It's just bike racing

Pro Crit

2007-08-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

ProCrit 2007: Rain and a bunch of crashes

Man that was an unreal race.
A safe estimate would be that there were about 10 crashes in our race, but I'd be more inclined to say it was closer to about 20 crashes. It was unbelievable, people were crashing everywhere. I saw a poor Tony Cruz hit the deck, slide into the curb, bounce up onto the curb and then he started rolling, ah yes nearly missing a sign post as well. Oooohh, I didn't recon he'd be getting up again after that one. But to my surprise, he was back at it fighting his way to the front a few laps later. I guess while the perimeter of the country is going through some record heat waves, the interior has been blessed with rain, rain and s'more rain.

We had a 50K crit Sat. evening that was scary enough because it had been raining, and the field was a Pro/Amateur mix. I don't want to sound like a total elitist bastard, but there sure seem to be a plethora of amateurs out there who just ain't concerned with keeping their skin intact. Meanwhile the majority of the Pro's are either thinking of of the championship race the following afternoon, or they're like me, thinking of the road & TT championships in two weeks time. Hey I've been training hard and I'd rather not get crashed out because some goofball decided that while he was in the middle of the pack, he'd remove his vest and throw it to the curb, you know like they do in the Tour de France. You ever tried to throw a piece of tissue paper across the room? Yeah this guys vest did essentially the same thing. Man I don't even throw my clothes to the side of the road, that stuff is valuable, and I don't even pay for any of it!
Back to the championship race: well if we were scared the night before when it had been raining earlier in the day, I think we were all horrified at the realization that we'd be racing 100K IN the rain. It's one thing to do a road race with a turn every now and again in the rain, but when you've got a soaking wet 3/4 mile course with 8 turns and TONS of road paint, that you need to circle 62 times, chances are there's gonna be a crash or two. I'm still thanking my lucky stars that I was able to stay upright and more or less out of trouble the whole race. I did get to do some fancy footwork every now and again avoiding the carnage, but I'll tell you I heard some awful moans coming from the pavement. For the most part though I know exactly why I was able to keep the rubber side down. It's simple, all you gotta do is stay in the top 5 to 8 riders all day long and you'll easily stay out of trouble. You can't get caught in a crash if they're all behind you! OK well I should thank my coach Craig because I think I've got some pretty darn good fitness coming around, and right in time for Road Nat's. It's also a ton easier to do a race like this one at the front, because you're not jamming on the brakes and then jumping on the pedals in and out of every turn. At the front it's just smooth sailing and following wheels, which is the other great thing. When you're constantly at the front, you get a really good feeling for just how fast you can go through the turns (yeah once your front wheel starts sliding, you probably wanna ease off a bit.) But the guys who haven't been at the front, have no idea how fast they can take the treacherously wet turns, so they always go way too slow through them. So when Bernard here has to follow attacks and make sure nothing get's away without some Nav's representation, catching guys (who just attacked from X number of riders back) in the turns makes life a whole lot easier.

So it was pouring rain before the race, stopped for the start of the race, then started back up again several times during the race just to ensure the course remained properly soaked the whole day. By about 3/4's of the way through the race, there were way too many but cheeks hanging out for the world to see, all from guys touching down. Pretty early in the race Team Slipstream hit the front and started driving it, I didn't think it would work but sure enough it did, they split the field. Too bad our ace sprinter was on the wrong side of that split. Bummer. As the race went on our director would come on the radio and tell us that one teammate or another was now out of the race, this was happening to most of the teams though. At around the half way point I was told to take it a bit easier and wait for the last 10 laps. Darn, sure wished I hadn't ridden so hard that first hour. However, I did pull in a couple of cash primes here and there so once we split it 9 ways... yeah I'll see about 45 cent's worth. Mehh, it's good for the self confidence knowing I'm riding well just before TT Nat's.

Well like I said I definitely spent way too much energy in the first half of the race to realistically be hopeful for the sprint at the end of the race. However with crashes happening all around me I figured I might as well stay in the race and se what happens. You never know, there could be a huge pileup in the last turn and all of a sudden you're in the money. Hmm well go figure, all it took was two big pileups in the 2nd to last turn and the last turn to get me in the money! Because of all the crashing, and because I was definitely getting tired I wasn't able to fight it out at the front of the race in the final 5 laps. I honestly didn't really want to risk life and limb in the chaos when I knew it wasn't likely for me to even go top 5. But just surfing in the field for the last 10 laps was great for speed work and it earned us some much needed prize money. I can't complain.

