Burgundy & Paris Multisport

Pinot noir, chocolate crepes, and escargot. Notre dame, the Eiffel Tower, and the Musée d'Orsay. Biking through vineyards, skating on canal tow paths, and hiking to a hillside church. There is so much happening on our Burgundy and Paris Multisport Adventure it is hard to know where to start my blog.

Burgundy, a province in the eastern part of France about five hours drive from Paris, is known for its food and wine. We have been visiting Burgundy for four years now, however, primarily because of two long, paved, and beautiful paths in the heart of the area.

We start our tour skating along the Canal du Centre in the town of Chalon-sur-Saone. The path running along the canal is just perfect for skating. Because a number of participants on this trip were not experienced skaters, I took about 1/3 of the group to one end of the trail for a short braking clinic. The rest of the group started skating from the end of the path near our Chalon hotel and one of my two co-guides on this trip provided advanced skating instruction while on the trail. It was gratifying to hear how much people liked the path but more so to hear one skater tell me he had learned more about skating in one day than in all his previous lessons.

The activity continued in Burgundy with successive days of biking, hiking, skating, and hiking. On this trip, I ended up supporting the route in our Zephyr van on both skating days and so was able to bike the long route on our biking day and hike both days we were on foot. Since I love getting off the trails into the Burgundy countryside, that was fine with me.

However, it was during one of my driving days that I had my best day in Burgundy. While the group skated from our hotel in the small town of Buxy to our hotel in the slightly larger but more famous (for its ancient abbey) town of Cluny, two of us drove the support van and transferred the group’s luggage. We then went to the local grocery store to purchase ingredients for a surprise picnic lunch.

The menu? Freshly prepared salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, and potato; French bread straight from the bakery; four kinds of cheeses and five kinds of sandwich meats; cashews, almonds, and pistachio nuts; fresh fruit including melon, oranges, and kiwi; cake, cookies, and French chocolates for dessert; water with a flavor of mint to wash it all down; and freshly picked wildflowers for the table.

It was a feast and when our group rolled up to the picnic area, situated alongside the trail in a wooded park, they were happy to see us! Naturally, on a normal basis I much prefer hiking, skating, or biking to driving the van. However, this day was special because I felt like I belonged in France as I shopped and prepared a very European picnic. The compliments from our participants didn’t hurt!

After five days in Burgundy, we boarded a chartered bus for the ride back to Paris. That evening, we had a quick dinner before heading to the Friday Night Skate. With thousands of skaters participating (the skate runs every week and averages 10,000) we quickly separated and enjoyed the amazing experience of skating through the streets of the city – at night – in a huge crowd. We met again at the break and were so pumped up by the experience that at midnight we skated up to a sidewalk café for a post-skate drink.

The next two days we toured the major sights of Paris on skates. Many in the group were nervous about skating in Paris and, granted, it is more difficult than skating on a nicely paved path. However, with a little encouragement and some pointers on how to navigate the city, our group headed down side streets toward the Eiffel Tower. Two days, dozens of kilometers, and an entire city later our group of nervous skaters were quite impressed – and justifiably so – with their successes skating in Paris.

I can relate the details but it is hard to relate how emotionally satisfying the last week has been for me. I absolutely love Europe and France is one of my favorite countries on the continent. I have been to Burgundy half a dozen times and it now feels as if this little corner of the world is a second home. Because of this feeling, it is that much more rewarding to be able to show off my “home” to our tour participants.

Camp Rollerblade Denver

This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in Camp Rollerblade Denver. This two-day camp was part of the 13-city schedule of Camp Rollerblade Weekends in 2006.

We had a relatively small group of nine students at the Denver camp. (Our average is more than twice that and many camps sell out at 24 students.) Participants ranged in age from 17 to 60 with an average age of 42. Three of the participants had never skated before and all were shaky on braking and other fundamental skills prior to camp.

As the owner of Zephyr Adventures, the company that runs Camp Rollerblade, I don’t normally get to instruct at the camps we run around the country. However, since I live in Boulder only 10 miles from the Denver camp location, I was lucky to be able to teach at this one. Kris Thomas, a full-time Zephyr employee in our Red Lodge, Montana office, drove down to join me at this camp as my co-instructor.

