Biking Bros

We are Dwayner(Svein) and The Young Man(Christian) and this is our word

So with the count down to worlds starting with t-minus 5 days, we have got quite the squad lined up for canadian leaf face painting and pom poms cheering Christian on. We have his mother spending 2 days in translation coming all the way from Sussex, New Brunswick, who is going to make a little vacation out of this expedition. We have Rob, an active cyclist and prominent fan who is traveling (and taking some time off work) from Belgium, and than we have yours truly, who is very much anticipating her first world championship. The planning of how us three are going to get to, and from the races are still a mystery, but from what I hear the journey can be just as great as the destination. It’s funny, cause around this time of year, towards the end of the season, Christian gets in this zone. All he wants to do is ride his bike. No talking, no shopping, no market place strolls, he just wants to eat his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ride his bike the best he can. I think most cyclists out there understand that. Having biked all year, legs feel blown, and you just wanna get a relax on. Towards the end of the year, I think vacations, cruises and all inclusives are really the only way to go. Hopefully I will see most of you at worlds, if not, wear your patriotic gear and cheer at your digital TV, gotta love entertainment….

Gotta say, also not too big a fan of the rain and cold that Belgium has to offer. i mean not to complain too much, the food is good, small markets are a thrill, and the chocolate shops on every corner really do offer a wide variety of smiles and sunshine, but other than that Christian and i have ixneayed the idea of living in Belgium. We really are just sun 364 days a year kinda people. So we fly back to girona (Christian likes to call home at every chance) tomorrow afternoon. It was a nice experience here, all the countries being so close you can take a 2 hour train ride to good old parie….(paris for those who can’t understand my french accent) and everything is very accessible by the metro which served us very well. i have been having some fun with the camera though. Makes me feel all professional and stuff. That and a little stockerish seeing as each race i take about 300 photos of the same rider. i can be a number one fan right?

So christian has finally let me use his mac book and i have decided to create my own section that I will write in when he goes on his 6 hour bike rides… For all of you that don’t know, my name is Amber, and I am Christians little love interest. I am currently in Girona with him now, which i still can’t believe. It was a very last minute decision, which included me giving both of my jobs 3 days notice, telling them i would be needing 2 weeks off…oops. They were not too happy, but no jobs can get in the way of amore. As Christian has probably explained, it’s pretty awesome here. Tons of small restaurants, a morning market with fruits and a million different type of meats and fish. Not to mention fresh bread, eggs and a booth just for shoes…yes that’s right, in the middle of this farmers market is this shoe vendor, specializing in knock off leather kicks, for people of all ages! Christian took me to the tapas restaurant on my first night here. Wide eyed, he explained, in detail how these small appetizers work. Apparently all i had to do was choose, eat, and leave the tooth pick on my plate. He was so excited that i caught on so quickly. We ate tapas for the next three night, until eventually the buzz wore off for him. We had dinner with some of the Garmin boys, who all seemed like fine stand up gentleman. I liked how they seemed kinda like me, just visiting a nice spanish town, kinda new to the whole different language thing, but then they would order something off the menu and speak to the waiter in some elaborate spanish dialect and my happy bubble was no more. It seemed like I was the only one with the language block… Even Christian had started to pick up some vocabulary. He knew some numbers, how to say “check please waiter”, and if that failed he would break out in french, and most of the time the Spanish understood that! So i just decided to hang around him, and he would do the speaking. Yesterday was by far the MOST rain i have ever seen in my whole life. The day started out fine, some sun, partly cloudy, no chance of showers, than BAM! We decided to take a walk to the grocery store about 15 minutes away and 3 minutes in we are in the middle of a monsoon! Lightning, thunder, the whole works! Me, quite liking rain chose to venture on, but Christian, not so much. He was running for the nearest awning suggesting we just “wait for it to die down”. Ha ha. Fat chance. We waiting for about 6 minutes, him under the awning, me jumping in the biggest rain puddles i could find. After much persuasion he joined me, and we both walked, soaking wet, into the grocery store 12 minutes later. He was quite the sport, and in the end clothes can be blow dried right? ha ha.