today i did some more shopping. this time i wanted some israeli products, and where will i go if not to "super sal". you read it right, סופר סל, as you know it from israel. i wanted some טחינה and some חמוצים, as the american ones are crappy. you can find every main israeli product in there. במבה, ביסלי, קפה עלית ועוד ועוד.
getting back to L.A was a breeze. the drive was nice, and the road was clear of traffic.
today i rode up to the hills again, and boy, do i feel my legs... the three racing days were a big effort. at least i had time to enjoy the land of great cars.
even in L.A this car is very special. alot of american money, for a very small italian car.
well, CCC means alot of different things to alot of different people... this is what it means here.
yesterday i was out of milk, and had to eat my granola with a spoon full of thin air.
speaking hebrew in the middle of the arizona desert? you bet! rotem ishai and his girlfriend paz are here, and they stayed with me over the weekend. i discovered how anal i am when it comes to cleaning my R.V, and keeping it tidy. its hard for me to live with other people after being alone.
every once in a while i will put a post that shows the view i get out of my r.v window. this is the place in which i spend a few hours every day, eating, reading and on the computer. its a glimpse into my regular window view. hopefully the views will change all the time.
anyone who knows me, will tell you i am not the greatest cook around, to say the least... its not that i lack the skills, its the fact that i am not big on flavour. i just do not care.
well, life on the roads changes a person. i have decided to start caring. i even add salt and pepper to my food. but best of all- i cook.
when was the last time you made rice and schnitzel- in your car?? huh? now, you can't say it doesn't look good, right?
job well done... well, medium for me...
okay, this course is crazy. it is all singletrack, with no double tracks at all!! every lap is around 35 minutes, and there is almost no climbing at all. the longest climb is maybe 30 seconds. so actually, the way the race starts, is the way it ends... sort of... there is only 200 meters before entering the singletrack, so it will be hard to pass.
other than that, it is so much fun. alot of turns, and it feels alot like beeri, just with a different scenery around. this scenery is much better than the gaza strip, though...
this is gorgia gould, the top american rider, after jumping into the pool at the trek guys house. we all had a BBQ, and stayed up way too late...
there are alot of kinds of motorhomes. this is an off-roader with a pop up bed. it looks great, and the people who live in it invited me to come over to their house in moab. sweet!
and this is todd's and krista's motor-home, from the inside. yes, this is an inside of a car!!
it looks like a humen bone, but thats the way cactus looks when they die. nice huh?
and this tree looks sad. my bike looks happy though...
your average all american fridge...
the desert is amazing. its alot different than israeli desert. it has more plants, and its greener. anyway, i got to the venue of my next race, here in arizona. what a place...
i parked my big ass RV in this beautiful park. opened my shed, and listened to the silence. its all clean air, and birds... at night, it was so quiet... the skies were littered with stars. today i spent the whole day talking to no one. silence....
some more cactus, for your enjoyment. man, it is so nice in here. wish you were here with me.
but then again, that would ruin the silence...
this is karius, my new cactus friend...
and for him not to be alone, i brought baktus. one is spikey and rugged, the other soft and gentle.
i woke up after the weekend of racing, feeling a little slow...
last night the trek team and myself went to eat sushi. alot of sushi. we also drank alot of sakki, if thats the right way to write it. gorgia gould, the top american rider, and dusty's wife, also had dinner with us. it was a great ending for the weekend.
on the way to phoenix, just outside of palm-springs, the desert seems to grow a nice kind of trees!! they make clean electricity... hundreds of these are all over. its amazing what you can do, harnessing earth's power. i cannot imagine how its like to live in a place dominated by the wind, as much as this place is.
you know me... can't stop smiling.
even though the bugs don't seem to like my car\home very much... they keep on crashing into it! well, they're all dead now. ha ha ha!
well, we started out about 100 strong. the lap took around 2:35 minutes, and people were getting pulled out after the third lap. i held on for five laps. only 15 riders or so finished the the whole 23 minute race.
this is me, somwhere in the back of the field, before the start. it was so dusty, i have been pulling chunks of dirt out of my nose and ears for the last two hours.
again, some people are here for different reasons...
geoff kabush won the race. i was posting 30:30 minute laps and he was posting 26 minute laps. the result? i was pulled from the race in the last lap, although he did not lap me. whatever. all in all it was a good race. the start was hectic, as 100 riders tried to go up a singletrack uphill. traffic jam!
before the race i warmed up with jeff and ross. tomorrow is the short track. a hard hard effort. 20 minutes or so of pain. anyway, all things considered, i was doing alright today. i will get stronger by next week, i guess.
and this little guy knows best. he has no worries at all... well, apart from how to get his hand as deep as possible down this cave he found in the ground. his mom will have to worry after that.
today i got back from practice on the race course, and my fridge stoped working!!!! all the frozen chicken breast started flying around in the fridge. what the hell....?
today the team riders have arrived, apart from sue, JB, jenny and chris, that are all in south africa, kicking some euro ass in the cape epic race... its nice hanging my bike next to its own friends. my bike likes meeting some other carbon frames.
you know you have to go fast, when your name means "faster" in german. those germans are on to somthing, i tell ya'.
and this is ross, he is a pro rider for trek VW. he is one fast dude. his last name, by the way, is- schnell...
man, chicks on wheels... got to love that.
one's habits are hard to change. mine is not taking drugs. of any kind. well, my situation really required some kind of outside help. hence the imodium. i hope it helps.
coming out from the haze of downtown LA, it seemed like everybody here breathes cars Co2 instead of actual air...
and on the highway, it was the maze of roads inter-connecting, that blew my mind again.
its a good thing that i am a friendly person, as the orgenizers actually remembered me from the last time i was here, and gave me permission to park right by the venue, in a perfect place. they even remembered my fricking name!!! (again, its H around here...).
i love the way everything is getting done here. its like a ceremony: the team trailers show up, dirty from the long drive. the mechanics jump out of the car, start washing it, and then start to open the team tent. i said hello to everybody...
and these are the bikes in the trailer. all clean and ready for the races. (i forgot to rotate it, sorry...). tomorrow the riders will come, and the party will begin.
remember this!!
no, i am not a wizard.
its my happy face~~~! comes morning time, and off i go to the venue of my first national montain bike race of the season: fontana.
from there, on monday, i am driving to pheonix AZ, for the second race... desert- here i come.
now you understand the face.
