kermis'in 04.28.04 (12:46 pm) another kermis today, once again I am all blown out so the blow by blow will have to wait, but here I'll hit the highlights. As luck would have it I finished. The conditions were epic the start was 25C and sunny, and by halfway through the race it was 10-15C cooler, and pouring, really, literally pouring rain. Like buckets were being poured on us. Epic. Also it was really cool, the national team house got a influx of mountain bikers to race on the road over here, the whole gang Walker, Alan Obye, Nick Waite, and some other youngins that I don't know. It was really cool to have them there, we had a real american contingent, there were almost 20 of us, pretty cool. well that's about all I have in me right now, hope all is well with everyone. Good luck to everyone at Gila, and whatever else. Dag, Paco 0 Comments   yesterdays race 04.25.04 (9:33 am) Ahh another kermis in Belgium. What can I say, besides it was flat, fast and a little bit sketchy. The course was a combination of 6-foot wide farm roads, and super wide double lane streets. It made it kind of interesting going from 60kph with 15 riders across into a 90-degree corner onto a 6-foot wide farm road. There was one part where I was having the darndest time seeing were the road ended and gravel shoulder began, it was the same color, and you could hardly see the drop onto the gravel, it make for some interesting gutter riding. I was kind of a wuss on the first 3 laps and it proved to be my demise, I am still a little uneasy about putting trust in the other 200 racers around me, so I always leave a little extra room, and really that is something you just can’t do here. If there is a hole someone will fill it and eventually that happens enough that you find yourself at the back of the group, and that is no place to be. So usually around 30 min in I get my act together and get my ass up there to start racing, and sometimes that is too late and the winning move is already gone. Yesterday I missed the winning move but I was up there trying at least. I had just been off the front myself and it went about a minute after my group had been reabsorbed, and I missed it through a combination of being too far back, and not entirely recuperated from my previous effort. The group was dangling in front of us at 20sec or so and this big Belgian went to try to get across, I went with him and we almost made it across, almost being the key word, but no. It made things rough, I burned quite a few matches in the lap and a half we were out there alone, but when the group caught us I made sure to get right in the rotation at the front, which was a good thing because there was another split, and I made the “chase group”. I raced the rest of the race in this group at the front rotating for the next 2 hours, I was absolutely dying, and at one point I tested the theory that it is better to be at the front barely hanging on no matter how hard it is than at the back. Like I said I was barely hanging on in the rotation so I bowed out and went to the back to try to take a break, and I immediately found out that it was at least twice as hard as in the front. So I went right back up there and got back in the rotation. It’s definitely smoother and you get a little break after your pull. I was doing a good job of practicing my theatrics as to prevent the guys who were really working hard from yelling at me, I’ll tell you a little heavy breathing and pain stricken faces go a long way to make it a little easier, definitely better than the back. With a lap to go the pace slowed and the fun tactics came out. The firestone guys definitely had the numbers (there were six) and they were doing all the tricks, braking in corners gaping teammates, multiple attacks and counters. I held up ok there were enough motivated racers to take the pressure off any single guy to chase everything. I was the 7th guy through the last corner out of 20-25; this was good for me because there were some serious battles going on for places. I even contested the sprint, (like I said earlier who would have thought) and I ended up 6th, too bad we were sprinting for 30th. It was a good race for me considering I wanted to drop out after the second lap, but really that was the only time I didn’t think I was going to finish. And that alone is a big step, going from survival to actually racing these guys, pretty cool. The effort was pretty amazing, almost like mountain bikes, it was hard the whole time, with some really deep efforts sprinkled in the 3 or so hours for good measure. It should prove to be some really good training for me for back in the states. Baring I can remember how to climb a hill. So how’s everyone doing back in CO, I have been following the big race results, and I heard that B’s race had big numbers yesterday, drop me a line. Dag, paco 2 Comments   another one in the bag 04.24.04 (12:45 pm) well I finished another race today, it was really