The camp started at 9:00 AM on Saturday and was held in a private rink in a city park with nearby benches, picnic tables, and a bathroom. We started with introductions and a discussion about skating, equipment, and safety gear. We then started out with the basics: how to stand without rolling, how to get up off the ground from a sitting position, and how to fall safely without hurting yourself.

Once in the rink, we learned Stride One (the beginner forward motion stride) and skated from one side of the rink to the other. At the beginning, as I am sure all the participants would agree, it was quite a sight! No one could stop so we just banged into the rink wall each time we came to the other side. Legs were wobbly and balance was precarious. However, we kept falls to a bare minimum (in fact, I don’t remember any on this first drill) and everyone had smiles on their faces by the time we took our first break.

The key to skating is to learn to stop and that was our next order of business. Using the heel brake is not a natural motion at all and generally requires instruction. We broke the motion down into parts and, by lunchtime, most people were stopping fairly efficiently. We ended the morning session with a game of “Red Light, Green Light” on skates.

The two days progressed in a similar manner. New drill, practice, fun game to reinforce the concept, and then a short break. Learning to skate comes in waves and periods of enlightenment, when everything we are saying seems to all of a sudden click in a student’s mind (and body). I remember Barbara, who struggled with braking until she watched her daughter Tessa demonstrate it properly. Boom – she had it down. Or Jed, who started out only wanting to stroke with one foot before all of a sudden learning to use both in his stride.

The final afternoon we headed out of the rink to a local trail to practice our skills in the real world. The trail was beautiful and the real-life conditions made it exciting! Everyone did great. We practiced going over rough terrain (including sewer grates), skating up small hills, braking down hills to control our speed, and even perfecting the grass stop (a rolling stop into the grass rather than a flailing of all limbs in a last-ditch effort).

My final memory of the trip was when Savita struggled to perfect the grass stop on a slight decline. Throwing all caution to the wind, she headed down a steeper hill, caromed into the grass, and executed a perfect grass stop. A fitting finale to the weekend.

Congratulations to our nine students and all veterans of Camp Rollerblade. You deserve a round of applause! If you yourself are eager to skate or know someone who is, please send them to www.CampRollerblade.com!

Tuscany & Umbria Biking

Last night I returned from two weeks in Italy where I helped run our Italy Biking Adventure. 18 participants joined our team of Italian and American guides for seven days of biking, sightseeing, eating, and drinking in Tuscany and Umbria.

Tuscany is perhaps the most famous province of Italy, having been popularized by the book and movie Under the Tuscan Sun. Winding roads, ancient hilltop towns, lush vineyards, and amazing sunsets are all part of Tuscany's charm and justify its fame. However, the area is also hilly and there is no getting around the hills when bicycling in Tuscany.

Umbria, on the other hand, features a large flat valley with hills on either side. Less famous than its neighbor, Umbria nevertheless has great wines, wide-open scenery, and fascinating towns. Plus, there is the advantage when on a bicycle of that flat plain. While most people who visit this region of Italy tend to see either Tuscany or Umbria, our seven-day tour features both areas. Our cyclists appreciate it.

Our tour started in Siena, a beautiful town in the heart of Tuscany famous for its wild horse races in the central "campo" of the historic district. Meeting in the morning, we shuttled to the wine-centered hilltop town of Montalcino where the group arrived to find 22 shiny bikes - our wheeled companions for the next seven days - nestled under the walls of the Montalcino castle. After introductions and an overview of both the trip and the bikes, we started on a ride through the Tuscan countryside. Our route took us on both paved and dirt roads, avoiding traffic when at all possible, and featured a stop 10 kilometers in at Casata Prime Donne winery, the only one in Italy owned and operated entirely by women. Most of the group left with one or more bottles of the delicious brunello wine, specialty of the Montalcino area.

Shortly after the winery, the route had a junction where those looking for a shorter ride headed to our hotel and others looking for a workout could elect a longer option. Our hotel, a converted farm (Agriturismo) situated on a ridge with incredible views of the area's rolling hills, also provided our dinner for the evening, an amazing Italian meal made with ingredients that came straight from the farm. The menu consisted of bread, salad, spelt soup (made from a grain common in Tuscany), artichoke risotto, veal with a spinach sidedish, dessert, and all the wine we cared to drink. Mama mia!

