Jetsetting

It's so nice not to have to get up at the crack of 8am on a Sunday to go out ridin' in the [insert poor weather here]. Especially after attending a wedding the previous night, which came on the back of a relaxing week in Belgium, not to mention a lightning visit to the USA a couple of weeks ago. This end of the year has been a whirlwind/tornado/twister/dust devil/willy willy of travel, and it ain't over yet.

Firstly, the US trip was brillo. I went over there to write this article on Specialized's aero testing which was a lot of fun. Flew in on Saturday, out on Monday, the plan being to avoid jetlag. I'm not sure if it worked, because I felt knackered for the rest of the week, and it spilled over into the next week. Still, it was well worth it. Next time (fingers crossed) I'll go for a bit longer and Visit People.

That theme more or less continued the next week in Belgium. I should have caught up with more folks but spent most of the week chilling out at Reiny's place. I went to the Six on the opening night, together with Gab, Reiny, Gwen and Darren Young. The racing/entertainment was top notch again even if we did drink too many pintjes. It's amazing to see these guys fly around a 166m track for hours on end. Sometimes there are up to 12 pairs on at once, with each team member flinging the other one in at high speed, dodging the other riders around them. It's mesmerising to watch and I'm glad we were sitting in the stands and not in the middenplein, because that's a dizzying experience.
Spektakel
© Jeff Jones
Veel spektakel
© Jeff Jones
Darren looking rather relaxed at this point in the proceedings
© Jeff Jones

Darren and I were the last of the spectators left once the racing finished. He was up for more (I'm not sure if I was) so we headed home via a couple of student bars on Overpoortstraat. There was some kind of orientation week thing going on, because everyone seemed to be wearing a sash, either in Belgian, Dutch or some other colours. A Dutch guy explained it all to me and I remember listening and taking it all in but none of the words actually stuck. It was possible that we'd had more than our fill of drinks by this stage. Anyway, a good night was had. The next day ... pass. At least the rest of the week was overcome in relative sobriety. A spinning class helped.

These did have alcohol in them.
© Jeff Jones
With his hand-eye coordination still razor sharp, Darren beat me 7-6
© Jeff Jones
I don't remember taking this photo, but it will serve to illustrate the occasion
© Jeff Jones

I returned to Bath for Jess and John's wedding. I know them from the publishers group and many other fun occasions. They've managed to get married twice this year, once in July and once in November. I think the July one was just a mini one to make it legal, while this one was the Big Bash at the Guildhall.

John (and possibly Jess as well) has Scottish heritage so they had to have a céilidh, complete with live band, as part of the proceedings. These are a lot of fun - way more than normal dancing - because you are not expected to know what you're doing. It's also a good way of meeting people, as are weddings in general. Top marks, J+J.

Finally, I will state on the record that the Great Western Paddington Railway Band makes the Strathfield Orchestra sound very good. Oh the humanity.

Hvar II: The Revenge

Hvar. Sigh
© Jeff Jones

I last visited the Croatian island of Hvar a couple of years ago in the all too brief period between leaving Cyclingnews and starting on BikeRadar. I remembered it as a bit of an island paradise where the pace was much slower than on the mainland. I also remembered a lot of drinking and eating seafood with Slovenians, a bit of riding, a tunnel, and getting very wet and cold one day.

The second time was even better, because it was bone dry, above 20 degrees every day, windless and thanks to a fair bit of pre-holiday training, I didn't manage to poison my liver with excessive amounts of alcohol.

After flying into Ljubljana, I met up with the architect behind this and many other trips: Primoz Kalisnik. In these times of the credit crunch, I was amazed to find the family rabbit still alive. I guess they're saving it for winter.

I also learned that it was inadvisable to become an author in Slovenia: Varya, Primoz's better half, is also one of the best selling authors in the country. Despite this, she got paid a paltry 1500 euros for her last book! That's just wrong! But there's only one big publisher and they can dictate how much the writers are paid. When asked, the Slovenian Minister of Culture told Varya to suck it up: "That's how it is." Poor.