hard, windy, and flat as a pancake. There were almost 130 starters. I was in the low thirty's out of 50-60 or so finishers. I actually was 6th in the bunch sprint of the group of 20 that I was in, who would have thought, me contesting sprints. John P, made a good move and was just a bit up the road, he pulled 28th or so. I am worked over, so you are going to have to wait for the blow by blow until tomorrow. Later, paco 0 Comments   Slide Show 04.23.04 (2:21 am) What can I say- A picture says 1000 words, and here are a few from the last weeks. View my slideshow! Enjoy, paco 0 Comments   "zi windy" 04.21.04 (10:14 am) Geez I mean I really want to write more, and I don’t have any excuse for not except I have been training and racing my ass off. This trip has really given me some insight to the life of a pro cyclist. It’s really high and low. One minute you are using every possible fiber in your body to get the job done, i.e. close the gap, not crash and die, get in the echelon, or what ever. Then the next week is complete boredom, except for the 1 grocery run, the 15-20 hours of riding and the 10 or so other misc training hours, like stretching, sauna, or massage. The rest of the time is so dull but you really can’t do anything, because you a) know you need the rest, b) don’t have a car c) you know all too well how hard you are going to have to work in less than 7 days c) you are so tired all you can do is lie in bed and look at the wall. So don’t take it personally if I didn’t get back to your email in a timely manner, and don’t give up on this blog, I’m trying. With that said I have been meaning to write about our “Johan Training Ride” from last week. As it is around here I don’t find out about lots of stuff until the last minute. So Thursday was another one of those times. In the morning I did a specific interval workout on the Tacx (a resistance trainer) and it completely wiped me out. I mean on paper this workout didn’t look so hard, but it took it all out of me. I already had plans to do another 2 hours outside in the pm, but an hour after the trainer ride I found out I was on the list to go training with Johan. Johan is famous around these parts, he is 42, and up until a year or two ago he was a kermis king. He would win 15-20 races a season, and then sell another 10-15 of them, and they say you can’t sell a race around these parts without first scaring the peleton into submission. Oh I may have mentioned before, when I got here on March 9th Johan already had 11,000km in his legs. At 1:30 we leave with Johan and ride to the kermis course we had raced the previous Monday, the whole time mind you we were rotating on “ze wirrre”, paying attention to “the windy” roughly that translates to rotating in a pace line so close together that you are practically sticking your brake lever up the other six guys asses as you pass them. And on top of that every time Johan would come through he would get as close as he could, and Belgian close is infinitely closer than what I am used to. Johan is like a Belgian drill instructor, if the wind changes and your rotation doesn’t; you get an ear full, if you aren’t close enough you get an ear full, you get the idea. When we got to the course we had a couple drills to practice, three to be exact. 1) Practice braking through corners to let gaps open for your teammates ahead of you. 2) Practice catching an echelon with 3 or more teammates, and having one jump into the rotation, slow it down and the other two get away. Finally, 3) sprint lead out practice, three rotating on the front one sprinter and a sweeper. So the first two tactics were easy to practice at a relatively low heart rate, but I don’t really know if these tactics are something I could get away with back home, they are really obtrusive and aggressive moves. Basically out of the context of racing kermises they would be grounds to pissing people off and asking to get crashed. But here they are part of the game, the Belgians use them on, us so we use them right back on them. The lead out practice was really hard for me Being the smallest guy they gave me the job of sweeping the sprinters wheel, a seemingly easy job, ya right. They figure I can’t sprint, and I am too small to put out the horsepower of some of the other guys to be really effective in the lead out train, and there isn’t too much of me to break wind; so we’ll have him sweep. Well it was a good experience for me, that said it was pretty intense. We had three guys in a rotating echelon, our sprinter sitting in, me protecting his wheel, two sprints per lap, and Johan trying to take the sprinters wheel from me to win the sprint. Basically, I was being brake checked, pushed around, and guttered out by Johan. It was intense; a couple times I did a good job but there where a couple times I almost went down. I was getting bars hooked with Johan, bouncing my front wheel off of the sprinters back wheel, and doing everything I