My life on two wheels

Napa's Euser checks in from Girona, Spain

By Lucas Euser

Multiple times I have been featured in the Napa Valley Register with various articles portraying my career as a professional cyclist.

As I read them from a distance, I always think they are missing something — a more personal connection.

I realize most of you have no idea who I am and an even more vague idea of what professional cycling is all about.

I’ve taken it upon myself to try and bridge that gap from the everyday Register reader to the everyday American cyclist living and racing in Europe, which to the best of my knowledge is a bridge that has never been built — for many reasons, most notably the one where you say, “What the heck do I care about professional cycling in Europe?”

The answer to that is probably nothing and I don’t blame you for that.

However, since I hold cycling so close to my heart, my intention is to persuade you otherwise through my various experiences and endeavors.

This won’t be an easy task, but bare with me. With a little time, I promise you will have a better understanding and appreciation for what I do, not just a sudden urge to run me off the road.  

I have to start with an introduction to get you familiar with my situation.

For the past two years I have been in and out of a town called Girona. It’s just about the size of Napa. It falls in the upper east corner of Spain in a region called Catalunya, about 70 kilometers south of the French border and only 30 kms from the Mediterranean Sea. It’s also about an hour’s drive from Barcelona.

Girona is to Barcelona as Napa is to San Francisco.

It’s a quick car ride outside of the big city and is a modest size of around 80,000 people. The streets are littered with history and the city proudly boasts some of the finest cuisine in the entire world. Outside the city is an agriculture wonderland offering a gorgeous back drop to any bike ride.

Tourists from all over come to visit Girona’s famous “Old Town,” which has roots dating back to its founding in 79 BC. The list goes on and since I’m sitting here extremely pleased I don’t write for a tourism magazine, I encourage you to look it up — not to make you wish you were here but to encourage you to come and visit me.

It sometimes can get a bit lonely.  

Since 1997, Girona has been base to some of America’s top cycling talents, from Lance Armstrong to George Hincapie to fellow teammate Christian Vande Velde and ex-rider turned team manager Jonathon Vaughters.

Don’t recognize the names? Don’t worry, it’s just going to take some time.

Along with a few others, these guys paved the way for other American cyclists to live and race in Europe.

The problem however, was not many Americans were making it in Europe, hence the near 10-year hiatus until the next batch of American talent made it to Girona.

Lead by our fearless leader Vaughters, Team Slipstream began integrating itself into Girona’s cycling culture in 2006. With a team full of motivated 20-somethings and years of accumulated knowledge about this place, his vision of making it to the Tour de France was eased with the familiarity and companionship Girona has to offer.

Members of the first batch of riders were still around and they took it upon themselves to show us the way of life — where to eat, where to buy groceries, where to ride and most importantly, where the best coffee is.

Johnny Weltz, the former director of Armstrong’s team, was brought on to ease the transition as well. Taking the same roll with us that he did with the first crew back in 1997, Johnny owns a six-bedroom apartment in the “Old Town” that can house up to eight riders.

Just as he had done for Vaughters and the rest of the crew, he opened the doors to us.

For the past two years we have been dealt harsh lesson after harsh lesson of how to race our bikes on European soil.

It’s not as easy as it looks, and if you’ve ever seen pictures it doesn’t even look easy.

For the convenience of time and to let you get on to the rest of the paper, I’m going to skip two years ahead where just recently the team accomplished its goal of being invited to the Tour de France.

We are considered one of the best cycling teams in the world. We are Team Slipstream Chipotle presented by H30.

That is a mouthful, and we can be much more closely identified with on our Web site, www.slipstreamsports.com.

I plan to fill in the blanks about how we rode our way into the Tour de France as well as some of the biggest, most monumental cycling events in all of the world.

For now you can follow me on the team’s Web site and by my next column, my own personal Web site.

Thanks for reading and I hope you are looking forward to more detailed accounts of my life on two wheels.

• Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of bi-monthly columns written by Napa native and professional cyclist Lucas Euser, who is living and training in Girona, Spain.

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