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| Notes on that last entry |
| 05.30.04 (11:14 pm) |
Well I am doing a UCI 1.5, D1 Rabbobank, CA, and Collmans are going to be there so to say improving on my 3 place is a longshot, well that would be the understatement of the century. But I am going to try.
About that last entry, I was pretty excited with my efforts in the race and I don't usually blow air up my own ass so excuse me. I need to say that I was happy to put more than half of my winnings into a pot that was split 6 ways after the race.
The only reason that my group of 3 was able to stay away was because of the selfless efforts of my teammates, many of whom probably could have ridden in the break just as well if not better than me.
Thanks to Bennet for using his head, initiating and driving the first break, his constant devotion to the team and teamwork, and for the cheers during the race.
To Breezer (Jake) for being a team player on a brand new team when he had great legs of his own.
To Isaiah, for sacrificing his own finishing places for fear of helping other teams get guys in the chase group.
To Chris for giving the race his all, and working really well with the rest of the team many of whom were giving orders.
To Jaime for setting false tempo, and messing up the Belgian chase.
And finally to Trevor, sorry about the crash but I owe you a million for the pictures.
They say you will never get a result over here without a great team and saturday we had a great team, 5 of us finished in the top 20, 3 in the top 10. And the work you guys selflessly did for me makes me just want to work harder for you all in the future.
Thanks,
paco
Below are the Pictures from the race, for some reason that slideshow didn't work all that well.
[image]paco_737272905.jpg[/image]
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[image]paco_702776012.jpg[/image]
[image]paco_125359341.jpg[/image]
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| EUROPE PODIUM |
| 05.30.04 (8:05 am) |
Hi paco fans, your all never going to believe this one, I almost don’t. I got third in yesterday’s Kermis. Pretty freaking cool, I think I surprised a lot of people including myself. Apparently Fleche brought on some pretty good form. Now I have three weeks to try to win one of these things, a pretty tall order. But I have to say that I never in a million years would have thought about winning a bike race in Europe. Wow, new perspective is pretty cool.
Here is how it went down.
The Course
The course was pretty ridiculous. One of the ones that scared me pretty good before the race got started. It was crazy, there were two sets of hacked up railroad tracks and a million corners, but the worst was a 90 deg corner off of the start finish stretch, it came off of a normal sized euro road (maybe 6 guys abreast) and funneled immediately onto a brick side street narrower than a boulder bike path, that corner proved to be dangerous with a big crash four or so laps in that would split the group, but hey I wouldn’t know I was off the front.
The Break
My motivation was really high to be the first guy through the first corner and keep myself out of trouble for the first four laps of the race, then reevaluate and go from there. One of my teammates had the same idea, he was third thought the first corner and I was fourth. From the gun the two of us and four others were off the start in a split that had maybe 20sec. Two laps later one of our teammates bridged, and I snapped, just started barking orders; it was really weird I am not sure I have ever taken charge like that before. I was telling the guys to go easy because the break had way too many of us, and there was no way they were going to let us go. Another lap and we had another teammate in the group, but when he bridged he brought half of Belgium with him. This kid has a hard time with teamwork so the plan was to let him do his thing at the front, have two of us helping but only doing 50%efforts, and have one guys sitting on. It went like this for a while. Every lap of the race had a prime and we were constantly at the front but missing out this one guy was even telling us not to sprint for the primes, and then I got pissed, and I plotted for a half lap of how I was going to tear his legs off in the next sprint. And I tried, I have never burned that many matches in a sprint, and no I didn’t win (second), but the sprint that we instigated gave three of us a huge gap. And we went with it, for 16 laps and almost a hundred km’s. I can say that it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in a bike race. Rotating for over 2 hours with two Belgians, one who was a national champion, and one who had at least 40lbs of muscle more than I do, pull for pull baby. It kind of fell apart with a lap and a half to go, one of them attacked and I gave it all I had to go with him and I just didn’t have the legs. Then it was like a nightmare, the other Belgian wouldn’t pull through and I was freaking out about getting caught, I wasn’t getting splits. So I put my head down for the hardest 10k of my life, and got beat in the last 300 meters. We ended up having more than a minute over a small group of 10 or so chasers. Rough but it was still about the coolest thing ever.