could to keep Johan off the wheel and myself off of the ground. Not to mention I was smoked, and we were sprinting pretty hard, Johan was there to beat us, and it went on like this for over an hour. Not too much easier than racing. It was back to the wire the whole way home, where is the windy?, closer. All toll the ride was almost 3 hours, and extremely taxing mostly mentally, and I was smoked. Back in the garage one of the backbone guys got into it with Johan. He was concerned with how dangerous he thought the ride was, and the repetitiveness of it all. I actually liked it; the drills were like traditional sports practice but for bikes, really hard drills testing skills that I am still learning, I could literally see myself getting better. The other thing that makes it really hard is the language barrier, we all speak hardly any Dutch, and Johan speaks very little English, simple tasks like instructions on which way to rotate take minutes of interpretation sometimes, so that definitely wears on us and Johan. All and all it is one of those experiences that few get the chance to have. Learning from a true master, I felt really comfortable, even though the ride was pretty sketchy, Johan is like a rock, you could stick a pump in his front wheel and he wouldn’t crash. I only think sometimes he gives us a little too much credit as riders, putting us in situations that we only make it out of by the skin of our teeth. Intense. Thanks again for reading. Dag, Paco 1 Comments   that was hard 04.19.04 (5:43 am) 60th GP du Nogent, France Well to say that was hard would be a gross understatement. To say that was really hard would also be a gross understatement. It seems that I always start these things with “that was hard”, and you must be getting bored by now, or just thinking that I am turning into a wuss or something. I really don’t know where else to go with these race reports. Before I came here I thought I was good when the weather was bad, well the weather was really bad (for the first time), and I was far from good this weekend. The rundown on the race; we ended up traveling to the race on Saturday, staying the night and racing on Sunday. Lets just say the accommodations were less than stellar, we stayed in an old sports complex, which kind of reminded me of what an eastern bloc country would have for their athletes. Public toilets, rubber sheets, and no electrical outlets in the rooms. The food was interesting as well, we started dinner with shredded carrots and tomatoes, followed by plain macaroni, extra well done pork filets and canned green beans. All and all, it was an interesting experience. We awoke to heavy rain on race day, which was no surprise since it had started raining as soon as we crossed the French boarder. I was hopeful because I generally like racing in hard conditions. The race looked hard from the start (as always), 6 x 29km loops followed by 2x2km local laps for the finish. The loops were tight, lots of narrow roads, one hugely important cross wind section, and a solid 80-85kph descent. Hard but seemingly good for me, at least there was a climb, and only one really windy section. Then add to this 38-degree temps, and heavy rain, which was leaving massive puddles and standing water on the roads. The start was pretty hard even though it was supposedly neutralized, but for some reason fighting for position in a neutral start, is almost harder than when your racing. It was cold, I wore a rain cape the whole race, and by the start I was thoroughly soaked, and freezing. This made things really hard, I almost crashed a couple times on the slick surfaces, mostly because my hands were already numb, and grabbing the brakes was a all or nothing endeavor. At one point I was sliding sideways at 35kph in the middle of the 200-rider field with both wheels locked, I almost high sided it but was lucky enough to save it at the last minute. Later my teammate who was behind me said that he was preparing to get run over by the whole field, because if I crashed there was no way he was going to do anything to save himself behind me. The race stopped on a descent for the “official start” but I felt like I had already been racing for 20min, and we sat there and waited for 5-10min, because there were already numerous flat victims. I got even colder, to the point where when we restarted I almost crashed again because my upper body was shaking so bad. The race quickly wore on me, but it seemed to be going by fast probably from the intense concentration. There were points when there was so much rain and road spray that I was only able to see 5ft in front of me, literally, and talk about riding on faith. Before I knew it we were 75 km in and I needed a bottle. Thought the feed I went for a bottle, and it was amazing I had it in my palm but my hands were so frozen I could not get my fingers to close on it fast enough, and I lost it. I had been eating and drinking fairly well despite