This first day was typical of our subsequent days and I won't go over each day in detail. The biking was excellent, always with multiple distance options and detours to ancient towns, abbeys, and fortresses. We also had a variety of non-biking fun, including an olive oil tasting, a wine & cheese pairing, a culture talk on the differences between US and Italian culture, and an historical walk featuring everything from a Renaissance church to a Roman aqueduct. Each evening we would have an amazing Italian dinner, featuring local pastas, bruschetta, pizza, meats, salads, and always the fantastic Italian wine to wash it down.

And the biking? With three routes available on most days and van support there when needed, this tour is designed for all ability levels. Many of our participants on this trip laughed on the first day when describing how they had not been on a bike for years, while a few others were frequent riders and brought their own specialized pedals. The goal is to accommodate everyone and I think that was definitely achieved.

Tours like this tend to end all too quickly. Seven days came and went with unbelievable speed and I find it hard to grasp that just two weeks ago I was arriving at Rome's airport for the start of my Italy stay. While the trip is finite, the memories last a lifetime and I am sure all 22 participants and guides will long remember this past week.

For me, my best memories are always of small things. While I like touring Rome or seeing the sights of Tuscany and Umbria, I most enjoy feeling that I have become involved in the local life in some little way. Getting up in the morning for a run in the fields surrounding the hilltop town of Pienza ... having a glass of wine with our Italian guide Giovanni upon our arrival in Sansepolcro, still exhausted from plane travel ... sitting at a table in the out-of-the-way town of Lucignano watching the two 70-year old proprietors shuffle back and forth bringing fresh meats and produce to their guests ... or stopping for water in the center of Bevagna, watching as the local policewoman casually eyes our bicycles before telling a resident driver to move her car from the auto-free zone.

Italy is an amazing country and everyone should go there at least once in his or lifetime. Italy 2007, here we come!

California Wine Country Biking

I returned home a few days ago from the California Wine Country and our first ever Biking Adventure in the area. I must say, I was very pleased with the tour!

14 participants joined my co-guide Gary Passon and me on the five-day trip. We started in Sonoma, biked across the county line into Napa Valley, and spent a few days in that beautiful area. We then crossed back over into upper Sonoma County and the Alexander Valley.

The key to the trip - and what everyone I tell about it wants to know - is how the biking part mixed with the wine tasting part. I must say I was pleasantly surprised! Most participants were there for both the biking and the wine tasting and we tried to accommodate. We had three biking routes each day (Short, Medium, and Long) and tried to place the bulk of the riding in the morning hours. That left the afternoons for the wine tasting.

So, as a sample day, the group might have ridden 20 miles in the morning to a good lunch spot without any winery stops on the way. In the afternoon, we might travel another 10 miles but stop at four or five wineries to taste the delicious local wines. Each person chose whether to drink or spit and how many wineries to visit. However, we found that with a mile of riding in between each winery, we had a great time and never felt as if we were jeapordizing our safety.

Personally, I had two favorite experiences on the tour - one related to biking and one to wine tasting. The first was when I was able to ride the Long Route on the third trip day with tour participant (and friend) Greg Johnson. The route was 50 miles long and only four of us total elected to bike it that day. Greg and I pushed each other and had a great time. In fact, we were so beat by the end of the day that neither of us wanted to stop at a winery!

The other memorable experience I had was on the fourth day. I drove the support van that morning, shuttling a few of the Short Route bikers part way, dropping off the luggage at our next hotel, and then shopping for a picnic lunch we set up at the Alexander Valley Winery. After lunch at the winery, I swapped with Gary (who rode in the morning) and was able to ride the last 10 miles to the hotel. Of course, that meant I was able to visit the wineries!

By the time Gary and I were done cleaning up the picnic, most of the group had already started out. I rode with Cathy, Chad, and Theresa and the four of us stopped at four wineries that afternoon. We had a great time sipping the different wines, chatting with the winery staff, and enjoying moving through the incredible scenery on our bikes. What a day to remember!

The California Wine Country is truly an incredible locale and biking is really a great way to see the area. I am pretty excited about the prospects of this tour becoming quite popular for us as more people learn how fun it can be!