A Fresh Start

A lap around the velodrome in Munich

Today we left Munich and went to Tübingen, parting ways with David, who plans to stay in Munich for remainder of the pro racing before returning to the US.

After a remarkably pleasant train journey, we arrived and were picked up by Adrian's cousin. He's a research scientist at the local university, working on how hearing works, but more pertinent to our immediate existence, he lives at the top of a really long, steep hill. I'm glad I brought my road bike. Adrian opted to just bring his track bike, with a front brake a 45 x 20 as
his lowest gear combination. Ouch. Tübingen looks like a nice place, very picturesque, set on a river in the valley surrounded by some good sized hills. There are two national parks nearby, so there should be plenty of options for riding. I also met a guy named Andreas on CouchSurfing who lives here and is an active cyclist, and he offered to show us the good places to ride, as well as give me a place to stay for the week if I need.

I should probably repeat just how awesome CouchSurfing is.

We're here in Tübingen until Thursday, then we're off to Geneva for a 3-day. It looks like it's going to be an awesome week.

If you want to read something truly epic, check out Adrian's tales of his time racing for a pro track team in Hungary last year and all the drama that ensued. It's quite a tale. A sort of Iliad of the cycling world.

This is how we traveled for the first 12 or so days. Crammed in the back of a cargo van, with only a little window into the cab for light.

If this is my alternative, I'll stick with the trains from now on. They're comfy, quiet, spacious, well-lit, ventilated, cheap, and fast. Let's list off how many of those things the van is:

Adrian and I exchanging at Dortmund

I was in the hurt box in no small way.

The concourse/staging area in Munich was more like something out of a poorly done sci-fi movie. The Star Wars-esqe exterior of the Olympiahalle doesn't help either.

I kept track of the distance I rode while we were in Munich. Over three days, between warming up and racing, the total came to almost exactly 200 km. I wouldn't have guessed it was that much.

In every race..

...someone has to finish last.

Munich is done. Adrian and and I managed to scrape ourselves together tonight and actually race rather than merely survive. Things didn't look promising at the start of the evening. Neither of us brought rollers on the trip, as they're simply too heavy and massive to haul around. Today was the first time it looked to be an issue. There was some sort of concert going on in the track when we arrived to warm up, so we weren't allowed to ride. No big deal, it was only 5:00, and we didn't need to race until 6:40. Concert ends. Tear down begins. Everyone jumps on rollers in the hallway outside of the staging room.

Everyone except us, of course. So we wait. Eat a gel. Drink some water. Stretch a little bit. 6:00 rolls around, we grab our bikes and wander up to the infield. The service door (same kind as in Dortmund) is open in turns 3 and 4. So we sit some more.

6:20 comes around, and we're getting nervous, so we start to roll around the apron. The door finally comes down just before 6:30. Nothing like a sub-15 minute warm-up to clear out the legs after two hard days of racing. And it's not like things start out casually here. Even the neutral lap is full on.

Whatever. We take to the line and rail, roll off, and suffer like it's going out of style for the first 15 laps of so. Funny thing happened then. I started to feel good. So did Adrian. He made a big move over the top of the pack, got us some prime position at the front of the pack, and before you know it, we picked up some points in a sprint. Then we stayed at the front. No more tail-gunning for us. We continued to pick up a few points here and there, in one case actually exchanging as we crossed the finish line at the head of the pack (one team was off the front). Perfect timing. Things got back to suffering soon after that, but we managed to regain our composure and actually race like we belonged here.

When it was all tallied at the end, there was still something amiss. Munich isn't using chip timing the way that Dortmund did, and the scoring shows it. Last night there were people scored ahead of us that we lapped, and tonight was no different. Even our sprint points didn't add up the way they were supposed to. We were placed 12th, but should have been somewhere around 7th or 8th. Thanks once again to omnium scoring, this means we're last. 15th out of 15.

There was some redemption though. Even if we netted a big old DFL for our resumés, we picked up some compliments on a very good race from the coaches and riders of some very solid teams. While the absolute standouts like the Australians weren't here, the level of the field on whole was probably better, with national team riders from Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the US as well. If you're going to lose, you might as well lose to the best.