big things in the hood this week 03.30.04 (10:45 am) thought I would just throw up a quick note. the Three days De Panne course comes right by our place, like 1km away tomorrow. I think we are going to try to catch it and take some pic's. I watched a little of the opening stage on the tube after my ride, Ryder-H was displaying some retard strength just driving the break at one point, I kind of wonder what his team thought of that, "oh, he's a mountainbiker". Then this weekend the tour of flanders is starting in brugge which is only about 10km away, I think I will be racing on sunday so hopefully I can incorporate watching the start into my ride on saturday. I can be a tourist this week. rough, huh. Later, paco 0 Comments   street fightn' man 03.30.04 (2:19 am) The Team- [image]paco_566886197.jpg[/image] So if these UCI races I have been doing are like full-scale war, then kermesse racing is like no hold bar street fighting. Racing kermesse is brutal; the analogy to street fighting holds surprisingly true, the first rule is there are no rules. And that’s about it, so Gord got disqualified at Redlands for some heated racing in the finally of the crit, well that would be just fine in a kermesse here. You have to ride in the front because once you fall out of the top 50 or so (there were 120 racers this weekend) it literally becomes a no hold bar brawl. The Start- [image]paco_824771237.jpg[/image] Guys will do anything to keep or improve their positions, anything. And many (probably myself included) are at their max just trying to hang on. This fact can literally end your race, in more ways than one. First guys that are just hanging on are much more likely to be super sketchy, so the further back the more chance of wrecks. Second and far more common, is the fact that when a guy self-destructs 10 spots in front of you that is pretty much it. Try as you may, closing a gap 25m long at speeds of 50kph or more is almost impossible in theory, and even harder in reality. I have quickly been learning, that the hardest parts of the race are when you are suppose to eat (that’s the theory) because when ever the pace lets up, in corners or technical parts then you better be trying your damedest to improve your position. So imagine, trying to eat in an echelon, or completely guttered out, barely holding on I have yet to put it in practice, but that’s when they tell me I have to; I definitely have a bit to learn. I rode really well for 70k this weekend, but then I cracked like I never have before, I have to admit my legs were fine, but I cracked in the head, and got shot out the back. It is amazing that if you let up for a second and lose even a second of concentration your race can be over. So some of the stuff that flies here is scary, our little guy Bart got into it with a much bigger Belgian, Bart tried to hold his own pushing back and the Belgian, made like he was going to back off and gave Bart a hard kidney shot, fist and all. Well as you can imagine Bart backed off, and I don’t really blame him. So physical contact is part of it, and the other part is the no hold bars riding, attacking on sidewalks, diving through corners, and gaps being closed using hand slings (as to gap Americans off) are all common place. I got scared, twice in the same spot on two consecutive laps; it was the fastest part of the course. I was getting bounced around, and at this less than perfect moment I found the weakness of my bike; when someone slams your handlebars at 60kph the bike is not stiff enough. Needless to say I shot backwards while trying to control the speed wobbles that the impact produced, give me something stiffer! Don’t get me wrong I love the thing, but for hand-to-hand combat, that they call racing here, it has proved a little whippy. Our team finished 5 guys all out of the money, but one of our guys got one of the primes (they had them on every lap). He was the only moneymaker of the bunch making a whopping 15euro. I got pulled with 6 laps to go, out of the 120 something like 50 guys finished. I ended up getting another hour and a half of riding in, which was good because the weather was really nice, I don’t think they get too many like that in the spring. Yesterday was a pretty good day, but it flew by, we did our grocery run in the morning, I got my organs pushed on by our osteopath, and huffed glue in the garage all afternoon, repairing the battle damage from the UCI race two weekends ago. A bunch of new spokes, and the lovely task of gluing tires filled the rest of my afternoon. The one sweet thing is that I am finally starting to get more adept at the day to day things here, the biggest being grocery shopping, yesterday I was able to find all of the things I wanted and start to read labels looking for others, it is pretty amazing the things you take for granted when you are in the states. Finding cream for my coffee was the highlight, I have been using whole milk but it’s just not the same. I was so excited I almost went for the afternoon cup of joe, but held off until this morning. Check out the photo below, can you tell me what’s wrong with it? I’ll let you know in my next entry, because it definitely deserves one of it’s own. [image]paco_82030495.jpg[/image] Thanks for checking in. Daag, paco 0 Comments   day by day 03.26.04 (11:29 am) Hi all, I am kind of getting in a routine this week, training twice a day with a nap in-between all with the purpose getting used to my new bike position and getting our bodies as rested and assimilated as possible. If you remember reading earlier, much of the house was struggling with the affects of jetlag, and the time changes, and sleeping schedules, as the blood work showed we were all dragging a little ass. Yesterday I rode outside in the morning, and we got caught in this freak hailstorm. When we left it was like 10C and about a half an hour from home it started raining, then hail, and in what seemed like an instant there was over 3/4 of an inch of hail on the ground, and it was like riding on ball bearings, I almost went down a couple