) think of something more productive to do with his riches. (Like develop the bicycle a little earlier of something?)

a look back towards the minaret

and up to the chateau

no cycling in the entire park area

Anyway we were hungry, so we wandered through town past a couple pubs stuffed to the gills with drunk locals, til we found a nice terrace to sit on and eat some steak. Then we took a short walk home and played a few games of pool on the outdoor table at our pension. Verča beat me 2 out of 3 with some Czech rules. (Apparently you have to hit the 8 ball in the pocket opposite of whatever pocket you put your last ball into. It makes for an interesting twist and a definitely longer game for the novices like us.) We called it a night early and retired to our cabin. We then got up early the next morning and headed the half hour back north to Brno to be at the office at 8:30 to sort our marriage legalities out. After jumping through a few more flaming hoops than we had hoped for (but expected) we were done and on our way to Vienna by noon, with the super legal Czech marriage certificate.

So a bit behind schedule we arrived in Vienna, and ran in circles to get things sorted out as we were meeting a local named David to go riding, at 4pm at our apartment. The reception checking in to our place in Vienna wasn’t very fun as we argued a bit, sorted it all out, then ran to get Verča registered at the conference and back. We realized we needed food and to figure out how to and pay for parking. It was 3:55 and I was still standing at a park stand waiting for our food a few minutes away while Verča was off sorting out parking, trying to find a store to sell her the 2 hour parking tickets. After not being able to find the place, she went up to some stranger who was taking his bike out of the car and getting ready to ride about 2 blocks from our apartment. She asked him (in German, the language in Austria) if he spoke English and knew where to buy the tickets. He laughed asked her if her name was Veronika (in perfect English of course.) He had recognized her from here on ridelugged.com. See it was David, who we were to meet in about 5 minutes. He gave her a couple of tickets to put in our car, and started back to walk towards where I was. I was a bit amused to find they had already met as I arrived with lunch.

BTW, I had found David (and Sunil, keep reading) on mtbr.com. See you can search users by where they are from so I found a few in Vienna, and emailed them about a week before we were going to Vienna asking for some info on where to ride (kind of last minute, but worth a shot, right?). It turns out all three people who I emailed responded. One was out of town and the other two offered to take Veronika and I for a ride and show us around. We took them both up on it and we were very glad we did. I also posted on the 29er discussion board on mtbr about Vienna, and ended up getting a reply from a guy that lives in my neighborhood here in Prague. I’ll give you the lowdown when we catch up and go riding, too.

finishing up lunch on the ride

So David and I chatted while Verča ran upstairs to change, then we switched places and were off riding away in about fifteen minutes. Wien (Vienna in German) is bisected by the Danube and the Danube canal which run parallel southeast through the city. We were staying on the island between the two, next to a big park and old-school amusement park called the Prater, along the canal. We headed northwest up the canal on what David assured was the best bike path through town. It had been closed at the center of town for 4 years due to construction of a next subway station, and literally had reopened less than 2 weeks before we showed up. There was fresh smelling asphalt to prove it (and fresh smelling graffiti). David spoke of how Wien keeps talking about adding more bike paths, but the cyclist complain that they can’t maintain the ones they have. It’s true that it was a little hard to follow the paths sometimes when the stripes were worn away or signs were missing, but it didn’t seem to matter. There a soo many bike paths in the city that when you wander from a path you are almost immediately on a new one.

a straight bike stoplight

I mean come on, on one way streets, there is a sign saying bikes can go both ways, and then there is a striped off bike path on one side. Verča and I joked that when we walked around town, that we kept taking bike paths everywhere. It was because there are so many. Come on they have three different type of traffic lights for bikes, just that I saw in 5 days.

the public city BMX-ican park

And there is a BMX park in the public park open 24-7. Cars even stopped for me when they had the right of way. Wien is a VERY bike friendly city. The most friendly I have seen (at that time. most of Belgium seemed even better, now looking back.)

bike cross walk

Anyway so we started to ride out of the city, while David gave me some opinions on the local architecture. I looked in a couple places before we left to see if there were any buildings of note. I got a bunch of old non-descript Otto Wagner houses and eastern-blok looking public housing, so I decided we would just wander around. Near our apartment is the Hundertwasserhaus. On the bike path is a new Zaha Hadid project called the Spittelau Viaducts, that looked finished but not occupied (maybe they didn’t pass the Use and Occupancy inspection!)