Aftermath
I was so blown out. I got huge bear hugs from two of my teammates; one of them almost crashed trying to hug me before his bike stopped moving. Johan was really happy and trying to explain that I had to clean some of the shit off my face before I went anywhere. Then these old guys came up to me, asking about the race in surprisingly good English, theorizing on how many primes I took. I had to excuse myself as I heard my name over the PA system. And I stood on my first European podium; they gave me a heavy pewter plate. Guess what the real kick in the nuts was, no one got a picture of it. Back to the car some dry clothes and a coke later, and back to the now empty podium for a couple pics, they tear these things down incredibly fast. And it was to the bar, to really see how the day went. When they handed me the envelopes I started looking through them for the ones with my number, and the guy says “no, no, all yours” what?!! I had 19 envelopes in my hand, it was crazy, and it totaled almost 200 euros. Pretty good for a mountain biker with a little engine on his first trip to Europe.
Teton sent me an email the other day, he saw my results from Fleche, and he told me he was scared for when I return to CO racing. Well, I think I am starting to believe him. Check out the slideshow below.
Later,
paco
View my slideshow!
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| note |
| 05.29.04 (2:24 am) |
Sorry for the absence, I have a good excuse. The internet has been down all week and we just got it back 10 min ago, but it is so slow that watching paint dry is much more exciting. So all of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seats, forgive me. I am racing again today, which is a good thing especially considering some equiptment problems I have had. Fleche was the hardest and coolest thing I have ever done in cycling, hopefully the previous entry captured a little of that. Monday, I am doing another race with the national team, Noel the director doesn't expect anyone to finish, talk about having faith, I don't know how Walker deals over there at the National team house. Anyway, Talk soon hopefully.
Tot Ziens,
paco
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| finally |
| 05.29.04 (2:17 am) |
I’m back. How’s everyone? Before I get into my latest adventures I just wanted to congratulate my teammate Heather Irmiger (Tokyo Joe’s MTB Team) on her first pro Norba win, which she quickly backed up with a solid cross country (6th I think) and another podium appearance in the short track (3rd). I have said it before, and I will say it again- she is going to go as far as she wants in this sport- Awesome. Along with Heather, Travis got a big W in the cross country, again awesome. I still haven’t lost a bottle yet over here thanks to T.
Back to the nitty gritty euro dog race life, I have been brainstorming since I finished Fleche du Sude on Sunday (yep I finished a UCI 2.6) on how to cover 4 days, 5 stages, and almost 700 km of racing with out boring everyone to death, and with out covering 10 pages with then I went hard here, and it was guttered out there and stuff like that. So I am going to try to cover the 5 highlights of each day/ stage, kind of like one of those letterman lists. If you are interested you can find full results on Cycling News. Here it goes.
DAY 1
5. Didn’t sleep to well, lots of race stuff running through the old noggin
4. Rode to the race, signed in, I was number 10 that was pretty cool.
3. 100kph descents with 150 of your closest friends scare the shit out of me. If I could descend as fast as I go from the front of the pack to the back on those things I would have something.
2. I made it to the local laps and was still able to help my teammates; I helped solidify a split my teammate made with 8 other guys. I was on the front riding as slow as I could through the corners without pissing anyone off. Watching them ride away; it was pretty satisfying.
1. I finished in the main group, my first UCI finish and I even raced the whole thing, and I was only 38sec back on the break. Things got a little tense in the last km when some dude hopped a curb and rolled a tubie. 4 hours in the saddle.
DAY 2
5. Slept good, borrowed a sleeping pill, totally knocked out which is one of the most important things in a stage race- good rest.
4. The feed zone was a mess there were 2 good crashed guys putting musettes into their front wheels, followed by 15min of the pack hauling totally strung out. I got a musette with 2 bottles and food, and I wore the thing on my back for that 15min in the drops while it was totally strung out. I worked on my peeing while riding technique.
