Ankomst in Deutchland

Yes it is true, I am alive and well nd living in Germany now. I am currently in the Black Forest in southern Germany in a town called Elzach, which is near to Freiburg. I am on a 2 week training camp meeting my new teammates of Stevens Racing. Some of them I know from Tour de Beauce, others I am meeting for the first time.

The jet lag has been not so bad this time thanks to some good sleeping pills from Marie. I will not say that sleep has been perfect, but nearly so. It is very beautiful here and perfect for training. There are many hills, but also some flat terrain and good areas for cyclocross training. On our second day we went road training and were joined by Hanka Kupfernagle, which was a bit of a surprise. She and Mike Kluge stopped by the next day but we were not to be road training that day. Those of you in the know will realize the significance of those names. They live not far from here.

Today was a rest day and we went to the European Pearl Izumi warehouse in Kirchzarten for our new shoes (road and mountain) for 2005. We will get the new 2006 models in 2 months or so. Clothing is not yet ready, but will be in a couple of weeks, as will our 2006 race bikes.

It has been great to practice my cyclocross skills again, and with riders such as Jiri Posposil, Christian Heule and Carmiel van den Berghe to train with I will learn much very fast. They are all three among the top 15 or so riders in the world. Hopefully I will join them near the top this year!

That is all for now, thanks for reading and be sure to check out our website at www.stevensracing.de

GR