This guy...

(nick savadellis)

is my hero.

Because he's sending me the $30 I earned at French Broad for 4th in the tt.

$30, exactly $2.58 less than entry fee. Also, a few cents more than what I would have earned if mph=$.

(not that i'm complaining about the race, the french broad tt is one of the coolest I've done.)

Happenings

I've been home almost two weeks now and life has stayed fairly interesting. I've enjoyed some bad food, slept a lot, hung out doing nothing, and thought about things other than bike races.

After just a few days at home I headed up to the Mountains to spend a week with some friends, most of whom were doing some last minute training for the Tour de l'abitibi in Canada. I had fun riding in the mountains, we did some solid training rides and the temperatures didn't make me want to die like Macon does this time of year. More importantly, we saw a bear, almost died off-roading, and soaked our legs in an icy creek as tourists snapped pictures of the idiots with tan lines ruining their waterfall shot.

Oh, and I also raced the time trial at French Broad in asheville. I was by no means feeling amazing, but I had a solid ride to get 4th with a 25:24 20k, 30 seconds faster than I road at Nats last year. Some of the best regional tt'ers were there so 4th was a decent result.

Home...

Feels nice to be home. It's damn hot in Georgia though. My last race wasn't much to write home about, I was still a bit sick and riding my bike slowly. I got shelled about 100k in during a pretty ridiculous crosswind section. I really need to learn how to ride crosswinds better. It was a pretty ridiculous race and even with good legs finishing would have been the best I could hope for; it was 190k with legit, big time Pro teams like Landbowkredit and P3-Batavus Transfer (both of whom road some of the spring classics like flanders and amstel).

Winding down

I'm in the midst of my last days in Belgium this trip. Since Dinant I haven't been up to much in the way of pedaling. I took the two days after off and spent Monday in Roeselare. Tuesday we made the trip to Brugge. For those of you who don't know, Brugge is a medieval city about 50k from here. The very newest buidlings are from the 1300s and no new building is allowed within city walls. It's a pretty big tourist destination with plenty of shopping along with canals and old cathedrals to see. We had a fun day although the walking was getting to us.

I also managed to catch a bit of a cold and have felt awful on the bike since then. We pre-rode a race I was scheduled to do Saturday. But I've been moved to racing Sunday, if I race at all. I'm hoping to feel better by then. The race is 187 kilomters and sounds hard, although flat. After that I come home tuesday.

Dinant was really bad...

Well, it was actually really good for a while, when I made the front group of 20 riders just behind a race-long breakaway. I was riding strong, most of the guys in my group were completely destroyed, and I was confident I was headed towards my first top 20 here. Then wicked stomach cramps set in, followed by an excursion to a cornfield to try to relieve the pain, followed by a van ride from some not-so-bright walloons (those would be french speaking belgians) followed by some quality time in the porta-potty. I think it was caused by some race food I usually avoid. Unfortunately we were out of my preferred race diet of gels and clif bars. Mental note-avoid muesli bars.

Only 35 or so riders were even left standing when i had my episode, so I can't say it was a bad race. The course was utterly ridiculous. Climbs followed by crosswinds, climbs followed by false flats, followed by climbs, climbs followed by 2 minute descents and then more climbs...not to mention tiny little roads, sketchy descents, and, oh yeah, climbs and crosswinds. As usual the start was super fast, and I found myself for once at the front, which was nice. The long crosswind section combined with the climbing meant that the race shattered early and just kept breaking up even more after that.

It was also in the prettiest area we've been yet in Belgium. Near a river that is popular for rafting, tons of green forested areas, sweet rock formations and a castle built into a cliff. Not a bad place at all.

A week and a half....

Some pictures from a few races.


I was pretty beaten down after fleche ardennaise. I was exhausted and could feel myself getting sick. Tried to race tuesday but I was so shelled I could barely ride to the race. So I just did the first 60k to practice sitting in the field and doing nothing. Once the race got hard I pulled out to keep myself from digging the hole too deep.

Since then i've taken some days easy and feel better. Wednesday we went to Roeselare and shopped, coffee shopped it up and got a nice, euro style lunch.

Sunday is another hilly race in Dinant, belgium. I'm excited and hoping for a bit more luck this time. After that I race again next weekend, not sure what though. then I come home next tuesday.

fleche ardennaise...

didn't go quite the way I hoped.

The early going was uneventful as I conserved energy for the 10 climbs and 177k distance. 55ks in was the first climb and I managed to hook up with some teammates to fight into the first 50 or so riders at the bottom of the climb. Unfortunately, a crash happened right ahead of me on the tiny road and created a huge traffic jam. I didn't fall but ran into the pile of bikes, jumped off, and tried to fight my way through. Unfortunately it took an eternity to get through (maybe like 30-60 seconds) and the riders who made it through lit it up as soon as hey heard he crash. I immediately took off up the climb and flew past riders. Somehow I managed to catch the lead group at the top. But the descent was too short, and too crosswindy, and the next climb started only a couple ks later. I closed gaps jumping around dropped riders the entire climb until I cracked with 500 meters to go. I was frustrated and angry that my raging climbing form of late was ruined by chasing down such a big gap. I considered dropping out for a while until our directory, Crist, told me to keep riding in the group I was in. There were only maybe 50 riders up the road and we were sure to chase through some stragglers. Unfortunately, 110k into the race, with a group of 10-15 only seconds ahead of us, we were outside some stupid time check and got pulled. The group only seconds ahead went through, then the police stepped into the road and told our group we were done. I was frustrated. Only 44 riders of 200 starters ended up classified, and if the group ahead of us were the last finishers (I think they were, since they were 13 minutes down) then we could have caught that group and I would have been somewhere in the top 40. That's a lot of speculation, but regardless it sucks to get pulled. Luckily, when we were pulled I was only 1k from where the team van was set up to feed us. I road there, joined teammates who had crashed out, and drove straight back to Izegem.