Dear Reader,
In my last blog I wrote about the major changes in my daily life. Moreover there´s one thing that hasn´t really been a part of my daily life before, but became a huge part of it recently. Most of the time it´s my most favorite, but on some days/in some nights it´s the least favorite part of my new occupation:
The traveling!
I have to admit, that at first, when I started I didn´t even think a lot about this part of a cyclists life. I wouldn´t have called myself a very experienced globetrotter. I had my first flight at 21, followed by a few more in the following years. Also I haven´t spent a lot of nights in hotels, since my family always went on camping trips together. As you see, so far, every flight and every hotel stay used to be something special and extraordinary.
Right in January I started “the journey” with my first ever longdistance flight. To Australia. And actually in the following month I turned out to be a pretty lucky flyer. My LD flight experiences in a few words: Businessclass upgrade, empty or emercengy exit row! It´s okay to hate me now, even our teammanager hates me for that fact. But it´s a fact! 😀
In the last 6 months my travel experience level rapidly increased and so did my mileage account.
As an example I might give you a short overview on my last month of traveling:
My May started with a flight from Girona to Germany, for a short training block. After being back in Girona for 5 hours, I left again to Barcelona to fly out to California, where I raced the Amgen TOC. After a five day stay in the US, I returned again to Girona. Now for the long period of a whole day. Enough time to pack both bikes, do the laundry and pack again, so I could fly back to Germany to race the Lotto Ladies Tour in Thüringen. I already left the race after four stages to attend my sisters wedding. “As the maid of honor, you better be there” was what she told me. This time I chose the train instead of the plane. After the wedding celebration I left in the early morning to catch a flight back to California again, to join the ZWIFT Coast Ride for three days.
At the end of a month with being jetlagged four times in two weeks, a wedding, two stage races and a few hundered kilometers on the Californian coast I finally returned to Germany, where I´ll stay now with my parents until the nationals.
Don´t get me wrong: As I said, most of the time it´s my favourite part of this life. I love to travel. I love the fact to be able to ride my bike all over the world, to race in all those beautiful places and I know how priviliged I am to experience all of that. But sometimes at 3 a.m. in the morning, when you are awake as if you had a can of coffee, but you know you should be sleeping, it just feels different. But…..actually nightshifting isn´t any better 😀 Not complaining!
To share some of the experiences I gained in the last few month, here is my TOP TEN of Carry On Items for cycling trips:
1. Refillable Bottle
– Just take one of your bike bottles with you. Saves a lot of money at the airport and you always stay hydrated on the flight.
2. Sleeping Mask
– Overnight flight, LD flight or just a short trip….Why not always have a power nap?!
3. Neck pillow
– To avoid a post flight whiplash after falling asleep several times because of Item No. 2
4. Earplugs
– Makes your nap way more enjoyable
5. Compression socks
– No swollen legs, no thrombosis, no pulmonary embolism.
(Why as a carry on? Why not wear them on the airport already? Three simple reasons: most of the time it´s just too hot, it also looks super strange and the people sitting next to you always appreciate it if you wear some fresh and clean socks.)
6. Cycling Shoes
– if your suitcase doesn´t make it in time, you still have the most important items to be able to ride
7. Helmet
– See No. 6
8. A Cycling Kit
– See No. 6
9. Toothbrush and -paste
– Thats even more refreshing than the hot towels on the flight
10. Passport
– Well it´s quite essential they told me at the border control.
Have some nice and safe trips, and keep on traveling!
Tanja