times. About 5k from home we ran into Bernard who paced us in the van back to the house, more like he drove really slow in front of us with the flashers on, probably protected us a little. Check out the pics. In the afternoon, I didn't take any chances and busted out an hour on the rollers, it was somewhat bearable because of the I-pod. [image]paco_316938654.jpg[/image] [image]paco_324578054.jpg[/image] Today we went to a bike shop an hour away, in Alast. I had to get a tubular some glue and some spoke nipples, all to try and salvage my wheels from last weekend. It's a bummer that I didn't bring two sets of clinchers, since maxxis is a sponsor. The good thing is that tubbies are pretty cheap here I got one for 16E pretty nice one too. Finally riding this afternoon I felt better, and I made myself go super easy, even though I felt like I could uncork one. Look out on Sunday you dirty Belgians. I tried to talk my way into the UCI race tomorrow, but it would have been with the national team, and the guy Noel who runs it never heard of me so it didn't work. So I will race a local Kermesse this Sunday, my first one, hopefully I can throw down. So we had the Man Eat Dog crews in today, they started filming, its pretty funny they kind of pick on our younger kids, they filmed Bart making lunch and he burned the shit out of a chicken breast, cooked like a pound of pasta, then dumped half of it on the floor on accident, then proceeded to scrape it up and eat it. God, we are going to look like a bunch of fools. In the afternoon, we watched like two min of the Road to Paris around a hundred times, all to get a shot of Bernard explaining that we need to have stuff to make us comfortable and remind us of home. It had some good Chris VdV footage and some mercury sea foam green in it. Check me out being a tourist below. [image]paco_1249729617.jpg[/image] Thanks for reading Daag, paco 0 Comments   more crazy belgians 03.24.04 (11:42 am) So I have been hanging with my homies in Brugge, just cold chillin’. The guys are a little beat down, so the doc says to lie low, lie low. No seriously, this week was kind of meant for us to chill out, because apparently the 10-14day mark is when the change hits the hardest. A couple of the guys have gotten sick, but I am doing fine, my hours in the saddle have been reduced for other reasons. I have gotten a lot done this week, bike fits “we make your ride like Belgian”, we had a sponsor come and pedal his wares, and we have had some big news here at the house. So Monday morning we had Chris from Compex at the cycling center to tell us why and how to use out Compex machines. For those who don’t know Compex are a type of electro stimulation tool for training and recovery. We got an in-depth power point presentation, and then we got to do some practical demonstration as Chris called it. Let me tell you it was a hoot, I laughed so hard for an hour that my abs were sore on Tuesday. He hooked two guys up to a machine, and somehow our biggest guy Jamie got hooked up to our smallest guy Bart. So each guy had electrodes hooked up to one of his quads, but with only one control unit to each pair. So this machine sends an electrical current into your leg to contract the muscle or massage it or whatever. Use your imagination for this one, but 12 guys in a room with these things hooked up to each other you can only imagine. Guys were involuntarily flying up in the air, quads rock hard screaming, while everyone else is just rolling, then someone else’s buddy would crank theirs up and it would go on, it went on like this for an hour. Pure comedy, I was laughing so hard tears were flowing. So the bike fit, Franz the bike fitter is pretty well known in these parts, he has done fits for many of the greats most notably, Laurent Jalibert, Jan Ulrich, and the late Marco Pantani. So first I have to say that this guy is a little eccentric, and by a little I mean a lot. He fits you in the attic of his house, using a plethora of homemade measuring instruments including this one thing to measure your inseam that is spring-loaded and shoots into your crotch. So the other thing of note is that Franz speaks no English, and by no English I me absolutely none, not one word. So one of our coaches T-bo translated though the measuring aspect, but had to leave. So I was left alone with Franz and the promise Bernard our director would be there in 45min, normally. I must tell you in Belgium, normally means sometimes, hopefully, I think so and normally all rolled into one. So with the measurements, Franz sat down and punched the numbers, for like 45min. He came up with my Ideal, the measurements of a custom bike. Pretty cool, but since I am not getting a custom bike right now, he went to work on our second option, my bike. After two hours of work and more than an ample amount of cursing in Belgian, I don’t know what he was saying but it was definitely cursing of the American products, on my bike namely speedplay, pearl shoes, and cane creek headsets. He came up with something that works and is apparently my ideal position. He even had to go so far as having a bike shop bring a stem over, it cost 54 euro, which is like 54,000 us dollars. Bummer I have one at home. And Bernard finally made it over 2 hours later. The fit was incredibility thorough but time consuming I was there for over 4 hours. Finally you guys are going to love this, the Cycling Center was picked as the concept for a Belgian Reality TV program, they start filming next week. And apparently it is all fare game, training, cooking, shopping, sauna, massage. If this doesn’t generate some hilarity around hear I don’t know what will. And I expect you all at home will have fun with this one too. One more tidbit, on my ride this afternoon I saw three different guys on motos crusing on the bike paths, stein would love it. Thanks for reading Daag, Paco 0 Comments   news flash 03.23.04 (11:59 am) Listen ya'all I am going international, not only will you be able to read about my exploits here, but my ramblings will be polished and syndicated