A Change of Plans

There's a very good reason that I'm going to have to change a few of my goals for the year.

I came into this year with some ambitious goals. More ambitious - and more numerous - than I’ve ever had before for a cycling season. That was spurred on by a number of things, including this newsletter and the energy I draw from writing for all of you.

When I wrote about my goals for 2025, the readers here (and presumably quite a few others who haven’t yet subscribed) made it my most read post, nearly doubling the next most read newsletter. That was really fun to see. This newsletter, and the moniker “Roving Cyclist,” is intended to share adventure by bike. If the list of 2025 goals was anything, it was a declaration of adventurous intent, and you all responded to that ambition.

I haven’t fallen away from any of that ambition, either. My R-12 streak is intact, having survived through the winter and into the randonneuring season. By the end of June I hope to have my Super Randonneur series completed for the year, capped off by an attempt to achieve my goal of a one-shot 600k. And in July, the Mishigami Challenge looms.

After that, though…although my excitement for the goals I set later in the year hasn’t faded one bit, it turns out that the goals will nonetheless need to change.

Return to the Alps

No more burying the lede.

In August, I’m going to be moving back to Salzburg, Austria.

It’s a move that has come about quite suddenly, but one that makes me incredibly happy. It’s a city I love for many, many reasons, among which is that living there from 2017 through 2020 exploded my little cycling hobby into a full-blown passion.

For many personal reasons, being back in the US for the last four and a half years has been important for me and my partner, Leslie. There is a lot that we love here in Chicago specifically and the US more broadly. This was the right place for us to be during this time. We’ll continue to cherish the experiences, opportunities, friends, and family that we will, come August, be more distant from once again.

In purely cycling terms, I count the numerous state parks I’ve bikepacked to, the Chicago Randonneurs club, and the cycling scene in Chicago in general among the many things I will be sorry to be less immediately connected to. Cycling in this city is different in many ways from cycling in Salzburg, but that has expanded my experience and conception of riding bikes in ways that I will not forget.

The Goals Ahead

Last year I wrote about trying to bounce back from an ultra race, to avoid the hangover that could quickly eat up whatever remained of the season. I chose the Arkansas High Country Race as one of my goals to peak for this year because, yes, I wanted to experience a race I’d never done before, but also because it would force me to figure out how to resume training after the Mishigami Challenge this year.

But now, I won’t be racing AHCR. I won’t be racing the Driftless Dagger, either. Leaving the USA, I can’t even complete an R-12, at least not officially.

But I still want to battle that post-peak hangover. I’ll still write about that effort. So here’s my new, much more vague goal for the second half of my 2025 season:

I want to regain my climbing legs.

Living in Chicago, it’s inevitable that one’s ability to climb well on a bike will atrophy. You just have to go too far to reach any kind of meaningful hill.

But in Salzburg, hills – and mountains – are nigh unavoidable. And you don’t want to avoid them! That’s a huge part of the fun of riding in that region. So here are two pieces to the goal, one measurable and one less so.

1) In the “not very measurable” category, I want to get my legs used to climbing again, particularly so that when next spring comes I’m not babying myself in the mountains. This means getting out on my bike a lot through the late summer and fall. So, incidentally, this goal is also about avoiding a post-peak hangover.

2) Right on the edge of Salzburg is a small mountain called the Gaisberg. There is a route I love which starts off the back side of the mountain before curling around and climbing up to the peak. I call it my “Gaisberg Benchmark” fitness test.

I only have a few data points since I only started tracking my rides in 2019, but based on memory, 1:10 was a quick time to reach the mountain peak. I might have done it as fast as 1:05 once; 1:15-1:25 was far more typical.

So given that A) I don’t have climbing legs anymore, but B) I’m generally in much better shape than I was in 2019, my goal is to do this route in 1:10 before the end of the year.

Beyond That?

Beyond that, who knows? I’m not ready to talk, or even think that much, about next year yet. I still have so much more 2025 ahead. Time for fun rides and big adventures.

This newsletter won’t be going anywhere. Regardless of where I am - or where you are - geographically, the idea is to share knowledge and share adventures. To go roving about on two wheels to all the different places the road may lead.

I am confident there is plenty more road ahead, and I’m excited to keep sharing all those rides!