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.

flanders epic

two of my roommates and I did an epic ride today. We set out looking for around 4 hours and came back 7 hours later...six and a half of which was ride time. We road the canal to a town called waregem, road some cool roads out of there, then got on an 80k loop that took us on a bunch of tour of flanders features and really sweet golf car path sized roads. We road paved climbs, cobbled climbs, flat cobbles, downhill cobbles, etc. It was sweet. Then we got really lost, went the wrong way on the canal, road 2 hours in a wicked headwind, got lost in kortrijk, and time trialed to make it home before dinner. It was a sick ride. We of course drilled it on all the cobbles and climbs. At one point I had a chad moment (the maconites will understand) and began pulling as hard as I could into the ridiculous head-crosswind all the while screaming in fake flemish and english. Yeah, we were cracked at the end.

last two races

not much going on here right now. my computer broke so my internet time has been limited.

Last Saturday I did the uci 1.12 Belsele race, which was 12 laps of a 12k circuit for 144 ks total. As our director said, "it is not a nice race," it was urban roads with lots of turns and 200 starters. I shredded it at the front the first two laps before my attention span faded and I hung out towards the back, moving ahead of riders who were obviously soon to be dropped before I had to waste energy to close gaps. Unfortunately, 8 laps in it began to rain and get really cold, at least for this guy. My body seized up just like at haut savoie and I couldn't close a small gap to save my life. I got popped and wasn't too happy about it. Apparently I need to wear an undershirt, we'll see next time.

Tuesday we did Romsee-Stavelot-Romsee down in the hills around Liege in southern belgium. This race went better but I had a bit of bad luck. On the third climb of the day, 75ks in, the race blew apart. I missed the small front group due to being incompetent and starting at the very back of 180 rider field. I passsed a shit ton of people to make a second group. A bunch of guys caught on the descent but we immediately hit the 4th climb and things were super strung out again. Unfortunately, I flatted. The cars were way back due to the shredded field and the golf-cart sized roads but I eventually got back onto the second group. Unfortunately, eight or so riders had split off the front of the group. I'm sure I would have made it had I not been changing a wheel as they went but I missed it and the group I was in chilled out a bit and just road into the finish. Still a good race and I'm confident I can make the front group in races like that if I can learn to position better at the base of climbs.

Tommeke!

Belgium is probably the only country in europe that is almost ignoring the European Championship soccer tournament...it's all Tom Boonen, all the time, after Belgium's favorite son got caught with cocaine. Between that and two speeding tickets in the past six weeks, it sounds like Tom's been living it up a little bit too much.

Anyway, not much going on in my world. I unfortunately bagged the race tuesday due to some pretty bad knee pain. I made the most of a shit day by heading into Roeselare to check out some shops and get some gelato. I hate missing races though. The last two days the knee has felt better so racing is definitely on for Saturday, flat 12k lap done 12 times. Then tuesday I'm doing Romsee-Stavelot-Romsee which is down in Southern belgium on many of the same climbs of Liege-Bastogne-liege.

Yesterday was a pretty rad training ride of a bit over four hours. After an hour my knee loosened up and felt great. Chris Butler and I accidentally ended up in France, then headed back into Belgium to the beautiful city of Ieper, then back towards Roeselare by way of some sick, one lane, rolling country roads and finally back to Izegem on the highway. Felt damn good. Today was a hard 2 hours in the rain. It's been 50 degrees and raining all day. It used to confuse me that the weather could be like this in June until I realized that the latitude of Izegem is similar to that of Winnipeg, Canada.

Ouch...

The race in Waver yesterday was going well for the first 60k and then ended very quickly as I slammed into some prime Belgian dirt.

We started in Waver, a town near brussels. The race was 180ks and a UCI 1.2 which is the highest classification the National Team can do. It's also a part of the Belgian Top Competition series, so the field was stacked with Belgian Continental pro teams and the very best amateur teams as well. Chocolade Jacques, Beveren-Quickstep, Predictor Lotto-VC Ardennes, Bodysol, and Cyclingnews-Jako were the most recognizable teams. Thirty six registered teams meant there were over 200 starters. The first 50k had some short, tough climbs and the rest of the race was flat. The last 75k would be 5 laps of a 15k finish circuit. The race started fast, as is typical here, but settled in pretty well, at least on the flats. We went somewhat hard over the climbs but I was really comfortable and never in difficulty. Two of the tougher climbs we did twice and were lined with hundreds of spectators which was pretty cool. At this point small moves were going off the front but I was just trying to sit top 40 wheels. I had some trouble with that coming into towns and such but was always able to ride back to the front. I was feeling very comfortable, eating and drinking, and already at least 50 or 60 guys had been shelled so I felt the race was going well.

Then we came around a downhill bend and I heard the sounds of a crash: yelling, metal scraping, and the thud of bodies. A few guys were lying in the middle of the road. In a split second I grabbed the breaks and aimed for the curb, hoping to escape into the dirt and at least land softly. Then I felt someone hit me from behind. They must have never hit the breaks, it felt like they were still going 55k an hour and they absolutely slammed me, knee first, into the dirt. I lay there as 20 or so more guys piled into the crash. I couldn't move my right leg at all and the breath was knocked out of me, so I road with some paramedics. Luckily I convinced them I was ok and they dropped me off with the soigneur in the feed zone. I couldn't walk for a while yesterday but some heat and ice did the trick and I feel ok right now, I can walk and I'm going to ride later, hopefully I can race tommorow.

Bergen

A good bit of the team went out for a long, hard training ride in the flemish hills today (known as the vlaamse ardennen). Some of the guys skipped it in the name of sickness and recovery, while I jumped in the car after four hours at Noel's direction. Most of the guys on the ride aren't racint until tuesday and I race sunday so he wants me recovered by then. Noel drove and led us around on super cool little roads all day. Most cyclists associate the flemish hills with the super steep, 500 meter long cobbled climbs, but there are real hills here too. We did tons of steep 3-5 minute climbs and went really hard. The terrain is pretty nice and there were some really cool forested areas/parks we road through It turned into a bit of an ego fest but was a good time, everyone got in on a bit of attacking. Anyway, here are some pictures I found on google images of the area and climbs we road.