on velonews' website. I need your help..... What do we call the column; please log your requests or ideas in the comments section below. Paco 5 Comments   casualty of war 03.22.04 (12:39 pm) [image]paco_152836156.jpg[/image] uh, I have to race 150km today, and it's 8C and raining Back to the battlefields yesterday, we raced from a town called trougee, south of Brussels, around an hour and a half from our home in Hertsberge. We were definitely in the country; we got a little lost on the way out, even with the Belgians driving. Before we even left the CC Johan gave us all a pep talk, he came to each of us with this piece of paper which he had written, You line up on front line, you don’t let anyone take your place. You stay in front out of wind. I was inspired. Johan is one of the few people that I really want respect from, he is a hard Belgian, they don’t come any harder and he holds this wealth of knowledge, and we have a language barrier that makes it that much harder. It was a tough day, my previous analogy to war held true. This race was categorized as a UCI 1.6 the same as last week, yet it was incredibly different. The town was much smaller and the race itself was much less organized. [image]paco_13825664.jpg[/image] he held it so long on the way there in the car it took MB three tries to open the flood gates We signed in this little bar and went to the changing rooms that consisted of a tent pitched on the town square, with some buckets of boiling water and a hose, the showers. After changing, and going to inscription to sign in, we went back to the van, got the legs rubbed down with hot stuff, and started warm-ups. We were told from the beginning, it would be a fast start, so we were to be on the front line, and we were, but that required us to stand 15min before the start. We fought to keep our spots and I was on the front from the start. And was it fast, no offense boys but it was faster than cross, faster than mountain bikes, even norba short tracks, basically faster than I have ever started. Oh yah the wind was blowing, 45kph with gusts to 60kph. A kilometer in and the entire firestone team jumped out in front of the field, they had been warming up and it was a tactic that they had used in the past, basically they almost took out the whole 200 rider field. Anyway this tactic (cheating) created the first break, and those guys with a good warm-up were just drilling it. Echelons formed and I was barely hanging on; my legs were pretty blocked from standing on the line, and I was getting thrown from group to group, 5km in I was able to find some legs and change from complete survival mode to trying to improve my race situation mode. So we were going like hell in this cross wind, and we turned to tail wind, there was this huge pothole in the middle of the turn and someone hit it hard, and with that the war started. After the turn, we had a tail wind and the speed went up to 75kph on a flat, it was unbelievable, basically hauling, faster than I have ever gone on the flats before, uh yah in a group of 200 no less. Turn, crosswind, echelon, and then a guy about five in front went off the road, overcorrection, oh shit, and that was pretty much my race. I t-boned the guy at 35-40kph, but I was able to keep him under me, almost riding on him, in this jumble of bikes. When I made it to the ground I just curled up and braced, three, four more guys piled in to us. Then I was up and trying to untangle my bike from the pile. Tough shape I radioed in for two wheels, pulled out brake levers, and was back on the road. And then the team car went by at 200kph. And I was left beaten but worst of all with a 10-speed wheel; all I had was the 11. I lasted another 15km in chase, and then I was told my race was over. So all and all a bit more discouraging than last weekend but it could have been much worse the rider who broke my fall left on a backboard in an ambulance, so I consider myself lucky, some road rash, and a couple broken wheels (thanks stein they were yours) but in pretty good condition. Also there was this huge skid mark on my down tube, pretty crazy. I rode the 20km or so back to the start town, with one of the colstop-palmers riders, he spoke good English, and we had a pretty good talk on the way back. I would have never gotten there with out him. Then the waiting game started, our riders trickled in one by one. And Jamie, (pronounced hi-may) our big lovable 200lb Mexican, who can push 450watts came in last making it 130 out of 150km and receiving a prorated time. Another funny story was Bart our 115 pounder getting blown off the road into a field and crashing in the first 1k. All and all a rough day. When we were driving home I was looking out the window screaming along the hwy at 150kph thinking that the landscape screaming bye looked a lot like the Colorado plains along I-70, just like driving home from a race a thousand times before. Only I was a couple thousand miles away from home, and there were a couple crazy Belgians rocking out the non-stop techno on the radio in the front seat. Daag, Paco 0 Comments   livin' 03.20.04 (11:20 am) Hi everyone. Sorry for the less than punctual updates, I have been busy, but unfortunately not with stuff that is not all that exciting. So I have been less than motivated to write about something. Anyway since the last time I checked in with you all I have been doing some training, testing and stretching. Thursday I did three hours by myself, I only meant to get 2 but I got a little turned around and had to consult the map a few times. I did this loop the main cities Bernem, merbeken, and Brugge. So I had a longer ride than anticipated but it went pretty smooth I didn’t even have to stop and ask for directions. When I got back, I wolfed down some lunch, because we had Doctor Dag in for lactate and blood testing. This was pretty cool; Because Dr.Dag is the doctor for US Postal team. So it is quite an experience to work with such a famous professional. I was pretty much disappointed by my lactate and max watt test. It confirmed what