Surprise ride

I love it when you just stumble into a surprise.

Here I am in Salzburg to see the World Championships. The drive was 7 hours of white knuckles from the traffic, road construction, and other drivers. The last kilometer to the hotel took about 40 minutes through Salzburg. I was cursing the decision to drive rather than take the train.

But because of the car, I have the bike. I’m here early enough to go ride, and I figure that’s the best thing to get rid of the driving stress. I want to see if I could ride part of the road race course. As it turns out my hotel is only 1km from the start/finish, so the start of the course is clearly marked.

I start out riding and quickly realize that the course is completely closed to traffic and lined with barricades (all 22km of it). There are other people riding it too, and we have the whole course. I’m thinking, this is amazing. I just cannot help myself from riding hard. With the course closed, the other riders, people watching along the course, it feels like a race.

I ease up and pull out my camera and take some pictures while riding. A 4 man group (Austrians I think) I had passed comes by in a paceline, and I jump in. When I get to the front we start up the first climb. I go a little harder, look back, and the other guys are gone.

I take some more pictures and a guy in a yellow jersey and hairy legs attacks me on the hill. OK, this is serious now. I get out of the saddle and go by on the steep part. People at the top are yelling “Forza”, “Allez”, and I swear I hear a “go Torelli”.

On the downhill I catch a guy in a full US Postal kit. He latches on, then at the 5km sign I say, “we’re sprinting at the end, right?” He laughs and says no. When I ease up to take some pictures again, Yellow Jersey Guy attacks. He came back on the downhill! This I cannot let go. I ramp it up and pass him in the finishing stretch, almost taking out a girl in the crosswalk. Oops.

At the end of the first lap, I realize I had not eaten anything the entire day, only coffee. I stop and buy 2 Mars bars and some awful carbonated apple drink. The sugar boost is enough for another lap.

Unfortunately the course has now been opened to traffic, so we are dodging cars on occasion and cheating the red lights. I hook up with a group of 3 guys. I figure I will be nice and not go hard on the hill, but then I think, hey, this is the Worlds. There is no mercy here. I want to get a sense of how hard this course will be for the pro’s. So I go hard and pass them. Then I pass some guys walking. OK, so maybe the “competition” isn’t the strongest.

On the way back to the hotel, some local woman on a “city bike” in essence flips me off because I got in her way. I just give her a look that says, “I just won Worlds. Like I care what you think”.

The first group.


Yellow Jersey Guy (with chainring tattoo)


The steep (notice the Gerolsteiner guy).


I beat this little punk too. He ended up walking.


No my name is not on the road.