Out there… with the CRAZIES

Yesterday I went out with the “crazies”…

Martin asked me to come along for a scouting mission – to connect a few trails in a new area. And sometimes they bring me along as a guinea pig, to see  how “less skilled” riders do on their new lines. I am a Bronze class rider at best – and currently, after not riding for about 3 years, probably a rather bad one.

Despite forecasts for heavy rain and lots of office work to do, I agreed and tagged along, hoping to capture some action for social media…

After about one hour of fun riding with Teo, the Red Bull Romaniacs track director, experienced rider and mechanic – Martin rejoined with us after doing some really gnarly stuff and getting is workout.

We were about to continue together – but then I noticed that look in Martin`s eyes and saw him disappearing in a few bushes covering a vertical area… And I looked at Teo and he just shook his head… My gut-feeling started to scream “code red” and my self-preservation instinct overruled the potential of some more fun riding. To be brutally honest, the starting rain and and the temperature dropping 10 degrees, also weighted into the decision to ABANDON and get the heck off the mountain…

However, sometimes my gut feeling (and Teo’s …) are not that far off: When the crazies retuned and I saw the condition they were in, I was actually quite happy to have spend the last 3 hours waiting in a restaurant (in dry clothes…) near the car! There had been some crashes, some bike-dragging up and down the mountain and both of them returned wet, cold and hungry like desperate street dogs – but with crazy grins on their face….

I guess that is the price for building a world class race track that attracts people from over 50 countries to travel around half the world to come to Romania….