"Hey USA, you like Belgium?"

Pulled out of Fleche-Ardennaisse. Was in the winning move 75k in but had some problems with my knee after a crash a little bit earlier. When I first hopped up the adrenaline was pumping and i was ok, but once that wore off i was pedaling with one leg. Bike racing has a lovely way of stomping on the soul sometimes. But, I did get some cool pictures.

I love the roads and hills of the Ardennes. This race took in some of the same climbs as liege-bastogne-liege, and I hope to get a shot at the u23 version of that Monument in the next couple years.

I'm battling a case of insomnia right now so I figured I'd do a quick update on the last week's events.

Race Saturday-a 7 man breakaway got away early. I tried to bridge with two others. Went really, really hard-I could tell that was the winning move and if we'd gotten across I had a guaranteed result. Unfortunately all three of us blew up about 5 seconds from catching the move. Faded back to a second move of 10 guys or so. We were way out front and should have been gone but the breakaway got seriously dysfunctional and after 2 laps of attacking each other, then sitting up and coasting, we were caught by what was rest of the field. I paid for my early agression and blew up with three laps to go, placed 32nd.

Tuesday-big field, 200 riders on a very tight 12.5k course. We had wind, cobbles, no hills bigger than an overpass, small roads, and 12 laps for 150k total. The race was fast but never super hard. I did a good job of staying at the front but kind of raced like a wuss since I was having some stomach problems and didn't want to go to deep and dnf. Missed the breakaway with 2 laps to go but had a teammate in it. Just finished in the field. To prepare for the race sunday Noel had us do 50 more ks after the race. With the warmup I had 210k in. Really tough day.

Thursday-No race, but we did a solid training ride in the flemish ardennes with tyler farrar of Garmin/Slipstream. He lives nearby in Gent and is a former National team rider, now in the Protour and gearing up for the Tour. He was a really cool guy, easy to talk to and super down-to-earth. He even bought us pastries and coke. I'll definitely be rooting for him to take a stage win at the tour.

Now I'm resting up for Fleche-Ardenaisse. It's a 172k top competition race in the Ardennes, on the same climbs as liege-bastogne-liege. The numerous 2-4 kilometer hills suit me well so I hope I can have a good day, ride smart, and hammer out another result.

Then next week I switch gears back into classics mode-for the IWT Classic on Wednesday, a 1.2 with Professional Continental teams like Topsport-Vlaanderen showing, and then another top competition race Saturday at the Omloop Het Niuwsblad for Amateurs-(formerly Het volk). Both races are Belgian classic style-numerous bergs, both cobbled and paved, including the infamous Muur de Gerardsbergen. Not necessarily my style of racing, but I'm excited to race on such legendary roads.

picture of the day

Photographic proof of me on the front on a climb at Tarragona. If only I could have some consistency and do this every day. Oh well, couple more watts, couple less kgs, and a whole lot more hard racing in my legs and I should be good.

We haven't been up to much here at the house this week, lots of resting and easy spins. Racing a kermesse today. Hopefully it goes well, I'd like to start riding well in the flatter races. Wish me luck.

Vuelta Tarragona

Got back last night from the Vuelta Tarragona in Spain. Very hard 5 day stage race with a bunch of ridiculously good spaniards, two strong french teams and some crazy russians. It was a 2.12 which means the field was made up of continental teams and elite amateur teams (I think some people have the misconception that most races we do here are u23-in reality the majority of them are not, so we're racing older riders. This means lots of ex-pros and ridiculous fast 30 year olds).

Anyway, the race was up and down for me. The first stage I had no legs from travel, that didn't go so hot.

Second day I made it over the climbs in the front group behind the winning breakaway. We were agressive in the finale but no dice, rolled in around 40th after I botched the group sprint.

Third day was pretty good. Again, small breakaway off the front. The last climb was very difficult, I had a wheel change right before it so I'd just chased back on. I had good legs this day and made it over the climb with the leaders, then did a decent group spring for around 20th.

4th day was again solid. The race blew to pieces on the first Cat 1 climb. I hung with the leaders for awhile but blew up about a minute before they slowed waay down...shit. Made it back on on the descent without to much trouble though. There was a cat 3 climb that wasn't so bad, then some death rollers and sketchy descents. On the final cat 2 climb I was dropped by the lead group of about 25 riders. I made a 2nd group of about 8 or 10 that never made contact but stayed ahead of the rest of the riders behind.

5th day was awful, I picked up food poisoning or some sort of virus or something. Rocking out in the groupetto has never been so painful. That made the van ride home pretty miserable, fifteen hours across France while nauseous and achy the whole time.

Now I'm back in Izegem, ready to rest up and get healthy, then have some more good racing.