It feels good to visit Israel – I don’t know if it’s the genuine smell or just the excess of oxygen at sea level here, but it sure does feel good to be here. If it wasn’t for the long traveling from Durango to Tel Aviv (~22 hours normal flights+layovers from Durango), I would prefer to mountain bike here all winter. Israel reminds me of Durango in the way that if you can “survive” the ~3 summer months in Israel (in Durango it would be the winter for me), then weather is welcoming all the rest of the year and trails are SO good, super technical and fun. Every small race here is a world cup class course for sure.

This time I got all my packing done early so I was able to sleep well for my 7am flight from Durango. Plus, I had an 8 hour layover in Newark, so I went out for sushi dinner with Daniel, my cousin from NJ. We bombed 4 big rolls plus buffet, needless to say I slept well on the 10 hour flight to Tel Aviv…

Weather here has been pretty cloudy and nice (60-70’s), I’m still over dressing myself every ride. It’s wired to see my legs again when I ride, or to ride with only one pair of bib… what Colorado winter can do to you…

This year Israel has definitely stepped it up in mountain bike racing – I’m gonna start my 2010 season here with 4 UCI races within 2 weekends !!. no doubt that there will be racers from Europe coming to try collect points here, I think there will be more Europeans then Israelis on the start line actually…

By now I got to see my parents, say hello to friends, some physical testing, built my bike and recover from mild jetleg – but I want to get to the important stuff… just to put priorities in their right order, one of the luxuries of coming to Israel is to experience the authentic taste of hummus. I know you can buy hummus @ city market, or even try to make it by yourself and think it’s real middle-east taste, but it’s always different here… I’m gonna savor the flavor, but I took a pic for ya’ll to see what I’m talking about. I ordered the “complet” meal at “Abu Ya-Ya” hummus dinary, it is good homemade hummus yet not closes for competing on first place…

Currently I’m staying at the Sheffi Family up north, I’m watching their house while they are off for skiing holiday. On a second thought, I should have asked them to watch my house in Durango for their skiing vacation, would have worked nice for all of us. Anyway, their oldest son, Yarden (Jordan) have this huge Cola bottle collection, check this pic. It is still not all of his collection. I’m gonna surprise him with new winter Olympics version bottles…

For ya’ll who think Israel is one big desert – check out this picture. I’m in love with the smell of the trees and savory around here. My first races are coming up this Friday and Saturday, back to back. So check later on for some action photos !!!

-Rotem