3. Our team lost our first rider, Tyson a casualty of a nasty crash on one of the descents; he broke his elbow, and tore the bumper off a vintage Jaguar in the process. I was behind it and didn’t go down, but you know it is bad when there are wheels sitting in the road that aren’t attached to bikes.
2. Epic local laps with a big climb and descent, I made it into my first groupetto. The trick to these is to make it to the finish as quick as you can while going easy, then pass everyone in the group on the line while making it look like you weren’t even trying and just happened to be near the front when you cross the line.
1. Massage, and dinner, I love eating and we ate so much during this race it was almost unbelievable by me, let alone some of the non- cyclists who were around.
DAY 3
5. Felt good compared to the end of the stage yesterday. There were two stages, the morning stage was the hardest of the race, and held a huge climb that was sure to break up the race.
4. The race came apart on one of the climbs before the monster, I made the front group then proved my worth in the weight of gold when I sat up out of the front group and waited for our teams GC contender, then with the help of another teammate rode him back to the group on the descent, while keeping him as fresh as possible.
3. Both Austin, our GC guy and I made the front group on the descent after the monster climb, but I almost got popped on a roller coming into the final climb, gritted an bared it and rode my own tempo on the final climb only loosing a couple minutes to the group.
2. Nastiest euro shower experience ever, more pasta, nap and massage in the van.
1. Stage two, loop with a gnarly descent, and nasty climb, some dude called groupetto in the middle of the race before he was even dropped that made me go even harder, but I still got stuck in a groupetto. Hardest race I have ever done in my life, two races in one day is the most miserable thing. Then we spent an hour in the car back to the hotel, eat massage, sleep. Of note- we were 16km away from hoffileze, so I was thinking about you guys who were there, but I still had racing of my own to do.
DAY 4
5. I ate meat and cheese for breakfast-super euro, musesli, yogurt, 4 pieces of bread with jelly and nutella, 2 rolls, 3 cups of coffee, 3 glasses of OJ, and some cornflakes. Then at our pre- race dinner I was so tired of eating, I never thought I would be there; usually eating is my favorite thing.
4. Holy crap more racing, people were tired, there were a couple crashes and I found my self in a field after one. Got back on no problem. I had good legs, which is amazing after yesterday afternoon. Worked on perfecting my peeing while riding technique.
3. Stayed with the group and then really suffered on the last climb which seemed like the second hardest of the race, came off right at the end with my teammate Mike V. and a couple others we chased super hard on the descent.
2. Went so hard on the final climb and descent that I had this white spot on my glasses or so I thought. Spent the last descent in the caravan 90kph in and out of cars. Bernard caught me with 5 km to go, and I motor paced, it was so hard I really couldn’t even feel anything, and I kept thinking about that annoying white spot on my glasses. Caught the tail of the second group in the last 200meters, and I lost less than a minute to the winner. That white spot on my glasses was actually my brain being starved of oxygen; it went away 5 min after the finish. I am not sure if I have ever pushed that hard before.
1. I finished my first euro stage race something you are not suppose to do, we went to Mc Donald’s for dinner, I had a chocolate shake AND a McFlurry, no burger for me I have read Fast Food Nation.
Other race notes:
The drive home took almost 6 hours, not the usual 3 because it was a holiday weekend in Belgium, talk about being grumpy.
After two of the stages I was so blown out I got into the shower with sunglasses on my head.
My triceps, and abs are wrecked from the race, who would have thought that would happen on a road bike.
My legs still hurt today.
Thanks for checking in,
Tot ziens,
paco
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| update |
| 05.18.04 (12:19 pm) |
Hello everyone,
This will have to be a quick entry, I am sort of short on time packing for a 4-day 5-stage race in Luxembourg, and we leave tomorrow. The race is called Fleche du Sud. This is a huge deal for me and it will be probably one of the biggest races that I have done, a little bigger deal than the tour of the Gila. Just making the team for this race was a huge deal to me. It will be a rough four days, but I feel like I have some form just waiting around the corner, actually it could already be here. I had an easy week last week, then a really hard race on Sunday, so I should be hitting it hard come Thursday. There is some climbing too so hopefully that will benefit me. Anyway, I won’t have my computer so I will be AWOL for a few more days. Wish me luck; I need all I can get.
Tot ziens,
paco
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| tactics, tactics, tactics |
| 05.12.04 (12:43 am) |
I want to elaborate on my last entry and add some more, I was re reading what I wrote and it is all pretty clear I think but I left out some other details that may make it even clearer. And I want to use some of the things we did right in the kermis last week to try to illustrate. In a kermis there are these guys sometimes affectionately referred to as the kermis kings, among other names (Johan was one in his prime). The one we see a lot is Gino Dewort, sounds like some type of mobster, huh, well in a way he sort of is. Basically if he is at a kermis and is in a split; that will be the winning break, and if he is there but not in the split well then those guys dont have the slightest chance, and he has a whole team there to make this happen.
Here is the scenario from last week; it was pouring rain, 3-5 deg C, on a course with wind, a hill and a crapload of turns. Corey suggested and I wanted to go from the gun, bang a bullet, but we made a split, a couple of randoms and two firestone guys came with me. First mistake I didnt have any of the kings, so that group was dead in the water, second mistake I kept putting effort into driving the break. 4 laps later I was totally spent to the point of wanting to drop out, I had to eat and drink. I was in the pack around 50th, when the king and 18 others rolled off the front, two mistakes here, I wasnt in the top 30 and I wasnt able to anticipate the counter. So the race was over right there 7 or so laps into a 26-lap race. Really; no matter how you cut it once the kings get 15-20 sec there is no way to get them back, why, because the guys up front are motivated, and the King has 8 teammates in the main bunch to make sure that they never see the lead group again.
When you play chess on your bike you have to wear a poker face too, sometimes you have to look like you are hurting when you have the best legs and sometimes you have to look like lance when you can barely pedal your bike. One of our veterans was a champ in this race and he didnt even have any legs. 10 laps to go Austin goes to the front with bad legs, and he brings my self and Tyson with him. Bam he hits them as hard as he can on the hill, then he spends almost two laps on the front, he hurt the kings crew. But these guys are resilient its like playing a video game and you are fighting to get to the next level, the last guy never goes down with one punch, one shot.
Hence Austins plan, his second time up the hill he goes halfway, and gives me a perfect launching position. Then its my turn, hit them with all you have got, there is no saving here and that is my mistake. I dont have that snap, I think it is something that you have to learn, if you have ten or twelve bullets when you start the race you need to know how to shoot half of them at once, right in the other guys face, and then as Austin says when you are out of bullets but you have that gap, you have to turn your gun around and start pistol whipping them with it. So Austin played it perfectly, like a professional, he dug deep with no legs for his teammates, but Tyson and I couldnt close the deal, the group was much smaller, from 30 to ten or so, but we should have closed the deal. All and all it was one of the best tactical experiences I have had so far and it worked to an extent. But remember the two races, this small glimmer happened after we lost the first race, if we had won the first, this scenario would have put one of us in the top five or maybe even better. But when that second race, doesnt start for maybe an hour in a kermis, and to go back to Holland that second race started after 3hours and 160km that is hard. Can you see why a mountain biker or crit racer from the states might have a little trouble?
Thanks for reading.
Dag,
paco
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| Back to Holland |
| 05.11.04 (7:40 am) |
Just about every time I write one of these things I say that was the hardest race I have ever done, and they always seem that way. Once again this past weekend I raced a UCI 1.5 pro/am race in Holland, only this time wearing national team colors. I have to say it was one of those things that I have been after for a long time, and for me it was really cool to race in the stars and stripes. Instead of the standard blow by blow, which everyone is probably starting to get tired of I want to try to explain why it is so hard over here. We had a meeting this morning, a sort of debrief of the race and what went right/wrong. It was long, but in my eyes pretty good. I am starting to understand more and more of how important teamwork is in a race. You cannot, absolutely cannot get any type of result here without teammates who are on the same page. Unfortunately this along with many other road racing tactics are new to me, and many of the other first timers. One of my teammates said that he never knew what racers were talking about when they said cycling was like a game of human chess, and even after racing here for two months I wouldnt have known what to make of that statement. But fortunately I am starting to see the light, at least in hindsight. Every race in the states I have done can be won by the strongest rider (mountain or road), granted that rider has to be smart, but if he is strong enough he will most likely win no matter what small mistakes are made. Here it is a completely different story, you start the race (at least I do) almost racing two events simultaneously. You are always racing for the top 30 because if you are any further back in the fields here you are not racing you are gambling. This race in and of itself has been taking its toll on me, and a couple of times I have neglected to give enough effort to the other race. This other race is the one that will ultimately bring your team the flowers, and it cant even be started unless you win the first while eating, drinking, and being the guy to conserve the most amount of energy while doing all of this. Finally if you can accomplish all of this; then and only then can you race your bike for a result. Sounds easy, huh, well for me not so much so far. I have been so focused on the first race I have not been able to do probably the second most important thing, save your bullets for when they count. What does this mean, it means I have been using too much energy keeping my self at the front of the race, plain and simple, and that is why I have been struggling. I have got the eating and drinking down, I have the legs usually (but not when it counts) but I have been using my limited amount of bullets at the wrong times mostly to win that first race. So what can I say, I cant wait for my next chance to try again and make something work.
This week is a rest week, so I am trying to really get some good rest in. We are also going to go ride in the Ardennes on Thursday, to remind everyones legs what hills are like in preparation for the stage races that are looming on the horizon. I know there are some good races coming up in the states, so good luck to everyone.
Thanks for checking in.
Dag,
paco
[image]paco_437244380.jpg[/image]
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| finally another update |
| 05.07.04 (10:05 am) |
Racing in the rain has become pretty common in the last few weeks, the last three races I done have been in the rain. Its like mountain bike racing the constant clean up, such the routine; pre washing your clothes, getting in line for the washer (twenty guys two washers; you do the math), bike washes like twice a day. I put new brake pads on my bike after the race last Wednesday and I am already half way through them.
It was another cold and rainy one this last Tuesday. The course was pretty turny, and it had a hill, and one really good windy section. I took a flyer from the gun (reminiscent of cross) with one of the guys from the firestone team; it hurt a lot but served two purposes for me. One it kept me out of trouble, which there is always plenty of on a super slick turn infested kermis course, and it was what one of the teams veterans suggested. My effort lasted 3 laps and when we got caught I was ready to drop out, my legs felt like giant cold hunks of dead meat (think rocky I in the meat locker), I couldnt even tell if there were feet attached. But I gutted it out in the pack for a couple laps and warmed up, believe it or not it is actually warmer in the peleton. Unfortunately when I was wallowing in my own cold misery a group of 19 slipped off the front to never be seen again. I chased, my teammates chased, John P had an awesome solo attempt to bridge, and my other teammate Austin, took this monster pull of 2 1/2 laps. But nothing worked, and Tyson got pretty made at me for wasting a lot of energy. So we finished out the race in the chase group, and ended up sprinting for 20th place, Its a bummer when you and your teammate are the strongest guys in the chase group. Only 19 guys out of more than a hundred finished all of the laps, my group was the last to be pulled with 3 to go. Oh well, I had to share shoes to get home because the van left with some of the guys who got pulled early and they were in there. I ended up riding the rollers when we got home for 2 hours because I was suppose to do the race and ride home, but it was just too bad out. We saw some crazy stuff in the changing rooms, guys with homemade canvas undershirts, and using some type of black tar stuff on their legs, all the Belgian tricks of the trade. I actually wore a plastic rain cape with the sleeves cut off under my jersey.
Other stuff that is going on, I got lost today on a two-hour ride that turned into three. I was completely and utterly lost less than 20km from the house, so much so I was talking to myself. I am going to do another UCI race in Holland this weekend, this time with the National Team, well it is actually a mix of CC riders and National members because there are so many races right now and not enough of us to go around. Nonetheless it is pretty cool for me racing in the stars and bars.