zaha hadid buildings have plenty of places to lock up

roadie+modernarchitecture=mix of vanities

There is a Coop Himmelblau law office project that I forgot to visit and kind of regret not seeing in person now, as Coop buildings in reality are quite few and far between. Plus a weird but cool gold sphere on top of a smokestack that is actually a trash incinerator also designed by Hundertwasser.

plenty of scenery on the bike paths

So past these and the bike path along the river actually runs underneath a highway out of town (which was nice on the way home, read on.) At the foot of the hills that border Vienna to the north at the start of the Vienna Woods, David gave us two options: either up the steepest road you can ride or the easier way. We of course opted for the easier way having no idea where he would lead us. We wound up though a small neighborhood on the edge of the city and the road turned uphill. It was pretty much as steep as I would like. Then it turned up under some roman era viaduct and proceeded a bit steeper. It was then I realized that in my haste to get unpacked and underway, I had hooked my rear wheel up wrong and couldn’t get to my easiest 4 gears, which killed me. I had to stop on the hill, detach my shifter (it is a quick release thing so it only took about 15 seconds) adjust it and reattach. Then I was on my way and had to sprint a bit to catch Verča and David. That killed me a bit more.

riding with David through dark forests

The hill gradually flattened a little, but it was too late and Verča and I were panting a bit. We were beginning to become somewhat frightened by David’s fitness level, unsure of what lay in store. So 30 minutes in and we were rolling in the foothills through vineyards that overlooked the river and city below. It was very pretty. Then we dumped onto a nice shaded fireroad climb, where we could see that the trails would be kinda wet in spots. David led us mostly through wooded fireroads and dumped onto an occasional fast section of singletrack. I think all of the singletrack was either rolling or downhill which reassured me since i was able to creep away from David when it got more technical. Strangely he kept catching me on the next climb, though. He took us down this little sluice way that was so muddy and slick you had no hopes of control for about 200m. Luckily we all made it though, but were all covered in mud now.

The next 10clicks or so was mostly sandy gravelly fireroad and logging road that weaved in and out of the gullys at a constant grade. We made our way around the ridge we came up to the west and spiraled back towards the top, on what apparently had been a nice section of singletrack a few weeks before. The Vienna Woods is actually controlled by local logging and hunting interests, and the trail we had ended up on was being reclaimed for some selective logging. Logging is a powerful force in this part of the world, and here in Vienna is no exception. The trails were lined with stacked up firewood like a guardrail 2m high 1.5m deep and up to 100m long at a time. Apparently a large number of people buy the cheap (pine) firewood as fuel to heat their homes, much more cheaply than gas, oil, or even coal.

As we began to make our way towards the top, David told scary tales of a very difficult and slippery technical downhill from the peak. But as we neared the top (and passed 2 XC racer types on carbon Scott sub-1kg hardtails) a nasty thunderstorm began to rear it’s ugly head. We opted to not go to the highest point within 50km and took a nice fast fireroad descent that eventually dropped us to the opening for the first bit of dirt we had ridden. From there in a light rain we began our road descent back to the river. And the road kept getting steeper down. This was the harder way up. The road peaked out at 26% for a couple hundred meters or so, steeper than anything in the Tour or the Giro. We were happy to be going down not up. Until we hit the cobblestones at the bottom. It was raining hard now, and with the cobblestones came neighborhood traffic. We all navigated wet and well back to the river and bikepath. (the gloomy weather meant that no pictures of David made it out of the camera, maybe next trip.)

2km or so later and we were soaked but now riding under the expressway we had come up under, so we weren’t getting any wetter for the time being. Getting back into the city, David took a little detour and drug us out into the rain and onto the long skinny island that runs down the middle of the Danube. It’s only about 250m wide, but maybe 15km long. It was made in the 1970′s from dredging the shipping channels in the river, and now is a series of parks, fields and stands of trees intertwined with tons of foot and bike paths. We began to revel in our wetness and even tried to clean the mud off our bikes a bit in the puddles. We took a bridge crossing just south of where we were staying and zipped back through the Prater to our apartment just as the rain stopped and the skies cleared.