the conditions, although one time, I just barely got a cake in my mouth (which filled it entirely) before a tricky section, and it took at least 5 minutes to work up enough moisture in my mouth to swallow, it probably looked pretty comical riding with my cheeks puffed out blowing crumbs all over myself. Then it got hard, Credit Agricole sent most of there team to the front, and turned up the heat of all places in the crosswind section. I was barely hanging on the back in a single line of probably eighty guys, and the band broke. Luckily I was close to the split and I was able to get into the first echelon, but with no one working we were quickly loosing ground. Then two guys jumped and I dug really deep to get them, they towed me half way there, but I wasn’t able to pull through and they started trying get rid of me, after 3 accelerations I was off, and caught by another two guys, again we dug deep, made it to the descent, tucked it at almost 90kph, and regained the group. Unfortunately I was in a world of hurt, I burned a lot of matches to get the peleton, and I had been without drink for 20min. Bernard told me to come back to the car, but I really didn’t know if I would make it back to the peleton if I did. As it was I was dying a slow death, so twice I called on the radio for our car, that I was coming back. Then there was a huge crash, so I was chasing again. Then one of my teammates with good legs flatted, so I waited with him, he got a wheel, but we soon found out 10spd doesn’t work with 9spd chains, and he stopped for another wheel, after a gallant but futile chase, our race was over. A rough day in the trenches, our team was able to finish two out of our 8 starters, but in the end Bernard wasn’t that disappointed, it was a really hard day, and there were some good lessons learned. Besides two of our guys really hung in there and toughed the day out, especially BVDG, who has shown some massive improvements to us all both in terms of brains and brawn. All and all my first race in France was hard, probably the hardest one I have done here yet. When I was finished, I was so tired, even my chest and shoulders were drained. It was amazing. Well next week we have our first big goal for the season, I am not sure if I will be on the squad, so I will keep you posted. Last week was a pretty big training week for me, almost 20 hours, so hopefully wherever I race, I will be going well. As always thanks for reading. Dag, paco 0 Comments   parlez vous francais? 04.17.04 (3:58 am) bonjour, I found out that I am going to france, yesterday am, we leave in a half an hour, should be fun UCI 1.6. Had a hard week of training, hopefully it will pay off tomorrow. I have been watching sea otter results, nice job boulder girls (gretchen and Kerry), making us proud. I'll check in soon with a real report. later, paco 0 Comments   Race, Zwevelzee 04.13.04 (3:24 am) I’m in the money; I’m in the money. Woo hoo; finally I made it through one of these things 120 km of windy, flat, sketchy madness. Race stats, the start was in Zwevelzee, 120 or so starters, 20 laps on a 6km circuit, for a total of 120km. And the roads were far from good, no cobbles but there were a couple of turns that were about the worst condition that a paved road can be. Pot holes, a million different levels of pavement, and lots of gravel. A couple of the corners had sand like in the states and then a couple had full on pull your front wheel out gravel, like 1/4-inch stones. One was had a strip of pavement removed in the apex of the turn that was filled with crushed stone, it would claim some victims before the day was over. The other issue I had with the course was the speed on parts there was this one tail/crosswind section were you were totally wound out at 55-60kph, and it was were things would come back together, so you would have these guys who had been off the back rocketing into the main bunch at 65kph, it proved sketchy to say the least. If there was a course to build my confidence this was it, nothing about it suited me as a rider, and everything was about wattage, and wind. Johan has family in Zwevelzee, so they had the house’s garage set up like a locker room for us, and there were promises of post race cake and coffee. I think it was a fun for them to take care of us, the old guys had there cycling caps on, and were catering to us like managers and soigners. Bernard gave me specific instructions that my only goal was to race as long as I could today, out of the wind with “brains and balls”. I lined up on the front row but since the Belgians own the place they always front-load the start so I end up like three for four rows back. As always the start was fast and furious, I was nervous on the line, pretty much craping myself, but luckily once the action starts I have been pretty calm. When that stops happening, I think I will have to quit this shit. I was riding in the front being pretty aggressive, helping