Epic Racing around the World

Blake Harlan checks in after his month-long tour of the Continent Europe:

Well now that the gelato coma is fading and the jet lag is wearing off, I think I can take a quick recap of the coolest places I rode in Europe. It started in the Czech Republic…..

Shredding Czech single track…

From Prague, we headed west into Germany. Wurstberg is a pretty amazing place.

From Germany we headed south to Switzerland.

Our second stop in Switzerland was to Speiz, one of my favorite stops of the trip. The riding was amazing. Story book views and roads.

From Speiz we headed south to Locarno, Switzerland. Here I did an epic mountain bike ride and even made it to the 2003 Mountain Bike World Championships course.

The view from the top of the world.

Euro 1 Track.

We also watched a stage of the Tour de Suisse. The vibe and energy at a European pro race is something that can’t be described…but I’d relate it to something along the lines of the NBA finals, but outside. And with shorter guys on bikes.

Next it was off to Italy to cheer on our friends and teammates at Val di Sole for the 2008 World Mountain Bike Championships.

From there it was south to La Spezia, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

After Italy we made our way to Andorra, in the heart of the Pyryness. Duty free shopping, for those into Cosco-sized boxes of smokes and liquor.

And then it was time for Spain. First stop, Girona.

Then Barcelona….the riding here was minimal. Too many siestas.

With three days to go in our trip we arrived in Valencia. Unfortunately, in the 15minutes it took for us to check into our hotel, our car window was smashed and all things cycling related stolen…including my MonavieCannondale custom painted scalpel. Keep your eyes open on ebay.eu for one of these floating around.

However, the squad came to the rescue…with only a hand full of days before National Championships in Vermont, I arrived home to a replacement bike. How’s that for service?!

Recap and the obvious: the trip was awesome. So many experiences, so many stories to tell. Thanks to the team for helping me out! I leave tomorrow for Vermont to race with teammates Mitch Peterson, Sue Butler and Bryan Alders in the US National Championships, should be fun….but I plan on taking the bike inside with me this time.