Now that was an awesome day of racing! I have no idea what's going on or how it works out but apparently I'm riding ok finally. So after last weeks debacle at GP Pino Cerami wereI was comepletely worhless, I had a talk with Hilton and we figured that I needed to just start training. Well training betwen races, even if it was just going to be big easy miles, is not the best way I'd have figured to prepare for a race. These races are so hard that you really need all the rest you can get between them, or at least that's what I've always been told. It makes sense though. So to start doing long training rides between races, and then imediately start to go better in the races was really surprising. I had raced Drenthe in Holland on Saturday and had a good day. I totally destroyed myself that day, but it was 210k of quality. Sunday and Monday I did some easy long rides, Tuesday I did a bit harder tempo for an hour before a teammate and I hit the cafe in Brugge. Well things hadn't been going great in the races, our team housing was a dark pit of despair and I just wanted to relax and enjoy life a bit. So I ordered a beer, then a second one, hmm then a third, ok well I figured one more (the fourth) for th road couldn't hurt. So four strong Belgian beers later we crawled back on our bikes and raced home. Definitely a big no no in the world of professional cycling, especially in Belgium where everyone has their stoopid logic that things must go just in such a way or it's absolutly wrong.
Last year this race was in a million different pieces after just 40k, it was over for 160 riders in 45k, 23 riders finished the day last year. So with that in mind I just figured what was going to happen was probably out of my hands, so might as well stay relaxed. As a team we did definitely decide that we'd race hard for the first 50k covering all the attacks and try our best not to miss a break. Well go figure, about two seconds into the race we have an attack which goes nowhere, it is then emidiately countered which I cover. BOOM! It's on, we've got 12 highly motivated riders and we're on, full gas. I still can't believe how hard we were going for the first two minutes, but it wasn't like we got a gap on the mian field and were just able to settle in. Everyone was chassing and chassing us, we had about a marginal 15 second gap for probably 10k. We were riding as hard as we could (Servais Knaven the former Pari-Roubaix winner was just destroying himself) and the main group behind was doing the exact same. Well it took a bit but we finally got out of sight, but definitely not out of mind because although our maximum advantage only stretched out to 1:05, it was a bitter strugle every step of the way. Usually once a breakaway group has a gap, everyone is generally willing to put up the white flag for a moment, generally because everyone needs a rest. But it just wasn't happening today, we'd gain a few seconds (we have a motorcycle following us giving us time gaps on a chalk board, plus radio information from our directors in the follow cars) and the second we 'eased up' for a moment the time gap would come dramtically down. Yeah easing up was anything but, we averaged over 50k/hr for the first hour of the race, it was definitely one of those times when I'm saying to myself that there's no way I can keep this pace up for much longer, but somehow you do and before you know it an hour has gone by. Yeah well then again after about 40 minutes of this I couldn't really feel the left side of my body. My left leg and foot felt like they were falling asleep, my left hand was going numb and I was definitly going cross-eyed. Kinda scarrry because I realized what was happening and then I startd worrying about slipping up and crashing out of the break. But I managed to keep the rubber side down and go figure, as soon as I felt like we were getting into a good groove a full on two-team chase started up in the field behind us. Barloworld and DFL put their full squads on the front and really turned up the gas. It probably took the two teams a good 20 minutes to haul us back in, but they got the job done. I was definitly a bit dissapointed because I'd burned so many matches just in the first hour that I knew it was going to be an ugly day from there.
Thankfully everyone was more than willing to raise the white flag after we were finally caught, so I didn't do the off the front to out the back peloton slide. It's always a comical sight to se, but sheer misery when it's happening to you. I think we had covered just over 50k whilst off the front. So now I'm back in th main bunch with 150k to go and I'm definitely feeling pretty gassed. Hmm good times. I think the next 50k were the most grim for me. Attacks started shortly after our brief rest, and we hit some cross winds where I dutifully opeaned up gaps in the field. Thankfully it wasn't all that windy of a day so although I was struggling , once we'd make another turn we'd be out of the crosswinds and I could catch back on.
The next bit of fun was the feed zone. The race was pancake flat all day so I think we hit the feed zone at like mach 10 and it sure felt like we were accelerating through it! You know usually everyone knows that we all need to eat and get bottles most importantly, so everyone generally agrees to calm down for the two minutes it takes to grab the feed bags and tock up. Well not today I guess. I didn't even want to get out of the lineup to grab a feed bag, let alone grab a heavy bag of bottles with one hand at 50k/hr. Yeah uh I played that one over in my head first and decided I'd rather be thirsty than splattered across the ground. It seemed like most people were on the same page as we, but the few who did grab bags sure did cause a scare or two as their bags with zero momentum were pulling riders with plenty of momentum in a backwards clockwise motion. You'd think this would be the time most crashes occur, but for some reason it's always just after the feed zone when things should be fairly straight forward. I saw some poor bastard fly off the road into the dirt, flip over his bike and then proceed to wrap his body around one of the million very sturdy reflective posts marking the edge of the shoulder. Well I can say he came to a full stop the second he hit that sucker.
Well surprisingly enough after I missed my feed I started getting dehydrated right quick and thus started to feel even less stellar than I already did. So for most of the remainder of the race it was a grim strugle to hang on. Thankfully Cookie was heading back to the cars for some bottles because he had the same thought process as I had. It took a bit for Cookie to get the bottles but man was I glad to see him fully stocked with bottles when he came back.
Hey that reminds me. Everyone is always wondering how we relief ourselves midrace. OK two possible ways: either you stop preferably on a quiet part of the course and do youbuisness, or if the group is moving at a good clip and you don't want to be cashing back on you can also just, pull to the side of the road, stand up on your bike, turn your hips to the side, pull your shorts down and let fly. Now this is a bit of a trickey endeavour in itself, but in belgium we're always going in and out of towns. Well I think I can call myslef a bit of a seasoned raer in Belgium cuz I finally hit the point yesterday where I just didn't care. I was relieving myself, we came into town where there were women and children present watching the race go by and I just kept on keep'n on. I'll never see these people again and at the end of the day I had to pee. I'd suffered enough just to still be in the race, I wasn't about to do anything else that was going to make my day harder (like stopping and peeing somewhere quiet.) Meeehhhh, who cares. On a similar note, the general agreement seems to be that whilst one is relievig wile rolling, you move to the very edge of the road. Yeah well some T-mobile guys were not on the same page yesterday and as we're winding up for the last 15k circuit (yes that's right the real gas comes on for the leadout at about 15k to 20k from the line. I guess they want more than enough time in stooper fast mode), these guys are pissing like in the middle of the group! At the same time Robbie McEwen is racing up the group to get tot he front and although he dived left to get away from the uhh, stream, I think he might have gotten pee'd on. Man it's good to see it still happens to the best.
More on this topic: You know in Belgium most of the bard have the urinals in the corridor! Yeah as a guy you're standing there and uhh uhhumm, and you have women walking right past you, sometimes even squeezing past you to get to the stalls. What a backwards system. I always want ot be the open minded type, but there's no convincing me that this is an ok system.
Last year this race was in a million different pieces after just 40k, it was over for 160 riders in 45k, 23 riders finished the day last year. So with that in mind I just figured what was going to happen was probably out of my hands, so might as well stay relaxed. As a team we did definitely decide that we'd race hard for the first 50k covering all the attacks and try our best not to miss a break. Well go figure, about two seconds into the race we have an attack which goes nowhere, it is then emidiately countered which I cover. BOOM! It's on, we've got 12 highly motivated riders and we're on, full gas. I still can't believe how hard we were going for the first two minutes, but it wasn't like we got a gap on the mian field and were just able to settle in. Everyone was chassing and chassing us, we had about a marginal 15 second gap for probably 10k. We were riding as hard as we could (Servais Knaven the former Pari-Roubaix winner was just destroying himself) and the main group behind was doing the exact same. Well it took a bit but we finally got out of sight, but definitely not out of mind because although our maximum advantage only stretched out to 1:05, it was a bitter strugle every step of the way. Usually once a breakaway group has a gap, everyone is generally willing to put up the white flag for a moment, generally because everyone needs a rest. But it just wasn't happening today, we'd gain a few seconds (we have a motorcycle following us giving us time gaps on a chalk board, plus radio information from our directors in the follow cars) and the second we 'eased up' for a moment the time gap would come dramtically down. Yeah easing up was anything but, we averaged over 50k/hr for the first hour of the race, it was definitely one of those times when I'm saying to myself that there's no way I can keep this pace up for much longer, but somehow you do and before you know it an hour has gone by. Yeah well then again after about 40 minutes of this I couldn't really feel the left side of my body. My left leg and foot felt like they were falling asleep, my left hand was going numb and I was definitly going cross-eyed. Kinda scarrry because I realized what was happening and then I startd worrying about slipping up and crashing out of the break. But I managed to keep the rubber side down and go figure, as soon as I felt like we were getting into a good groove a full on two-team chase started up in the field behind us. Barloworld and DFL put their full squads on the front and really turned up the gas. It probably took the two teams a good 20 minutes to haul us back in, but they got the job done. I was definitly a bit dissapointed because I'd burned so many matches just in the first hour that I knew it was going to be an ugly day from there.
Thankfully everyone was more than willing to raise the white flag after we were finally caught, so I didn't do the off the front to out the back peloton slide. It's always a comical sight to se, but sheer misery when it's happening to you. I think we had covered just over 50k whilst off the front. So now I'm back in th main bunch with 150k to go and I'm definitely feeling pretty gassed. Hmm good times. I think the next 50k were the most grim for me. Attacks started shortly after our brief rest, and we hit some cross winds where I dutifully opeaned up gaps in the field. Thankfully it wasn't all that windy of a day so although I was struggling , once we'd make another turn we'd be out of the crosswinds and I could catch back on.
The next bit of fun was the feed zone. The race was pancake flat all day so I think we hit the feed zone at like mach 10 and it sure felt like we were accelerating through it! You know usually everyone knows that we all need to eat and get bottles most importantly, so everyone generally agrees to calm down for the two minutes it takes to grab the feed bags and tock up. Well not today I guess. I didn't even want to get out of the lineup to grab a feed bag, let alone grab a heavy bag of bottles with one hand at 50k/hr. Yeah uh I played that one over in my head first and decided I'd rather be thirsty than splattered across the ground. It seemed like most people were on the same page as we, but the few who did grab bags sure did cause a scare or two as their bags with zero momentum were pulling riders with plenty of momentum in a backwards clockwise motion. You'd think this would be the time most crashes occur, but for some reason it's always just after the feed zone when things should be fairly straight forward. I saw some poor bastard fly off the road into the dirt, flip over his bike and then proceed to wrap his body around one of the million very sturdy reflective posts marking the edge of the shoulder. Well I can say he came to a full stop the second he hit that sucker.
Well surprisingly enough after I missed my feed I started getting dehydrated right quick and thus started to feel even less stellar than I already did. So for most of the remainder of the race it was a grim strugle to hang on. Thankfully Cookie was heading back to the cars for some bottles because he had the same thought process as I had. It took a bit for Cookie to get the bottles but man was I glad to see him fully stocked with bottles when he came back.
