Kermesse Oostnieuwkerke

Time to get back to the bloggin'! Took some rest time from the bike and the blogs. The past two weeks consisted of some time off the bike, sittin' in the steam room, stretching, and some base mileage rides. The mind and legs were feeling a little better after taking the mid-season break. Although, to top it off, allergy season is in full swing which just isn't any fun! The stuffy nose and itchy eyes can make for some miserable days.

So today, I raced in Oostnieuwkerke just west of Roeselare. The course consisted of very wide roads, which was quite unusual, and one narrow section. There were four mild corners and one roundabout. So overall, it wasn't a very technical course, so that meant for a fast race...very fast! 

To begin the day, my teammates and I rode approximately 30 kilometers to the race site, signed up, pinned numbers, and rode a couple laps of the course before we were sent off. I lined up in the front row with about 85 or so racers behind me. Right from the gun, I found myself in a promising break with six other riders. We were rotating fairly well to begin with and were gaining time on the peloton. Everyone was doing their fair share of work for about half of the lap until some of the guys would sit on the back and 3 would rotate at the front, then everyone would rotate, then only 3 or so, then everyone, which became slightly annoying. For the first two laps that I was with the break, I was pretty much riding at my max pulling through then trying to get as much rest as possible before pulling through again. After about halfway through the third lap I was getting blown off the back. One of the Belgian guys shouted, "stay with us good friend", but I had nothing left after using so much energy. I eventually fell back to the first chase group which seemed to be moving at a pretty good clip. I caught onto the back of the group which melded with the main field. I tried recovering for a few laps but found myself behind a couple splits. I chased back onto the main field with my teammate, Casey, but used up too much energy and was unlucky enough to get stuck behind another split and was done for the day. I rode one final lap by myself, which is when it started to rain cats and dogs with a little hail mixed in there, and was pulled with 9 laps to go out of the 16. Some of the guys that were in the main break eventually finished in the lead group. Some of the guys managed to stick it out to the end with a few that managed to bridge up to them.

I was a little bummed after the race, considering I was finally lucky enough to make the break that would make it to the end, but couldn't stay with them. I guess I can be happy with the fact that I played my cards and tried my hardest and learned a lot being up front with the key break group. 

Now it's time for some more rest and stretching and we will see what the new schedule of training and races brings for the week.

Recovery Time!

I think it is about time for some rest…The past two kermesses started off well but would conclude with blown legs. The kermesses in Wielsbeke and Beselare shared similar characteristics with me attempting to go with breaks in the first laps of the race and counterattacking when the gaps were closed down by the peloton. My legs felt good at the beginning of both races but would eventually pop leaving me sucking the last rider’s wheel trying to recover and avoid being stuck in the back of the inevitable split in the main field. I think my allergies are also beginning to act up a bit as the grasses have begun to pollinate. So now I think the important thing is to recover and rest fully in order to get off the path of overtraining. Though, I am not overtrained, I can tell I need to let the legs recuperate a bit from the punishment I have given them. Time to rest, take a couple naps, stretch, and revitalize the mind and body! 

Kermesse Ruien-Kluisbergen

Yesterday, I competed in another kermesse in the town of Ruien, Belgium which is located about 30 km east of Roubaix, France. The race consisted of doing 17 – 6 kilometer laps for a total of just over a 100 km. The laps would challenge us with a false flat, an uphill section, a speedy decent, cobbles, and a few corners. It was about 70 degrees with a little wind to top it all off.

 Just before the beginning of the race, I went through my routine of trying to do a couple warm up laps to determine the course. The only thing was that the course wasn’t really marked this time around so I was only able to see about half of the actual loop. The rest of my routine involved rolling around the start/finish area and the lead vehicle to make sure I would have a good start position when we lined up. After about 30 minutes of spinning around, the announcer told us we had about 5 minutes until start. The riders began to group up behind the lead vehicle on the cobbled start area. After standing for a brief moment we were sent off. The beginning part of the lap was fairly fast where my legs felt slightly heavy riding over cobbles to begin the race. A small break of two riders also occurred early on in the race. We made the first right hand turn onto a decent where the field was strung out single file. It wound its way down to a right hand turn on a fairly bumpy concrete road with the typical Belgian crack right down the middle. Only this crack was about 2 inches wide. Enough to gobble up two wheels at once. The field hopped back and forth over the center seam until we approached a roundabout, some retired railroad tracks, and a right turn. I quickly learned a shortcut of hopping onto the bike path on the right side of the road and moving up several positions. My teammate, Evan, would make his way cyclocross style over the grass to move up even further. After making the turn and crossing another set of tracks we made our way to a left turn onto a narrow winding uphill road. This was where attacks occurred regularly and the pace picked up. This was part of the course that I hadn’t pre-ridden as well. This was also where the Kazakhstan national team would control the pace as they had one rider up the road. On one of the laps, I was bumping bars with a Kazakhstan rider as we jockeyed for a position, out of the wind, up the ascent. We would eventually make our way to the top of the climb and begin a roaring decent. A couple of times I found myself on the brink of spinning out in my biggest gear. It would lead us to the last turn on the course and back to the start/finish area. When we made the last turn; the field was strung out yet again into a single file sprint. We rode over the cobbled sections easily over 40 km/hr which made it a little smoother ride. It was the initial hop onto the cobbles where I found my rear wheel skipping back and forth trying to maintain a line while trying to keep constant pressure on the chain and pedals. Another break occurred early on which had a total of about 25 guys up the road. The peloton kept its high pace trying to catch the break throughout the race.

 After about 50 km, my brakes didn’t feel quite right. The distance my levers pulled back kept decreasing. I released my rear brake but would encounter the same situation of my brakes tightening. Soon my rear shifting was getting more and more clunky and wouldn’t shift at all at one point. My rear brake ultimately was pulled tight until I had to pull out of the race at about 56 km. When I pulled off I realized my right brake lever/shifter had come loose after riding over the cobbled sections. I spun around for a lap till I arrived back at the van. It was a little disappointing, but crap happens sometimes. I was able to watch the race and cheer on the teammates as they passed by. Casey and Evan rode strong and finished 45^th and 59^th out of a 100 riders. 

UCI 1.12 Denain, France

Yesterday, I raced in the UCI 1.12 Denain, France event. The race was one 8 km loop then switched over to a 10.5 km loop that we had to do thirteen times. It was very similar to a kermesse style race. The goal of the race was to catch an early break right from the gun. Bernard gave us a few numbers and teams to watch for. He also told us that the race would be fast and that a break would occur right from the start.

 After signing in with the team and warming up, I found my way to the start area directly behind the lead car. I wanted to make sure that I was ready for any attempt at a break early on in the race. I positioned myself at the very front next to some of my teammates and the USA national team. Before we were sent off, some sponsors and other people I don’t know had some photos taken in front of the field. After all the pre-race photos and chit chat, the race was started. As Bernard had told us, a break occurred starting with one guy then me on his wheel and then a group of other riders that latched on. We formed a break of about 20 guys and began pacelining very smoothly. As the riders were moving forward, I noticed my teammate, Evan, who had also joined the break. We worked well until the lead cars slowed down in front of us which resulted in some confusion and the peloton catching us. After being caught, I tried staying up front and catching other counter attacks that occurred. I was able to catch a couple breaks but never got more than 10 seconds up the road. Nothing seemed to stick and I used quite a bit of energy trying to stick with breaks. Eventually, I found myself trying to recover in the middle to end of the pack and would move up a couple times throughout the first 50 km of the race. I tried one more time for a break, after moving up, sticking to a “flagged number” rider but it went nowhere. I found myself pulling at the front, with another teammate, trying to bridge a gap to a small break that was 15 seconds up the road. I used enough effort to make up a few seconds on the break that was eventually caught. My hope was to catch the break and have one of my teammates make a counter attack with a group as it was caught. After the hard effort, I found my legs had blown and I was shot straight to the back and eventually trying to stay with the peloton by riding in the caravan and drafting off cars. I still couldn’t even do that and was blown right off the back. I rode a couple laps after to cool down and try to spin out the legs.

 The race was fairly fast, averaging about 45 km/h in the first half of the race. It appeared as if the pace didn’t slow down much after I was dropped at about 60 km. Now I just have to get ready for some more races this week. 

UCI 1.2 Hoboken

Today’s race consisted of 187 km course that was mainly flat with some cobbles and varied weather. It was a UCI 1.2 which included both continental and amateur teams. When we arrived in Hoboken, which is located just on the outskirts of Antwerpen, we found our way to the kleedkomers (shower and changing rooms). We were given a medium sized room with a shower where the team was able to stay warm and chat away. We had two hours before the start of the race and slowly began our changing process. After receiving our rub downs and getting our radios from Anne and Noel we made our way back to the team van in order to hear our team strategy from Bernard. He told us that it was a very fast race and at certain points the race would be strung out due to some turns, high speed, and wind. He wanted us to stick to the front and not wait too long to go with any breaks. He wanted us to be prepared and on our toes ready for any moves that may get away. He then told us to begin our warm up and make sure that it was a good one in order to be prepared for the fast start.

 

We rolled out as a team and signed in and began cruising around the start area. After about 30 minutes of riding around, we lined up. I was able to begin at the line in the very front of the peloton, with some of my teammates, which was ideal. The weather was not to bad as it was partly sunny and mild temperatures. We had the usual waiting period for the go-ahead and the whistle blew. A quick clip in to the pedal and I was right on the front with two guys in front of me. We had a neutral start for about two or so minutes and the race began. The speed picked up and we weaved our way out of town. There was quite a bit of obstacles on the sides of the road and a bike path as well which came in handy to move up. Within the first few kilometers of the race a small break occurred which I chased down and managed to tag along on the back. It wasn’t a strong break and nobody really worked together, so I had a feeling it would get caught fast (which it did!). As the peloton approached quickly, a rider in the group had looked back to check out the status of the break and turned back around only to find himself tumbling off his bike. It was a silly mistake on his part but we kept riding on. Once the peloton caught us I shot back to the middle of the pack where I would be for the next 80 or so kilometers. I would move around a bit from the back of the peloton toward the top third but not enough toward the front where I should have been. During the first lap a teammate made a break with 15 other riders which ended up sticking throughout the entire day. Our team’s job was to stay at the front and help out and watch attacks. But, I just couldn’t get up there until the beginning of lap 3. That was when the weather turned foul covering us with hard rain, extremely dark clouds, and hail. I was able to get to the very front with the other teammates and help out a bit sticking onto groups that were trying to break and to help out a teammate that had to relieve himself. It wouldn’t be very long until I found myself at the back with popped legs. I rode the rest of the loop and pulled out having ridden 140 km for the day. The team did well today; working hard and having a man in the break. Now I just have to clear the mind and prepare myself for the next UCI 1.12 race on Saturday in Denain, France.