Well with ProCrit behind me, all I have is some fine tuning for my final Nat's prep, which takes place Sept. 1st and 2nd. So wish me luck, I hope I feel as good or better Sat Sept. 1st as I did for this crit.

Thanks for reading.
Bernard

Die Niedersachsen, Germany

2007-04-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Day 1:
I love racing in Germany!!! Oh man it's good to be here. Nice roads, good food (except there seems to be a serious lack of junk food of any sort here) warm sunshine and some mighty nice views as well. To top it off today was pancake flat and generally pretty easy for most of the 160k day. Good stuff I tells ya. Even driving to the race was nice. Germany is just so much more of a modern or maybe western style country that the likeness to home is a welcome treat. Today we were riding through the countryside where the flowers are in bloom, the fields are green and the beer gardens are full. Man it was a hot one today as well and each beer garden we passed I was just salivating. I'm going to have to sneak out one of these nights and hit-up one of these gardens, yah that'll make me happy. Not that I wasn't happy today. A break of four riders went up the road, which we missed, oops. Well as soon as they got a gap established, all the Italians start hollering Pisse, the group goes curb to curb and we all hit the brakes. It was wonderful! Now it was warm sunshine, easy flat roads (with not a crosswind in sight thankyou very much) and the ProTour team Milram setting tempo on the front. Who could ask for more, we even had some new tasty treats wrapped in foil thanks to the soigners. Ahh yes I can definitly say that was the easiest day of racing I've ever done in Europe and I loved every moment of it. Since it was so mice and easy for just about everyone, once Milram brought the break back with about 40k to go, well the gas started comming on. Well since it had been an easy day for me, I actually had the strength to get to the front and help our sprinters. Yup I'd definitely have to say that was a scarry endeavour. At times it was safe and peaceful enough, the MIlram boys were more than happy to let me drive the bunch for a hot second, but the few times we'd get swarmed and everyone starts crowding for room, and then pushing and squeezing into holes that don't exist, ooh man scary. We'll we're doing like 50+ k/hr all the while to so that's the thing of it, we're all going so fast that if something goes wrong, ugh it's gonna be ugly. I was able to help Oleg out until about 3k to go, then I nearly got pushed into the curb and that's just about when my legs gave out and I raised the white flag. But it was definitely a nice change of pace to be at the front in the Finale.

Day2
Ok I'm tired, definitely don't feel as good as I felt yesterday. Actually most of the day I felt like I wasn't getting any draft, yup it was a bit grim. But it was a buch kick, easy day right, no problem just a field sprint. Yeah right, not a single team really had it together at the Finale today. Milram had it best but even in the last 4k, they only had 4 guys left. Sheesh I got ridden out on one of the climbs BEFORE we really started racing. Well before the gas really ame on that is at about 25k to go. We were not to miss the break today and it was everything I could do just to try and follow moves this morning. Thankfully it only took a half hour of attacks, instead of the usual hour, before the break was established. We had Daren in the move so we were happy. I was more than happy cuz I was really begining to suffer. Some scenario though, break goes, Italians yell 'Pisse' and we hit the breaks. Then two poor bastards from Milram hit the front about 5 minuts later and bgin their long slog of riding that breakaway back over the next 150k or so. Two guys, towing the entire field around all day, riding the break back, hmm how do they do it? It was a bit windy today and as I mentioned, I felt like I just couldn't get out of the wind all day. Gonna have to work on that tomorrow.

Day3: Hmm ok well that was a terrible day. Made a huge rookie move and screwed half my team, which then got me cused out someth'n fierce by one of said teammates (it was an amazing display of profanity strung together with such eloquence I wish I had it recorded) then didn't have to mental will to kill myself in the final 10K... hmm yah that was a dark day.