Ben D out as much as possible since it was his last race in Belgium. I had a pretty good rhythm going, eating sugar candy and drinking when I had the chances, and making sure it was happening, one of the things I was not doing a very good job on in previous races. Half way through one of my teammates (Mister Awesome) rode off the front alone, and a couple of our guys went to the front, and killed all chase efforts by the locals. Mister Awesome dangled 300m off the front for a long while before making it all the way solo across the gap to the break, probably a 1:15 gap, all in all it was really impressive. Once he was gone and forgotten the race got fast again and I was crossing all of my fingers and toes to stay away from crashes and stay safe. Luckily someone was looking out for me because I was behind two wrecks, one was fast upwards of 45kph, and I threaded the needle at 40 through this mass of carnage and bodies flying all over the road. The bad part was that I had to burn quite a few matches to regain the group; on the good side I was one of the few to regain the group, which was now considerably smaller. Somewhere in there we came thought and they announced 8 laps to go, and I thought “you have to be kidding”, really the stress and concentration factor of these races makes them feel like 7 hours to me. On the next lap I have to thank Busa for slapping me around, I had just put in a effort and was going backwards quickly when the kid yells at me with a bottle in his mouth no less, to get back into the rotation, thank gawd he did that otherwise I might have gone right out the back. Unfortunately Busa’s race was over a couple laps later, when he crashed thought the sketchiest turn of the course, leading no less, I was two behind him, and narrowly missed him, the Belgian in front of me wasn’t so lucky, he pile drove Busa and put his face on the pavement. 5 to go, almost there I might actually finish this thing. And then I was just counting them down, closing gaps, stay safe, close the gap, cross my fingers, close the gap. 3 to go (I thought it was two to go) three Americans on the front, after closing a gap and I decided that I was either going to get dropped or attack, so I attacked got a huge gap and blew in the head wind section before the finishing stretch. Back in the group I was relegated to the back to find out that we actually had three to go, back to sitting in and praying for safety. At least the group is even smaller, less than 20 of us now. And I narrowly survived the next two laps, getting 6 from last in the sprint, but good for 24th place. And pretty good racing considering 30 or so out of the 120 starters finished. I actually made money 8 euro, which is like a hundred US dollars, sweet. Mister Awesome was 10th, pretty awesome result, if you ask me. Back to Johan’s family’s house, were I proceeded to get the nastiest foot cramp, it still hurts today. We cleaned up and they stuffed us with rice pies, cakes and coke. Mmm, but after two pieces I thought they were going to come back up, and they were still trying to get me to eat more. Good to see Johan putting down the cakes, he had like seven pieces, and they were man sized pieces, he would eat them in three or so bites, awesome. So that’s it, thank gawd for the finish, and the confidence. It really couldn’t have been a better course to finish, seeing as it was probably the worst possible/ hardest course for me. Well it’s just chilling for me today, and maybe some training for me this week, I think we may race in France this weekend, so that will be fun, another new experience, but they say the French like us less than the Belgians, wish me luck. Thanks for reading. Dag, paco 1 Comments   back to it 04.12.04 (1:06 am) So I'm racing again and it was a pretty tough one for me yesterday. We woke up to rain and pretty cold temps (6C), normally this weather doesn’t bother me all that much but when you have to race in Europe against 150 of your closest Belgian friends, who don’t really know how to ride bikes on a course with 50 million turns and 5 chicanes you kind of wish it was dry. Chilled and drank LOTS of coffee in the morning, probably didn’t help my nervousness. Bernard decided we didn’t need to ride to the race in the rain, so the cars got loaded up and we left at 1:15 for our 2:30 start. Got there registered, the best thing about racing here is the cost of the entry fee 8 euros, and you get 5 back if you turn in your vinyl number after the race. Took a spin on the course and it was pretty crazy, 20 meters after the start there was a 90 into a pretty good climb, maybe 500meters, then flat and windy into a 12ft bridge with diesel spilled all over it, another 90 into a crazy headwind section with a center divider in the road, right about where you get up to speed. Then another 90 into another divider, into the hardest part of the course a super fast crosswind section. We hit another sketchy part a chicane