Dorothy had it right by saying “there’s no place like home”; just arrived back with Caryn last night from a long trip from MUC to YVR via YYV. Our flight was delayed leaving Munich and they said it was because of some bikes they were loading, and since they missed their push off, the delay for a spot over the ocean(600 to 800 at any one time)  was now 90 minutes; terrible they actually blamed it on that because it was obvious to many passengers who the family of six, who had been on a bike tour through Europe, were. Luckily they snuck us off without the full delay. 

So it was great to hang out with Thomas again, here’s a picture of us beside his new demo trailer. He was rocking it on the bike, he was doing a high jump thing with a small kicker and made it up 16 pallets, so smooth!

I met up with Mark from Singletrack magazine while in Kaprun, and he was with my buddy Sanny from Scotland who hosted me in Glasgow for a film festival a few years back. We were hanging out for dinner and Mark was brainstorming ideas for a top ten list of things Austria has contributed to the world for his blog; I think they did a pretty good job!

By the way, I think the fact that per capita, Austrians emit only 2.34 tonnes of Co2 compared to Canada’s 5.46 should make the list….although they have much work to do, their footprint still requires more than two earths to sustain if everyone adopted their lifestyle.

Caryn and I met some pretty amazing people during the last couple weeks, we truly are fortunate to experience the culture and see the sights of such an amazing part of the world.

Caryn and I are hanging out in Kaprun, Austria, a village in the Austrian Alps that is big on mountain biking. The event we’re here for is called Bike Infection, and I’ll be performing with Thomas Oehler and Petr Kruas this afternoon.

The first day in Kaprun, Thursday,  I did a show for the local school, got to ride on gymnastic equipment.

The students seemed to have enjoyed it, and now many of them have signed up for the bike race during Bike Infection this weekend. Nice!

Then later on I had a hair cut, my hair is now the shortest is has been in about 15 years, but to make up for it my facial hair is the longest it has ever been.

Here is another link to my friend Mark’s photos, these are from our visit to the Krimml Waterfall a few days ago.

Ciao….

So I have just finished up a fantastic weekend at the KitzAlp Bike Festival in Austria. I performed in downtown Kitzbuhel on Thursday evening, taught a youth skills clinic on Friday, then another performance on Saturday at the Race. It was so much fun to ride a variety of obstacles for a change; I basically built a demo course out of spools, pallets, and beams and had a blast.

The Marathon race was 55 and 88km long, with over 1000 competitors, wow! The youth races on Sunday consisted of a technical trials style challenge in the morning, which determined their starting position. Check out the images for a taste of the challenges they had to negotiate. Love it!

Picked up my buddy Mark Bakker, former Norco web guru, in Kitzbuhel today, he’s busy back-packing around Europe and our paths crossed. We’ll travel for the next couple day with him.

Well, I’m going to Buggerhof until the next post….

Caryn and I quickly overcame jetlag, and have settled in to our home for the next five nights in Kirchberg, Austria. By the way, the trick for dealing with jetlag is as follows: Lets say you arrive at 10am in the morning, in Munich, after traveling for about 16 hours, and dealing with an 8 hour time change. The trick is to keep your eyes open during the remaining first day and refrain from taking a nap (which surely would last a number of hours). Once it’s evening time, say 9pm, then go to sleep, and you’ll sleep beautifully for at least 8 or 9 hours and be good to go the next day….on with the story….

So we spent our first two nights in downtown Munich, exploring the city, drinking tea, eating ice-cream (the temperature was about 26 Celsius), and randomly meandered the walking only streets in the city center (much like Whistler Village only way bigger).

The first thing that struck me about Munich (much like many European cities) was the huge number of cyclists. It’s an official stat that 25% of the residents of Munich commute to work by bicycle, incredible!! My question is whether the positive effects of riding so much counter-balance the negative effects of all the heavy drinking and smoking going on?! I was psyched that there is no smoking allowed inside restaurants anymore, and that goes for all public indoor spaces, including Backstage Werk, the venue for the Xavier Rudd concert we went to last night; it was AWESOME! Perhaps this uber talented Australian is not as famous in Germany as back home in BC (where his wife is from) judging by the size of venue, but the fans attending sure were genuine and psyched. The real beauty this intimate venue was to see up close details and facial expressions during the performance. I love Xavier, what can I say.

I’ll be setting up for my first show tomorrow in Kitzbuhel for the KitzAlp Bike Festival, and look forward to riding with Thomas Ohler again. We explored this adorable mountain village today, and are excited to spend the next four days in the area.  Hopefully the weather holds strong, it was over 30 degrees Celsius today, and the heat was beat by swimming in a lake surrounded by views of the Alps, NICE!!

The dinnertime show was a thunderstorm where the rumble didn’t stop for over ten minutes, not even a breather, much like Xaviers didgeridoo skills; perhaps the amphitheater of mountains surrounding us was the reason.

Here’s an amusing photo that Caryn took today in Kitzbhuel, no disrespect, just a bit of a language thing I guess! (look to the writing on the wheelbarrow)

Hope you’re all well, peace…

Ryan Leech

This week is ‘Bike to Work Week’; yesterday, my first day of this event, I did manage to ride my bike at work, does that count? Hmmm, I guess not huh? Well, at the least for the next couple days my commute will be walking from my bedroom to the office, I guess that’s not all bad eh? Well, it’s sure nice to be home for a couple days, that’s for sure. Especially when Caryn makes me the best veggie omelette in the world with avocados on top, hmmmm. Thanks Caryn!

