I am so excited to be home. Although, I have to say that I loved Denmark. Copenhagen was amazing. If I were to take a European vacation, that would be the place. I would definitely do it in the spring or summer so I could do all my commuting by bike. Just a few kroner and you can borrow one, upon appropriate return money is refunded. I would be all about that. What better way to explore a fascinating city. The canals, the architecture, cobble streets, everything was so amazing. It was cold though and rainy in the morning. People were still commuting by bike though. Bikes and bike racks everywhere. They even had double decker racks in places.

Outside a store with a funny name.

One of my favorite sculptures from Thorvaldsen

The original Christus


A canal in Copenhagen

A beautiful city

So while I was gone, I dreamed of riding...outside. It was rainy and cold everywhere we went in Europe. The weather at home had started to pick up, although inversion was setting in. I was revving up for a long road ride to celebrate being home. But Mother Nature would not have it. Another storm hit dropping additional white from the skies and it does not look as though it is melting and drying out today. I am still glad to be home though.

I will add photos to my posts from last week.

So Budapest was amazing. It had beautiful architecture and I was only able to see it from a taxi. It was a whirlwind trip. Fly-in, train (unfortunately on products and not on a bike), eat, sleep, train, and fly-out. That is all I had time to do. I would go back though and I would want to fly Malev.

A statue representing their indepedence

A view of Pest from Buda

My favorite airlines, Malev

While part of me wishes flying out meant home to spend time with Chris, the other part is excited to be in Denmark. I like Denmark. Granted I have seen none of it. We flew into Copenhagen after dark, got to the hotel, slept, walked across the street to our local office and then trained all day. (It is 7 pm.) But outside the office was a huge bike rack full of bikes and it was cold and rainy. There are traffic lights specifically for bikes and the hotel has a community bike. I hope to throw my leg over one tomorrow if even for a minute. Tomorrow there is no training, no flights, just time. I am excited to get out and see a little bit more than I can see from a car window.
Chris is, of course, at Camp Lynda. I have missed it for a second year in a row. Maybe next year though; this year Europe called.

So we went to St. George for a final hurrah before heading out of the country. It was delightful. We left 13 degree temps and rode in a sunny 60 degrees only to return to 13 degrees again. We rode for close to five hours. Racer, Kevin, Joseph, Carson, and Karl, Chris and I started around 10 am for a lop onthe race course. Then we did Zen. I endoed. It was slow but it was enough to robe me of my confidence. I fumbled a couple of descents which was frustrating. As we finished Zen, Sabrosa Jon met up with us.

Chris coming around a corner

Our usual stop at the look out

Jon then guided us to Barrell Roll. This was Chris' dream to get to Barrell Roll without having to drive.

Carson descending

Racer and Jon (look at that Utah sky--I love it!)

On Barrell Roll, Chris had tire issues which was odd. Then it got really weird because I too had tire issues. My issue was in the tread, so Stan's eventually fixed it. Chris had a sidewall issue; he swapped in a tube. I had more bike handling issues in a place I should not have. I was messing with my fork a bit later and think it was the cause. It was not rebounding smoothly at all. It was hesitating, so I locked it out. Whether psychological or not this seemed to help.

A regrouping on Barrell Roll

After Barrell Roll, Jon and Racer returned to the vehicles, but not before Jon sent us on Black Brush. It was great--amazing views, good climbs, and technical mix. We will have to do this one again.

Then we took some dirt roads back to the cars. Upon reaching the car we realized everyone was down for the weekend. Tons of Revolution guys (and Jen) were there, Alex, and other ICUP frequents. The big question was what are you riding tomorrow. I felt bad for Chris because we had to come home so I could catch a plane. He did have a birthday party to get to the next day (Happy Birthday Leslie!). It was a great trip before a long exercising hiatis.

Speaking of which I had better get some physical activity in quick or I am going to burst. Tomorrow morning (it is 10:20 pm here) I leave Brussels for Budapest. I am pretty excited for Hungary.

