A new bike

I spent some sweet Euros and bought an additional bike. A nice
Specialized Sirrus Comp. It's another speed bike and in many regards
similar to my Bergamont Beluga Speed. But with better components and
the frame is a tad smaller.
It's a below 10kg, but not especially light. I modified it to have the
same Specializes Avatar Gel saddle and Ergon grips like I put on my
Bergamont bike.

But the main reason I bought it was not to get better material, but to
have a dedicated bike for sports. Yet I used the Bergamont for
everything. But the winter was hard for the bike, the dirt, the rain,
the ice, etc. The bike goes easily to bad condition during every day
use. The Specialized will be reserved from these hard every day
conditions and stay in better shape.

Originally I intended to get a pure racing bike, but the ones I liked
most were a bit over my budget (e.g. Specialized Rubaix 1750 EUR) I
had good experience with this type of bike on my long distance rides
last year. Paris-Brest-Paris failed not due to my Bergamont bike.

Coming weekend the this year's brevet will saison start, if the
weather will be fine this will be the first hard test for the Sirrus.
But if the weather will be rather I bad I'll start with my Bergamont,
because I have no luggage carrier for the Sirrus yet and no fenders,
too.

After my first rides on the Specialized bike, I guess I'll gain about
5% more speed due to the better material. But I should not forget that
the Bergamont performs quite good, too.

Januarbilanz

Der Januar ist nun vorüber und der Jahreskilometerstand steht bei
403km. Das entspricht so in etwa der Erwartungen - Es ist halt Winter!

Währenddessen liebäugle ich vermehrt mit einer Teilnahme an
Vologa-Ladoga-Onega im Juli dieses Jahres. Ich habe mr mal die
Broschüre ausgedruckt. Ist ja zum Glück noch Zeit.

Plans for 2008

2008 has seen some days already but I want to share some of my plans for this year.

Biking:
My goal is to do 8.000 - 10.000km this year and do the superrandonneur again. If I will have some spare money and time in August I would love to try another 1200km ride again. The one I am aiming at is in Russia Vologda - Onega - Ladoga. But I guess that is depending on a lot of things and will be decided quite late.
Each month I'll post my summed kilometers of that month.

Dancing:
Well, I want to do some project. But I am not decided yet what and how. Video would be something. I should start looking out for some good, not too expensive DV-cam.
Maybe I'll contribute to the "Nacht der Klänge" again. That has been quite some fun.

Other:
There are many plans. You'll get to know when things are actually moving.

That has been 2007, but I still have to do one ride this year

The months pass by and cycling and other activities were low. Regarding cycling I think I should do at least one bigger ride this year. 100km will be enough, but the weather is shabby and time is short...

But since the year is on its edge I should do a short review and draw a quintessence of this year - cycling wise.

Well, in the beginning of the year I heard the first time about randonuering. I decided to do that myself.
I started my rides in March, after the first longer ride since a long time I started the qualifiction brevets (BRM) for Paris-Brest-Paris.
The first BRM (200km) was hard.
The second BRM (300km) was much better.
I improved my equipment a lot.
The third BRM (400) km was gorgeous (I will not forget that lovely xycling during the night with the full moon and total silence - great!), but hard (I used that BRM for nutrition experiments)
The fourth BRM (600) km I failed. It started really nice, but after some hours the weather turned awfully bad and I abandoned. Until this brevet the weather was brilliant. After this brevet the weather didn't sustainable recover the entire summer.
I repeated the 600 km BRM some weeks later and finished it in about 34.5 hours.
After that I did a vacation in Italy and rode abot 1000km along the Adria.
Fitness was good in mid August when Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) was scheduled.
But during PBP the luck was not entirely with me and I didn't rode the entire distance, but unly 3/4 of the route. Anyway, it was great and I rate it a personal success.
Since PBP I did only two ~100-120 km rides for fun.

All in all I think it was quite a success, not finishing PBP was a bit sad, but I was quite close. Randonneuring developed to be not only a flash in the pan, but something that will last, that I will continue.
Anyway looking forward to 2008 now. That year will bring some changes and I will post my plans in early January.

I was singing in the rain

Oh, it has been wet. It has been so awfully wet!.
That is really the most important and lasting impression from PBP.
Also it is to note, that I only rode 918km and not the entire
distance. This was mostly due to some healthy problems, but the
weather and some technical issues (my gear shifter cable broke and I
had to go more than 80 km without a working shifter) wre not really
helpful. But anyway, I got the taste of PBP. Loving it and hating it
was so close together. And I learned a lot about fighting against
sleep. When you have nobody to talk with it is okay to just sing to
keep you awake. Surprisingly that works not too bad. So I was singing
in the rain...
It has been quite some experience.
Maybe 2011 I'll repeat that, but luckily that is not to decide today,
but in four years.

I wrote a German report about my ride at my website
Enjoy!

Getting off to Paris

The countdown for PBP is close to zero now! Slowly I am geting nervous and
excited. The weatherforcasts shape up a bit for the ride. Currently
the forecast is announcing wind from northern directions, rather low temperatures,
rare sun, but also rare rain. If it keeps like that it'll be fine.
Most important is *no* thunderstorms!!

Many PBP veterans are reporting you won't come back as the guy you left. I am wondering what these changes might be. I'll see.

Also I like to thank all supporters who had warm words or such. I
appreciate that. If you want to track me during the ride you can do so
on http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/EN/index.php?showpage=64 - search
for frame number 3642. Also if you like to send me some warm words
during the ride you're welcome to send sms to my mobile.

All things are packed, bike is okay. I'll leave tomorrow to get a car and will go to Paris on Sunday. If everything works out the way I want to, I'll return on Saturday from Paris.

Cheers!

Nice tour along the Adria

It has been a nice tour along the Adria. The distances were not too much, the landscape nice and the weather quite hot. All in all it has been very nice. The training effect is estimated as "good". But the tour was training *and* holiday.
The originally thought route to Croatia and Slovenia was abandonned, the Ferries didn't wanted to transport bicycles. But Italia is nice and now I know the mountains of the Abruzzo.
Now I am looking forward to P-B-P next week and I must confess I am a bit excited!