Race Report catch-up

I am a bit behind on my race reports and this post will most likely be long and boring. Just bare with me:

3de MEMORIAL NOEL SOETAERT (14/6) - 1.12IC
1st time the race was held and 15km or so away so we rode there. And it was another flat, turny race with a 12km loop done 12 times. It rained a bit...okay a lot. Which made racing fun and there were some tricky sections. One time I went around a turn and guys slammed the brakes..therefore I lock my brakes up. I am completly sideways drifting through the turn as if I was racing a Porsche 911...I even did a bit of growling to make it sound like I had an engine. Anywho, as I am sliding toward the concrete wall of death (yes there was a concrete wall on this turn) a rider compelty t-bones me...and falls over. I am fine and managed to keep it up right as I hear all kinds of carnage behind. 1 point for David, 0 points for all the Belgians behind me. As I moved up through the field...one of the Cycling Center guys (another American team) asked me what happened to the field as we both looked back. I tried unsuccessfully without laughing and said "I guess they got gapped in the crosswind". Well most of them caught back on and it was gonna be a fun field sprint! I managed to move up for the sprint with Matt Brandt (our sprinter that day). Keep in mind it is rainy, windy, and on these small roads that a golf cart cant fit on. We went around a corner with 2km to go and two guys sandwiched Matt and he went down and I just sat up and finished 69th in the field. Averaged 46kmph and did 95km for the first two hours. I think I shifted once the whole race. We rode back and got in 180km that day.

ROMSEE - STAVELOT - ROMSEE (17/6) - 1.12IC
Back in the Ardennes! Last time in Tryptique I got beat up on pretty good but I could feel my form coming back. We got lost on our way to the start and showed up with 25mins before the start. Scrambled to get everything organized, pin #'s on, sign-in, pre-race rituals, etc. Guy East, Max Jenkins (u23 national champ), Chris Butler (teammate back home), Matt Brandt, Christian Parrett, Jason Short, Chris Montelone, and myself was the roster for the race under Noel. The race had 11 climbs ranging from 1-5km in lenght and varied with gradient. The first couple of climbs I felt very inconsistent: either having a green moment or my red bars filled up a little too fast (gotta love cycling manager). 55km in the race blew apart. I made the front group. 40 of us were together and a 10 man break up the road holding a 1-2min gap. Everybody had 3-4teammates in the break while I got stuck by myself With 60km our group split into two and I was caught in the 2nd half 30 secs down. I attacked over an overpass and bridged most of the gap on the flats and the last bit on a climb. Then with 20km to go we entered the circuits. But to get to the circuits we had to do a 3km climb. I had a really bad moment. Red lights flashing everywhere...trying to grab wheel...almost at top...most close gap. I got tailed off just at the top and got f*cked by the cars as they drove right past me (thx assholes). The circuits were a 3x8k loop with a 1km climb to the finish. I found a small chase group and just finished in there. But hey it was an awesome experience being in the sharp-end of the race with some pretty legit guys. I think the guy who won was the only guy from the break who stayed away. May be I could have gotten Top 15 had a little better tactical mind and didnt have a red moment on that 3km climb. But hey it was all good and now my form is starting to show up. It was an awesome race and 48 riders finished out of the 186 who started.

Next races:
21/6-22/6 - TOUR DE MAREUIL - FRA - 2.13IC
24/6 - GELUWE - BEL - 1.12IC
29/6 - DINANT - BEL - 1.12IC

David

Happy Father's Day!

Here's to the best father in the world!

That one was for you dad! (if you look closely there are frites right there!)

David

Racing Roundup

Sunday and yesterday I had two races. Sunday was a race in Waver and Tuesday was a race in some town that starts with a "B" Beseele I think.

WAVER - 1.2 TopCompetition - BEL
Waver is a fun 180km jaunt around the countryside of Brussels. The first 75km were divided into two laps with 2 descent climbs each time. One even had a cobbled descent! Oh joy!! Followed by a 25km trek to the finish where we did 5x15km local laps with a 1200m cobble section. Now this race is a TopCompetition which means that ALL the big teams in Belgium short of the ProTour teams can show up and most of them did. In the neutral I was brought down in a crash. Nothing serious just a few scrapes. Caught back on just in time for the flag to be thrown down and it was on! Mach 5 to base we have engaged! 55km in another crash on a descent. There was nice bump in the road that if you just ran over it you would flat. So everybody was trying to be all macho and jump it. By sheer luck, the dude next to me bunny hoped right onto the bump and he went superman in front of me. I run over some part of his body or his bike. And I lock it up as others are crashing around me. A dude hits me from behind and I can feel his spokes and carbon rims melt and cut into my skin!! We are tangled but still moving I kick him off and I hear a thud behind me. Hah! Take that! Meanwhile, a 20 man break rolled away just after this little incident and they sat at the 30-60sec mark until the local laps. The first lap was balls out. I was holding on for dear life. I got in a good position for the cobbles but riders still opened up gaps and my knee is really starting to hurt. I ignore it b/c I am a macho bike racer. I bridge and take some of my teammates across to the front end of the field. But I am completly shattered at this point. 2nd time around I get caught dead last into the cobble section. I would like to take the time to point out the cobble section was one of the cobble sections where there is a small dirt path on each side of the road and we actually never rode on the cobbles but the battle for that small line was insane and was harder then just riding on the cobbles. I chase and chase for a lap but nobody is willing to help me and we were 20 secs back (if that). The rest of the group drops out with 2 laps to go and I am the only one who keeps going. I talk to myself: "Its only 30km, you can do it"
"Haha it is only 25km to go"
"I feel so alone"
"Everybody is staring at me"
"My knee hurts really bad"
"I hate cobbles"
"Please pull me"
It is weird how your mental side always gives up. I went from 30kms of fun to please pull me out ASAP! Which they did. Out of the 220 who started only 101 finished. 70 of those in the front two groups. My knee pain was from saddle slippage of 1cm. We averaged just under 28mph...

Beleese - 1.12InterClub - BEL
Yesterday's race. The race was characterized by a 12.5km circuit with tons of traffic furniture and about 15-20 turns all on small roads and 500m of cobbles. Interclub means almost any pro team can show up with no age restrictions. For you cyclo-crossers out there, Fidea team showed up minus Bert Wellens but everybody else was there. Those guys were stunt man they would jump over medians and ride in the grass and pass everybody, crazy. The first few laps were mad. Guys cutting each other everywhere. I just sat in the 30/40th position watching and conserving. The cobble section there was a crash where Chris Butler went down (he is fine and fell into the grass) as the road bottlenecked into the cobble section and sent riders scrambling for position as there was 10inch cement slab on each side of the cobbles. I being in my Paris-Roubaix form would just ride down the center and in most of the cases was faster. A group of 20 got up the road and they were brought back with 4 laps to go. We each took turns covering moves. I cam back from one as we hit a series of turns and Matt Brandt got away. I brake checked through the turns and Euros yelled at me to chase and I did just very slow. They got a big gap quickly. Matt finished 7th or 8th. Howes in the Top 20. Jason a little bit behind Howes and me in the back of the field watching the sprinters go at it. After the race the staff drove us 20 mins down the road and dropped us off. 40km back totaling 190km in 5hrs and 7mins. 3hrs 35mins were racing out of 150km. It was a really good race though and was definitely the most technical course I have done by far. A course that would be built for AJ Meyer. Reminded me of the Chatt crit with all the bad roads and turns except that it was 3.5hrs long. I wish I could compare those races I did Sunday and yesterday but I really cant. Even though both were flat and had cobbles they were totally different and, not trying to sound weird, but both were hard in their own special way :P Looking at a kid's power files from both races: yesterday's race had a higher wattage average and bigger 5-60sec power numbers but Sunday's race had a very high 5,10,20 min power. Weird how that works...Well Im off to go ride to the coffee shop. Talk to you later!

David

Roubaix pic

Check out the dude's legs in front of me and the fact that my eyes are rolling into the back of my head probably b/c I was starring at his calves too long... This guy btw won U23 Tour of Flanders and several big races so far this year so I feel good about myself being near him.

Yesterday was 170km ride with the group. We did 21 steep climbs (some cobbled) ranging from 500m-2km. It started pouring rain on us 2 hrs in and stayed with us for another 2hrs then we rode on some wet rodes for the last 1.5hrs totaling a 5.5hr day in the saddle. It was a really tough day to say the least. But I did eat and drink a lot and I put in 5 pounds of food/gatorade into my system from my pre ride weigh-in till my post ride weigh-in. So that is cool...
David

Part 2

My Roubaix experience did not end quite yet. I got into the team van and we drove to the finish in Roubaix. We drove the last couple kilometers and I instantly recognized where I was. We turn to head into the velodrome but park next to it near the showers.