Day 4:
OK spirits are much higher today. What a beutiful country this is. The rolling hills with the flowers in bloom and the picture perfect villages, man I wish I had a camera mid race.
OK so funny story: Choco Brooks is attacking the bunch. He has Petachi (cuurently the worlds fastest sprinter) and one of Petachi's cronie teammates on his wheel. The 140lb wafe rides both Petachi and his teammate off his wheel!!! Then has the gaul to look back and literally flex his arms like a body builder to thumb it in their faces. Man we all almost fell off our bikes laughing! Next best was Hilton calling one of the Astana guys Borat and then telling him to shut up. Man everyone who heard that one was laughing!
GREAT NEWS! I'm comming home. There was a chance I could have been here for another two weeks, surely snuffing out any sparkle I had in my eye. But I'm comming home Thursday May 3rd!!!
Last day tomorrow, I gonna destroy myself tomorrow!

Day5:

Oh geez what a death march of a day that was...

Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen 4/18/07 Completed!

2007-04-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

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.

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

Ronde van Drenthe, Holland

2007-04-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap! I ACTUALLY, for the first time in the history of Bernard racing in Europe, raced my bike today! Yup, it only took 20 some odd races and half of the 2nd season before I could do it, but I finally managed to do it. I don't know how I managed it either cuz I tell ya, I was totally useless two days before. Yeah it's been pretty annoying for me to be spit out the back of just about every single race I've done out here. I trained really hard this winter, we had great weather for it, and I started the season with probably the best fitness I've ever had at that point in the year. From what I can see, it seems to have just about all gone down the toilet. Yeah great. Actually I don't really want to think about the fact that three months of hard training went to nothing in Europe, well I won't make that mistake next year that's for sure. I think shorter stints here in Europe will probably have to be the way to go because two years in a row this schedule of racing to death and then resting has not worked.

Hey wait this is supposed to be a happy post. Ok so the race. I was less than enthused at the start because I'd been riding so poorly lately. I was hoping just to make it to the feed zone at 130k, it was a 210k race. Well Drenthe is a province in the northern Netherlands and this race has some really really cool terrain. We start in just some standard farm fields, race over a garbage dump hill (Matt Cooke aka Cookie, asked before the race if it stunk. Well it was a garbage dump like 40 years ago so now it's a nice park/hill/thingie) and then make our way towards the forests. Racing through the forest is cool enough, especially since we've had nothing but depressing Belgian farm roads built pre WWII this spring. However, once we entered the forests we started hitting the cobbled roads in the forest! Best part about these cobbled roads was that they weren't the traumatizing jagged boulders of Belgium, but a rather nice breed of smooth stones half the size of normal cobbles that do more massaging that beating. But then again these cobbled sections were twice as long as anything we've done in Belgium so now two days later my knuckles still don't feel quite right. Arthritus here I come!

So anywho before the race I felt like I had no top end, I didn't have the ability to ride REALLY hard. I could ride at a steady pace all day, but once the screws were turned, I was having problems. Two days prior at GP Pino Cerami I was doing just fine till we hit the circuits which had a steep cobbled climb and as soon as we hit the climb I was outta the race... good times. With all this in mind, starting the race today I just wanted to get some quality miles in (I'd begun training between races instead of resting because resting wasn't helping.) Fighting for position didn't seem to be all that bad today either so I just kept real conscious of staying up front as much as I could. I managed to stay in good position through most of the cobbled sections of the race and it didn't seem like we were really going full gas for any great length of time. I did get gaped of once in the cross winds but it was a short section and I was able to get back on. Around 150k into the race there was a lead group of 8 riders up the road and they had a gap of about 1:15. There was an attack out of the main bunch which I followed but the attempt was short lived. Next thing I know I'm attacking and nobody is coming with me! Now I'm solo off the front of the main bunch and nobody is trying to get across to me. You wanna know the first thing going through my head? 'Nuts! What am I doing?!!' I had 60k left to race and I'm off the front solo, hmm not so good Well I had a gap and I was rolling so the only thing left to do is put my head down and start riding. Ohh geez those first few minutes were some unpleasant ones. I hadn't settled into a good rhythm yet so my legs were instantly burning. I kept looking back because I was sure the field was going to pull me back. For a while it looked like some guys were trying to do just that, but after a bit I was out of sight of the main bunch and off on my own. Now when I say on my own I really mean it this time. I don't think race radio announced my solo move cuz my team car was nowhere in sight, when it should have been right behind me. I was suffering a good bit and almost kinda hoping I'd get caught so the pain could end, but that didn't happen. What did happen though was that I had a TV motorcycle following me and every once in awhile they'd get in front of me to get a close up shot. You know what happens when a moto wants a close up? You get to draft off the moto!!!! Ah it was some great relief, I'd be suffering and hitting the wall and then the moto would come up and I could recover for a second or two. It might have taken me about 10k, but I managed to bridge across to the break. There's nothing better than the sight of the follow cars in the distance when you're coming up on them. Well we all started working well together. Usually if a guys comes across to a break guys start sitting on because the recent arrival is usually fresher and stronger than they are. But I'll tell you one thing I was not the freshest guy there. There was this Italian from team LPR who was riding like he'd just stepped on his bike, and that he hadn't been off the front for the last 160K. Hmm I have a sneaky suspicion that he probably couldn't feel his legs that day, just amazing how that seems to happen to some guys sometimes. Well we kept rolling but I was more than shocked when about 20k later... a group of12 guys bridged across to us. Ugh.. boo, lol and sob.12 guys coming across a gap together is much easier than one, and they looked plenty determined when they reached us. I at this point was not feeling like the brightest little fire-fly in the group and instantly did the obligatory sitt'n on and not work'n! You know it! I know when my odds turn against me and as soon as that happened I was not about to just keep rolling through. One of the reasons why i wasn't feeling stooper strong (other than the fact that we'd now ridden about 180k) was that I hadn't gotten a feed in like 30K! I was in desperate need of some fluids and by that I really mean some coke. All that caffeine and sugar do some mighty good things when you're that tired. All this time off the front I had been signalling to the officials that I needed a drink but apparently they weren't letting any cars through from the main bunch to the break, partially because the roads were so small. Any way you slice it, I was out there for a good 30K with no feeds, yeah that sucked.

We had one small circuit to do to get to the finish and that included two more trips up the garbage dump, which was a short but steepish hill. I was ok the first time over but the second time I made a slightly rookie/slightly I'm so tired I can't see or think straight mistake. I was dying for a feed and I went to the back of the now 20+ rider break to get a bottle from our team car that had finally been allowed to come up to us. The car came up when that group of 12 came across. So I finally get a bottle of coke and I'm at the back of the bunch. Next thing I know we make the left turn into the park for the climb and I'm definitely in the worst position possible, all the way at the back. Of course some dumb bastards just in front of me get tangled up some how as soon as we hit the climb and all three f us have to unclip. I didn't have to put my food down but I definitely had to hesitate and stall on a 15+% climb and that was more than enough to gap me off from the group now attacking up the climb.

I tried and tried to get back on but I was so lights out by that point that there was little I could do. The two dumb bastards who caused this whole initial screw up caught back up to me and we all worked together to try and catch the group but it just wasn't happening. Coming off the climb we had 10k to go and although we kept the main group at a steady distance most of the way in, we could never catch them. Up ahead things started coming apart as riders started attacking for the win.

In the end I trudged in, barely functional, in 29th place. Had I caught the group ahead of us I would have been fighting for 5th place because there had been an attack that got away for the top 4 spots. But like I said, I was totally lights out and there was no sprint in me anyways by that point. I found out the pain wasn't over yet though because as soon as I stopped my stomach totally knotted up and I could barely move. It was a good half hour before I felt somewhat normal again. Geez I haven't felt that bad since nationals last year... another death march of a race.

The race link with some cool pics is at:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2007/apr07/drenthe07/PELOTON1

Well I'd like to go top 20 in at least one race out here, so I guess 29th is a start!

I have one race left here in Belgium, this Wednesday then I'm off to train with my teammate in Ireland for a week before we head over to Germany for a 5 day stage race. Good fun from here on out I figure!

Thanks fer reading

Bernard

Down Time

2007-04-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

The time between races here in Europe seems to go either way. Either I'm bored to death at the cycling center in Belgium, or I'm too busy traveling between Belgium and my cousin Jeroen's house in Holland. The trip to holland, if I get everything right, takes about 4 hours. If I miss a train, or some jerky conductor tries to charge me for my bike, then it can take up to five hours, ugh. I've gotten this whole travleing around Europe by train, with a bike, down pat though. Each time I'm heading out I have to clean the bike ( more so I don't get dirty) pack as much stuff as I can barely survive on and defnitely don't forget the food. Traveling with bike can be a bit of a pain in the but, however I just travel with the frame and leave the wheels at 'home' with my cousin. This way it's not technically a bike and thus the majority of train conductors let you by without a special bike ticket. There is once in a great while that jerk conductor who just has to live the purest of lives and, they're the ones who will not even give me the option to buy the bike ticket on the train. They're that lovely breed who seem to find satisfaction is kicking me off the train. The best part is when I proceed to the ticket window just to buy this bike ticket, and the ticket agent has this look of disbelief because even HE doesn't think I need a ticket for my bike! Because there are so many bike races here in Belgium, and because the conductors are quite accustomed to having bike racers travel on the train with their bikes, it's kind of known what you're doing. Now to circumvent ALL of this, wouldn't it make sense that my training bike stays at home and my race bike stays with the team? Well I know the team still has my race bike from last year (in nearly pristine condition) and I haven't even seen my race bike from this year yet so we should be able to assume that the 07 race bike is is pretty good condition as well. But yet I still have to lug my training bike all across Europe time and time again. I think it would even make sense to leave my 06 race bike in Europe all year round so that the team doesn't have to pay for the extra shipping costs of carting my 07 race bike out here. Ah yes, these are the great mysteries of our team. Things that would seem to make perfectly logical sense, and ease life for the staff and riders, seem to be impossibilities. On the plus side though, I get to race with my SRM and thus get some great data for future training.
Well I had a ten day break from racing, and in that time a few of us did a 'pro kermesse' just to try and keep the system primed. Well this pro kermesse sure did seem to have a whole lot of amateurs participating. I think there were something like 170+ starters! Yeah in a field that size, with riders that look like they hadn't touched their bikes since last weekends local world championship race (Read: their local group ride) I wasn't going anywhere near the back end of the field. I didn't even want to go anywhere near the middle of a field that big. There were still some pro teams there, even representation from three ProTour (Division 1) teams. So you have the ProTour guys, about 15 guys from the Chocolate Jaques team and all these locals. Hmm, odd to be sure. I gotta say though, that race was A HELL OF A LOT EASIER than anything else I've ever done in Europe. Man what a nice change of pace. I wasn't absolutely dying in the first hour, I wasn't even really struggling. It was a nice change to be able to comfortable sit at the front of the group all day snd to be actually able to SEE what was coming up in the road ahead of us. These simple pleasures are generally missing from all the other races I seem to participate in out here. The one thing however was that the race tactics made no sense, but then again with no TV coverage to keep the eagle eye present, I'm sure the race was bought out by somebody. What happened was a group had gotten away about 120K into the race. Probably about 30K later the main Peloton had brought the escape group back to within spitting distance. I was right up there at the front watching as the group steadily brought the escapees back. Well when we within spitting distance, the main bunch I was in, sat up and stopped riding for a bit. Well since we still had about 20K to go I figured they were going to let the time gap open up again, then really ramp up the pace so that we would mow down the escape group just before the finish and have a nice old bunch sprint. Well that never happened, that group was within spitting distance at one point, then we never saw them again. Uhh yeah, I dounno. So b the time my group was approaching the finish line we were sprinting for like 25th place, hardly worth risking a scary bunch sprint. Especially since all the local yokels who'd done nothing all day started cramming at the front. Another change of pace for me was the ability and opportunity to attack with about 5k to go. It's kinda nice to feel like you've been able to race somewhat what at the end of the day, instead of the usual pulverizing and subsequent heart attack special which is closely followed by getting dropped from the group. Ahh yes, the simple pleasures in life. I've been feeling better and better in the races (now all 5 I've done thus far), but I kinda suspect that they've just been easy for one reason or another. I'm still so scarred from last years swift European kick in the a@* that I still don't believe I've been able to survive the real torture. But that question will soon be answered! I've recently been informed that we're doing some REALLY big one day races that are the ritual preparation for the biggest spring classics. So I'm pretty sure those races are going to be plenty hard.
In other news I'm still so glad I can stay with my cousin in Holland. The training is worlds better and it feels like a home away from home. These two issues are polar opposites to life at the cycling center. Over the weekend I got a 6hour 200k ride in and a 5 hour 150k ride in. That would literally be a quest for insanity in Belgium, because the roads are so bad, it's so very easy to get lost out there and there is nothing to see. The weather had been quite lovely, then it turned. Sundays 5 hour ride included some lovely Dutch mountains, or what the weather man calls 30mph wind gusts. It hailed four separate times during the ride, well one of the times it was a mix of hail and snow. But the rain or hail or whatever never seems to last that long so you're never really suffering in the elements. Moreover, I'm literally covered head to toe in clothes so if it begins to hail I just pull up my neck warmer and cover up the last little bit of exposed skin on my face and then you can't even feel the hail. So who could really complain then? Yes I still think this is the way to live life, office life is so very far from where I want to be for now. Reading this everyone at home might think I'm nuts, but I don't even get a second look out here. I'm the sissy covered head to toe in gear. There are plenty of people out riding their bikes to the store or wherever in jeans and a coat. I don't think anything bothers me more than riding in wet jeans.
Tomorrow is the Nokere-Koerse, a one day race with a mid/high level field so from here it's a whole ton of racing. I'll be doing nothing but racing and resting for the next three weeks at least. This is always the time when I'm able to get really lean, which just means I can eat more. I love it!
Thanks for reading
Bernard