We left the next day for the long drive to Hvar. An ex-Olympic rower (bronze medalist too) called Jani brought his van and a trailer, which could accommodate eight of us. He drove at a ridiculous speed so we could make the ferry from Split in time. We covered the 410km from the Slovenian/Croatian border to Split in 3.5 hours, including a stop. That reminded me of the 1991 intervarsity when we drove from Sydney to Melbourne in Nick Blombery's car with a trailer load of bikes on the back. Averaged 120km/h and ran out of petrol in the middle of bloody nowhere. But we found some in Humula and somehow made it to the all-important team managers' meeting on time.

We averaged 120+km/h from the Croatian border to Split in this van and trailer
© Jeff Jones

It was much sunnier and warmer in Split than Ljubljana, as well as being dead calm. The harbour's blue-green water looked stunning as we boarded the ferry and cruised out past a huge bright red oil tanker. Coffee and beer were consumed on the trip, which took 1hr45, then another 30 minutes to Nikica's apartments in Ivan Dolac, on the other side of the island. Within 10 minutes of arriving, the first round of schnapps had been drunk, followed by bread, meat and cheese and then dinner and wine, all provided by our hosts. So very good. But everyone (Primoz in particular) seemed knackered and got an early night. No stamina :-)

Within 10 min of arriving, we had downed the first round of schnapps
© Jeff Jones
Serenity at Ivan Dolac
© Jeff Jones

The perfect weather continued the next morning and right through our stay. After brekky and kava (coffee) we headed off to Hvar, roughly a 60km round trip going over the highest point on the island at 442m. A dog accompanied us for about 10km, which shows you how slow we were riding. I'd been lent a Pinarello FP3 to test ride and rather nice it was too. I didn't even get it wet this time!

We stopped at Hvar for coffee (of course) and I had a small slice of cake for fortification purposes. It was a 30km return trip, after all. We then paid a visit to Jelsa for some more coffee before heading back to Ivan Dolac for a late lunch, wine, seafood, swimming, dinner, wine etc. You can see a certain pattern developing and I wish I could develop it more often.

This dog followed us all the way to bloody Jelsa
© Jeff Jones
Don't go in there!
© Jeff Jones
Action shot
© Jeff Jones
Me bike, a Pinarello FP3
© Jeff Jones
Looking out over some scenery
© Jeff Jones
Andrej (L), Dule (R) and Rado (back) get to the island's highest point
© Jeff Jones
As usual, we blended into the background
© Jeff Jones
mmm...cake
© Jeff Jones
The way home from Hvar was uphill, at times
© Jeff Jones
Me, Braco and his friend wot I can't remember the name of
© Not Jeff Jones

Some more of our party arrived very late in the evening, led by Mr Penko. Mark and Marjetka came with him, along with two other members of number one Slovenian ladies team, Alenka and Tjasha. Braco was also there with a couple of mates, as well as Dule the pig killer, Hauptman (who just survived a misdiagnosed intestinal inflammation this year and is riding again, minus some of his internal workings), Rado, Bane, Marko, Roman and a few more - 19 in total.

More wine was consumed, and I had the impression that some of the other guys were trying to make me drunk because we were planning the 120km ride to Sucuraj the next day. Many toasts followed, and the Others were very impressed with my rudimentary Slovenian. Dobro Utro.

But I had learned a trick with the wine which was very drinkable: add water and you won't get hammered. So the next day I was slightly woozy, but certainly no worse off than the rest. There were maybe a dozen of us who made the trip, and it was again fairly sedate although not quite as slow as the previous day. Mark decided to stretch his legs just before we got to Sucuraj and I followed him. We bombed down the last descent into the sleepy town and got our coffee order in before the others caught up. Braco was looking a bit cooked already, but still ordered a beer. The cafe owner remembered me from last time, as my bike had fallen in the water.

