Village life is not as quiet as one thinks. If it's not the tractors driving past the window, the church bells or cows that wake you up on a Sunday, it's the village band oompahing around for another festival.
But by far the most annoying noise pollution comes from mofas, the 50cc motorbikes that can be driven by every brat over 16. Fuschl currently has a little gang of four or five teenie boppers who drive their hairdryer bikes seemingly non-stop, much to the irritation of residents.
Now, I don't want to deny these kids their right to get around. If I was growing up in a small town in the sticks like Fuschl I would be desperate for my own transport. It's the fact that they use their machines for every tiny pointless journey.
On a typical evening, they meet for a smoke behind the post office. Then one or two drive the 300m to the gas station for more smokes or to fill up. Another drives the 200m to the vending machine. They all drive back to the post office for more smoking, occasionally giving lip to any one walking past.
Later, two or three whizz 250m up the road to the pub where despite not being able to see over the bar, they get a drink. Back to the post office, then over to the garage again.. ad infinitum.
The noise generated is an irritating whine, much louder than a scooter. At least one of them has a hole in the exhaust, adding to the din.
As I say, it's the kids' right to drive them, and in general they don't seem to break the 10pm curfew that Fuschl like most places in Austria has on them. However, it would be nice if they used them a bit more intelligently. Driving back and forth within a radius of 400m is totally pointless and incredibly annoying for most residents.
Not only that, but why the hell aren't they exploring a bit? Every 16 year-old wants to get out of wherever their parents are at and they have the means to do it, so why are they wasting their time mooching around Fuschl?
26 September 2010
13 September 2010
Calls for tougher bike courses at ITU races grow
My latest Letter from Europe column appearing in September/ October's Vo2max.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Javier Gomez, one of the world’s top triathletes. He had plenty to say about the progression of the sport and the ITU’s new World Championship Series which has made its debut this year.
The Series runs over seven races from April to September and visits large cities such as Sydney, Hamburg and London. Although there are some complexities, athletes basically score points at each race and whoever has the most points at the end of the season is crowned World Champion. At the time of writing, Gomez is lying in second overall with just the Grand Final to race in Budapest in mid-September.
The Spaniard is undoubtedly a fan of the Series. “The winner will definitely be the best of the year.”
But interestingly he had a few points where he figures improvements could be made, including the design of the bike courses.
“Every course is flat,” he says. “It would be much better to see at least two or three that were much harder. I mean, we went to Kitzbühel in the Austrian Alps and we had a totally flat course.”
“It would be better for the spectators, more exciting to see breaks go instead of large groups riding together.”
What makes his comments particularly notable is that Gomez’ strongest discipline is running – he has regularly knocked out a 29min 30sec for the 10km run sections this year – and that he would not benefit if bike courses got tougher.
“It would make it fairer for the guys who are better cyclists,” Gomez says, “and it’s good for the sport when different people win.”
He’s not alone in thinking this. Australian triathlon site firstoffthebike.com said in a blog in August that the ITU should, “Put up a super tough bike course and then we'll see how the likes of (Alistair) Brownlee and Gomez et al will fare.”
The WCS has brought triathlon into some of the world’s greatest cities, it would be a positive move to throw some variety into the bike leg and increase the excitement.
Footnote: Javier's second place at Saturday's Grand Final in Budapest was enough to secure his second World Championship title. The bike leg was undoubtedly tough but this was basically because it was pissing with rain and full of potholes. It was still flat as a pancake.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Javier Gomez, one of the world’s top triathletes. He had plenty to say about the progression of the sport and the ITU’s new World Championship Series which has made its debut this year.
The Series runs over seven races from April to September and visits large cities such as Sydney, Hamburg and London. Although there are some complexities, athletes basically score points at each race and whoever has the most points at the end of the season is crowned World Champion. At the time of writing, Gomez is lying in second overall with just the Grand Final to race in Budapest in mid-September.
The Spaniard is undoubtedly a fan of the Series. “The winner will definitely be the best of the year.”
But interestingly he had a few points where he figures improvements could be made, including the design of the bike courses.
“Every course is flat,” he says. “It would be much better to see at least two or three that were much harder. I mean, we went to Kitzbühel in the Austrian Alps and we had a totally flat course.”
“It would be better for the spectators, more exciting to see breaks go instead of large groups riding together.”
What makes his comments particularly notable is that Gomez’ strongest discipline is running – he has regularly knocked out a 29min 30sec for the 10km run sections this year – and that he would not benefit if bike courses got tougher.
“It would make it fairer for the guys who are better cyclists,” Gomez says, “and it’s good for the sport when different people win.”
