My new business venture

I dreamed about it for a long time.

Velissimo, my new baby.

Organizing deluxe cycling tours around the world, handpicked destinations I enjoyed riding my bike,
eating local delicacies, sipping outstanding wines and sleeping at great hotels and inns.

Is there more to say? Check us out around the web.

Life is good...

My bike shop in Kona is celebrating it's 7th birthday this month. We've had a lot of great times here. It's been a wild ride. Bike works Kona and it goes fast.

We're having sales on awesome Scott Foil aero road bikes until inventory is depleted. Some other great deals on bikes like the Kestrel 4000 as well. If you need some sweet wheels, come give me a visit.

Mallorca 2012 Last Day

Dark clouds hovered over Capdepera.
The sky was sad, just like us, today is the last day of riding.

A small group went for a quick ride up our "Small Kaloko" hill of Cala Torta.
Julia and I decided to stay put and take care of "cleaning up" our camp.
Bike clean and return, packing, etc.

The gang was back around 1pm, quick shower and catching a ride with Peter to the well anticipated Midevil Festival in  town.

Capdepera has a lot of history and a great castle on top of the town, it just celebrated its 910's birthday.

For dinner we choose a special place, Sa Sinia, the well on the beach, a, lets say, German-Spanish specialties restaurant, with a great mix of food from both countries.

We had to share my fatherlands cuisine with our fellow riders, especially the homesick plate,

made of a huge German sausage with paprika and curry powder, topped with ketchup and french fries, hmmhh tasty. Gulped it down with a very good tasting local Mahou beer.

This was our final meal together.

Juilia and I would like to thank all participants for a great time.

A special thanks to Peter and Regina Sauerland for their hospitality and never ending care,

our sponsors, Joe from Subway in Kona, Profile Design in California, Dennis Hawkins of Today's Health, Mike and Tammy Kelly of Tradewind Plastering, Mike of Holualoa Coffee, our local Radio Station B93-B97, Hammer Gel, Mike DeCarli of Aloha Greens , Garrett Oka of Sweet Tooth Dental and Penn Henderson for his great jersey designs.

Thanks for following, until our next adventure.

A hui hou, Oliver and Julia Kiel

Mallorca Day 14

Second to last day of riding.

Another climb to one of the greatest places to see Mallorca from the top is called Puig de Randa,
a 1500 foot mountain top close to Palma.

The plan was to ride to the top of the Randa and continue to the small fishing village of Cala Figuera to show the gang  the beautiful bay of the above mentioned village.

Two weeks of riding took its toll again and only Franz and me started the day for another epic ride.
The rest of the riders took it easy and went for a shorter ride or shopping.

Cold temperatures make me go to the bathroom more often, and I have a 5 mile bladder,
that's what my fellow riders tell me anyway, so after 5 miles I had to do a pit stop and told Franz to go ahead not to slow down and continue the ride " I'll catch up shortly"
"Take a left after the gas station" I shouted and Franz went ahead with the ride.

I saw him disappear over the hill and started riding, calculating that he would have about a 500 meter
advantage, so I pushed hard to catch up, never had a problem before, but today, a day after a real rest day my legs felt a little sluggish at this moment, hhhmmm, I am going hard and no Franz?

Well, come on Oliver, give it a little more, so I opened up the gas and went almost full throttle,
no sign of Franz, that fellow is fast today!
Knowing that his navigation skills are not the best I figured that he would wait for me at the next round about, nothing!

I had to make a decision at this point, either he took the wrong turn, not possible, there is only one turn past the gas station, I would have to go back track, but that would get me in trouble with Peter, our support waiting for us on top of the Randa, darn......

Kept on going, met a nice guy from Germany with the same ambitions to climb up Randa,
thinking that it'll all work out for good and Franz will wait for me at the top with his big smile on his face when he beats me.

Oh my, no Franz at the top, but shortly after I stopped, Peter showed up and told me that Franz was safe back at the hotel???

What the ...?

Franz indeed took a wrong turn.

Enjoying my Ice Coffee at the top I decided that this is it, lets go and drive back to the hotel and let this ride be a great end to our vacation.

Mallorca 2012 Day 13

Rain Day is Rest Day

What, another rain day, oh noooo...

With the bikes in our hands, ready to leave, standing in front of the "bike room",
shivering and looking up in fear, today's ride is not going to happen.

After careful considerations, it was actually an easy decision, today is a true rest day.
Even the temperature was not below 70F, it felt more like 50'sF, stiff breezes from the ocean
and drizzle, brrrr.

Happy faces everywhere, lets go shopppiiiinnggg!

Peter and Regina drove us to Cala Millor, a tourist town about 4 miles down the road and
gave us some hours to fulfill our needs to play tourist for awhile and still our appetite for buying junk
to take home to our lovely friends and family :-)

A great local lunch at a Tapa Bar in Cala Ratjada with lots of specialties from the surrounding
areas made our day.

Mallorca 2012 Day 12

Against Coach Peter's advice Franz and I decided to take on the climb to the monastery San Salvador.

It payed off, it was another beautiful day in the saddle. 73 miles, 4408ft of climbing, so far we are up to 

725mi and over 30000ft of vertical.