Well its been a week since I put out the vibe and and spread the good word of Germany. Our team of six is now down to five after Kay Sherwood crashed riding the race course in Bern, Switzerland and took a plane ride home with a broken arm.
The race on Saturday, Swiss Trophy Cup, is a high UCI ranked race. all the big guns showed up and rainbow stripes were everywhere. The field was about 60 and my wonderful call up was #50 so that made some extra work for me in the start loops. After the start loops I was going into the race sitting right about where I got called up and proceeded to pass about 20 euro weight weenies on the first down hill and cut a few more off in the first cork screw turn. Ahhh the pleasure. This was by far the gnarliest XC race I've ever done it was a 4.5k loop with drop, chutes, stairs, and roots for a proper white knuckle experience.
A few laps in feeling good we hit a super steep climb that was almost too steep to clear and it had me reaching for my front shifter where my chain flew off and got wedged under my linkage with no wiggle room at all. The spectators were going crazy and trying to run onto the course but nothing could get it out until a guy from South Africa came to rescue after we pulled the wheel off and repeatedly compressed the suspension.
I got pulled shortly after my little dilemma but still manged to place in the 40's. Very disappointed to mechanical but it was an awesome experience. I am definitely going for it this weekend if Flims, Switzerland. The loops are under 4k and hopefully with the same amount of sketchy descents I can sneak my way up the finish list.

GERMANY

It's really cool here! We did a pretty hard ride today up a big mountain and through what seemed like 20 towns that lead to a look out over Freiburg. Went real fast on real steep trails infested with rocks on wet roots. We are in a big farm house just outside of Kirtzarten.
We live in two apartments on the top floor and the family lives downstairs but we rarely see each other. Dinner is catered every night at seven with whatever they decide to make us. Tonight we had some salad, pork, and spetzel (egg noodles).
We have a full time mechanic that completely takes care of us. We don't even have to think about it. He thoroughly washes our bikes, addresses any problems and lubes the chain before we ride in the morn. Everyone in town knows USA is here and they know the name of the house where we live. We are wearing USA kits on our rides and I feel like I have a big target on my back. People riding stop and ask us questions then ride away with a big smile. One kid followed us and said, "USA, USA, BOOO". Pretty funny in my book but most people are nice and welcoming.
It's Thursday night here and we have a big Swiss Trophy race on sunday. It's only a couple hours away so we will leave in the morning. I'll go for an easy ride tomorrow and then maybe go explore town some more. Things have been real good so far. You can check out all my pictures on Facebook and I have attached a couple.