Its about time - World Championships!!!

So sorry for the delay on this post, it has been nearly a week since my last update and for that I apologize to all of my die hard readers. After talking to my parents for the first time earlier this week I learned I have quite the readership, I'm really happy that this has made a difference and has kept everyone updated on our adventures. Also its great to read all of your comments, so keep them coming!!!

Since the last read the adventures have not stopped, everyday has been one big adventure for us.

Traveling

Morzine to Val Di Solle was quite the journey, definitely a little more than we bargained for. Of course the drive was longer than what we thought, we got lost trying to drive through towns, the freeway is pretty easy, but the tolls are fairly substantial and are starting to add up, the bike box straps started to make a heinous vibrating noise, kinda like we were a huge bumble bee! Gas is really expensive, especially in Italy. Gas stations are full of crap in France, but occasionally you find something worth consuming, once you enter Italy, the Auto Grill greets you with delicious sandwiches, I used to live for these types of sandwiches, now I cannot enjoy them, it is fairly depressing! The wine and olive vineyards are stunning and everywhere in some parts, mom you would be in heaven over here! Fun fact of the day: Wine is cheaper than water!!! Don't buy fizzle water, its terrible but it does make you drink it slower, so at least you have water! Castles are everywhere, its incredible, we haven't done anymore wall rides on them but Joey invented a new game called "dibs" where you point and "dibs" the castle, if you do then it is yours and you gain more castle strength. Basically it was a way to argue with each other about who has the coolest castle! After a full day and who knows how many Kilometers later we made it to Val Di Solle!

Val Di Solle

Our mission was to get Joey here in time to get everything done and ready, Mission Accomplished! Now we had to figure out what to do that we were here with five days till the races. First things first, find a place to camp out! Bingo, a circle sign with a nice road leading into the forest, it must be a campsite or something right? It was a glorious spot situated in the spacious Italian Woods, the only problem was it rained that night. Good thing I had my tent all set up! We slept in that next morning until the rain slowed, broke down camp and went to town. After going to the market, which by the way closes for like four hours for lunch, a little inconvenient for us but really cool for the locals, I wish we did that, it would slow the pace down to our daily lives and we would all get more family time! We went exploring more into the crazy mountain villages, it amazed me that people built and continue to build on the hillsides with the steepest switchbacks needed to get around. It was foggy up in the high altitude village so we didn't get to see the view but it must have been incredible! Back into town we went with one question on our minds, what were we going to do next? We asked around for a bit, did some research and settled on Shladming Bike Park, home of World Cup races and a really tall mountain boosting tons of vert for some good mid trip downhill mountain bike training. We were told its a 3 hour trip, but traveling in the Kangoo I'm sure it will take us longer!

Tune in next time and find out whether or not we find the place, if the Kangoo makes it, we all sell our bikes and buy a vineyard and turn into major Wineoes! I figured that I would leave this story to be continued as it will be a long one and also that I have to head on out into the rain find Michael and Caleb and set up camp. Check out the race tomorrow on freecaster.tv! It should be showing around 6am for you Colorado folks, it'll blow your minds what these riders are riding down!

All of the USA Team members are going to bed now, many of them beat and bruised from the long weekend, but they will all be going for the gold tomorrow morning risking everything down the gnarliest course ever! Dustin Belcher would like to extend a hello to everyone and that he may be down right now, but he is not out as he will be back riding soon looking to prove to everyone that he really did deserve to wear the Red, White and Blue!

Still having an awesome time, watching a little futbol right now just enjoying the last moments of comfort inside the USA hotel before I head out into the night, into the rain, spiders and forest! Next blog also will include world championship racing action and reports, so check back in about 24 hours for full coverage!

Goodnight,

Brian