Nokere Koerse

2007-04-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Deep and dark times I tell ya.
Yesterday we raced the miniclassic Nokere-Koerse, 200K, 186 starters, 23 finishers. Hmm good times. I got to a point in the race where I was definitely in a bit of a rage. So I'm definitely glad that I waited a day before I wrote about the race. Because durring the race, I was the Prince of Darkness to be sure. Thankfully I'd done this race before so I knew what to expect, but having done it only once before, I still have plenty to learn about the race. The race starts with a big loop of 50K then finishes the last 150K on 15k circuits. Well the wind was a blow'n mighty hard on this day and it got ugly pretty darn quick. After only abut 40K, we hit the open country fields and the entire field blew to pieces instantly. It's pretty amazing to watch and I always wonder what the team directors are thinking at these times when they are sitting back in the cars. Next to the race officials, they have the best seat in the house to watch as the race is decided within a matter of minutes. As a racer, it's pretty hard to fully realize what going on untill is way too late. I still don't know exactly how close to the front I was when all this went down. All I do knw is that we took a right turn and instantly everyone was pegged in the gutter. Because there is a cross wind everyone is trying to stay in the draft of the rider in front of him, but with a crosswind that draft is behind and to the side of the rider in front of you. So Everyone is trying to get just a bit more to the side of the rider in front of them and the result is everyone is riding in a single file line, full gas, at the very very edge of the road. Ahh yes and since we're usually in the country side that means you'll have about three feet of grass next to you then certain doom. This certain doom is the 4 foot deep trench the farmers use to drain all the water ut of the fields. So all I know is that I WAS relatively close to the front of the bunch, fighting it out in the gutter and thinking for once I just might make this one. Next thing I know the road makes a slight bender to the left, and at the same time a serious gust of wind hits me and whoosh! Next hing I know I've been blown off the road and into the grass. Now keep in mind it's been raining so it's no good firm grass, it's thick mud that I'm hoping doesn't catch my frontwheel and really put a sour note to end my day. I'm not sinking in the mud so that's good, I'm trying as hard as I can to make sure I also don't fall into the ditch that is now only about a foot away from me. All the while, at least 80% of the field is just absolutle flying past me at Mach 2. Now I'm pissed and despite my better hindsights judgement, once I regain control of the bike I just swing right back into that line of riders that's going WAY WAY fater than I'm going. Ahh well nobody rearended me, which is good, a few guys tried to, but they managed to miss me by a milimeter or two at the last moment. Well once I get back up and running again I'm feeling ok so now I'm trying my best to make my way back twards the frant and see what's happening. Well it took me only a minute to see that there was already a big split in the field and plenty of guys were trying unsuccesfully to bridge across. I've lerned from first hand experience that attempting the solo bridge, when everyone is going full gas, just ain't happening so you might as well bide your time and wait to see what happens, from there you can try to improve your situation. Well like I said earlier, only 23 guys finished so nobody outside of that initial split were ever given the oportunity to try and improve their situation. The group I was in definitely kept riding, but the time gap just continued to hover around a minute for the next 50K, the next time check we got was at a time gap of 1'30" and that's when everyone realized that the day was over for us. Now a minute thirty sure doesn't sound like much at all, but in Belgium it's all anyone needs. The group was out of sight and you can be sure that all 23 riders were plenty motivated to stay away so they weren't going to need a second oportunity. For us back in the main group we continued to ride, and on two