Until next time.
Dag,
paco
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| Holland 1.5 |
| 05.06.04 (3:02 am) |
Here is a picture from this past weekend, I am in the midst of getting my second flat in the first 20km. Some spectator sent it to Bernard, pretty cool. That's me with my arm up.
[image]paco_1063506928.jpg[/image]
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| raced today |
| 05.04.04 (1:28 pm) |
raced today, 5C, pouring rain, 100 started, 19 guys finished the full race, I got pulled with three to go, I guess you could say 22 but I didn't really finish. almost 2 hours on the rollers after and i am pretty blown out, so once again your going to have to wait for the blow by blow.
lates-
paco
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| This is a long one so get ready |
| 05.03.04 (6:20 am) |
Wow what a week, I have been going since Monday. Pretty hard block of training. Trained hard Tuesday then raced a kermis on Wednesday, then more hard training on Thursday, an easy day on Friday, a UCI 1.5 on Saturday and finally another training day yesterday. Today I am taking off, and getting ready to do it all again next week. The reason I am in the middle of this two-week block of hellish training is to prepare to possibly go to Fleche du Sud in Luxembourg the end of this month. It is a 5-day stage race, and probably the biggest race our team will do while I am here. And there even is a little bit of climbing, I can only hope that this work pays off and I will get to go. Back to the races from this week.
Wednesday we did a kermis in Laarne , which is just east of Gent. It was pretty cool; the whole national team was there. Right now the team is a bunch of mountain bikers, Alan Oybe, Nick Waite, Walker Ferguson. So it was really cool for me to have all these guys I used to race mountain bikes with back in the states. The race itself was epic, it was only the second mid-week kermis that I have done, and they seem a lot harder. All of the big teams have full squads with there best guys, and there is usually only one kermis so everyone goes. The weekends can sometimes be easier because there are usually a couple races on each day, so that splits up the talent, and the best guys are usually at UCI races. So we started our 23lap, 120 km adventure in warm temps and under clear skies, right at the last second I put on shoe covers and arm warmers; this proved to be an excellent choice. Halfway into the race the skies opened up with torrential rains, and the temperature dropped a good 10 degrees. It was raining so hard, you couldnt see anything literally, the other thing that was really bothering me was the fact that when it started raining you could taste diesel in you mouth. Combined this with the 16 turns per lap, and you have a pretty exciting, and tense race. The last corner on the course was a 180 degree turn, and maybe 20 meters before the turn on the street there was this sidewalk, that cut across through this little park, there were a bunch of posts to prevent cars from going through, but they didnt do much to prevent the racers. I rode it almost every time, it was really sketchy it was moss covered and muddy, but it afforded a little more rest than the road course, unfortunately it claimed its fair share of victims, and walker was one of them. I was really lucky guys were going down left and right, and I was able to stay up. I was joking with Jared about it being like NASCAR, how you have to save your brakes for late in the race and a couple minuets later he crashed out. Luckily, with the roads that slick guys werent getting to hurt, just a little banged up. Diesel, cow shit, and rain make for a surface slicker than ice. With 5 laps to go I was with out brakes or teammates. I was coming into corners slow and having to accelerate out, I was still trying to use my brakes, but they werent doing anything but making an incredible amount of noise. I was really proud of myself using skills I didnt know I had, at one point I was leaning into another racer and using his braking to slow myself down through one of the corners, awesome. In the end though I pissed enough guys off that I was relegated to the back of the peleton, they were yelling at me that it was too dangerous, and couldnt understand why I didnt drop out. But hey, I felt pretty safe, and these things are too hard to just drop out of when you get within 5 laps of the finish. I was actually really happy, because last position is probably the hardest place in the race to be, especially when there are 16 corners, the accelerations are brutal, so being able to stay in was great for my head, I even made it around 30 or so guys on the last straight away. After the race I looked at the shoes that hold the brake pads on my bike, they have these big grooves worn into them.
