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Trip Start Apr 15, 2006 Trip End Oct 15, 2006 Next
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  Nijmegen, Netherlands
Sunday, April 23, 2006

Yesterday felt like the first day of spring in The Netherlands: we saw the sun from morning till late afternoon and the temperature rose above 10 degrees. It felt so good that we had lunch outside. Hey, one has to celebrate any day in Holland that is not cold, damp and gloomy (coming here felt like stepping back into winter).

So I have been here for 10 days. The first week was dedicated to the "returning guides training' meaning that we went thru hour long sessions on backing a trailer (always a much needed class as those little things tend to have a mind of their own), bike mechanics (a MUST do session for me as I proceeded to even mess up the "repair a flat" scenario. To my disclaimer, let me tell you that I was too engrossed speaking with Yannick, our French bike mechanic, about the student riots in France to pay much attention to the flat), financial reporting, GPS mapping, bike fitting, etc....

When in The Netherlands we are split in between different housing accommodations (a new guide house in a 30,000 inhabitant town-I do no think I have seen more than 4 locals in the streets at a time and I am wondering where the other 29,996 are, and two little bungalows in a vacation type resort). The warehouse/office is about 12 kms down the canal in the industrial suburb of Nijmegen. Morning or evening (sometimes both) I bike to and from work, using the rides as training for my first guiding trip, the Italian Dolomites (the last week of the Giro d'Italia, the Italian equivalent of the Tour de France). The only problem is that the terrain tends to be very very very flat in Holland and quite the opposite of the steep Dolomites climbs. Finding hills has proven to be quite a challenge. On a more extensive ride on Sunday, we found a couple of hills and proceeded on going up and down a couple of times (they must be the only hills in the area as there were dozens of other cyclists doing the same thing.) Needless to say that I am not too optimistic about dramatically improving my cycling shape in the next few weeks and will have to resort to my usual strategy to keep up with the guests: getting them drunk in the evening so they slow down in the morning.

Over the last few days, the group started to divide: one guiding team headed Brittany and Normandy to do research on a new trip in this area; another left for Girona, Spain and the bulk of the guides loaded three vans and trailers and went to Italy for the Giro. The only ones left here are the guides going to Provence and the Tour de France researchers. There are 4 for us tackling Tour de France research stage 2. We will spend another day here before heading first toward Belgium then Strasbourg to design the Tour week 1 trip. That will be the beginning of almost two months on the road, living in low cost hotels on the edge of towns, driving hundreds and hundreds of miles the nose glued to the laptop and the GPS system, and the desperate search for erratic internet connections and expensive Laundromats. Can hardly wait. And I am not even being facetious as the overall goal while being in Nijmegen is to get out of it as soon as possible (you might have gathered by now that it is not the most thrilling place I know...).

It's now 7:00am and it's starting to rain. Guess I will have to forgo my "training ride" to the office...
Keep in touch.

Much love.

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