So yesterdays bike riding at work consisted of me doing a show for over 1400 people having a  catered lunch at round tables; well they were done lunch by the time I started my show, but anyway, it was for the Canadian Tourism Convention which had guests from countries all over the world, and it was Banff Lake Louise that hired me for this private lunch function. The last demo line I had was balancing along my railing, like I always do, but this time I was on a stage that was over three feet high, so the drop off the end was over 7 feet high, a little extra challenge which was nice!

Happy bike week everyone!

Yesterday afternoon was my last show in Maine, and it was a public show, and it took place in the Camden Opera House. This beautiful venue was perfect for the event which included the showing of Manifesto, Trial and Error, and Crux; then a live demo, and a Q&A session to follow. The whole event was about 2 hours long; that’s a whole lotta Ryan time!

The best part of this trip was meeting and hanging out with so many great people. From Chris Christie the owner of Bikesenjava who thought of and organized the whole tour, to Ian who built all the demo obstacles, to Andrew who took care of the bike shop while Chris took me around, to Karl and John who both took a week of holiday to help set up and tear down, and drive the trailer; Chuck, Tanya, Gabe, Andy, Woody, and Steve for also helping with set up, Jeff at the snow bowl for helping with the Opera House venue, and Kaarie and Hayden who hosted us at their house; hopefully I didn’t miss too many names! The capacity of these Mainers to give their time for this tour was incredible; and I think it ultimately says a lot for a community that is willing to put others (in this case the students of the schools and cycling enthusiasts) ahead of their own needs that brings a community together, and ultimately creates a friendly neighborhood where good things can happen. For instance, it was rare that I saw anyone lock their vehicle, even if it had a bike in the back. The pace of life is rather laid back in mid coast Maine, yet everyone certainly knows the value of hard work. No trip to the Maine coast is complete without eating some local lobster, so Chris got the whole crew together for a cook up, very nice!!

I arrived home last night, (Caryn and I counted six Starbucks from gate to gate during our layover in the Chicago airport) and now sit in a hotel after a seven hour drive up to Revelstoke, BC, where I start the next week of schools which will consist of nine T.O.L. presentations and one bike shop show, whew!!

Go Barak, Peace Y’all,

Ryan

My new friends at Bikesenjava in Maine have gone all out for my demo tour. I put together a little video of the obstacles they made for my visit because they are just amazing, right down to the details. If you live in the Maine area, please do come out to the public show they have organized on Saturday.

I have just arrived home after a month on the road, a fantastic month of shows that took me through Northern BC, down to California for the Sea Otter Classic, across to Toronto for demos at The Green Living Show, then finally to Ottawa for a shop show. After mixing in some very early morning photo shoots, breakfast TV shows, and late nights, and not enough yoga, my body decided it had had enough, so now I am at home in bed, sick with either bronchitis or pneumonia, and strep throut. Have you ever gone through an exceptionally busy time and right at the end, when all commitments were done, got really sick? Our bodies way of giving us a forced rest.

For me though, it’s tough, this rest is short lived, I have to pick up my trailer and get ready to perform on Saturday. Hopefully the antibiotics kick in in time, because it’s hard to cancel a show that is being advertised on the radio, and in the newspaper, some people make an extra effort to see me, and I have known people that travel a fair distance to do so. Even if it is just one person, or one kid that is bummed, that is enough for me to grit my teeth and make it happen. One worry is being contagious, but as I understand, after two days of antibiotics, people around me should be in the clear; or is that an old wives tale? Robin Coope, hopefully you can come announce for me buddy, like the good ‘ol days where you couldn’t get a word out of my mouth!

So the last demo in Ottawa  (well technically Gatineau), my symptoms were starting to show. The weather was cold, but clear, and I had been up at 5am in Toronto, to get a photo shoot in. Of course traveling to the shop, and eating nothing but ‘Timmies’ and ‘Coffee Time’ didn’t help with my health. I then started setting up my old demo structures which live out in Toronto. I was at this shop last year with my ‘nice’ western demo set-up, so as far as the look and flash, it’s a step down. Managed to muster off the show, sign a whack of posters, and all was good, and my petty worries about performing on my old stuff was a non-issue. Friendly folk there, even took me out to Dinner, thanks JF!

Once I muster enough energy, I have a little video tour edit of the Green Living show to post, I was so excited to have been a part of that event, and wanted to share some of it with you.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out over the last month, couldn’t do these tours without all the great people along the way. 

Nice!! 

Ryan

Just getting ready to do some shows today, such a busy event!

I saw The Collectives new film last night called “Seasons”, beautiful film that takes you on a journey through the seasons with six riders. It is a blast to watch, so much fun, and of course the cinematography is unreal. I also like the ‘vote Obama’ at the bottom of the credits, nice one guys. 

No more time to keep writing, so I wish you all a great weekend!

Ryan

Just some video clips from my recent Northern BC Tour….I’m now southward bound (in a hotel close to Portland) on my way down to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA.