The 3rd B

Turns out this blog has been misnamed. I have missed the 3rd B, Bikes! So far after 1 month in Germany I am now up to 3 bikes and am working on my 4th. All of these have been borrowed. The first bike is my commuter, a mid 90's black Cannondale road bike with beefy tires that was borrowed and fixed up from the neighbors basement. The second is my "racing bike" something old and red with Campy shifters and what look like some of the early attempts of aero wheels. This bike was borrowed from a different neighbor, the coach of a local youth team, who in 1990 used it as a state of the art racing machine, and now uses it as his rain bike. The third bike that I have is borrowed from a friend of Ossi's friend. It is a much newer Cannondale road bike and would be my nicer bike, but is just too big for me and so it sits in the garage looking sad. The final bike is a mountain bike that I borrowed from one of the other people here at the University while I was riding with him. It is a titanium Kona, something fairly rare.
Over the past month I have done many different rides by myself and with a group as well as the Schauinslandkönig race.
-My first few rides were by myself in the Tuniberg, a small hill (or huge mountain if you ask Ossi) of about 300m between Merdingen and Freiburg. My Tuniberg ride usually involves starting at the bottom and riding up to the top surprisingly enough. The tricky part of this is that I do it multiple times. Generally I start in Merdingen and to the top of the Tuniberg. I then continue through the vineyards attempting to get hopelessly lost until I come to a junction that leads down the the foot of the mountain. I ride down, check out a bit of the town that I have just entered and then ride back up. By repeating this multiple times I get to see many different villages along with sections of beautiful country roads and vineyards. Generally this is a fun way to relax for a quick ride. However, one day I was riding along the crest of the Tuniberg when someone from one of the vineyards yelled something at me and waved me over. He began speaking at me in German and I gave him probably one of the blankest stares I have ever given. He continued on ever faster until he asked a question. I of course could not respond and asked him if he spoke English. He did not and continued talking at me a little slower. After some time he finally gave up and we parted ways. It wasn't until a few minutes later that the translation clicked and I realized that he was explaining to me when the local group rides were (something I already knew). So a very friendly act turned into a very stressful situation.
-Group Ride 1: In Merdingen every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday there is a group ride of people from Merdingen and surrounding villages. I have joined on a couple of these rides, though I generally can't make it back in time for the weekday rides in time to join. The first Saturday I joined in it was a scorching hot day. We started with 6 people (down from the usual 10-15), none of whom spoke English, and by the time we were done all but 3 of us had turned back early. With their limited English and my limited German we had a bit of conversation about where I was from and how old I was. One of the riders then commented that he was old enough to be my father! The ride went through beautiful sections of Germany, through many small villages and up some hills as well as past a castle ruins. On the way back we passed a sign with the temperature, 40 C... It was brutal. Another Saturday I joined in on a grey, almost rainy day. This time there was someone who spoke English! The son of one of the guys from Merdingen who was only 10-15 years older than me. We rode a similar but slightly different route with a bit more hills. Some of those guys can climb! I was barely able to keep up with the father who was probably over 3 times my age, and when the son attacked I had nothing left to go with him.
Group Ride 2: Each week the people from the department of engineering at Uni Freiburg go for a ride after work alternating between road and mountain. For the last ride before they broke for summer I was invited to join. Though I didn't know anyone on the ride everyone one there was either a prof. or a student of some sort and so spoke English! We went out into the Black Forest and almost immediately began climbing. After about 1/2 an hour of climbing through a forest we broke through the trees and out onto the top of a grassy hill. After a while of riding along the crest of the hill we descended into what is apparently one of the most beautiful valleys in the Black Forest. It was along a narrow winding slightly downhill road surrounded by trees and following a creek every once in a while it would travel next to an old village. We took one break to stop by a 300 year old restaurant. After the valley we got into a town and a paceline started. The road had a slight downward slope and so everyone started hammering. For around 15 minutes we flew through village after village pulling as hard as possible. It was incredible.
Mountain bike ride: By the end of my 4th week of work I had given up on the idea of getting to go for a mountain bike ride. I couldn't find anyone with an extra bike that would fit me. But one day at work I was talking to one of the guys in the group Johannes, and he mentioned that his old bike was a bit small for him and so might be the right size for me. The next weekend we met up and sure enough the bike fit! After struggling to change out his SPD pedals for my pedals with toe clips as I hadn't brought my mt. biking shoes we finally started our ride. We went up and up and up climbing up to the top of the Schlosberg, a hill in the Black Forest near Freiburg, and then over to the Kandel, another large hill. Along the way we got lost, and then found, stopped for an ice cream, and saw tons of paragliders, a popular sport on the Kandel. While we were climbing we'd be on a main trail, slightly smaller than a fire road, and all of the sudden would turn onto a tiny path that was barely noticeable. These paths were frequently very steep for a short ways and incredibly overgrown due to the recent rains. After fighting up the incline we'd then descend, attempting not to lose the trail under all the branches, and then drop back onto another main trail. After getting to the top of the Kandel, the descent began. It was technical, rocky, and exciting. I rode horribly, falling a couple of times (partly due to the toe clips keeping my foot stuck in the pedal), but made it down through the rock gardens fairly successfully. After 60 km we arrived back at Johannes house in Freiburg, changed out my pedals (after finding a pedal wrench to buy) and I rode the 15 km back to Merdingen to eat dinner and pass out.
For the future I am hoping to ride in a road race in a pack not in a time trial like the Schauinslandkönig, go on more group rides, explore some riding in France, and go mountain biking at least once more.