Back on the street by our car we chatted and scraped the mud from our legs and chainstays. As we talked an Austrian couple rode up on townies (nice ones. her’s was steel, with fenders, and XT/XTR.) She asked if we had a pump and I reinflated her back tire while we all chatted. He asked David if he worked on his own bike, and David ended up adjusting the guy’s V-brakes and maybe even tuned his rear mech. We all laughed. Verča and I thanked David for the tour and he was on his way; home to dinner with the wife and kids. We snuck in the side door of the pension with our dirty bikes and selves and jumped into a warm shower.

The next morning while Veronika was at the conference, I tooled around Vienna to catch a few more sights. They have a pretty extensive bikeshare program, with access points all over the city and ATM access. I saw a few people using them, but most seemed to be locked up? Maybe it was just a slow part of the day? Also there was a rad fitness center with outdoor pool floating in the river and anchored to the bike path embankment. It moves up and down with the wake from passing boats and changes in river flow.

city network of sharedbikes all plastered in a bank sponsors logos

a floating swimming pool in the river Danube on the bike path, and the super-high-speed ferry link that run between Vienna and Bratislava, the Slovak capitol

So that afternoon, we met up with Sunil, another american expat in Vienna. He lugged us around in basically the same area as David, and although he has been in the city less time, I think he had devoted more time to exploring. We basically went first to the overlook, we had avoided the other day due to the pending storm. It had a big restaurant and terrace overlooking Vienna and the Danube.

Sunil and Verča looking back to the city

Where David knew lots of double track and fireroads, Sunil knew all the little singletrack links from one place to the next. There were lots of steep rooty sections that dropped from on trail to the other, obviously pedestrian shortcuts, that made for some fun sketchy drop ins.

Verča on some more tech trail

There was plenty of good smooth track too, and we even crossed and rode on some of the trails from the day before. Definitely a good ride with a very different flavor in essentially the same exact place. It was maybe 35km vs. Davids 55km but took about the same amount of time. On our way down Sunil brought us to the Am Himmel tree circle, a very cool tree/zodiac circle again overlooking the city. We each found our corresponding astrological tree, relaxed a bit, then zipped back towards the city.

Sunil in the forest

As we were about to cross a bridge off the recreation island Sunil warned of a nice fall-away drop down the bridge embankment. I followed his wheel and zipped down and turned to look and saw Verča walking down the super steep embankment instead of riding it or riding around. oh well.

Verča taking the hard way

Sunil went on his way and we strolled back into the city center for dinner.

i've gotten better at the over the shoulder shot

Again with the wife at her conference, I wandered the city by bike and occasionally got stuck in traffic.

viennese traffic

It really was nothing to come upon groups of 10 or more cyclists of all ages coasting through the mostly flat city center. I even found a messenger in the car free central district rocking what appears to be an Alan lugged aluminium road bike.

local messenger with sandals and lugged aluminium

With that I’ll leave you with Verča hitting some dirt jumps in the BMX park.

I helped put together a Rapha Continental Ride, as the spoke card below denotes.  Some editors from Bicycling magazine showed up and rode it as well, and wrote it up, and gave a shout out to not only this humble, dust cover’d blog, but also to the neglected but viable dirt road database.  We thank them for that!  Here is a link to the main article by David L’Heureux aka Laroo, some quotes, and I will have links to the Rapha imagery as soon as its up, and mine, ditto.  I am developing the B&W in my kitchen as we speak. Wait! I got some scanned in.  Here is a link to the bikely map and cue sheet for the whole shebang.  Find more delicious dirt roads @ the dirt road database wiki.

“Speeds on the descent were almost scary as we tip toed the line between in control and over cooked. At the bottom we patched flats and egos, then turned around to ride back up to the ridge for and even longer and more hair-raising descent back into the valley.”

“I’d never ridden here, so word of mouth was the only thing to go on. I’d been told the ride would be stunning. It was.”

“We were riding by horse-drawn buggies through picturesque farmland almost instantly.”

Colour shots as soon as the get developed, to tide you over here (and here) are some colour shots from past Centre Rambles.

More soonish!  Flickr set, including images above, here.

