Well this is a message of mixed emotion. Its been pretty busy since my last update and finally the event is over. It was huge but the weather was crap. It rained on Friday a bit but then heaps on Saturday for the Marathon and then again on Sunday for the XC. The race on Sunday came down to a matter of survival for rider and equipment. After riding the 42km course on the Thursday I was keen to race but when I asked it seemed it would not be possible due to work commitments. That was fine I suppose but really my view is I wasn’t doing important stuff on the Saturday so racing would have been OK. I was also very jelouse as Anna’s cousin Damien Jones is over and he raced the 42km and had a ball. Oh well there are other races when it comes down to it, Im just a bit s***ty about it. It has been very frustrating working on this event and even being here in Germany. A lot of it comes down to the language barrier as I cant communicate my ideas or thoughts about stuff unless Anna or Jorg are there. Then sometimes when I saw things happening badly that could be done better I would tell Jorg or Anna and they would not act on it. I needed somebody to help me implement some stuff that could save a lot of time but I felt I was just ignored. It s***ted me cos I like to work efficiently and a lot of the time I was forced to be doing things very badly cos I could not explain a better way. Drove me crazy. Eventually I snapped and just forced things to be done my way even without the language. Saturday race was amazing though. There were over 1000 starters in the Marathon races with the 42km one having just short of 700 riders. Watching 700 riders go past at the start is an eye opener I will tell you. We started drinking on Sat arvo about 4pm. I had been up since 5am for rego, another thing that s***ted me. We had a few beers and then worked for a few more hours preparing for that nights party whilst we still drank beer. Damien and Kelly were a bad influence but hey I could have said no. Food was a problem to me and dinner ended up being bread rolls with tomato sauce. The 10min fire works show during the night was amazing to say the least. Especially since it was for a mtb event! The main band though was hysterical. We could not believe that the main attraction on the night was a band best described as the Wiggles for adults. They were driven into the area in a Limo with security walking beside it like they were the frekin president. Out of the car hands in the air to a huge crowd raw before getting onto the stage and starting. This guy puts on two huge foam yellow hands and starts waving them around and clapping and dancing. He did this the whole night in-between different costume’s, riding a sheep, a few dresses and some dirty dancing. It was so funny my stomach was hurting. Quote of the night comes from Kelly though (A good Aussie friend of Anna’s) This guy picks up a trumpet as if his going to play it and Kelly says “Finally and man who can blow” Turns out he put it back down and got out the hands again. Well after enough of this shananagans and at this stage about 8 or 9 beers Kelly and I put plan B into action. Plan b was a trip to a local club with a stage manager me met called Crazy Pee. He was a DJ himself at this club and assured us a good night. So at about 2am after drinking since 4pm off we went. Not a bad place but the crowd was not huge. Crazy Pee got us in and got us some drinks cheap from his GF behind the bar and then introduced us to a few other germans who could speak English. It was starting to feel normal. Being able to communicate with people that is. Well then it was off to the dance floor where the fun began. A girl showed a bit of interest in me and Ill admit she was kinda cute but I was not overly keen and the chance that she spoke any English was low so why bother. Then Kelly and Pee start shepherding her towards me on the dance floor and keeping all the other guy away. It was kinda pressuring. Had a bit of a dance but she was not much of a mover so I opted for a chat at the bar instead. English was s*** and my German is still a bit slow so all I know is she is a Nurse an she is 22. The rest was in German. Oh and I think somewhere along the way she got the idea when I was saying lets go dance that I was saying lets go home, so that was the end of that. Hmm Im sure I was saying lets dance! Ok so a bit more dancing and it was off to bed somewhere between 4 and 5am. I had to sleep at Kellys place cos I had been forgotten by my hosts and I had no key. So the next morning just some 2 hours later I was up again and into the same clothes as the day before. Bet I smelt good. Lucky for me the event was sponsored by Addidas and there was an endless supply of deodorant. Yeah what a save. So race day for the Euro Pro’s. The event was a UCI E1 cat so there were most of the big teams there. As I said the weather was s*** so the course was a mud fest. I unfortunately got given the job of being in the feed and mechanical zone which was probably the worst job of the lot. I was a mile from any action and just had to be there all day and make sure feeders didn’t assist riders. It sucked. There were 11thousand spectators in the forest cheering and a DJ at one section and I was on some grassy hill with a UCI commissar. Hmm not happy about that at all. I got down to the site just in time to see the male winner. I do know one thing. Team Merida riding SRAM went 1,2 in the girls and 1,3 in the mens whilst I saw a lot of Shimano derailers snapped off. Not saying anything there but just what I saw. The race came down to a matter of survival with pretty much all the guys running the hard sections as ruts were so deep they actually ripped off the derailer. It’s a real shame cos I never got to ride the course with the camera and now its completely screwed and needs some serious work done on it. Hope its rideable by August so I can get my footage. Well it was all over and then I headed of to dinner with Anna’s family to a nice local restaurant. Pisser of a night with Anna’s family and Kelly as we reminisced about the nights fun from Saturday. Ok mainly I got payed out on but hey, I can take it. Today was pack up and they will be still going tomorrow and probably wed but im outer here. I getting a bit tired of working and Kelly wants to see the Rhine river so Im going with her. We are hiring a car and going for 4 days before we come back for the wedding. Should be a heap of laughs with Kelly and some fantastic scenery. May duck down to a uni city for some partying on Thursday night but will have to see.