Hou Je Van Nederland?

Emphatically, YES! We've slipped from one cycling paradise in Mallorca to another in Holland aka the Netherlands, home of the freaky-deaky Dutchman, Jeroen "JJ" Janssen. And not just his home country, but his literal home, complete with amazing parents, delectable home-cooked meals and sibling guest appearances. Most Excellent!

Holland is amazing. I know that it's totally cliche and completely played out, but I can't stop myself from noting how incredibly bike friendly this country is. I've seen more people riding bikes around town in two days than I would back home in a month. Or maybe a year! It's straight loco! I saw a 60 year old woman do a cyclocross dismount yesterday that would have put the whole NorCal B's field to shame. It's beautiful to see cycling embraced as a viable form of transportation, but with infrastructure like they have in Holland you'd be an idiot not to ride a bike. In Holland you can just cruise your fiets down to your town center:
You can speed along a fietstraat, or bike street, reserved for bicycles:
Or slam along an open country road. Davis, California, eat your heart out!
We rocked over into Germany for a little bit on our first ride. I thought that was pretty sweet. This is me SUPER-STOKED on my first time in Deutschland! JJ picked up both the country line sprints. Recon pays off.
JJ and I were both feeling a bit out of place in a high end coffee shop in Nijmegen, but Jamie has an addiction and we're here to support him. (Note: his addiction is to coffee and not the other stuff you can get in Dutch coffee shops.)
As I discovered on my ride today there are numerous canals and waterways crisscrossing Holland. I ended up having to take a ferry to get home, which I though was an absolute kick in the pants. I guess I'm racking up quite a few firsts here in Holland.
Perplexed and a bit tired on my ferry ride. This was my first real ride post Mallorca and I may have forgotten there wouldn't be a team car with drinks and treats...
Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how incredibly beautiful the women in Nijmegen are. Nothing like having a seemingly endless line of tall, fit women parade past you on bicycles while you sip coffee in a cafe. They are gorgeous and fashionable, and as I write this I'm working up my courage to actually say something to them. Don't worry, I've been studying Dutch. De gele zon is groot. That's gonna just knock 'em dead!

More dispatches from wonderland soon. I swear I took photos of German ponies with euro-mullets and when I find them I'll post 'em up. Until then, as the Dutch say: Hakuna Matata.

PS Mooney has been shooting from the hip with what was once and iphone and is now a glorified ipod touch. He's got some good stuff up on his twitter.

Better Know a Teammate

I can't say there's much news to report. I continue to have my mind blown on a daily basis by the sheer awesomeosity of the training camp here in Mallorca. I've never had better riding or more quality training than in the past ten days. Cherie, Eddie, Helen and Pete have done an amazing job of taking care of all the logistics and organization leaving me and the other riders with no worries beyond smashing ourselves on the bike and making it back up the stairs to our rooms. Every other detail has been worked out, every necessity provided, and it's the huge efforts on the part of those four that have allowed us to have such an amazing camp. Huge thanks to them!

Eddie and Chez playin' it cool:

Pete: this guy knows his schiz.

Helen, always willing to go the extra mile.

It's also allowed us a bit of extra time and I've managed to steal a brief interview with none other than DJ Sparls. I wanted to ask him about his goals for the season and his riding style and what kind of food he likes before a race, but he wasn't going for it. I tweaked the questions a little bit and what follows is the result. I'm really hoping that I get a chance to interview all of my teammates, so hopefully I'm presenting you with Part 1 of the 11 part series: "Better Know a Teammate." Enjoy.



Ready for a more wacky antics from JSparls? Head here, or here.