Belgium 2006, entry 11

This past Monday I raced in a UCI called Schaal Schoeters, which was one of my first UCIs I did last year. It was a good reminder of how far I've come in the last year. When I did it last year I was struggling at the back the entire race and didn't even make it to the front of the peloton to go with attacks. I remember that it was a very wet day and that I was just racing to survive and hopefully make it to the local laps. This year I raced like an entirely different person. Instead of hiding at the back I was constantly in the top 30 and followed acceleration after acceleration without much problem. I felt very strong and maybe was a bit too aggressive in the first 80km. When the peloton reached the local laps there was a small breakaway up the road and the race basically turned into a kermis. There were constant attacks and attempts to bridge the gap to the leaders. After just a few laps the entire race was broken apart into many small groups with the CC team having Bret Blembocki and Yarden Gazit in good positions. I was in a group just behind Yarden and was hurting pretty bad towards the end of the race. I wasn't too happy with my result, which was just inside the top 50, but felt pretty good about the way I raced and how deep I dug near the end of the race.

I've come a long way in the past year and with my current fitness I am really looking forward to the stage races that start in just a few weeks. I've been in Belgium for 4 months now and am planning on making the most of my final 2. Time is definitely not standing still so I really have to go after each and every race. My next chance is another UCI this weekend, wish me luck.

Belgium 2006, entry 10

In the midst of the current doping scandal which involves many of the Tour de France favorites, I have been thinking quite a bit about why I ride. The sport of cycling is becoming synonymous with doping in the public eye and I'm afraid that someday all elite cyclists will be suspected of using some form of performance enhancing drugs. This both saddens and angers me. I want to be a professional but would never compromise my morals to attain that goal. Cycling is pure to me now and I want it to be pure to me for the rest of my life. I love this sport and if I come to a point in my development or my career where 'there is no way to get better without doping' then I will leave the competitive side of the sport and ride for love of it. The thing is that there is always a way to get better without doping because cycling is a sport of self-improvement. The lessons one learns in cycling are lessons of life: discipline, sacrifice, delayed gratification, patience, and teamwork. Cycling has made me a better person and I could never continue to learn in this sport while cheating.

I ride