Amazing Offenburg!

Home sweet home. Well, sort of. It is really fun to be back in Germany and be in a country where I can understand the language and communicate with people. It is almost like coming home. I like it. Offenburg is really beautiful. It is the ‘gateway to the Black Forest”. Lots of vineyards and forest around. And great bike lanes. It’s bigger than I thought it would be. It would be great to be here and just be able to take long rides and explore, but here I am on my second stop of my european mountain bike world cup tour.

The walking district of old downtown Offenburg.Vineyards all around the course.

I have to say that I have never been scared to race my mountain bike, but after crashing on Friday on my face on the world class drop and taking a little spill today on the ‘easy’ drop on the ‘north shore’, I have absolutely no confidence and I really don’t want to get hurt. Not a great way to go into your second world cup race ever. If I hadn’t crashed yesterday, I am sure I would have not crashed today. I was tense going into the first drop and must have grabbed a brake or something. I am not sure, but I am annnoyed. Funny thing is that I can ride the ‘snake pit’ of roots just fine. Don’t even think twice about that. I guess I have to seek out some really steep, short chutes in Oregon to start practicing.

Dual Speed. You can definitely go too fast down this.
The North Shore. A windy descent ending with a drop. Pictured below. This was the easiest, but somehow I managed to crash on it on Saturday! Stupid!!!
Imagine having to make a 90 degree turn to drop this. Crashed on this one on Friday. Looks easy, but that turn on the bottom is not fun.
This is the wolfsdrop. I have made the executive decision to run this. It drops onto pavement and a tree, so cost of failure is high. I wasn't the only one hesitating during warm up. And this is what I get. My old wound re-opened. The skin was not thick enough to withstand the fall. And to think if I didn't have arm warmers on.

Race day is tomorrow. I am trying to think positive and visualize myself dropping into the chutes smooth and not tensing up. I have already decided to just not attempt to ride the wolfs drop, since I didn’t do it in practice and frankly, the cost of failure is too high. I have to preserve the skin that is left on my left forearm.

You didn't go too far without seeing signs for the world cup.