Let me start with a Thank You to all of you who love Bikes and have supported my crazy ideas and allowed me these opportunities, Thanks!
Livin’ Over the Edge has been a thrill ride for me since the day that I started. From meeting the best people one could ever want to know as cycling brought people from all over our wonderful world to ride in Fruita. Finding a "thing" that worked and allowed for new adventures such as traveling to meet those people in their world and riding my bike with great people in amazing places. It’s awesome and I am grateful. Trust me; if you want to travel to ride, you are in great position to do so as a cyclist because our friends and fellow riders are great folks with amazing generosity. Not only willing, but eager, to share the passion for riding in some wonderful secret place. Cheers to all of us who share this passion with someone else.
My latest traveling has been at a torrid pace with a chance to head to europe this May before heading to Australia this next week. My friend Paul who is with Mountain Racing Products; MRP had some customers to visit and I tagged along to celebrate my Birthday along the road side of the 100th Giro d’ Italia in Northern Italy. Little did I know that we would end up riding with and meeting so many amazing people that I had not even expected. I’ll give you a little recap of my best birthday trip in recent months at least…
APT France – we landed in Zurich and after a brief wrnagle to try to find my lost bicycle; we headed south along Lake Geneva (?) toward southern Provence France. I had never been to Apt, or so I thought and had never known Momo or his relevance in early freeride films and/or how many friends we shared. Turns out that I had been in the hsadows of Mt Ventoux before on Bastile day in 2004 and as soon as we turned towards town I knew the place as quite familiar. I had never met Momo before but also found that within a short time, he was also quite familar and seemingly like a long lost brother or twin from the other side of the world. A great guy with abundant energy and a passionate soul for bikes and for living life. Something I hold in very high esteem. We dined and laughed and rode the entire next day through amazing terrain and shared some fantastic wine and cheese on the streets of this really cool little town with a ton to offer a cyclist be it on or off road. It was a wonderful first meeting but I can assure it will not be the last. Thanks… Vi la France
Leaving Apt we drove the back way through the amazing hills and gorges above Nice France. We rolled into Nice airport to finally recover my road bike and settled for the eve in Ville France just east of Nicem one of my favorite regular stops right on the Med. This was my birthday and we had a great dinner and a great ride the next morning up to the high ridge overlooking the cote d’Azur coast. That afternoon we were blessed to have the chance to stop in and meet a friends mother who lived right in the area and it led to a great meeting of some wonderful new friends and an ever increasing reason to return to the area not only again but often. What more could you want; birthday dinner in an amzing seaside town with a perfect ride and coctails with new friends… happy B-Day to me… Thanks for your gift, I’ll be back soon…
Off to Italy the next day, some cool skinny roads and a return in the eve to my old haunt in San Pellegrino where we shared a fantastic dinner with Ross and Catherine and proceeded to drive up the Passo San MArco for some late night celebration of Alps passes and one of the best snow years in a while in northern Italy. We drank wine, played in the snow and attempted to roll and smoke cigarettes even thought we dont really smoke… hey, when in Rome… The next day we rode; Paul and Ross and I headed up towards the San Pietro to watch the Giro. We got there just a hair late (my slow fault) but did somw wonderful riding and stopped in for an amazing lunch where we could watch the stage on TV before we decended to the finsih line where we saw the solo break head into Bergamo for the win! We drank beers on the sidealk cafe while the peleton and remaining riders rolled by just feet from our table. After the stage we joined the peleton of excited spectators and rolled back up valley to San Pellegrino and dinner at the Bigio again. Viva Italia and cheers to the Val Brembana
On to Montova to visit another of Pauls customers and another meeting of great new people. Guido and his family hosted us, wined and dined us and made quick friends who I hope to spend time with again in the future for sure. While Paul and Guido visited the next day, I rode around San Benedetto Po and found numerous cool tiny roads before puncturing my tubular just in time to roll back into town for lunch. In our whirlwind fasion we ate lunch and drove north to Lucerne where we had dinner at the Balances with Ross and Fabian before flying home the next morning way too early.
An amazing time, with amazing folks and amazing rides!
Thanks and lets do it again soon
Cheers
On to Australia and the Melrose Fat Tyre Festival in just under 2 weeks… from Ciao to Cheers
Thanks to you all