An Intense Itinerary

Our out-of-state team member, Rodrigo Sagastegui, completed the Six Gap Century with us this year...but with a travel-laden work schedule, it was anything but easy. We asked Rodrigo to recap his hectic agenda and his obvious love of the bike.

To talk about my Six Gap experience, you need to go back 3 weeks prior to the ride. September was a busy month for me due to the amount of business/communications we normally have with European customers/colleagues. It is a tradition for many Europeans to take long vacations and/or time off during the summer in order to take advantage of the good weather conditions. Everything seems to shut down for a few weeks and as soon as the summer is over (September), everybody is running around trying to catch up.

This year I had some meetings in Sweden (Sandvik's headquarters) on week 37, but left a few days early (Friday 9/5) to look around Stockholm. I go to Sweden a few times a year and it is normally an easy route... a direct overnight flight from Newark to Stockholm (7hrs), and then either 1 hr by train (or 2 hrs by car) to Sandviken. I got back home from this trip late on Friday 9/12, and tried to spend a few hours on the bike both Saturday and Sunday, but the jetlag only allowed me to do a couple of hours each day.

The following week was quite rainy and made it hard to get out and ride, except for the weekend when once again I rode both Saturday and Sunday. On Monday 9/22 I had to fly to Edmonton via Seattle to prepare our exhibit for a trade show. I had packed my bike Sunday night and dropped it by Fedex on my way to the airport. I stayed in Edmonton until Thursday, when I got back home via St. Paul late at night. Friday 9/26 I was in the office all day, and Saturday I flew from Newark to Atlanta for our Six Gap ride.

The problem was that I had a meeting scheduled in Sweden at 8:00 AM on Tuesday 9/30. This meant that If I still wanted to ride Six Gap, I had to find the way to ride all day on Sunday 9/28, and still being able to get to Sweden by Monday night (9/29 - My birthday). As it turned out, the only way to accomplish this was by flying directly after the ride from Atlanta to London (9 hrs), then to Amsterdam (2 hrs) , then to Stockholm (1.5 hrs), and finally a train to Sandviken (1 hr). This put me in my hotel room on Tuesday 9/30 at 3:00 AM, being able to lay down (couldn't sleep due to jet lag) for 3 hrs, take a shower, and go to work.

I know some may think this is insane. I spent $650 between bike shipment, car rental, lodging etc.. Spent my birthday alone & sleepless for 48 hrs, sitting in airplanes with cramping legs (no, I do not fly business class)... But why? Because right below spending time my wife and son, riding my bike is what I love most. My only regret... not being able to spend more time with you guys in Georgia this year. I hope to see you all again for the Tour de Georgia next spring !

Best Regards,
Rodrigo Sagastegui