covered with mud and cow shit, into a 75kph descent with a big left right combo at the bottom, and finally a 500m finishing straight that sent you into that first corner at mach 5, pretty crazy course. But I was actually pretty confident; the courses here generally are horrible for me, flat open and windy, where I get quickly relegated to the rear while the 200 pounders drive everyone else into the gutter. Here I felt good on the hill and the turns kept the speeds a little more civil, and I actually did a good job hiding from the biggest enemy the wind. Anyway back to the race, the start was delayed for almost a half an hour because they were trying to clean the diesel off of the 12ft wide bridge that was by the way made of wood. So the start was fast and furious, I was hanging out in pretty good position how they tell us to here, “You ride up front with brains and balls”. Probably 15 laps into the 24lap race, I made it into a move with one of my teammates the BFM (bigfu@#ingmexican) and coming thought the climb Bernard was yelling at us that we were in the move, well I got pretty excited and definitely put some effort into it, we drove it for a lap and a half pretty hard, almost 55kph on the flats, and then as quickly as the move formed it disintegrated. And all I was left with was a hole that wasn’t filling in to quick, half a snickers and a couple sugar candies later, I was hanging on the back for dear life, and then four or five guys in front of me the band broke, and my race finished. Rode home after the race with the rest of the boys, it was pretty funny Busa wasn’t planning on riding home but he went to turn in his number with street clothes on and Bernard left without him so he had to ride the 15km home in sweat pants and a rain jacket, with no gloves. Of note the BFM almost crashed himself on the way home, now I can see why the Belgians and everyone else in that case are always yelling at him, sketchy. Back home by 7:30, quick dinner and some tube time, tomorrow is Paris-Roubaix, which will be good for a rest day, 5 hours of live coverage, c’mon George. 0 Comments   race day 04.10.04 (1:38 am) Well after two weeks of pretty much sitting on my ass I find myself sipping some coffee, and pretty nervous to get back into the game. We had a big team dinner last night for one of my teammate's birthday. Champagne and Cake the whole nine yards, but they gave me the smallest piece of cake, are they trying to tell me something? You hear stories from the national team house of how they put cookies or candy out on the kitchen table and then watch to see who takes it. Then they take note. Glad I don't have to live like that. So the guys doing the 4-day stage race are already back, didn't go to well considering the race doesn't end till Sunday. Needless to say Bernard wasn't too happy. Hope John and Austin can pick up the slack in the stage race they start today. Ben's going home next week, anyone in need of a great racer let me know he is looking for a team to help out when he gets back to boulder, the kid is good and he has 2.5 years of euro road racing under his belt. And look out; he is going to win some races even if he is on his own when he gets back. Pretty gnarly out today, hope I can keep the rubber down, wish me luck. paco 0 Comments   what's up 04.09.04 (10:01 am) I know I have been MIA, reason being I couldn’t hold out to the bug going around the house. I thought I had a pretty strong defense going with all the vits and such, but in a house with this many guys all pushing so hard it is, as I have found literally impossible to stay healthy. Your usually pretty good unless you roommate gets something and then it’s pretty much all she wrote. I was pretty sick, I had plenty of time on my hands but I didn’t really feel like doing much of anything, lots of naps, and lots of movie watching. I watched three in a row on Monday, then slept for 3 hours had dinner and went right back to bed. The real bummer for me was that I missed out on 2 races a UCI race in France on Sunday and a weekday kermesse on Wednesday. By Tuesday I was riding again, but inside, yesterday I made it out for a real training day, which was good, and I didn’t relapse so I will take that as the go ahead to race healthy. All and all I did a pretty good job of making quick work of whatever I had, but it was pretty miserable nonetheless. Hopefully I can hold out better the next time, and as I have been told that there will probably be a few more times. The real bummer of not getting to race is the fact that I have so much time in-between races it has been really hard to learn from my mistakes. Getting to race more frequently is just what I need, because I really have felt like biggest thing holding me back right now are skills things not fitness. I still get pretty nervous when the shit hits the fan, and really I don’t think anything can help me get through that better than getting more races under my