Updates from the land where rollerblading is still considered to be a major form of personal transport

Greetings team members and team member supporters!

As some of you may know, my access to internet is rather limited, but that hasn’t slowed down my personal LAN capabilities, and I’ve been good and busy. And I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but this year’s edition of Let’s Go: Rural Austria is going to be spicier than ever.

Now that a dismal, nagging case of low pressure has been blasted out of the Tirol by some high pressure straight from the sands of Africa, we’ve been blessed with outrageously gorgeous weather. It’s been nice, so I’ve been doing a fair amount of traveling. That’s been nice, too. Here’s a brief recount of the adventures thus far:

Two weekends ago, I snagged a spot onto a bus headed South with several of my classmates from last semester, and we enjoyed a glorious weekend in a region known as “Süd Tirol”, which once denoted the Southern border of the once infamous Austrian empire, but which was divvied up by President Woodrow Wilson and given to Italy in 1914. Training was sparce this weekend and we passed the time exploring the famous Neustift Monastery, touring five illustrious Tirolean castles, including Schloß Tirol- the former epicenter of Tirol, imbibing heartily during a decadent wine tasting led by Count Siegfried de Rachewilz and getting a rad demonstration on the art of falconry. Incredible! Got a “buzzing the tower” flyby from a huge horned Owl with a 2.5 meter wingspan, his talons grazed my scalp as he cruised over! The staff did not take kindly to my suggestion on changing his name to Maverick.

After a speedy and busy week spent getting ahead on some research, lounging with my hosts here in Lans, Familie Stöger and logged some of those monotonous sustained threshold hours. I packed up shop on Saturday and headed to a tiny village called Kuchl, just south of Salzburg, for the Salzburger Triathlon. What an incredible site- hands down the most beautiful race venue I’ve been to, the swim took place in a pristine little lagoon complete with what I called “Pleasue Island”, for no real reason, and the 40km bike ride spun us out through windy single-lane downtown streets packed with cheering fans, and up into the mountains South of town. The field was really strong, with nearly 550 athletes present, including Austrian Phenom Frederic Kohl who wound up 3^rd, a renowned pro who finished 4^th at the famous race in Kona a couple years back.

After returning to my cozy home in Lans and enjoying a nice day of recovery, I headed West for my inaugural trip to Voralberg, the western-most region of Austria, to meet with Paul Ammann, the mayor of a small village called Ludesch. Paul was one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met, and explained to me how he’d spent the first 30 years of his life as a baker, waking up at 4 every morning to bake fresh loaves. The citizens of Ludesch elected him mayor in 1984, and since then he’s revolutionized the once-sleepy town into the headquarters of the environmental movement in Austria. The details are unreal- The town now boasts an average of 1.5 meters of solar panel/ citizen, and is kept warm via a brand new underground biomass plant which burns the “Hackenschnitzel”, or wood chips, left over from the town’s extensive forestry projects. Paul, however, was most proud of the new village community center which houses the post office, town offices, a stunning café and book store, all under a roof made of local white fir beams combined with revolutionary solar paneling which provide all the necessary electricity for the facility. Such a beautiful yet functional community space! Should make for some interesting writing!

So things are beginning to wind down, and I’ll be gearing up for my last of the Austrian Cup Triathlon events, the Innsbrucker Classic right here in, well, Innsbruck, on July 6^th. I’m planning a little trip to Croatia with some friends afterwards, and then it’s back to the Olympic Village to combine forces with the Ladies’ Team, and log some hours with whatever recent graduates happen to be bumming around town at that point. Can’t wait to be back, and see what kind of “nails” shape all of you are in upon my return.

I’ll borrow a classic line which some of you might recognize that dutifully announces the inevitable end to every trip:

“Geeeeeeet totheyellowlineandmovetotherightquicklyplease…”

DMac