These showers are legendary in the sport of cycling. They have housed all the greatest names: Coppi, Merckx, Rik Van Looy, Roger De Vlaeminck, Moser, Sean Kelly, Hinault, Tchmil, Tafi, Museeuw, Ballerini, and current cyclists like Cancellara, Boonen, Hincapie, O'Grady, Backstedt, etc etc. I walked into one of the booths and there was Sean Kelly's plaque on it. Wow! One of the toughest riders to ever walk (or should I say pedal a bike) on Earth. It was surreal moment as these guys are my heroes and I was standing in their footsteps.

David

12 Hours ago I was about to dig into my delicious bowl of chocolate cereal when Noel walks into the kitchen and tells me I am doing Paris-Roubaix and have my bags packed by 9hr30 as the one of the riders was sick. Still comatose I stare at the bowl of chocolate delight and look back at him, laugh, and ask him if it is a joke (57kg kid doing Paris-Roubaix, is pretty funny i think.) He smiles and says no. Great...Here goes my Sunday coffee shop ride that I had so eagerly planned out the night before. I am told to do whatever I want. I could pull out a the neutral start if I wanted to. But I am starting the classic from hell. I haver never pre-ridden the course, single bar tape (most of the guys had triple), but luckily I had a computer and markers where the cobbles start. 20 mins into the car ride, I give up my computer as one of the riders (not gonna say any names) left his SRM computer at home. So there I am with no idea at all what is in front of me, except for a lot of cobbles and pain.
THE RACE
12:15 - We start
12:16 - I consider dropping out of the neutral
After this I dont remember anything about time so here it goes: The racing started off typically fast, snail like through corners, impala out of corners, riders touching wheels, slamming on brakes, people dying, well... you get the idea. Now I did have a way to tell if the cobbles where coming up: when everybody would start cursing usually mean the cobbles where 500m away or so. Oh before I forget...one thing that was really eerie was that the countryside was masked with fog that resembled something off of a horror movie which is fitting for a race called Hell of the North. 50km in is the first cobble section: i have no idea when that is but I just dully follow the riders in front of me and all of a sudden a bunch start bouncing up and down like they were wind-up toys. I start bouncing up and down. First thought runs through my head: cobbles are badass. Then it starts getting real muddy everybody is sliding everywhere. A motorcycle/dirt bike goes down. The whole field roles to a slippery stop. I, being in my cobble racing mode, jump off the bike jump a la cyclocross style onto the hill next to the cobbles and run across it as all the riders stare at me in disbelief. I move from 80th to 1st in a matter of seconds. Some people join me in my cyclocross path. A group of 40 emerge from the first cobble section looking like something off the Band of Brothers fighting in the ditches against the Germans in WWII. Three of us our in the group with all the favorites. We start turning it up and we are gone! Then all of a sudden, around a turn the commissar's car is completly stopped along with the mavic guys and one of the riders plows right into them. Everybody else stops followed closely by cursing. Meanwhile a bunch of riders catch up and everybody is eating and drinking whatever they can get, people are getting bottles, treatment from the doctor, water squirted on their shoes so they could clip in. While I am stuffing my face, I look up and I am the last person on the road in this chaotic pit of death. It looked like the field rode through a cobbled mine field. I saw one bike of our teammates that was completly cut in half (pics will be posted later). Now I am last because I thought I would be the gentlemen and sit next to the official's car as he yelled in some French crap at the riders. But of course I forgot that racing is war in Europe and nobody has any time of day to listen to the French so everybody went around me and there was this constant shuffle of cyclists until we all just clipped in and took off. Now after this the last 2hrs I dont remember much. I remember being caught behind a crash on a cobble section and catching back on just in time for another one. Then I remember cursing Satan for building cobblestones for the sole purpose to make a big person feel good about themselves and to kill Spanish cyclists and myself. But nonetheless I was in the cars coming back after the cobbles with 60km to go and Noel goes, "David you've done a good job and I want you to drop out at the feed zone." I dont argue with people who are of a higher authority :P so I pulled out with 3hrs 15mins racing (only 1hr 45mins left). Summerhill finished 7th overall in the lead group, Austin finished 29th but was in the lead group until he crashed with 20km to go. So good race for us! I am looking forward to smooth roads ahead...

David