"Life is like riding a bike ...."

"Life is like riding a bike, If it's easy , it's a sign that you're going downhill. "

Those words of wisdom were sent to me by Margaret (now in Zurich) and I now have a new favorite saying!

I'd say, right now, were climbing up a bit of a hill, planning a move up the street to a slightly larger apartment. However, we are liable for this one's lease until we can find a new tenant. So we have been busy keeping the place clean, walking the dogs and showing the place. Hopefully we can get a new tenant quickly. In the meantime, if any of you want to see what our current living conditions look like, I've put pictures up at www.davidfisch.com as part of our advertising campaign....

By the way, is anyone still out there? Haven't heard much lately....

Cheers, Dave

5:33.28,8

Luck was with me and I not only finished the race but beat my 6:00 hour goal; finishing in 5 hours 33 minutes + change! My main priority was to keep my tires between me and the road and I played it pretty safe; didn't have any close calls.

I will say though that I have had much funner bike rides! The weather was nasty and I was soaked to the bone within minutes of riding. The section thru France was particularly difficult for me as there was a strong head wind on top of the rain and I was riding solo for about 40km...a couple of nasty falls and then a water stop (which I skipped) left me alone.

Rather than fight the wind, I kept my wits, slowed down my pace and tried to save my legs for the final stretch where hopefully I'd have a tail wind. Even with this relaxed pace, I hit Geneva about 30 minutes faster than my target, and now was just hoping I would not give up that margin due to mechanical failures, flats, or leg cramps! I was definitely getting tired.

Near Geneva a fast peloton of about 8 riders whizzed by me. I had just enough reserves to spin up. catch them and ride with them all the way home. There were lots of congratulations at the finish line.

The only casualty for me was a snapped saddle. I hit a bump with about 20km to go and hear a loud pop sound. Turns out the frame of my saddle broke in half...so the last section I was literally riding on the seats titanium rails. All in all though, I'm glad that this is what broke.

So the final stats were an average speed of over 32km/hour over 180km!

Dedi and Brenna (and Tigger and Telly) met me at the finish area after a bit of searching and confusion...But it meant a lot to me to see them there and I got some nice hugs! (Aubrey was at a sleep-over).

As they got some ice cream, I took advantage of their free full body massages (nice!). Then Dedi and I enjoyed a nice cold beer.

Now the sun is out...life is good!

Cyclo Tour 2007

Well I'm just about ready to head out and start the Cyclo Tour 2007...180km race around the lake....Feeling great but it's cold, windy, and raining ...

;-(

I'm hoping the wind and rain will stop; the cold I can handle...

Biking around lake

After a nice dinner Friday night, we took a walk around the neighborhood. Clearly Brenna and Joanna were happy about something!






Then Saturday morning after a restful night, the seven of us headed out for a bike ride around lake Greifensee (see map) . It was an absolutely beautiful day and I got some great shots along the loop.


















First I had to steal Julia's bike and try it out for size!







A little break along the way!


Nice view from Maur on the West side of the lake.
Lil Jashu on the run!














Nice garden in a village along the way.



Now it's nap time!











Beautiful view of the distant mountain range...

Now with girls in the foreground..



And here's Jan...

Pay as you go trash service...

Brenna and I headed out to Zurich on Friday and visited our good friends Jan, Margaret, and family! They've settled in nicely and have a beautiful apartment in a very nice neighborhood in Dübendorf. The one quirk though that caught my eye was how their community handles trash! The service is free but you pay for the bags! Check this out! 5 'official trash bags' for only 16.75 CHF (about $13.00). Makes you think twice about what you decide to throw away.

Worse (and Margaret says Jan thought the same thing), it makes you wonder if there's a budding black market for counterfit trash bags!

Lazy Sunday?

This morning, after sleeping in and then making a huge breakfast, Brenna and I took off on a nice back-country bike ride sharing some good conversation and fresh air. After running errands in a downpour yesterday this was a nice change!

In the afternoon I attempted to ride to Montreux but ran into the 5th stage of the Tour de Romandie. It was pretty neat to see the speed of these pros doing a time trial but it did make it hard for me to get around as I was delegated to riding the sidewalk. At one point as I was exiting the area and was allowed on the road, spectators were cheering me on as if I were one of the riders...kind of a Pee-Wee Herman moment if any of you saw the original movie.

I then rode with a Danish rider who rode on a club team for a couple of years. He was a very fast rider but thanks to the physics of drafting, I was able to hang in there. We did 50km with him leading about 80% of the way. I now feel like jello...

Dedi and I closed the evening with a stroll down to the lake we shared a nice bottle of wine, Gruyere cheese, and watched the sunset.

Cheers, Dave

Spring Music Fest

Aubrey performed a piano solo at her school's Spring Music-fest. We are soooo proud of her.

I hope you view the video I captured of her. Just click on her image to view her performance.


Cheers, Dave

Training for the Lac Leman tour

I've been working hard getting ready for Tour du Lac at the end of this month. It's a 180km loop which I think means at least 6 hours on the saddle. To get some more base miles in, last Sunday I visited a colleague of mine who lives in Tramelan. Tramelan is a small city in the Jura mountains in the Neuchatel canton . It was a long 146km ride...would have been shorter except I ended up going up the wrong mountain path...but I have no complaints...well actually, I could have done with out the 3 thunderstorms I rode thru or the head wind once I finally got thru the mountain pass....But I was happy that I was able to hold an 80% or so effort for 6 hours...

I took a train ride home from Bienne. This train is known for making passengers sick...an hour ride on a 'bullet' train that manages to stay on its undersized track by proactively leaning into the curves...It's a very un-natural feeling. Once I got my stomach back in place, I biked back from Lausanne and barely missed a spring hail storm... It was quite the sight...warm weather and the green grass now white with balls of hail...Sounds like a song...