For the photo dorks:  fuji neo pan 1600, yashica electro gsn 35, red filter.

state college gets less than two months of sun a year.  the winters are long and sloppy, not cold enough for serious snow accumulation but cold enough to get the occasional 2-3 feet.  but when the sun does make its presence felt, it is remarkable, perfect temps, scattered clouds, deep blue skies…  as a side note, i lived on the side of mount nittany, and in my last year there i had a close encounter with a bear.  returning home i hear a noise in the bushes about 5 feet to my right.  i look over and see fur moving: a deer.  the deer stands up and emerges from the bushes, inches from the road.  i think, oh, thats odd, a person in a bear costume. right as i breeze by, i realize it is of course a real bear, but i am past and no harm has come and it happens so quickly that i do not have time to get scared: looking behind me i see him ambling across the street.  i believe he was checking for cars.

ahh but back to yesterday.  i stop for coffee at mile 120, (or so), at a proper david lynch roadhouse, with wood paneled interior, waitresses in smart red uniforms and thick diner mugs of steaming hot coffee, served too weak to bother with cream.  in proper lynch mode i buy a squishy donut.  back on the road the sky blackens from a flannel grey to a muted midnight.  the wind tosses the car half across adjacent lanes.  the mountain passes loom ahead, made eerie by the crack of good weather i can see at the top.  descending the backside of the twisting road, passing thousands of acres of thick pines and tiny deep blue lakes, i emerge into a world sheltered by 1200 foot mountains, which serve to hold the cold front at bay, roiling just a mile back in my rearview mirror.

i arrive at the yellow wooden post office with bright white trim in Lemont, the same post office that i picked up packages from for 2 years.  i am to meet a fellow named whit, who will be the ride leader, a philosophy major turned pro bike racer turned philly english teacher.  we will generate a cue sheet for the ride, i will drive, point things out, make the right turns, get us mildly lost, and he will diligently record our path on a custard yellow note page with a dying pen.

i have already driven 4 hours.  i am about to drive 8 more.  onward.  i point out local oddities, the house with the stream under it, the barn filled with rare bikes and roosters…  our journey takes us through rolling, impossibly scenic farm lands, past tiny streams, chuttering black buggies with dour amish drivers.

rusted cars about 3/4 of the way to milheim

on a side note, my toes are unreasonably tingly right now.

our rough mid point dumps us in milheim, a squalid down shoved at the bottom of a mountain pass that no one uses any more because the timber industry has dried up.  we are looking for food.  the local pub is closed, not open for 4 more hours.  turning back to the car we see what appears to be a missplaced western hotel, a rambling brown wood fascade with a wooden sidewalk/porch, and a carved painted sign reading hotel milheim: fine food, spirits, and lodging.  we walk in.

we wander thru 3 ancient dining rooms, the last of which oddly has old iron bathrubs serving as salad bar containers.  our journey ends in a darkly paneled bar, attended by a sparely tooth’d woman with a cackling smile and hair that looked like an eminent fire hazard.  we ordered the special, and 2 drafts of cheap local beer and sat back in our cracked fake leather bar chairs and taked about racing and not racing and marriage and gear ratios and beer and i think, how strange, i have only just meet the guy.

pine swamp road

leaving the hotel, meager bill paid (28 dollars, 4 beers, sandwiches, fries, and soup!) we emerged into a torrent of rain.  epic rain.  fitzcarraldian rain.  i had left my window down.  i sat on a soggy fabric seat and we drove on.  the road twisted and turned past sinking creek, now a flooding river, mere feet from the edge of the road.  logs drifted down like whitewater rafters.  we turned over a bridge and left the river behind, climbing into the mist on dirt roads that were build to connect logging communities that no longer exist.  the visibility drops.  mist hangs like spanish moss from the leaves of laurel, pines press in close, their tops obscurred in white.  we slide thru muddy turns and bump over sharp rocks, the suspension protesting and chattering.

penn

ahh the reason for the ride.  penn’s view overlook appears suddenly on our left, a shear drop of 1000 feet to the winding river we left below, mountains stretching out only to dissolve in the gray curtains of rain.  white clouds scatter at our foot steps.  whit has to snap a few pictures.  i hide under a scrawny pine, clinging desperately to granite boulders.
more views await, the car sliding around turns as even downshifts will not slow our progress.  we emerge on the otherside of the ridge, passing a lake that has been recently drained for dam maintenance, an oddly visceral site, like a corpse post autopsy.  soon we are climbing again, road names like vonada gap, synagog gap, mountain church road, locust grove road.  we drive a twisting ridgeline, and suddenly turn down, barreling down the mountain back toward the valley.

pine swamp view

midsentance i yell: fuck.  i slam my brakes and slid across the road.   i have almost run over a giant yellow cock.  the rooster is making his way across the road, oblivious to the fact that his death was nearly imminent.  whit chases him back home with his camera, and in fits of laughter we continue our descent, but at a more stately pace.

ahh i need more tea.

yellow cock!

so.  well.  how much more is there to tell?  those are the high lights.  we were mildly lost at one point, but after looking over a huge topo map that whit thoughtfully brought i divined the route (ok not really, we just sorta kept going and found the road) and we finished with no more yellow cock run-ins.  i took a slight break from driving and poked in an antique store for old cameras.  when i emerged, it was snowing softly.  i drove home having consumed 2 more cups of coffee and a bad gas station sandwich.

