{"id":166716,"date":"2018-08-07T06:25:01","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T06:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=166716"},"modified":"2018-08-15T11:38:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T11:38:26","slug":"miss-peaches-on-the-road-episode-2-head-in-the-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/08\/07\/miss-peaches-on-the-road-episode-2-head-in-the-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Peaches on the Road: Episode 2: Head in the Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

After saying goodbye to the German city of Stuttgart and artistic cyclist Viola Brand, Nina headed a bit more south to meet her next friend and athlete in a lovely alpine town named Neustift im Stubaital, Austria. Stubaital valley is the kind of place where you get the ethereal feeling of accidentally ending up in a fairytale setting. Nina Gutenthaler arrived on the arranged GPS meeting point but her company is nowhere to be seen. Or is she?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like a hawk, acrobatic paraglider Helen Schick plotted a little aerial ambush on Nina Gutenhaler, aka Miss Peaches<\/a>, making a grand entrance on her paraglider and, at the same time, introducing her whimsical discipline. After a warm greeting, they get talking. Helen met with paragliding three years ago and claims it was a love-at-first-sight thing. \u201cI knew I needed to try this since the first jump. Since then, I\u2019ve been giving the sport everything. I quit my job last year and moved to Austria. Every minute the weather\u2019s good, I spend flying. There\u2019s no other way around it, you need to train frequently if you want to practice acrobatic flying; approximately eight times a day. I did 800 jumps just last year,\u201d describes Helen with an omnipresent smile. If this isn\u2019t dedication, we don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

Helen further elaborates: \u201cFlying is my only dream at the moment. It\u2019s freedom when you\u2019re in the air and nobody\u2019s around. I\u2019m working on becoming a licensed paragliding lector, then I\u2019ll be flying forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen Shick is one of the eight exceptional athletes Nina will be meeting on her travels. She was born in a tiny Austrian town of Bezau, hidden within the Bregenz Forest, brimming with ski resorts and hiking trails. That\u2019s probably the reason Helen is such an adrenaline outdoor enthusiast – at 25 years of age, she\u2019s heavily into snowboarding, climbing, biking, and, of course, acrobatic paragliding. But the love for all things exciting isn\u2019t the only connecting link between Nina and Helen. Nina was also born in Austria and they both love to share their passion on various social media channels; Nina presents herself as an avid YouTuber and content creator.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BlvmSvdBFNb\/?hl=cs&taken-by=helen_schick<\/p>\n

After inspecting the terrain, Nina noticed there\u2019s a solid downhill trail right under the Neustift cable car\u2019s path, which is where Helen usually trains. Our biker\u2019s competitive side started poking its head and she suggested something extraordinary – one-of-a-kind downhill biker vs. paraglider race! Amused Helen agrees, even though the odds are probably in her favour, but Nina won\u2019t have any of it and saddles up even before Helen manages to unpack her paraglide. Nina is confident of her skills and even pauses on the trail to take a selfie, which she probably shouldn\u2019t, because Helen descends on the \u201cfinish line\u201d meadow minutes later, claiming a smooth victory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n