6/10/2003

Hello Everyone,

I hope that I am writing you in good health and spirits. It is now already June 10th, I have been here nearly two weeks already and I must say that those two weeks have really felt like two weeks. It seems that life has slowed down here in Belgium, that could be due to the fact that all I am doing is riding my bike and eating…well I am also trying not to make an ass out of myself in public…you know that whole ‘Amerikan’ thing.

The past weekend was quite eventful on the racing front. We raced on Sunday at a UCI 1.5, and on Monday at a UCI 1.12. I need to say that Monday was one of many Belgian holidays and what do Belgians do on holidays? Watch a bike race and most likely have a few liters of Leffe. Life here is so much different than in the US…..well duh! That is not such a groundbreaking statement but you must be here to understand. When you are on a ride here you do not go more than 10k without riding through some little town…and you would notice that between roughly 1 and 3pm nothing is open….I mean nothing…really nothing at all. The streets are empty and no one is to be seen anywhere. Of course I am talking about little towns in Flanders, but it is crazy for an American to think of closing his/her bakery from 1-3 every day! It is pretty cool, people seem much more concerned with living life, not just chasing material possessions that don’t really make life good. I don’t know how this relates to my races this weekend, but just as a little side note….there you go!

OK before I go on about racing a bike….I was fortunate enough to get my bikefit on Friday evening. I went with Ann to the “bikefit guy’s” house, his really name is Frans Vermaerck (spelling might be wrong). It was really cool, he did not speak any english at all so Ann was my interpreter as Frans to every measurement on my body…well I don’t think he measured my nose…but everything else! Frans basically came up with what would be an ideal set of measurements for me if I were to get a custom frame (haha). After that he measured up the colnago to see if he could even make the fit work right. Unbelievably, the colnago was nearly perfect for me and frans thought that it was a custom frame. I was almost in the right position according to frans, so all he needed to do was a few minor adjustments. The bike is now really really comfortable…it feels perfect, and racing on it felt great.

Oh yeah racing on it….did you want to hear about them? OK.

Sunday. Wavre-Bonheiden UCI 1.5. Officially this race was called the “Grand Prijs Phillipe Coningsloo”. The full results are on cyclingnews.com….in case you want to see. This was my first true race here. Of course Paris-Roubaix was a race….heck, not a race…something more…but anyway Sunday was the first day where I would find out what it means to show up here, get on the bike, and race it. The whole “1.5” thing is just a ranking…and basically determines the amount of points on the line and who can race it. In a 1.5 I am told that everyone is eligible to race with the exception of any rider ranked in the UCI top 100. This means really freaking fast and hard.

The course was a big loop done twice near Wavre (about 15k southeast of brussel). The loop had seven hills and a nice un-announced cobbled decent (cobbled in an American way…in Europe this was just a slightly rough road). We then went north to Bonheiden for three local laps of maybe 14km…total distance was about 165km. In between there were two cobble sections that were relatively calm. I should also mention that while ABC-Aitos had a full team at the race, I was in the national team jersey. All this means is that we had two teams racing like on big one.

Of course I felt great on all the hills in the beginning, but the course started in a steady downpour and I was happy to leave that loop for straighter roads and a less antsy peloton. During these laps one of our guys, Dan Bowman got up the road and was in an 8 man break. After we left the first laps, ABX-GoPass got to the front to set tempo. I think they didn’t have anyone up the road…or they were unhappy with the break. At this point the race was flat, and we were cruising at about 49km/h for the next hour. With 180 people in the race it really just feels like your motoring behind a car. I found it pretty easy to sit there, but moving up took some effort. Once we arrived at the local laps I was basically a spectator…I mean I was really racing, I was just trying to finish the race and not kill myself headfirst into a concrete planter. We got onto the laps and the bunch slow to almost a stop…hard left turn onto cobbles about ten feet wide. There was a paved section about a foot wide on the right so everyone tried to take it. Of course this got quite slow, and after the cobbles we turned right and got strung out big time. The guys at the front just drill it, and of course myself in the middle got onto the rivet….and the guys at the back hope to not get gapped off. Slowly the race got harder and the legs began to hurt a bit more and more. The original break was caught and I saw Dan go through the bunch pretty fast…that’s what happens when your break is going faster than the field for 100km. “that hurts you know”. At some point in the second local lap a group of fifteen rolled off the front, and I was not one of them! This was the race. From then on, I was hanging on…and at many times I was in the second or third group on the road, but at about 1km to go I found myself in the bunch for the finish. I figured ‘give it a go and see what you can do’…so I got up to around 15th and was promptly swarmed on the outside, and after rubbing wheels and elbows with a few people I was watching butts in the air for the sprint. The race took about 3hrs 50mins. 42km/h.

