End of Year and New Year's Fun

It's already mid-January as the time over Christmas seemed to have flown by. Last year at this time I wrote a note New Year, New Team, New Look and yes it was exciting - but for various reasons it lasted only so long (June, actually). So this year I'll give it another try and for the first time will be part of a Austin-based team with a "international touch" so to speak. Should make for plenty of good times with a very strong and fun group of guys from Down Under, NZ, a few Texans, and myself.

snow in Weatherford

After a once-in-a-century white Christmas in Ft. Worth (see pic above) I headed to Germany for some vacation with family and friends...and training. New Years Eve is celebrated in a big-style in Germany and so in Dresden, where tons of people are out on the streets all night and into the early morning hours. There's hardly any (car) traffic since everyone takes the tram or buses to get around town - because it's more convenient and of course, alcohol and driving don't mix that night...

with Rene and Eric

After 3 days there it started to snow so much that my road bike was locked in the basement for the rest of the time. But luckily there were my old teammates and we spent 4 1/2hrs on the MTB riding through the forest in 6-10" of fresh snow. And if you're ever in Dresden and need a bike, make sure to check out my friend Udo's Radsport Collos - he got the latest road and MTB bikes in stock. Thanks to him, I was equipped with the Specialized Epic Carbon w/ Sram XX - I think it was like 17lbs or something!


The rest of the time I spent visiting with lots of family and friends, including some folks from my High School Class of 2000 - planning the 10-year reunion at the end of this year. A friend and former teammate of mine started his own business, too and he's pretty busy designing all kinds of products for various industries - including the bicycle market where he launched his own Commuter/SingleSpeed bike brand: Veloheld. Check it out, their latest "toy" is the belt-driven "Lane" where the traditional chain is replaced by a carbon/rubber belt.

Oh, and while I was there in Dresden the airport welcomed a special guest: parts of the new military Airbus A400M arrived on board a huge A300-600ST Beluga transport plane. They're doing a variety of testing and flight simulations in Dresden before it will officially go into full production. Quite an impressive sight at the local airport which is about the size of the Austin ABIA.

plane in a plane