90% training on Thursday
Rollers for an hour in the morning on Friday, then a car ride to Holland for my first UCI 1.5, The Ronde van Overijsel. And a 30 min spin in the evening there.
So comparing Holland to where we were in France two weeks ago is like comparing Boulder to Greeley. Holland was incredibly clean, we stayed in a really nice hotel, and they feed us a truly tasty three-course meal (I would have actually paid money for it). Racing here is really amazing, because these were some of the nicest accommodations and meals I have ever eaten at a race, and they were all paid for by the race promoter. I didnt realize the magnitude of the race until we were at the venue on Saturday morning. A 1.5 is a pro/am race, and the pro presence was definitely felt, there were multiple team buses there, big ones 40 footers, and super nice, think postal team bus. The race was really crazy for me we had a 6km neutral start, but as I have found these neutral starts arent really that neutral, they are a real fight to keep good position for the real start of the race. As luck would have it I flatted 4km into the start, and I did a good job dealing with it. Cool and calm on the radio, once I got a wheel I put it in and made sure it was solid then I began my chase through the cars for the peleton. It went well mostly because the peleton was still pretty restricted and I was on without too much effort. The real fight was to get a descent position back. This race was really incredible, they had more volunteers, spectators, and media than any of the previous races I have done here. They even had motorcycle TV crews following the race. Right around 20km I got another flat, and this one proved to be a rough one. It was a little slower change, and it was just starting to rain. I got into the cars pretty quick, but getting into the bunch would prove a bit more difficult. I went from car to car putting in big efforts where I probably should have been sitting in. I was 6 or so cars back and I really started to struggle, luckily the bianchi team director saw this and was willing to help (this wouldnt be the last time they would prove to be allies) he offered his side view mirror to me and right as I grabbed it he accelerated rocketing me past the two cars in front of him without any effort on my part, it was pretty cool. Two more mirrors a bike rack and some serious effort on my part and I was back at the tail of the peleton thinking, This is going to be a long day. And the rain started; I was really glad that I had gotten the race in on Wednesday it gave me some good confidence for this race. It is one of those things like cobbles riding in a pack of 200 in torrential down pours, the peleton hardly slows but no one can see, I dont know if I will ever get used to it. The race went from big roads to smaller roads thought woods and towns, and on the one climb of the day, a 2k jaunt there was a huge crash that took down one of our leaders, Eric and I were the only two to make the split, and we went right to the front, trying to be there if anything were to go away before the group could reform. From here on I had a small break through in my racing here, I was at the front, taking pulls, and moving through the peleton better than I ever had in my life, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately Eric and I missed the winning move of 14 riders. It was one of those things I just didnt have the experience for, I was there 2 guys behind the move, and Eric told me to go, but there was no where to go, I should have made the hole, just made it, it would have been a 50/50 shot making the move or crashing but I hesitated and that instinct is what I want before I finish this trip. So we missed the move, but we werent done Eric and I attacked and counter attacked the front of the pack, I even set false tempo at the front on one of Erics attempts. The gap was only 15 sec but neither of us had the power, and we didnt have any help. From there we raced as well as we could have I looked to the team for direction but they didnt know what to do either. I actually was working at the front with 2 guys from the bianchi team (second time today they were helping us out) when Bernard got on the radio telling 3 more of our guys to get to the front. We would find out at dinner that there were 750 euros at stake to bring the break back, one of the home teams missed the break and they were offering three teams 250euros each if they would work to bring the break back. After 30 more minutes of hard work at the front I used it up, and was finished I tried three times to get into the main group, but our guys had it pinned at the front, and to make matters worse when I came off, the Axel pro team took over and blew the bunch up. What a race, almost 4 hours of the hardest racing I have ever done, and a breakthrough for me, I really raced, and it was super cool. Now I just need to be able to really finish the job. I am really excited to race again, and make this breakthrough stick. I have another big week this week, long day tomorrow, racing on Wednesday hopefully a 1.12 UCI, big day on Thursday, and more racing this weekend. Next week is a rest week, and then hopefully Fleche, cross your fingers.
Thanks for reading.
Dag,
paco
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