He’s not alone in thinking this. Australian triathlon site firstoffthebike.com said in a blog in August that the ITU should, “Put up a super tough bike course and then we'll see how the likes of (Alistair) Brownlee and Gomez et al will fare.”The WCS has brought triathlon into some of the world’s greatest cities, it would be a positive move to throw some variety into the bike leg and increase the excitement.
Footnote: Javier's second place at Saturday's Grand Final in Budapest was enough to secure his second World Championship title. The bike leg was undoubtedly tough but this was basically because it was pissing with rain and full of potholes. It was still flat as a pancake.
Chipper
After a summer of limited cycling training following the birth of our son, I had intended just to cruise round the only race of the year that I had entered.
The Eddy Merckx Classic Radmarathon runs through 155km of beautiful countryside, with the final 60km taking in some fairly tough climbs. A friend from New Zealand was visiting and a gentle potter would have been a fun way to spend the day.
However, after 20km, I couldn't find my friend in the bunch and a red mist had filled my head: I was going to race this MF as hard as I could. It made no sense, I didn't need to and beforehand I hadn't even wanted to. But what the hell, I wanted to make my legs hurt.
For the next 100km, things went well. The climbs were not proving difficult and I was sitting comfortably in the main peloton. We hammered through Oberösterreich, past Mondsee and back into Salzburgerland and the village of Thalgau. Then, as expected, everything split on Thalgauegg and I was riding with a little group, not too far down on the leaders.
Dropping into Fuschl, where my family and friends cheered us through, was a marvelous feeling - I was a proper racing cyclist again.
Reality struck 5km later as I was promptly dropped on the Perfelleck, a short sharp ascent out of Fuschl. It was here I realized that motivation and experience couldn't account for a lack of longer distance endurance training.
There was about 30km to the finish and a shedload of climbing in the way. My thighs felt fatigued and despite eating four bananas and two energy bars, I thought I was on the verge of bonking.
Over the Gaisberg, the penultimate mountain and longest climb, was awful. There weren't enough gears on my bike and more and more people passed me. "Well," I thought, "I wanted to hurt my legs, so I better get on with it."
The descent was long enough to recover slightly and I caught one rider up before the bottom. But the final hill dragged and I was dropped again, left to my own thoughts about why on earth I was doing this and how much I was looking forward to a radler.
After 4hr 46min I rolled through the finish, in 70th place out of 350 and 25min down on the winner. An OK result. Could have done better if I was fitter. But I guess that despite however much I want to be, I'm not a proper racing cyclist anymore. I'm just an old chipper who still likes trying to beat people and making his legs hurt.
The Eddy Merckx Classic Radmarathon runs through 155km of beautiful countryside, with the final 60km taking in some fairly tough climbs. A friend from New Zealand was visiting and a gentle potter would have been a fun way to spend the day.
However, after 20km, I couldn't find my friend in the bunch and a red mist had filled my head: I was going to race this MF as hard as I could. It made no sense, I didn't need to and beforehand I hadn't even wanted to. But what the hell, I wanted to make my legs hurt.
For the next 100km, things went well. The climbs were not proving difficult and I was sitting comfortably in the main peloton. We hammered through Oberösterreich, past Mondsee and back into Salzburgerland and the village of Thalgau. Then, as expected, everything split on Thalgauegg and I was riding with a little group, not too far down on the leaders.
Dropping into Fuschl, where my family and friends cheered us through, was a marvelous feeling - I was a proper racing cyclist again.
Reality struck 5km later as I was promptly dropped on the Perfelleck, a short sharp ascent out of Fuschl. It was here I realized that motivation and experience couldn't account for a lack of longer distance endurance training.
There was about 30km to the finish and a shedload of climbing in the way. My thighs felt fatigued and despite eating four bananas and two energy bars, I thought I was on the verge of bonking.
Over the Gaisberg, the penultimate mountain and longest climb, was awful. There weren't enough gears on my bike and more and more people passed me. "Well," I thought, "I wanted to hurt my legs, so I better get on with it."
The descent was long enough to recover slightly and I caught one rider up before the bottom. But the final hill dragged and I was dropped again, left to my own thoughts about why on earth I was doing this and how much I was looking forward to a radler.
After 4hr 46min I rolled through the finish, in 70th place out of 350 and 25min down on the winner. An OK result. Could have done better if I was fitter. But I guess that despite however much I want to be, I'm not a proper racing cyclist anymore. I'm just an old chipper who still likes trying to beat people and making his legs hurt.
2 September 2010
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