I’ve came down to Austin a lot of times for a lot of years. But, I’ve never ridden MTB bikes here. That seems weird to me now, but I’m usually trying to escape cold Kansas winters when I make my way down South.

Anyway, yesterday, Robbie Robinette took me for a tour of the Austin’s Greenbelt. It was great. I used Robbie’s Superfly hardtail. The fit wasn’t perfect, but the bike still rode crazy good. I’m not too into the wide handlebar/no bar end thing yet, so my bike handling was pretty off most of the day.

I’m not sure how far we rode. I think around 30km. It was technical most of the day. Robbie has the trails down. He was riding stuff that would take me more than a few tries to clean. Since it has been raining here, we had to do a bunch of U-turns because the water was too deep to cross. I was totally lost most of the day.

I guess I’m most surprised that there is excellent MTB riding right in the center of town. It started a mile from Robbie’s front door. And once you get into the canyons, you don’t see any sign of civilization for a couple hours. Pretty unique.

Before the ride, I went to see Dr. Jill Thomson, of Austin Sports Therapy to get some of my “issues” looked at. She spent nearly an hour with me. Working mainly on my sartorius muscle on my left leg. But, other stuff too. It was mildly painful doing the Active Release stuff at the time. I thought I’d be super sore from it, but I feel better, I think. I’m pretty worked, in general, from riding over rocks for 3 hours yesterday though.

I’m going to just ride on the road for a few hours today to see where I’m at. It isn’t warm here. I don’t think it got to 40 yesterday. The weather is supposed to be nearly 50 today, but using the temperatures right now, I don’t think it is going to be close to that.

My view most of the day. Robbie was riding way more stuff than me.

Creeping over a water crossing, trying to keep my feet dry. They are pretty slick with algae.

There are lots of elavation changes here. Pretty great views some of the time.

Dr. Jill Thompson. She is very good at what she does.

Shoulder tape from yesterday.

And leg tape.

Ann and I went to dinner last night at The Grove Wine Bar. It is a great place. Here is a photo of sampler #6, Spanish Reds. Ann in the background.

Yesterday I rode 80 miles. It never got over 40. I’m sure of that. So much for the weather forecast. I finally felt better. Not great. But, good enough to train pretty hard. I averaged 23mph the 1 1/2 hours and it was hilly. I don’t know if I’m going to be good for a 40 minute cross race, but it is was it is.

I have a flight on Monday from Kansas City to Brussels. I ended up using miles. I’m flying First Class over to Europe and Economy back. Maybe I’ll be more rested that way. Why not? I’m dreading checking bikes. I’m thinking that maybe I’ll be okay in Kansas City flying first class, just checking one bag and my bike bag. It probably won’t go so well coming home. But, that’s how it is nowadays. We better get used to it.

Trudi drove from Belgium to Barcelona Spain yesterday to pick up riders at the airport and drive to Valencia. I don’t think George Hincapie made his plane because of snow on the East coast, so that might be a problem. I’ll post some photos she emailed me on the way.

It was 8 below 0 yesterday night in Topeka. 9 inches of snow on the ground. I’ll try to ride outside at least once in the next two days to get used to sliding around. Then pack my bikes up and be done.

I’m doing way too many systems checks during the day. Every time I walk up or down stairs. Constantly during each ride. And most other times I’m awake. Most of the checks haven’t been so postive. The riding ones are the best. I’m feeling the best all day when I’m riding. But, I’m not super confident even in that. I usually race a lot better than I train, so it will probably be alright. I’ll know more after a couple days in Europe.

I’m going to miss Ann and Stanley, but I’d better get driving. 10 hours to go. It’s my brother’s, Kris, birthday today, so hopefully I’ll get back in time to take him out for dinner.

I found a hammer yesterday on the ride out by the Mansfield Dam. It was bouncing around in my pocket the last hour. I love finding tools on the road.

I went to the Apple Store in the Domain here in Austin yesterday. Super upscale outdoor mall. There have outside fire pits and waterfalls.

Trudi taking a break at a Euro rest stop.

Pretty cool bridge in France somewhere.

Modern tunnel in France.