Monday, April 30, 2007
Mountains, saddles and much much more
Life down here is pretty tough, as you can imagine. I get up in the morning, walk to a sumptuous breakfast buffet, spend an hour swimming, relaxing or doing other stuff, cycle for 3-6 hours, spend an hour on the terrace with my cycling group, go running or swimming and walk to a sumptuous dinner buffet ;-)
Unfortunately, in between I have to clean bikes for hours, work in the boutique and find new cycling paths, as well as answering hundreds of questions of hotel guests. Regardless, I am having a brilliant time and I look forward to the coming 5 weeks. It is all a matter of mindset to enjoy this job. Some of it reminds me a lot of congress work at Actelion. You are present all the time, wearing your name tag and being point of contact for everybody.
The weather has been excellent and it is tremendously green on the island, since it rained pretty much for 4 weeks before I arrived. The beauty is staggering and searching for various bike paths, I have found some brilliant fincas where I would love to go sometime in the future for a nice holiday. The island offers so much more than the party everybody thinks is going on here.
The other guides are quite fun, a lot of 55 to 65 year old men, former professionals, world champion in duathlon, track cycling, Swiss Cycling coaches - a wide array of skills and people. Last week, I cycled with the trainer of Bruno Risi for those who know. Legs like Greek pillars ;-) Tought me a lot about descending. I am loving the atmosphere here, I feel like I can learn a lot, relax a little, train enough.... and it will continue to get quieter as the weather gets hotter, so that I have more time to train things other than cycling... The training camp was brilliant, but very tough. Whatever you may think of Germans, Canadian trainers are much, much, much more rigid****
Unfortunately, in between I have to clean bikes for hours, work in the boutique and find new cycling paths, as well as answering hundreds of questions of hotel guests. Regardless, I am having a brilliant time and I look forward to the coming 5 weeks. It is all a matter of mindset to enjoy this job. Some of it reminds me a lot of congress work at Actelion. You are present all the time, wearing your name tag and being point of contact for everybody.
The weather has been excellent and it is tremendously green on the island, since it rained pretty much for 4 weeks before I arrived. The beauty is staggering and searching for various bike paths, I have found some brilliant fincas where I would love to go sometime in the future for a nice holiday. The island offers so much more than the party everybody thinks is going on here.
The other guides are quite fun, a lot of 55 to 65 year old men, former professionals, world champion in duathlon, track cycling, Swiss Cycling coaches - a wide array of skills and people. Last week, I cycled with the trainer of Bruno Risi for those who know. Legs like Greek pillars ;-) Tought me a lot about descending. I am loving the atmosphere here, I feel like I can learn a lot, relax a little, train enough.... and it will continue to get quieter as the weather gets hotter, so that I have more time to train things other than cycling... The training camp was brilliant, but very tough. Whatever you may think of Germans, Canadian trainers are much, much, much more rigid****