separate occasions a team hit the front with a few of their guys and just gassed it for about a lap. This really began to piss me off because they were going so hard that everybody was strugeling to hang on, including their teamates (Unibet) back in the group not working fro some odd reason. They'd give it some real gas for a lap, then just sit up and give up. I was just about to have a "help me Tom Cruise" moment (It's the code I came up with for my teammates. If I'm hollering that, they need to get away from me cuz I'm about three seconds from blowing a gasket) when thankfully they his is when I started getting realy really dark. It's just stoopid race tactics to start with. If a team is going to chase, then the way to do it is put all the guys on the front and set a tempo they can hold for the next 40k or so. Not this crap of just throttling it for 15K, dropping half the bunch, and then sitting up when nothing has been acomplished. The reason I was getting so dark was because I was hurting something fierce and almost blew up on several different occasions. Well that's racing I know, but I'm pretty sure I have some good fitness right now, and I trained mighty hard this winter. So to still be strugling just to finish the race, is pretty frustrating. I knew what to expect this year, in terms of how hard the racing is out here, and that kept me plenty motivated durring the winter to keep training harder and harder. As a result I'm probably the fittest I've ever been at this point in the season. So to still be strugling just to finish is madening. I had all this time durring the race to start thining about my situation. I feel like I'm begening to realize or acept the fact that maybe I'm just not well suited to this type of racing. I was thinking what the racing and weather is like back home in Cali, it was hailing on us in Belgium while it's 80 degrees in Cali. BUt then I emidiately think about the fac that the racing going on right now in the states, just ain't racing. If a 'Pro' race has a whopping two teams show up, and those two teams take all top ten placings, well then that's hard to consider a race. So what to do? The scene just isn't enough in the states, well not yet at least. Once the season really picks up and all the teams are there, then there will be some good racing. But here in Belgium it still seems WAY over my head. I think you need a little positive reinforcement to keep your head on straight. So then I began to wonder what the racing was like in other parts of Europe. Everyone I've talked to says that this is the hardest stuff to deal with as a whole. No doubt there are plenty of hard races elsewhere in Europe, but the fighting, the cold, the road jewlery we constantly fear for our lives from, all really make this just hellish racing conditions.
Well by the end of the our race I was begining to feel a bit better, especially when I realized that my group was onlyabout 50 riders strong, meaning that there were already 100+ guys out of the race. So I guess no matter how bad my day was, I guess I still did better than most. But then again with 30K to go, the time gap had blown up to 2'30" and that's an eon in Belgium. Right after we got that time split, the race officials came up to the front of the group and kindly said thank you for showing up, you can stop riding at the end of this circuit. Now this isn't a pack of jokers riding around. Half of Quicksteps and Lotto's teams were there, most of Unibet and just about all of Chocolate Jaques. Oh and sans one Ausi, the entire Navigators squad, but I guess whether we're jokers or not is a matter of opinion. Bleauh! That Ausi, Hilton, made the split and finished 12th I think. Hey I would been extatic with that result if it were mine. Sheesh at least he's gett'n a good sense of the where's and when of these races and begining to consistently do well. The bit of hope I have is still comming from guys like him who continue to tell me that it takes a few years before you can expect to do ok out here.

The new page

2007-04-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone I have a new webpage!!! Or bloggspot I guess. So I'll be posting all my stories and whatnot on this site from here on out. But I'm new at this blogger stuff so be patient!!!