You know how you hear on the news about plane loads of people being stranded aboard waiting for weather, maintenance, or whatever and you think to yourself "Poor saps." or "Man, that has got to suck." Well, I can now say, "Been there. Done that."
And really it was not as bad as I thought. Although, I think for being stuck on a plane for six hours without going anywhere we had it pretty good. The staff was attentive and it was pretty empty. Everyone had two or three seats to themselves. Here's how it happened.
I had breakfast and took a four hour flight from Salt Lake to Newark. Nothing commendable about this flight. No food and a little water consumption. I struggled to stay awake. We had TV but nothing was really on mid-morning on Sunday. Well, we had some bowling and then women's basketball. The satelite kept going out too. I ended up watching the E! special on rock star wives. I know so much more than I could ever care to know about something that I cared very little about in the beginning. This flight seemed really l o n g! Maren and Racer hooked me up with an iPOD full of stuff but I was saving it for the long flights and/or when I grow tired of watching TV in a language I don't understand.
I had a quick two hour layover. It was the perfect amount of time because I had to switch airlines which meant in and out of security again. I had to catch a shuttle to another terminal--you know the drill.
This flight was supposed to leave at 6:30--that is 6:30 in Newark. I boarded right around 6 pm. We get all settled 6:30 comes and goes. The captain comes on and says some little part broke and they are fixing it. Be patient and we will be on our way. Another 30-40 minutes pass and Captain Cook comes back over the PA and says that did not do it. They are diagnosing it and will try to see what the real cause is. He mentions something electrical. My mind goes back to the last time I had a flight to Brussels, we had a delay then too. It was only an hour or so though. The captain a bit later comes back over the speakers and says they had to replace the "mother board" so we have to power down the plane. All lights will go off except for the emergency lights. This should just take a minute or so. Lights off; lights on. Still no moving. We wait, wait, wait. The flight crew is bringing snack, which I welcome, but I percieve this to mean we are still going to be awhile. My window is covered with snow. Captain Cook now does not know what they are doing. We wait, wait, wait, and wait some more. Captain Cook says we are fixed, but we lost our place in line for de-icing. That is going to be a two hour wait. He is going to make some call to see if we can get bumped up. No dice. So they opt to give us our meal before we take off. I was so grateful for that. The 50 calories of pretzels and 80 calories of peanuts was not cutting it. Although the orange juice they brought was the best OJ I think I have ever had--it was minute maid from the carton. I was hungry!
Around 11:45 pm on my watch which is still set for mountain time we are finally taking off. We landed around 6:10 am (MST). That is a long time to be on a plane. I think I felt muscle atrophy when I was finally allowed off. I was grateful for the mountain biking St. George the day before. More on that to come.

Riding this time of year constantly changes. For example, Saturday we rode the upper Alpine Loop and it was amazing. It had just been groomed the night before and it was perfect. We went up and down and then back up and down again. The second trip was not as good due to snow mobile traffic, but really nothing to complain about. (Anyone know how we can get schedule of when or how often they groom that?)
On Monday, I brought my mountain bike to ride the road above the old race course (below Betty's and Frank's). It was a bit sloppy but not really too bad. It was easy to stay in the sno except for a few short sections. I get to the end of the road and I am looking foward to the desent. Last time it was all plowed and perfect. It was a blast coming down into Timp Park. Well, apparently it had snowed ALOT and they (who are they anyway?) did not plow it.




I figured that they just did not do the upper section. I knew that if I just went down a bit it would get better.

No if I go just a bit farther, then it will be better.

It did not get better, but by then it was getting dark and it would be easier, faster and safer to keep going down than up and back again. That road was not plowed until I hit the lower road. It was ridiculous!

Yesterday though I took the cross bike out on the road and that was great. It was warm. (Are the mid 40's considered warm?) I did not even have on booties or toe warmers and my toes were just a bit chilly after an hour or so.

We have Moab scheduled for this weekend. Then I will be forced to take a week off. I am traveling for work. Hopefully the hotels have amenities like a weight room and upright bike.

We finally made it up Squaw Peak. I was able to ride most of it. The final climb after the Hope Campground turn off was not really ridable so we hoofed it up. It was chilly climbing but extremely cold coming back down. Chris suffered several small crashes. Nothing serious as we were in softer snow most of the time. I was crash free, but still felt I was going a good speed.

Chris putting more air in my tire at the top. We had to ride almost on the rims while climbing.

A wintery view from the top

My superfly poses for a photo

For the past two years, one of my favorite parts of holidays has been Kenny's New Year's ride up Squaw Peak. What better wayto celebrate the holiday. Well, this year we skipped it. Instead we headed south. We called bike shops in both Moab and St. George to find out what was and was not ridable. We made our decision and headed down early Thursday morning with Tim.

Heading towards the light at the end of the tunnel

Chris with the sun on her shoulders

Dan sporting his new glasses and jersey

Chris on top of the world

Tim in training

Tex digging it up--Chris hid a rock from him

And going a little Dug on you, this is a the sink I used in a bathroom between rides. Yeah, there was a safer sink there too, but I like to live life dangerously.