I am staying in Deidesheim for a couple days of training with my friend Rosi from Team Stuttgart. Deidesheim is known as the “German Toscana” because of the mild climate that allows for tempramental grapes to grow and palm trees to last through the winter. Therefore there are a lot of vineyards and rolling hills… just like Toscana.

Believe it or not, flowers are blooming here!!!

I have had some amazing runs here. Just 500m from Rosi’s flat I reach wide open vineyards on the WeinStrasse.

I run up through the vineyards and then reach the edge of the forest and instantly I feel like I am back in North Carolina. The trails are amazing, and along the way I ran into an outdoor camp. Rosi said that school kids will use the camp for a day trip.

Also, all over the forest floor was Weidenkaetzchen, or better known as willows.

Once I got home, Rosi and Stefan had breakfast out and coffee ready to serve for me. What wonderful hosts! I am enjoying my stay in the German Toscana.

Alisha traveled to Deidesheim, Germany to train with teammate Rosi Mayer. Located in the “German Toscana,” Deidesheim had beautiful vineyards and lots of great rolling hills for Alisha to climb.

Joe drinks too much Beir

Alisha’s photo highlights the preview of the 2006 NRC Raleigh Twilight Criterium in Endurance Magazine and Event Brochures.

Alisha finishes 7th in the opening German Bundesliga Cup Series race.

Today Joe and I woke up to a really nice breakfast at our hotel in Sendlfingen outside of Stuttgart, Germany. We were treated to a typical Bavarian German (Stefan corrected me– Stuttgart is NOT in Bavaria, it is in Baden-Wuerttemburg) breakfast spread:

• Muesli- fruit and chocolate
• bread
• cheese plate
• sliced meats
• hard boiled egg
• jam
• butter
• honey
• nutella
• juice
• coffee (last but definitely NOT least!)

To top that off, we had little Easter cookies on our plates. It was very cute! Thanks to Olaf for setting us up with such a great hotel.

After breakfast, we drove over to Schoenaich and met the rest of the girls for our 63km race at 10:30am. The roads were nice and smooth, wide open, no dodgy stuff in the course at all… compared to what I’ve raced on in France and Italy. However, that didn’t keep the girls from being super aggressive. The race was a constant jockey for position, and I found myself fighting the whole time to stay at the front. It was also pretty windy and that played into where you wanted to be in the field. It was good practice.

We completed 7 laps of a 9km circuit on rolling terrain. The climbs were all short power climbs. It was so cold that I raced in my thermal! Everyone kept trying to get me to take my jacket off before the start, but I wanted to keep it just in case it started raining (it looked like it would start any minute). So I was nice and toasty the whole race and I was very happy that it DID NOT rain. It would have been very miserable if so.

Congrats to all the Stuttgart girls for a great race! I had lots of fun and look forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Next stop: Rosi’s house in Deidesheim for some warmer training and climbing, then off for some flat, crazy criterium races near Koeln and the Netherlands.

Alisha enjoyed the Easter Holiday with her husband, Joe, in the mountains of Arco, Italy. She met some wonderful people to ride with while she was there. Ciao to Leo, Sara, Fafo, Kaisa, and Frank!