First stop on the way to Sucuraj
© Jeff Jones
The peloton en route to Sucuraj
© Jeff Jones
Downtown Sucuraj. The bistro is owned by a Kiwi by the name of Tony, I believe
© Jeff Jones
Tjasha, Alenka and Mark in Sucuraj
© Jeff Jones
Braco needed a beer at halfway
© Jeff Jones
Climbing out of Sucuraj. Some enjoying the pace, some not
© Braco
Climbing out of Sucuraj with Tjasha
© Braco
Always ridin'
© Braco
Jelsa
© Jeff Jones

On the way back, we split into groups as it was easier to ride at our own pace. I ended up at the front with Braco and his mate, who was a good ex-racer from 15 years ago, Dule, Rado and Alenka. I enjoyed the fact that it didn't rain, unlike last time, and I even needed to ration my water.

From last time, I remembered the second last descent as being sketchy in parts. My tyres were rubbish in the wet and I was shaking with fear and cold by the time I got to the bottom of it. This time around in the dry, there were no such problems. I easily kept up with Dule, who goes downhill very well, and it was nice to be able to conquer that little demon. I went at my own pace on the last climb and after waiting at the top, ended up with Braco's mate to ride through the infamous tunnel with. 1.4km, single lane, no lights. We did it with a car behind us, which was much safer.

Swimming, eating, drinking, etc. followed as the rest of the party rolled in. Mark and Mr Penko had sore arms after doing a lot of pushing in the rearward group. Marko, Marjetka and Tjasha all required said assistance.

Split, pretty noice
© Jeff Jones

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay an extra day and headed back to Ljubljana on Saturday. Jani had a wedding to get to that night, plus a marathon to run on Sunday (he'd more or less started his training in this final week). Dule also was due to run, so that was that. At least the drive back wasn't done at quite the same breakneck speed as going down. It was so much colder when we got back though. Amazing what difference 600km makes to the temperature.

That night, Primoz and I hooked up with some of the guys who had been selling running shoes to the masses before the marathon. It was actually hard to switch back to beer after drinking wine all week, but I sort of managed it. One of our drinking companions was also doing the marathon, and he proceeded to get battered so at least he had a ready made excuse. He was going to pace Jani the next day, and he did so until he pulled out with cramps. To his credit, Jani finished in under four hours, despite getting equally as hammered at the wedding. Slovenians seem to all follow the work hard and play hard ethic.

We did drag ourselves out at the reasonably godly hour of 10:30 the next morning to watch the marathon, which conveniently passed 100m from Primoz's house. We were at km 9 and saw the 20-strong group of elite runners come past after about 28 minutes. A few minutes followed, before the best of the rest started to trickle through. Then after about 40 minutes, it became a torrent of runners that lasted a good 20 minutes. 6000 in total, all looking pretty fit. Quite a spectacle.

The Kenyans and Ethiopians dominated the marathon
© Jeff Jones
This lot came through a bit later
© Jeff Jones

Feeling more inspired, Primoz took me on one of his regular training loops around Ljubljana. It's a brilliant place to train: lovely roads, beautiful scenery (autumnal now), lots of climbs and plenty of flat. We did 65km at a fairly modest pace, along the way meeting Uros who works on Bicikel.com, Slovenia's biggest cycling site. I have a Bicikel hat, gloves and socks that almost-but-not-quite match my Chippenham Wheelers kit.

I learned an interesting snippet of 'news' from Primoz about the 2007 Journo Worlds too. Apparently, the guy who was second in my category in the road race (I was third last year) got disqualified for not being a journalist! He also got DQ'd from his fifth(?) place in the TT, but that didn't bother me so much. I'm owed a silver medal now ;-)

On that bombshell...

[my internet broke last week, hence rather a slow update. That and I've been imbibing a few quanta of pale brown liquids most nights]

Jelsa, yeah
© Jeff Jones
Ouch, before the tunnel
© Jeff Jones
We go for a bit of a walk
© Jeff Jones
Serenity
© Jeff Jones
Hvar automobile classics
© Jeff Jones
Sigh, we're leaving.
© Jeff Jones