Hey that reminds me. Everyone is always wondering how we relief ourselves midrace. OK two possible ways: either you stop preferably on a quiet part of the course and do youbuisness, or if the group is moving at a good clip and you don't want to be cashing back on you can also just, pull to the side of the road, stand up on your bike, turn your hips to the side, pull your shorts down and let fly. Now this is a bit of a trickey endeavour in itself, but in belgium we're always going in and out of towns. Well I think I can call myslef a bit of a seasoned raer in Belgium cuz I finally hit the point yesterday where I just didn't care. I was relieving myself, we came into town where there were women and children present watching the race go by and I just kept on keep'n on. I'll never see these people again and at the end of the day I had to pee. I'd suffered enough just to still be in the race, I wasn't about to do anything else that was going to make my day harder (like stopping and peeing somewhere quiet.) Meeehhhh, who cares. On a similar note, the general agreement seems to be that whilst one is relievig wile rolling, you move to the very edge of the road. Yeah well some T-mobile guys were not on the same page yesterday and as we're winding up for the last 15k circuit (yes that's right the real gas comes on for the leadout at about 15k to 20k from the line. I guess they want more than enough time in stooper fast mode), these guys are pissing like in the middle of the group! At the same time Robbie McEwen is racing up the group to get tot he front and although he dived left to get away from the uhh, stream, I think he might have gotten pee'd on. Man it's good to see it still happens to the best.
More on this topic: You know in Belgium most of the bard have the urinals in the corridor! Yeah as a guy you're standing there and uhh uhhumm, and you have women walking right past you, sometimes even squeezing past you to get to the stalls. What a backwards system. I always want ot be the open minded type, but there's no convincing me that this is an ok system.
So the end of the race. After we had been caught the remaining 150k were a bit of a grim death march. We were averaging somewere around the 49k/hr mark all day. Next I hear that our sprinters are ut of the race so we are a team with no leaders. We all knew this was going to be a full on field sprint and if you're not a sprinter, there's no point in literally risking your life, just to get waxed by the real sprinters anyways. So our director, realizing this same sad fact, get's on the roadio and tells me specifically to start attacking with about 15k to go... my heat sunk. I was really, really tired already and basically hanging on for dear life. But the boss says jump, and w're on TV at this point so if I don't try then he's really gonna be pissed. Well it took me a good few minutes to make my way to the front. As I get to the front, I'm up next to the Lotto train now setting up for the sprint, and I'm just about ready to give it a go, Tom Steels from Lotto freak'n looks over at me, tells me 'Hey No No' and then pushes me backwards by the shoulder!!! I was 50 guys back before I even realized what had happened! Furthemore I was so shocked that someone would actually push me out of the way because they didn't want me racing.. I was literally dumbfounded for a moment. I could understand if I was getting in their way or interfering with their work, but to try and not let someone attack!!! Well realizing what had just happened, now I'm pissed. So after another 5 minutes or so that it took me to get to the front, I'm finaly there, again, and I'm gett'n set to give it a go. We're comming up on the cobbles, things are linning out and it's time to give it a go. I pul out into the wind and I launch forward with everything I have. I've got my head down and I'm in ful tilt sprint mode giving it everything I have to get a gap and try the late race solo move. So I'm in the wind, I'm going anfd going, I'm giving it 110% amd I'm about 5 inches in front of the lotto train. Not really in front of them either, I was more to the side, and ever so slightly ahead. Well I said I was giving it my all, and well ater 195k, there only so long I can really do that for. I think I reached my maximum advantage of 5.5 inches, held it for about three seconds, and then blew sky high. That's right about when my bakup lights came on and I was now in reverse, full throttle. Well it seems like that anyways. Once I blew I ha nothing left so litterally everyone came around me and I went from the front, to the very back in about 6 seconds. We hit the cobbles and I barely knew what was going on around me. By the time we come off the cobbles and into the home stretch, the field is in pieces and it was everything I could do just to roll it in.
Now this may surprise some, but I was actually happy with the day on a whole. I was finnaly racing my bike in Europe, and it only took me two seasons of trying to start to get it right. Yeah I can now somewhat look back on the spring campaign and know that it wasn't a complete and utter waste. Because it was really looking like a total loss up untill Drenthe and Scheldeprijs.
I'm now off to Ireland to do some quality training in the West and then it's a 5 day stage race in Germany. Then I'm comming home!!!!!
I'm California Dreaming
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