Have You Ever Wondered?

In case you were wondering what Belgian bike path tastes like, it's really not good. I took a bite on the way to the kermis Wednesday and went straight to the hospital. Talk about stupid crashes. I got taken out by my own teammate! I can't blame him entirely because he's new to Belgium and these bike paths can be confusing to the new arrival. It was a case of mis-communication and unfamiliarity with the roads. Unfortunately my face broke my fall and stitches were the result. The real disappointment was that I was unable to race and now I'm bruised up a week before the stage race in Spain. So I'm trying to rest, heal, and prepare the best I can for 5 hard days of racing in Spain. On the bright side, no broken bone and no broken bike. Next time I'll take a bite of waffle instead.
My face has been attracted to pavement for as long as I can remember.

Do I sound like Wenzel?

What do you do on the morning of a kermis race? Yes, it may sound odd to Americans that the races here are in the afternoons. No 5am pre-race meals here. I guess it's more spectator friendly when the race isn't at the crack of dawn, and you know how much Belgians love their bike races! So if my race doesn't start until 3pm, what do I do all morning? I could go for a short spin... but we're riding to the race today so the day on the bike will be long enough. Rest, yes. Hydrate, yes. Read, bingo. East of Eden by Steinbeck... really enjoying it. I'll stop now since I'm steppin' on the turf of Scott Wenzel, pro book blogger.

Weather is looking good for this afternoon and I haven't raced in a while so I'm pumped. Hopefully I feel like superman today.

Stupid Well Water

As I sit on the couch deeply searching for web-log inspiration, I'm finding that the well has run dry. But I must post for my thirsty readers nonetheless. Maybe night blogging isn't for me: Vince Roberge, Night Blogger... not to catchy. I suppose I can update my thousands of faithful readers on what's happening this side of the Atlantic. The rooms at the Cycling Center are filling up this time of the year and the kitchen is getting crowded. It's a time to meet new arrivals, learn names, and cook in shifts. At least you're never eating alone when you're sharing the back kitchen with 9 other guys. The weather has been good and the rides this week have been short. Poached a moped on the canal today for some free motorpacing and might race a kermis sunday. I'm feeling recovered from Triptyque and I'm preparing for 2 more big stage races in June. First is a 5 day 2.2 in Spain from June 4-8 and then there's the 6 day U25 Tour of Pennsylvania from June 24-29... a bountiful amount of bike racing.

I will now depart to think up some humorous and witty blog of the future.

a time to rest

Triptyque was a beast. Not many races have the combination of field quality and course difficulty as this bad boy. Day 1 went well for the CC Team as all 6 of us finished with the peloton. Yeah, after all those climbs there was still a pretty big group... crazy. So the race was wide open after the first stage which was a good thing for our team. Racing in the Ardennes is straight up awesome. The hills, the history, the war monuments, and the weather all make for very distinct racing flavor and can be repeated nowhere. The second day's climbs were longer and more selective and the weather made for a semi-epic day. Fog, mist, and cold temperatures all added up for a pretty miserable day on the bike. The team raced well though... at the front, going with moves. At the end of the day we had Jim, Aaron, and Steven in the first peloton and Ian, Peter, and I in the second. The finish was in a beautiful, German, valley town that was filled with cheering locals. What a great place to finish a race. Day 3 was the double: Morning TT afternoon leg breaker. My TT was plain. I was 70th out of the 135 racers still left. Ian beat me by 1 second after missing 2 turns... don't I feel slow! Steven had a good ride with an 8th place. The afternoon was only 110km but by far the hardest stage. It was like a condensed Liege-Bastogne-Liege. On the early climbs I wasn't feeling very strong and made a tactical mistake of poor positioning on a very decisive climb. On a good day I could have moved up as the climb progressed but I was going nowhere. As my group came came into town for a 20km final loop, we got the yank. DNFing is never fun, especially 20km from the finish. Steven busted out another top 10, as only 90 guys finished the race (190 starters). My overall feelings about the race are mixed. I climbed well the first 2 days and raced pretty well but I would have liked 1 good result and obviously to finish the last day.

This afternoon my legs feel like I've been hanging out with baseball bat-wielding children... like egg beaters have made their way into my muscles and gone haywire. So it's time to rest, recover, and focus on the next race which may come in the weekend.

Road Trip(tyque) this weekend

So, what are you doing this weekend? This is what I'm doing:

3 road stages, 1 time trial, 28 classified climbs. http://www.triptyqueardennais.be/

Leaving for the south of Belgium tomorrow... and I already have my climbing legs packed away right next to my tootbrush.

Tour de la Manche

stage racing= eating many plates of food+ resting (Steven and Peter here)+ bending your knee over 75,000 times.

Tour de la Manche was good. For long version see below.

Like a fine French wine the JCBA/ Cycling Center Team got better with age. Every day we rode stronger and as a more cohesive team until it culminated into a victory on the final stage! That's right Steven Van Vooren won the final stage on a tough uphill finish out of a small escape group. It was a win that not only reflected Steven's great riding and ability but the depth and teamwork of our squad. But allow me to take you back to the morning of Wednesday, May 7th. The entire team and staff departed the CC at 9am sharp for a long and scenic drive to the region of Normandy. Our hotel was a walk from the beach and a short drive to the historic WWII areas of Saint-Lo, Countance, and Utah Beach. A 2 hour spin along the coast and some course previewing opened our legs from the long drive.