I already knew; I’m no freak of nature just a regular guy, hopefully smarter than the rest. Since then I have been just getting rested and ready for this weekend it’s another UCI race a 1.6 in the Ardennes region of Belgium, apparently it is the best climbing around so I have high hopes of finishing. The weather is less than encouraging though, we have ridden in the rain for the last two days, and right now it is incredibly windy, sustained at 30mph with gusts to 50. Anyway I should have a good story from tomorrow that includes a good finish to go along with the war stories. Hope all is well with everyone. Daag, Paco 0 Comments   training, and hardmen 03.17.04 (9:31 am) Well, I haven’t gotten to check in a couple days, so I have a bunch of stuff to get on. After good rest on Monday, sauna, stretching, and general relaxation, and a good B movie it was back to business on Tuesday. The B movie was Out Cold; it was this snowboard remake of those ski movies from the 80’s like ski patrol, and Better off Dead. Let me tell you I laughed my ass off. This one scene one of the characters passed out drunk, a trend for this character in the movie, so they threw him in the drivers seat of a car, got in and got ten guys on one of the back sides of the car pushing in a circle on a snowy road, then the preceded to wake the guy at the wheel up, making him think he passed out at the wheel, let me say this was nothing short of the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. A trend for us, movie time, since most of the TV programming is crappy rerun stuff subtitled in Dutch. So what else have I been up to here at the CC, kilometers, kilometers, and kilometers. Yesterday Trevor (Ironman) Irons and I got out for a two up training day, two guys is a pretty good thing over here, each guy pulls his own weigh, and since we were pretty well matched we both got a lot done. Ok so it has taken me over a week to get it right but I had the best ride food ever. Here’s the list, 2 waffles, one with peanut butter and the other with nutella, and two siroopwafels (pretty much the best thing ever). They are like wafer cookies with syrup and butter in the middle, so good that they must be reserved for riding and races. They have these things in wholefoods but they are like $2 each so I never get them, but here they are super cheap here. Five hours in the saddle and these things are like heaven. Feeling a little tired this morning I went out with a different group, Bennet, Mike, Eric, and Ben2. Pretty awesome ride, it was almost 18C (yes I am making the full euro conversion, it’s k’s and c from now on). [image]paco_429187714.jpg[/image] I don’t imagine the weather gets much better here. We made it to Holland, and got a really good cup of coffee, forewent the pastry today, because as it went the planned 4 hours only made like 2:40, but I was pretty tired and it ended up working out for the better. [image]paco_1278259996.jpg[/image] [image]paco_432569251.jpg[/image] Instead of tacking on more riding, I forced myself to stretch for 45min. And this ended up being a good thing because I haven’t been at all good for a stretch since I have been here. And that brings me to here, just chillin’ in our house Internet café’ Finally I have to let you know about Hans, definitely the hardest man in our house. He decided to use his face as a brake in the race on Sunday, actually it wasn’t really his choice but that was how it went. [image]paco_390672680.jpg[/image] Anyway he spent two nights in the hospital, and we got him back last night, only looking a little worse for wear, but I’ll let you be the judge. Anyway he was on the trainer after not being home for more than an hour. And he was on the rollers this morning. Let me tell you, I am not sure I would have been on the trainer, but then I haven’t claimed the title of hardest man in the house. Check Hans out being hard below. [image]paco_1384173541.jpg[/image] Well thanks for checking in. Dag, Paco 0 Comments   war 03.15.04 (12:35 pm) Hi all sorry for the site, I guess that what’s you get on the cheap, I guess the bright side is that they didn’t go out of business or anything. So as you may have heard I did get to race the UCI race this past weekend. I have no idea where to begin, without just figuratively puking on the page, there are a million ways I could go and you still wouldn’t have any idea of what it’s like one thing to all my bike racer friends, you should experience it, those young enough apply to this program and those older, check out the masters program that Bernard is working on putting together. [image]paco_1380067662.jpg[/image] Pre Race I guess the best way to start is from the beginning. Here are the stats again, the race was called Gent-Ieper it is rated a UCI 1.6, the highest amature UCI category there is. The best way I can describe the course is by coping the info they taped to my stem before the race. 34.2k – cobbles 900m, 50.9k –cobbles 1500m, 69.1- rail tracks, 70.2 Feed, 87.8k Climb, 93.2 Climb, 96k cobbled Climb, 104.4 Feed, 110.4 Climb, 116.4 Climb, 118.3 Cobbled Climb, 134.6 Danger, 146.4 Finish line 1st local lap, 156 Finish. We drove from the CC to the race start in Gent, which took about 40 min; we left at 10 on the nose. I have to tell you that I can not remember the last time I have been this nervous for the start of a race, maybe because this was really the first time in my cycling career that I had 5 teammates that I had a job to help, and what I did in the race as an individual had immediate effects on them. It didn’t really help that we had 5 support people there doing everything for us. God this report is going to go forever if I hit on every point so I will try to hit on the highlights that you all might enjoy hearing about. I was riding in a car with Mike V and our two on the bike coaches Johan and T-bo. It was my first real experience of true euro driving, 115k/hr on a road narrower than the bike paths in Boulder, just wide enough for the wheels, pretty crazy and that’s normal here. For me it was 1 word, I-pod. We got to the race an it was already a zoo almost 3 hours before the start, tons of teams, trucks and fans, seriously bigger than any race I have been to in the states, anything, any national, road race, whatever. So to fill you in my teammates and I are all America and we don’t hide it, stars and stripes helmets, red, white, and blue uniforms, the whole nine yards. And the euros (mainly Belgians) hate us and they aren’t afraid to let you know. Back to the story, about an hour before the neutral start we went to the locker rooms to change, they were all taken, soingers were guarding doors and shit, so we found a back door to one and totally crashed this Belgian teams room, it was pretty awesome, and being completely ignorant to their language helps, pretty much you keep an I don’t give a f@#k attitude, and that’s how you get through it. Oh ya you get the point pretty quick that these euros are really comfortable hanging out with their junk hanging out. Back to the bikes, they had musettes hanging from them, tires filled, we got our radios and did a mic check (1-2), then a quick rub with hot stuff, because you can’t race in Belgium with leg or knee warmers, do you want them to think you are a pussy?? Then the team got together and rolled around waiting for the start. The start was pretty crazy even though it was suppose to be neutral. Trevor and I were supposed to be the watchdogs of the first 100k and protect Hans and Mike the guys designated to try for the result. I quickly found that plans easily go ary when you are fighting for your life. I rode at the front, and was able to establish some type of respect, they won’t speak to you in English, but they know what you are saying, and the cussing usually works. The race itself was the most insane thing I have ever participated in, pretty much a free for all. Curbs, sidewalks, bike paths, are all fair game, but maybe not the best option at 50k/hr. It was crazy traffic islands, and roundabouts, you would be bunny hoping on curbs, and then you would here behind someone who must not have been paying attention, and they would hit the curb so hard that it sounds like their wheel folded all the way to the fork. Insane it was like war; there were some bad crashes, ones where the guys didn’t get up. Unfortunately one of my teammates is still in the hospital from a crash. Basically you could take the sketchiest cat 5 crit from the states, take out all the hay bails and other safety precautions and turn the speed up to 50k/hr and you would be close to what it was like. The hardest for me was the crosswind sections, you have to be in like the top 50 or there isn’t any chance of making the split, so that means you have to be at the front the whole race, and it is a constant battle. At one point I was spun out on the flats in the gutter in my 53x11. The feed was crazy too; grab a musette with 2 bottles in it at 40k/hr. So I made it to the first climb with the group, which was good, because only one of my other teammates made it with me. Unfortunately my race ended on the first climb someone broke a chain, slipped a pedal or something and stopped a couple spots in front of me and a small gap opened, and I didn’t see the front of the race after that. But I lasted through the rest of the climbs. They were super crazy the cobbled one was called the kemmelberg and we rode it twice, it was 1.5k long 18% grade that kicked to 20% for the last 150m. It gets even crazier; there was a 22% cobbled descent down the other side. Think descending magnolia on slippery washboard. After the cobbles the descent continued through towns, it was crazy, like the tour or something just hanging it out on these narrow streets. In one of the crosswind sections I saw this Belgian racer totally eat it into this huge ditch on the side of the road, totally crashed himself, no one was even around, I had a little chuckle to myself after seeing that one. I got through all of the climbs, but got pulled at 130k, 26k from the finish, my only consolation was that I lasted longer than any of my teammates, and unfortunately that isn’t any at all. I guess I did good enough though; a UCI 1.12 in France is on the docket for next weekend, I here they have big climbs. Well UCI #1 down, how many to go??? No rides the day after a race here, got a sauna though 15min at 80degC, cold shower, 15min, Cold shower, nap. Of note cycling news has top 25 results as of now hopefully full results in the next couple days, uh ya it’s in the real race section. Dank U wel for reading, Paco [image]paco_121116099.jpg[/image] 0 Comments   lying low 03.13.04 (8:23 am) Hi all, I have had a lot of time today, so this entry has just as much purpose to kill time for me as it is to fill you in. I am quickly getting more comfortable with the house the guys and the country. The one thing I haven’t become comfortable with yet is the thought of racing. About half the house left 3hour ago for a kermesse, start time was 2:30, it’s around 4 now so I wonder how the guys are doing, hopefully they are all still in it but the way the wind is blowing I have a good idea that I am going to be even less comfortable after hearing the war stories from them tonight. Today has been filled with being a bike racer, nice leisurely breakfast at 8, followed by coffee with the backbone guys at nine, and then I rode for 1.5 hours with mike. Checked out the town of Hertzberg, and hit the local bike shop for some lube. On the way back we saw one of the local group rides, the meet at the local tavern. Funny thing it was all the old guys, it looked like the youngest was probably 50 and there were upwards of 30 of them. Let me tell you they were all business, tricked out bikes, and their team kits, it was really pretty cool, probably the equivalent of American football fans. Another thing from that ride yesterday, on the way back I was amazed at how un-phased the Belgians are by the rain, we saw countless older women and men cruising around on townies with now rain gear, and they didn’t even look uncomfortable. Still don’t know about the race tomorrow I was telling mike that I hope I get to do it for the sole fact of getting it over with, so the racing isn’t an unknown to me anymore. I am pretty anxious to get it over with. Last thing thanks for all the support, and keep it coming you all know who you are, and I can’t tell you how great it is when I open my inbox an have mail from the states. Thanks for checking in, Paco 0 Comments   so today got ugly 03.12.04 (11:42 am) Well the honeymoon is over, and today it started raining, they tell me it won't stop for 3 months. Luckily today was bad, even one of our Belgian coaches Johan said he was cold, so I don't feel so bad saying I was cold, and I know it can't get too much worse. We went to preview the UCI course for Sunday, and lets say I am even uneasier. Here are some stats, 160km, 6 climbs, and they are short steep and deadly, they were telling me positions to be in, and I was thinking how the heck I was even going to make it to that point of the race, let alone positioning. And they were saying make sure only to go 80% on this climb because if you go harder you won't be able to stay with the group on the next climb. Oh yah it gets better, there is a cobbled descent that is around 20% grade, their advice "make sure to use no brakes”. On top of all that it is a very prestigious race, all the Belgians want to win, they consider it the amateur tour of Flanders, they expect 200 to start and between 35-60 to finish. Would you be comfortable? We rode to where the race starts which took 2 hours, but we got lost so we ended up riding tempo in the wind for an hour, it was pretty hard. When we met the rest of the team, it started to rain, and rain and rain, our team director Bernard called us in to the cars because it was too bad out and we drove the rest of it. When we got back I got a quick sauna, shower and it was already 6:30 so it was on to dinner. And now it's time to chill. So I should dedicate a whole entry to Johan, because he is one crazy Belgian, but here is the short story. Johan is 42, he doesn't race anymore because his wife doesn't like it, and he has a book filled with 15 years worth of racing. Apparently he was good for 15 wins a year, and then he was good for another 15 to sell, and they say you can only sell wins if you are better than everyone else. The other interesting tidbit, from September to the end of February of this year he rode 11,000 km. Oh also this Thursday he rode from 6:00-9:00 pm because he had to work during the day, it gets dark at 6. Somewhat inspiring considering the weather here. So the majority of the house is racing a local kermesse tomorrow. I won't be racing, and I still don't know about Sunday the team is still at 8 but only 6 can race. Any luck you can send will be used. Dag, Paco 0 Comments   Slideshow 03.11.04 (2:20 pm) Slideshow- Click Here! 0 Comments   cobbles 03.11.04 (2:14 pm) So I crashed last night, I slept from 9 to 9:45 it was totally awesome, I haven’t had that good of a sleep in a long time, thanks earl, sorry cath. At breakfast Mike and I decided to ride together, and then getting ready, Ben decided to join us. This was great for me, seeing as I had no idea where to ride. Good would be a huge understatement for how great it was having tour guides. We rode through town after town, until there was no hope of me knowing where I was, and then we rode some more. The ride included two climbs one of which was cobbled, and my first section of cobbles. I don’t even know where to begin on the topic of cobbles; I was floored by how hard it is to ride over them. The best way to describe the sensation is to liken it to dirt road washboard, but really bad, like so bad that you feel like the handle bars are being ripped from your hands, and the soles of your feet are being pounded by hammers. It was amazing, I could barely see straight because my body was so jarred. The other thing about it is that you can’t do anything to make it easier, if you slow down it gets harder, if you stand up it gets really hard, so really the only thing you can do to make it easier is to go even harder so the whole experience is over quicker. I can’t imagine in a race, it seems if they came at the end of racing for five hours I would just crash because it’s so hard. When people who have been there say that “ there is no way you can understand how hard it is until you experience it” well they are pretty much spot on. After the flat cobbles we did a climb from one of the classics the name escapes me at the moment, it was 2km, and heinous, we pretty much had to go as hard as we could to get over it. Once again let me reiterate how hard it was. We hit my first Belgian bakery at around 3.5 hours and it hit the spot, 2 pancakes, and a pastry for 1.44euro, the equivalent at Vic’s would have been $7, oh yah it was twice as good. We got back around 4:30 got some food, showered up and did some emailing. We had our first team meeting tonight. It was pretty basic, house rules, one of which is up by 8am, but we have to live by them and in the long run they should be good, especially with some of the youngsters. Big thing of the meeting is that I some how was per selected to do a UCI race this weekend. They picked 8 of us and 6 can race, 2 are alternates, so there is still a chance I don’t race, but I am definitely not doing the kermesse on Saturday with everyone else, and I am doing the course recon with the rest of the long team tomorrow. Pretty exciting- trial by fire, hopefully I will get to race on Sunday. Anyway it’s getting late, thanks for checking in. Dag, Paco 0 Comments   good afternoon 03.10.04 (7:12 am) Well I made it, after 18 hours of travel. The plane ride across the pond was rough; I didn’t really sleep more than an hour. So I am sitting here trying to stay awake, I want to make it until 9pm or so, and hopefully railroad any jet lag. Once we got here, we had to catch a train to tielt, luckily I met up with Ben one of my teammates in the Brussels airport. We missed the first train, got on the wrong one next, and finally made it to tielt after about 2 hour of sitting on train platforms. I am really impressed with the cycling center, the building is in the neighborhood of 5,000 sqft, and it is fully equipped, sauna, bike garage, 3 kitchens, a bar. And it is very comfortable, 2 guys to a room. Much of the architecture is unbelievable, I need to get some pictures up, all my do-it-yourself friends will be very jealous. Granite, heated floors, lots of windows, anyway the place is beautiful. We have a dog too her name is Bo, she is a golden retriever, and quite the beggar. After the tour of the house, Ben, Bernard, Anne, and I sat down for lunch and coffee. And Bernard gave us an idea of his past, present, and future with the cycling center, inspiring to say the least, he is really developing riders, and people are noticing too, in the following years this place is really going to go off. Got my bike built up, and stuff somewhat situated, now I am just killing some time until I can sleep. Hi to all, stay tuned, and thanks for reading. Paco 0 Comments   traveling 03.10.04 (6:52 am) tues march 9, 4:32pm I am sitting here in Washington/Dulles waiting for the second leg of my flight to Belgium. I figured I had some extra time and I found a wall socket so wanted to top off my batteries and get some thoughts down. Leaving was really hard, Earl was being pretty rambunctious and I was short on time as always, so we didn’t get too good of a good bye. It’s going to be hard without the little guy. We had a good ride to the airport barely any traffic, Cath came in and helped me check in, change some money, and wait. Everything went really smoothly, check in money exchange- except for the fact that the dollar sucks right now. I got 35 euros for $50 dollars, crazy. Goodbye, I was doing ok till the end and then it was really hard, 4 months seems like a long time right now, it’s like being away for the whole time we have had Earl. My leaving really hit me on the plane right before take off, I thought I had lost a picture, and I kind of felt overwhelmed, luckily I was able to find it. The first flight was good, I watched a movie, The School of Rock, and it took up almost the whole flight. I made sure to stay awake so I can hopefully sleep the majority of the flight to Belgium. Tomorrow is going to be rough, Brussels at 7am, and a train to Tielt, where I meet Bernard, the program and team director. I have this feeling of wanting to get all of the firsts out of the way, especially the first race, hopefully it will be something this weekend. It’s weird how much I like to be stuck in a rut, I love routine, and this is far from it. In fact I think this is the farthest I have ever gone both literally and figuratively. Anyway by the time you get to read this it will be in my past, and hopefully most of the firsts will be out of the way. 0 Comments   down to the wire 03.07.04 (6:00 pm) So it's down to the wire, only one more full day until my departure. Crazy, I am both excited and nervous, but ready. We had a great time Friday night a good group and tons of food and wine. We had more rugrats running around, it was great. So thanks everyone for coming and giving me support. Yesterday was crazy we did a coffee shop walk with earl, the wind was blowing the top on the news was 88mph. Vic's was good I only wish I had brought a camera; the epitome of the stereotypical Vic's customer was there. This guy was great, laptop, stainless steel brief case, wireless cell phone ear piece (but he wasn't talking on it, just wearing it) oh ya his shirt was half unbuttoned too. Then puppy school, earl was a star again. We stopped by Ben and Amber's too; he was getting ready to leave for the norba in Texas. I tried to get enough Cathy and earl time in, but that's not really possible. Today was hard, first race of the year, stazio crit. It was fun I got some good efforts in and stayed out of trouble, there was one crash, luckily behind me. Pretty hard, it is going to be really hard to sustain the same effort for twice as long next week. Hopefully I can finish a couple and gain some confidence. Healthnet won the race in fine fashion, Scott got the win, and Wherry was second, Travis kept it real in third. I finished safely in the pack. Fine, I wasn't expecting much; it's good to have the first one under my belt. This afternoon I have just been lying on the couch, pretty beat. Anyway, just wanted to send out a note I don't know when I'll be able to get another entry up, but it will probably be from Europe. Well I'll see you all in June, thanks for the support and please keep reading. Paco 0 Comments   busy 03.05.04 (12:09 pm) Busy- to say the least, so sorry for not checking in yesterday. I did a good solo ride yesterday, I climbed up to Jamestown and then did a loop out towards Lyons, still getting things dialed in, I had new shoes on and my left knee was a little tweaked. But I think I made the right adjustments to correct the problem. Overall, I felt really good yesterday, especially after the ride on Wednesday. I started packing yesterday, what a task, I have most of my crap laid out on our spare bed, lots of stuff and a pretty small bag to fit it in. Today I planned to take off the bike, a good thing too, we got 6 or so inches of heavy wet snow last night. So riding would have been pretty miserable and wet today. I have just been running around this morning, the bank, the bike shop, supplies for tonight. The other task I am in the middle of right now is gluing up a pair of tubulars for the trip, nothing like waiting till the last minute, huh? Gluing tubulars is one of those things I don't think anyone can enjoy, It takes forever, I usually do 3 coats on the rims and tires, allowing at least a couple hours in between each coat, then a final coat right before you mount them. I'm pretty conservative, and maybe a little anal but I figure the extra time is worth it just for that extra bit of confidence. So the process usually has to get spread over a couple days, but that isn't even the half of it, the glue is incredibly toxic so you inadvertently get to