No Wonder Tony Martin is Upset

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Today’s blog title says it all. In preparation for the Men’s Elite Individual Time Trail tomorrow – and because I never knew what a funicular was until we came to Norway – we decided to preview the end of the course. We had read that the four time world champion. Tony Martin (aka the Panzer Wagon) was upset that the end of the time trial was uphill. Let me tell you – it’s not uphill – it’s up mountain. The last 3.5km is about a 9 percent grade. The funicular goes from near downtown up to the top. But, instead of taking motorized transportation, we walked it … slowly, thinking all the time .. I would not want to ride up this. But we did see people riding it – some enthusiastic leisure riders --- and then late in the day some professional riders out reconnoitering the course on their time trial bikes. Another reason Tony Martin is upset is that the UCI is allowing riders to change bikes during the race – and everyone is saying that by changing from a time trial bike to a road bike – you can save 20 seconds up the climb. That doesn’t really matter for Tony Martin though because the hill will be too much for him.

The favorites are Chris Froome from Great Britain and Tom Dumoulin from the Netherlands. Team Dumoulin was out on the hill this morning spray painting encouragement and Tom’s face on all of the really steep sections. Go Tom and then his face – over and over and over again. We stopped to watch the artists in action – impressive. There were a few other riders that had fans spray painting messages as well – but no Froome fans. I am a Froome fan, and had I known I was his only fan here, I would have taken a spray paint can up the hill for him. But – no time left before the race starts tomorrow. We think we saw Froome out on a training ride today .. here’s the evidence

1) He was riding with a guy on Team Sky who looked like Tao Geoghegan Hart. Hart is also riding the time trial tomorrow

2) The second rider (Froome in my mind) had an oblong chain ring – like Froome uses.

3) The second rider on the lower part of the hill on the way up – came down first – like he was faster (like Froome)

4) I like to think we saw Froomie

We aren’t sure where we will watch the time trial tomorrow – we would have to walk back up the mountain, there isn’t much room, only 1 TV projection, and the organizers are closing the road early to get ready for the race. I think Dave is leaning toward watching it from town – but I will let you know what we decide tomorrow. But – it is going to be a great race day.

Because of our trek up the mountain – we missed the junior individual time trial coverage. The workers were busy setting up for tomorrow – but no live feed at the top today. Tom Pidcock – Great Britain – was the winner. We did make it back down for the Elite Women’s Individual Time Trial though. It was quite the competition – and we had an American on the podium until the very end. The defending world champion was American Amber Neben – but the course really didn’t suit her (hilly) and she finished eleventh. American Chloe Dygert finished fourth – 19 seconds out of third place. The real story though was Annemiek van Vleuten from the Netherlands who won. She was the rider who last year at the Olympic road race had that horrible head first crash. She was hospitalized with three lumbar spinal fractures and a severe concussion. She was happy to be the world champion today.

It seems like most of the schools are out this week for the race. There were school kids everywhere cheering the riders on. For the pre-school and day care – it was a bike riding day. They were riding down the steep hill when we saw them.

Dave did not get his reindeer hot dog today – but the school girls that interviewed us for their school project - told us they were delicious. We did spend a lot of time this morning looking for a post office to mail our postcards. We looked and we looked before we decided to go back to the tourist information center and ask. After that, we saw post offices and mail boxes everywhere – of course.

Today’s cultural note is about Edvard Grieg. He is the most celebrated person from the city of Bergen, with numerous statues depicting his image, and many cultural entities named after him: the city's largest concert building (Grieghallen), its most advanced music school (Grieg Academy) and its professional choir (Edvard Grieg Kor). Hewas a Norwegian composer and pianist and is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers.

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Photos

I could live here
Awesome house overlooking the harbor.

Decorated Trees
At the school. They are like tree socks!

Bikes, Bikes Everywhere
Also at the school.

Trash Talking
On a utility box on the way up the hill. It says ... no matter how slowly you go, you break everyone who is on the couch

Funicular track
up and through the mountain

Team Dumoulin
Preparing to spray paint his face

Go Tom
really says it all

Goats
Also at the top of the mountain. They look better than they smell.

Playground
At the top of the mountain. He looks scary - but was very nice.