Austria day 1 So after arriving at the family house just before 12 at night we woke late and had a breakfast together in the morning sun. We were situated at 1000 meters high on a beautiful ski field that literally goes through the back yard of this house. There is no snow here at the moment but the chair lift is about 50 meters away so you can fully picture it during winter. Jorg was saying that when they are skiing their mum hangs a towl in the window when the food is ready and they all come in, eat and then ski right back out again. What an experince that would be. So breakfast done and it was time for Anna, Jorg and myself to kit up for a ride. Anna was doing some slow easy stuff and I have decied to train with Jorg for a few days. He had assured me it would be a slow 5hr ride with some long climbs but things soon turned out different. First thing we got to do was decend the 1000 meters to the bottom. What a hoot, but the whole way down I was thinking im going to have to climb this 1000 meters to get home at the end of the day. Once down Jorg hit the accelorator and I waved good bye to Anna from up the road and we headed off. I could not believe the pace we were cracking at the start of a 5hr ride. I had no chance of lasting this pace for such a ride and after 30mins I said to him that I must go behind in the draft zone or he will be carrying me home. It wasn’t long till we hit the first climb of the day and then I came up beside him, determined to ride his pace as long as I could. The climb was 18km’s long and to approx 1800 height meters. I was a fantastic climb and I kept finding myself looking at scenery and forgetting to ride hard. We rode at one stage through a tunnel for 450 meters then straigt into another or 500 meters that in the centre had some big arched windows with views down a beautiful valley. I was so amazed at the scenery and loved every minute of it. At about 16km’s though the climb got much tougher and found myself struggeling to stay beside Jorg or even hold his wheel. We had been going for over an hour now and there was beginning to be bits of snow beside the road. I got dropped but recovered and pulled the gap back to only 100 meters at the top. The top had snow everyhwere, it was so nice but bloody cold. Took a few pics and then it was decending time. We had a great 15km decent down the other side and then a bit of flat for 40 or so km’s then onto climb 2. This was a shorter climb of only about 7km’s but it was much steeper. Jorg had the pace on from the start and as there was some traffic I rode behind him. After about 4 km’s though I was in the hurt bag and the climb was even steeper. I was digging deep and trying to hang on but Jorg is very strong so I was fighting a loosing battle. But just when I was going to give it up Jorgs started yelling encouragment at me. He told me we only had a bit to go and I should dig deep and stay on him. I pushed hard and the lactic built in my legs. After a km or so of this I was right up around max heart rate. My eyes were rolling back into my head and my breathing was pretty loud, but still Jorg yelled at me to keep going, but now I was yelling back too. I was not saying nice things but liking the challenge. Soon though the legs gave out. I went fully lactic and could not pedal at that pace any more. I thought Jorg would keep going and leave me to grovel to the top but he is an insistant b******. He waited for me to get up to him and then he made me drive on again. The legs came back strong and we soon hit the top and I got the rest and food that my body needed as we flew down the other side. We had some great views on the decent of Lake constance so I took them in as I ate and drank as much as I could. Once down we had about a 30km ride back to the base of the house climb which was done as usual at Jorg pace but he was keen for me to stay up beside him and finish the hard days ride. The last climb we just took slow which was great. All up we did just over 5hrs and probably about 140km’s. The total of the three climbs comes to way over 3000 height meters though so well and truly my biggest day. Jorg was somewhat surprised at my riding though. He wants me to keep of fthe beer and drop my weight back down to race weight (about 5kgs under what im at now, thanks turkey) and train hard for 3 weeks. Then he says I can race for the team for the rest of my trip. It is very flatering but at this stage im not thinking about it at all. Ive still got a 7.5hr ride tomorrow with a 24km climb in it plus a few others so I think Ill see if I can even move by the end of that. It would be a bit of fun though.