Sometimes the hardest part is just getting out the door.

So on Saturday morning here was the official weather forecast to which we awoke:

Snow/Ice. Creation of black ice is expected. Extremely dangerous driving and walking conditions. Motorists advised to avoid driving. Public advised not to venture outdoors unless really necessary.

That last line is a pretty glowing endorsement for our race, right?!

Anyway as many of you of course know, we got a bunch of last minute cancellations at the end of last week. (I guess everyone was watching the recent weather and forecasts a bit more closely than us.)

I prerode the course on Friday night with lights and have to say I was a bit shocked. I found large portions of the course covered with 20-30 cm of fresh powdery snow. In a few places snowdrifts were more than a half meter deep. Needless to say there were going to be places where we were going to have to push our bikes. I hurried home and planned a late evening reroute to avoid the deepest sections. 

When we awoke on Saturday morning to -4°C, freezing rain, and the above forecast, we got a few more texts and phone calls. We told everyone we spoke with that we would be riding no matter what and expected clear skies by race time. But at the same time, we would not be offended if anyone exercised caution and decided to stay at home (following the national weather service recommendation.) Essentially we advised restraint and reasoning (unfamiliar concepts to us), yet hoped someone would join us anyway (even though we didn't really expect it.)

Well, by noon it was sunny and -2°C (although the clear skies didn't last long.)

At 13:05 we set out, as planned: one woman, one man. A fairly small turnout, still representing two nationalities. :)

The freezing rain had knocked down the powdery snow a bit - making it slightly easier to navigate - and gave a nice crust on top of fresh snow; but unfortunately turned some of the packed truck tire tracks to ice. In the end the trails were much more fun to ride than just before on Friday night, and the rerouting worked well. (Everything became rideable, but frequent stops and restarts made for a daunting challenge.) It made for slow going through a good bit of deep snow, a recently plowed but still loose climb, one amusingly deep snow drift, and a couple of icy wind-swept sections. 

It was surprisingly tiring and a lot of work for such a slow pace, but a great ride we were happy to have conquered.

And in the end we have something of a new de facto set of single speed champions for now (with at least the printed champion t-shirts being tied to today's running of the race.)

We'll have to give credit to Cory and Veronika for getting off their butts and venturing out into the formidable conditions. 

Plus, as an amusing aside to the hardest part being 'getting out the door' the only injury was to Cory, who stepped out the door and fell down the icy concrete stairs when he was going to check the snow conditions just before the start. Heavily bruised leg, elbow, ribs, and shoulder didn't really deter. But, he was later happy to be pedaling with a studded rear tire! :)

So we missed all of you, and now will be eating goulash for every meal for the next week or so. But we still have some prizes and medals from our generous sponsors that we would like to share with everyone. 

We hope to try to offer another chance to ride together and compete by the end of the year, but we know how unrealistic that sounds around the holidays. What we may just do is set a few times over the next couple of weeks and a simple course near Prague (I'm thinking Točna.)

Either come ride with us to track your time, or do it by yourself and send us your GPS file and a matching timestamped photo of you on your single speed to be crowned the 2012 Czech National Single Speed Time Trial National Champion.

We hope to ride with you soon and will see you when we see you. 

(And we'll see you next year NO LATER than the FIRST weekend in October, we promise!)

Happy trails and happy Christmas!

-C+V

(Plus more video clip updates up until the end of the year. Keep an eye on the blog or our YouTube channel. And of course the upcoming route for the Time Trial and rides on the blog.)