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 0 Comments