kill some brain cells, and you can't rush any step, because the consequences of a bad glue job are really high, imagine rolling a tire at 80km an hour. Beloki did it in the tour and he got lucky with a broken hip. I can't imagine gluing tires for a big D1 team, it must be a nightmare, let alone nerve racking knowing you could kill a rider with a crapy job. But hey they ride better, are lighter, and you flat less, all in the name of going a little faster. We may be getting new neighbors in a couple days, stay tuned for some really big news. Thanks for reading, before long these reports will be from across the pond, only four more days till departure. Dag, Paco 0 Comments   sore legs 03.03.04 (6:01 pm) So if yesterday was training today was tough. Ben T was kind enough to tow Travis and I around on his scooter for an hour this morning. Ahh, motor pacing- let me tell you it's not easy. We met up at the bus stop at 9:30, Ben was ready to hurt us, and even commented on how he hoped we were ready to suffer. Travis took the first pull behind the scoot, but I would be the one to spend the majority of the ride there. You see the guy behind the scoot has it pretty easy with a big draft and the one behind has it hard, probably twice as hard. 10 min in I was already thinking I wouldn't be able to make it to Lyons with them. There is this series of rollers on 36 that were killing me, so T gave me the spot behind the scoot and it was at least doable. I had the feeling of lactic acid getting stuck in the tops of my quads like it was trying to get out of my legs but couldn't, it wasn't very pleasant. Travis was an animal, he was making it look easy and every time we would switch places I would only last a couple minutes before coming off. We did a big loop 36 to 66 then back in through Hygiene, to Neva. Luckily for me Travis got a flat before Neva, so we got a break. Starting up again was really rough, and half way down neva I had to thaw in the towel, pretty good though, an hour of motor pacing. I have to send another shout out to MBF http://www.medfit.net, I used my new custom orthotics for the first time today and they were great. I wasn't really having any pain before getting them, but I can actually notice a difference with them, my knee's felt better and so did my back. On the way back I ran into Gully out on the bike path, we rode home and chatted for a while and I found out what he's been up to. Sounds like school and maybe even some entrepreneurialism are on his horizon. It was great to see him; hopefully the whole family will make it to our little going away party this Friday. It's crazy to think I will be racing again in less than four days, and this morning’s ride has left me feeling like I raced. I have that hard effort hack going and my legs are just acing. Tis the season I guess. The count down has begun, just 6 days till my departure. Dag, Paco 1 Comments   training again 03.02.04 (5:04 pm) So I'm really training again, went out with Travis today on the single speeds, after tea at pekoe (how Boulder) we headed out 36, busted up lefthand canyon to heil ranch. On the way we saw super mom Margell out whipping the CU girls into shape. Heil was a little tacky but easily ridable with a clear conciense, actually it wasn't easy at all I suffered the whole time. On the descent I had a great save, I cornered too hard on a snowy turn and started sliding in trying to correct it I ended up off trail and jumping over the handle bars, but like I said it was a great save and I landed on the ground in front of my bike on my feet. Travis didn't even see. After Heil we took on hall. The trail was completely dry and pretty sandy I had a rough time the whole way up. The 1X1 wasn't too cooperative either, the back wheel kept slipping the whole climb, I think due to the fact that I have a ti skewer on the back- what a goober. So we rode the climb then a new descent I think called Antelope, it was sweet turny single track and old road, and it dumps out on the fruit loop northwest of Lyons, completely legal and super fun. Then it was back through Lyons and home on 36, we had a little extra time so we finished off at the coffee shop next to lucky's in north boulder, nice and they don't have the "I want to be seen at Vic’s fee" either. We had a good chat about Europe too, definitely helps when you get encouragement from a guy like Travis. Busted a quick shower out when I got home then jumped on the scoot to MBF to pick up my new custom cycling orthotics, check out their website http://www.medfit.net if you have any physical therapy needs, why, well they take most major insurance and are huge supporters of cycling in boulder. Home again and Earl's bed finally arrived, check him out living like a king. [image]paco_566884922.jpg[/image] Cool, thanks for reading. Dag, Paco 0 Comments   catching up 03.01.04 (11:09 am) I haven't checked in, in a while, so here is the latest. I spent an hour trying to link that Oakley icon, this site has turned out to be really fun, and I learn something new everyday. Anyway it was an eventful weekend. We made this great dinner with Jonny and Anissa on Friday night, Jonny went all out and made chicken cordon bleu, it was divine. Saturday was another rough day for earl, he got bitten again hiking, we are never going back to synidas. But he bounced back and shined in puppy school again, the instructor Gigi has officially fallen in love with earl. Yesterday, Cathy and I had a big day backcountry skiing, it was great to be out in the elements, using all of our new equipment, the only thing we need is a beeper for Cath (don't worry we borrowed one for yesterday). Check out the slideshow I put together, Click Here! Today we are down to my last week, I am going to start training again, pretty hard too, I hope to get some intensity this week and then race on Sunday. Can you believe it Tuesday is the departure date. Ahhh! I hope everything comes together. I have already gone through two cups of coffee, I guess I'll just keep them coming. Until next time. Dag, Paco 0 Comments