11 hours after i started, i returned to frederick a tired tired tired man.  mission accomplished though, and that’s the important thing.

all photos used up there are whit’s.  see more photos from this recon, whit’s last recon, and past state college rambles.

Spring Opener. Get it?

Yeah so, I thought 45 miles was a decent place to start.  Now: for the fat asses, (me) and the ladies (me) there will be a short cut back to the beer, making the ride roughly 30 miles.  That said, this ride is flatter than Kansas after the tornado season: 2700 feet of climing, with the largest hill being a 400 foot climb spread over a number of miles.  Where is this opener you ask?  Well, it will start in Union Bridge, which is sorta out where Big John lives.  A bit of a drive but not too far.  Why Union Bridge?  Well, this area is pretty close to a BOAT LOAD of roads that we havnt ridden but are charted via the Dirt Road Database.  In fact, there are about 12, count em 12! dirt roads on this route, comprising about 25% of the ride.  As they are all farm roads, they should be nice and packed down, with decent vistas and all that farmy zoo smelling goodness.  I reckon we can bring lunch and find a decent spot to gnosh it.  Did I spell gnosh right?  i assume its spelled like gnosis or gnome, or gnat, but frankly, I don’t know!

Len-E, sass-E, shad-E and stash-E, oxford comma not included.

Now… When?  Christ not this weekened, I am not in shape yet!  How about… the first weekend in May.  It will be warmer, more leaves on the trees, and I will be marginally less fat.  Always a bonus!  Saturday or Sunday, lets put it to the vote.

Oh yeah, the map!  Here.  & the elevation profile, below.

see, look at that hill! you cant even see it!

spoke card forthcoming.  don’t get your knickers in a bunch.

screen shot, obviously

Incidentally, Whit and I are sort of Co-Hosting a Rapha Continental Ride in State College on May 20th.  It follows the basic route of the October Ramble, (pics link here) with a bit more mileage and a bit more climbing.  We’ll obviously post pics of it all when its done.  My lazy ass is riding in the team van with a clutch of old rangefingers at the ready.

From the Rapha webs sight:

oddly, whit appears to be in a car…. hmmm….

Veronika and I will be driving from Prague to Copenhagen, then ferrying over to Sweden; will drive to Stockholm; then either drive or take a train either up Sweden or Finland, depending on which is more effective. It should be a kinda long drive but we are excited for some good scenery through the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Our new diesel Hyundai wagon gets about 60mpg highway with a roof rack and plenty of trunk space, so we should be able to accommodate 3(+?) more inhabitants.

We can pick up stragglers at all major airports along the way: Prague(PRG), Berlin(BER, SXF, TXL, THF), Copenhagen(CPH, RKE), Stockholm(ARN, BMA, NYO, VST), Helsinki(HEM, HEL), Kittila(KTT)

The race is in Eastern European Time (EEST) at UTC+3. That’s 7hours ahead of the east coast, 10 ahead of AZ, and 1 ahead of most of mainland Europe and the western two fingers of north Europe.

170km north of the Arctic Circle it is daylight for months on end, so no need for lights and a COMPLETELY different experience on the 24 hour race. I am quite curious how it would feel to never get dark?! Plus the race is only 50eur and includes 24 hrs of sauna and camping.

Only 9 guys and 2 women in solo last year, so we are going to kick ass!!
(the women’s winner only got 108km! ha! Veronika has only done like 3 rides in the last year less than that!
She is gonna rip those Finns a new one! She did 156k at old pueblo last year and had been so sick for the previous 2 days that she didn’t eat anything and had to pull over to either puke or shit behind every other cactus! Even my pedestrian 182k last year would have got me 4th.)

Czech out another great video at http://www.av-lappi.com/levi24/24.html

And more images from last year at http://www.laplandfoto.com/store/gallery.php?gid=55