belt. This weekend should be good I am racing a kermesse on Saturday, and then another on Monday. Some of the guys in the house are stage racing this week, but being sick took me out of the running for that right quick. My hopes are to get some finishes under my belt this weekend, which would surely go a long way in the confidence department right now. I blew through Bob Roll’s book Bobke, it was pretty good, I would suggest it to all of you out there who enjoy reading these racer diaries it was especially good for me, being in all of these places he raced over here in Belgium, and later on the way he describes his transition to mtb’s, it’s just the opposite for me. That mtb stuff is easy, compared to this euro road crap. Back bone guys still don’t have their litespeeds they are suppose to get, Bernard was really funny, he called up to give them a piece of mind which he described as “throwing the wood in the chicken coop” I think he meant wolf, but his was way funnier. It’s pretty amusing, he and his wife have impeccable English, but they are always throwing around these mixed up sayings. Makes for a good laugh on our part. Anyway, I just wanted to let anyone who was still reading that I am still here and writing, hopefully I can get on it now that my health is back. Dag, paco 0 Comments   outbreak 04.06.04 (1:33 am) Hi all, So last week illness ran through the whole house, I was loading up with vits (from home don't worry) and I thought I made it, people were starting to get better, and I was still ok. I woke up Saturday with a sore throat, felt better after a couple hours, did a very careful pre-race ride, and chilled. Well it was full on Sunday morning, I was really sick, huge sinus pressure, and general crappiness. So racing in France was off, it was supposed to be this great course, cobbled climbs (supposedly mountainbikish) and crazy descending 85kph on narrow streets through town. I am really bummed about getting sick. Some of the guys are doing a 4-day, 5 stage starting on Wednesday with the national team, I am pretty bummed that I couldn't even get into the running for the selection. Oh well. I'm taking a bunch of stuff and feeling better than the last two days. So hopefully more to report soon. Not too much else, we got to watch Ronde van Vlaanderen on tv. The final was great; the German got those dirty Belgians at their own race. Think I get to ride inside today, which is good gives me something to do. Hopefully I can kick this thing without loosing too much fitness. Thanks for reading. Dag, paco 1 Comments   bike ridin' 04.01.04 (12:14 pm) So I was going to write an article that has nothing to do with bike racing or riding or whatever. I was going to write about the culture and the shock of living in a different country and how one of my teammates ate dog food for two weeks before he realized it was dog food. Or the dynamics of filming a Belgian reality show that seems to have nothing to do with reality. "So you want me to say it just like that” I was going to write about the bread shop and the butcher where you can get a whole cows tongue, or some horse. I was going to write about; well it will have to wait. Because I have some bike stories to tell. Some of the guys raced a kermesse down by France yesterday it sounded pretty epic apparently the Kazak national team was there with 20 guys, and they were described by one of my teammates as crazier than the Belgians. He was calling them kazzakies it was pretty funny, the scoop is that they ride really old bikes and take some serious chances. Mike V was the first from our group across the line, and he came across yelling at "a stupid mother-f@#er" with his kind of backwoods southern twang. Pretty funny. We watched the Three days De Panne come by yesterday it was pretty cool to see the race come by on roads that I have been training on for the last 3 weeks. I just saw that George H won pretty, cool. I wonder how Ryder ended up. I also read one of Tommy D's latest reports and it pretty much sounds like he is getting the trial by fire in the European trenches, his first line "No one has any idea how hard it is", well I do, so you better just hang in there. At least he's getting paid. I'm dumb enough to be over here on my own dime. Hope that sounded ok, and if you some how read this tom, good luck. Finally I had an epic training day today, 5 hours on the bike, I did some specific intervals in the first hour, but you guys will love this, I rode the koppenburg it was awesome, they were getting it all set up for the race this weekend. Can you imagine training on this famous climb, it was pretty damn cool. I am super bummed I didn't take my camera, but it was raining when I started. So I'll just tell you what I would have taken photos of, the climb 20 percent and cobbled in all it's glory, a bread vending machine, and the names painted on the road, VDB, Ludo, Bettini. Hope all is well with everyone, cheers. paco 0 Comments