So here is a picture of me before leaving to ride. It’s kinda blurry, hehe, I had to take it myself since my professional photographer who usually follows me wherever I go and takes photos for me to document my life had the unusual day off.

I took the S5 train from Marienplatz out to Gilching-Argelsried and hopped on my bike and off I went. Here are some sites along the way:

I have many more pictures from the ride that you can view here.

Of course before I went for my ride, I got a cappuccino in the Marienplatz Station. Bought my bike ticket at the machine, and then went down and waited for my train.

Today when I was buying my cappuccino a guy yelled out “Hey, it’s Lance Armstrong!” as I walked by. I guess I’ll take that as a compliment… I looked at him and laughed and said, “no… not Lance”, and he said, “oh, She is American too”… I just said, “yes, I’m an American…” I’m pretty sure that he had a few too many beirs for that time of day, but oh well. I’ll still take it as a compliment to be called Lance. Maybe that means I look fast, and we all know over half of bike racing is about how you look- ya know, what kind of high end bike you have, what snazzy clothes you wear, and what hot sunglasses you can find (that borderline on looking absolutely rediculous, but of course they are cool because you are wearing them and no one else. primo example of this type of sunglasses– the “George Hincapie“– they look good on everyone I have seen who wears them, but I think they look absolutely rediculous on me).

The one thing I’ll miss the most about riding in Munich is definitely the coffee stop right before I leave to ride. That never gets old, and it’s especially nice when it’s cold out (which seemed to happen a lot when I was riding here!).
Now it is time to say goodbye to Munich and hello to North Carolina. I am happy to be moving back home!

Bikes parked in front of flower pots-

What?! FLOWERS??! Yes… flowers are finally blooming in Munich after we had three days of SNOW a couple weeks ago-

Smart Cars are parked everywhere- well, they’re always everywhere, but I think they are cute!

People are out walking around Sendlinger Tor-

I can actually open the apartment windows and not FREEZE!

Tomorrow I say goodbye to Kreuzstrasse 6. It has been a great place for me to live for a year. I hope that it will take care of Joe for another couple months once I leave to go back to the US to race for the rest of the season.

I am always fascinated by all the bikes I see around the city of Munich. It’s amazing how many people commute by bikes. I love it!

Rosi kept the field at bay, and then she took the field sprint! So we were first and second on the day. It was a fun race… and I won my favorite bottle of wine, Reisling. Wee!

I ended up coming back to Munich after the race because I have the beginnings of a cold. Rosi and Giina raced in Dueren today and they took 2nd and 3rd! Way to go girls!!! I am proud to race with such strong girls.

Here are pictures Stefan took from the ride.

We are out the door for a race, so I will write more about our ride later! Ciao!

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.

Joe drinks too much Beir

• 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.

Now as I wipe the tears away from the sadness of leaving behind my parents, brother, and dear friends… I have the jitters and anxious happy shakes because I get to see Joe in a few more hours! All I do is sleep for a bit and wake up and he’ll be there waiting for me!

I will write an update about my last ride in NC and give you a full report from Munich tomorrow. Take care

The sights and smells of Christmas are alive in Munich… Here are some pictures from the Marienplatz Christkindlmarkt for you to enjoy.