The first stage was a 160km race that finished on a fairly flat local circuit. All the climbs were early on in the stage which made for a tough aggressive start. Christophe had a problem in the first part of the race so I dropped back to help him get back in the peloton. It was a bullet well spent but a bullet nonetheless. While racing into town there was a large split that I failed to make, but we had 3 riders in the escape of 30 so all was not lost. My own GC hopes were dashed on the first day though as the entire peloton stopped racing and finished 10 minutes down. Steven, Peter, and Ian finished up the road but not in the first group of 7, which was filled with pros and ex-pros. A respectable day, but nothing to celebrate.

There were 2 highly regarded French Professional teams in the race: Auber 93 and Bretagne Armor-Lux. The riders on these teams were all seasoned pros and their strength was only outmatched by their smart racing. It was one of these two teams that usually controlled the race and stage 2 was no exception. A very hilly course of about 155km, the second stage proved to be one of the hardest. The local laps were very challenging and whittled the peloton to a small number. One rider escaped solo to take the victory and the CC had 4 finish in the peloton. I really thought a top ten was in the cards for me on this day. I had great position with 3-4km to go... sitting in the top 5-8 on narrow roads, and then came the swarm and my energy expenditure to move up again cost me in the final 200 meter ride to the finish. I went backwards in the peloton very quickly in that final 200. Quite disappointing.

Day 3: Morning Time Trial of 14km and afternoon road stage of 105km. Ah, the double day. Up at 5:45 am. Metabolism revving all day. 5 hours of riding including warm ups and cool downs. Bed by 10:30pm. The time trial was absolutely CRAZY. I am 100% sure that there is no time trial in the US held on such a narrow and technical course. Most of the roads were about the width of a bike path and no section of 200 meters was flat and straight. The entire 14km was either up or down curving left or right. Steven was 7th and the rest of us were sandwiched between 20th and 45th, I think. I would say that it was one of my best time trials even though my result wasn't spectacular. The course worked well for me, the legs felt good, I had a great warm up, and I absolutely FLEW by my 1 minute man! That's a good feeling. The afternoon stage can be summed up in one word: teamwork. It was short, difficult, up and down, and then finished with 4 x 7km local laps on a fairly flat circuit. With 2km to go I got my engine chugging up the side of the peloton, picking up my teammates as I passed them. With a little more than 1 km to go we had 5 CC riders drilling up the side with me at the wheel. What a feeling! I self detonated for my teammates and watched as they kept going at the front, battling other teams. I felt like my effort had meaning as I watched Steven take 3rd in the sprint and Peter take a top 20. Steven took the young rider's jersey, even though he was 2nd or 3rd in the competition. The first 2 had other jersey's to wear.

The final day was the big one. Although it was only 145km, there were 4 hard climbs on the way to the finishing circuits. There were 5 laps of 5km with a 700 meter climb to the finish! My duty for the day was to be Steven's shadow and windbreaker. I positioned him at the base of the climbs and twice fetched bottles from the caravan for him and my other teammates. I felt like a super-domestique and took pride in protecting Steven in his Blue attire. We all made it to the local laps when the real fireworks began. Things started to blow on the tough circuit and Steven made it up the road with 4 others. Peter crashed on a decent (luckily wasn't injured) and couldn't make it back to the single file peloton. So Ian, Aaron, and I did what we could to keep the peloton on lock down, which granted wasn't much more than keeping good position and a good eye to the front. It was a suffer fest for the last few laps. The fatigue of the race and the burn of the finishing climb was only overcome by the fact that our teammate was in contention to win so we dug deep to keep going. I had a pretty good finish on the day (waiting to see results) but the most important thing was the win. A win for Steven, but more importantly a win for the team.

I'm chillin' today. Went for a short ride this morning and felt surprisingly awesome. Shutting down the engine tomorrow and then I'll start to prepare for Triptique Ardennais, a 3 day, 4 stage race in the hills of Wallonia, May 16-18.

The Weather Switch

After the race on Thursday the Tour de La Manche team did 2 additional hard days of training to get our bodies in stage race mode. Friday and Saturday were both 6 hour days with some work on the TT bike and plenty of hills. My legs were feeling pretty good despite the high training volume. I feel like the form is headed in the right direction and am looking forward to the race. Had myself a low key recovery day yesterday with a team BBQ in the evening. It seems like someone flipped the weather switch here in Belgium... beautiful blue skies and temps in the 70s! Because Belgium doesn't get this kind of weather often, the country drops everything to BBQ and enjoy life. Most people "made the bridge" from the Holiday on Thursday, so it was a 4 day weekend of good times for Belgians. And yes, "making the bridge" is a common term here.

Leave for Normandy on Wednesday. The race is Thursday- Sunday and the website is http://www.cyclisme50.com/

Hoboken, No jokin'

Seeing as how I raced for 185km today, this will be short. Meiprijs, the prize of May, a UCI 1.2 was today. Mad props go out to Aaron Pool who had the ride of the day, being off the front for around 160km and getting 11th on the day! Nice. The race was a flat 185km with some cobblestones and a lot of nasty weather. Rain, wind, sun... and repeat. My day was a series of ups and downs, mostly aligned with the weather. I was shivering at 3 hours in but by the time we got to the local laps (3x12km) my legs had opened up and I was feeling good. I even attacked in the last lap of 12km. No dice. Sitting in the top 20... 5km to go... Flat! I figured my day was over, but I chased like hell nonetheless. Apparently I had decent legs after 183km because I caught the peloton! What do you know? I was cashed after that and the peloton was strung out. Rolled over the line in 84th. Bummer.

Still no results from Affligem. Next on the sched is 4 days of stage racing in France (May 8-11).