I finished the race, and I think that it was at least a moral victory. However moral victories are really stupid. I rode really hard and I wasn’t quite sure where my limit was. I didn’t really know how much effort I could put in. In the end I didn’t really race on Sunday….I mean anytime you are basically in the group trying not to overextend yourself, you are not really racing. Officially I was 79th. Pretty good for a 1.5…which are supposed to be harder races.

I want to point out two things before I talk about Monday’s race. One is that racing here is completely insane. Think of the craziest course that you have ever done in the US…then make it twice as many guys and much faster. The races are organized to perfection…they just don’t make such a big deal out of hazards like parked cars, roundabouts, concrete planters, bike lanes that end with a curb, rough roads, tight corners, and most importantly, you can race on ANY road. Doesn’t matter how choppy, small, twisty, anything goes. Also, the races will go ANYWHERE that it is possible to ride a bike…the sidewalk, the gutter, the grass, the front lawn, anywhere. This is sort of natural given the fact that 200 riders show up and go…on tight roads…when everyone wants position 10-20 the whole race. I don’t find it all that bad, you just need to look after your front wheel and stay really calm no matter what is happening around you. Other than that, all you can do is hope you don’t go down face first into the next guy’s front wheel.

On a second and shorter note. Europeans are not bad at cornering. I repeat, Europeans are not bad at cornering. I think part of the reason that some Americans think this is because they are always in the back half of the field! Can you imagine the whiplash from 180 guys through a corner less than 90, on a road that narrows twenty feet? Of course you cant corner through that…you just short of stop and get into a super easy gear…cause ten seconds later you’ll be at 50km/h drilling it to stay there. I don’t like to hear about all this bad cornering….if someone doesn’t like…then don’t race here. If that is the problem (which it isn’t) then I could go back to the wonderful US 50 minute crit….I mean at those people really know how to corner…of course.

Monday. Liederkerke pijl. UCI 1.12 around 160km. I was feeling fine after Sunday, and fortunately we rode the 14km loop before the race. It was crazy. The start finish was on a long wide road that led into a sharp left. 1km later cobbles started for about 1km. The first section was false flat, then downhill leading into a 500m hill (still cobbled) that pitched to about 10%. The really fun part was that there was a sidewalk on each side about half way through. This meant that all riders split into two long lines, in single file. The cobbles were not really bad, but were laid down in some still existent order…not just random rocks all over. At the top we took a 180 turn to the left…huge bottleneck…on to the descent through a neighbor hood with about two corners less than 90. There were also a couple false flats after corners, and the finishing kilometer had five corners that were pretty close together.

Our teams goal was NOT to finish as many as possible, it was to set up Pete Barlin and Austin King to see if they could get into the right move. My job, along with Matt and Ben was to move them up before the cobbles to make sure they were at the front. We knew that we really wanted to have guys in each move that went up the road…just to make sure. At some point on the third lap, I covered an attack and I was off with three other guys. My first thought was ‘cool’, then I pulled once and my second thought was ‘shit’. From that minute on, I was hoping that more would jump up to the group. I also knew that I could NOT get dropped. My being in that move meant that all the guys in the bunch had to do was worry about attack going up the road…and they would basically get a free ride to the break if they picked the right move. So I hung in there and worked as little as possible, eventually started to feel OK up there…and of course I did get a few random Dutch words yelled at me…..kind of nice to have absolutely NO clue what they meant! Our group hung out at about 25 seconds for probably a lap and a half. Then I heard over the radio that a group of nine was coming up and that Pete was in it. This was good. This left about 14 guys at the front of the race, quickly the group gained lots of time, and it was gone. The gap was at about 1:45 with five to go. Of course that gap is not huge, but there were three ABX guys in it, and many teams represented. At this point I was hurting. I told Pete that I would help him however I could, and I took my pulls and got the heck out of there as soon as possible. I also tried to eat and skip a few turns at the front. Then on the 6th or 7th lap, I felt my rear tire going soft. The team car was behind the break, and I really didn’t want a soft clincher on that course. I radio to Bernard and told him rear flat. We changed the wheel and I was chasing. Bernard got me behind the car and tried to get me back, but on of the officials would allow him to pace me up…I was on my own to chase. Into time-trial mode I went and slowly I realized that I was going to lose trying to catch 13 guys at full go. I sat up. Back to the stupid peloton to sit there and suffer like a dog as much as I could. This was no small task. The bunch was still racing and many times my mind said “stop, you’ve done your job today”….but I did not come over hear to quit in a race. I decided that I would drill myself into the ground but make sure to finish that freaking race. I didn’t all my good friends to help me get here to drop out, sit and watch the race. I finished officially 93rd. I was dead, like a camel with no more water. That is good I guess, but had I not flatted, I would have been in that group or at least been able to help out Pete in the final. By the way he got 9th, which we are pretty happy with. Of course, winning was the objective, but a top ten in any race here is good for us.

I have not had that type of effort yet as a bike racer. It takes HUGE efforts to even sit in and finish races over here, and that is really cool. I know that I can actually race when I show up, and hopefully in the future I will have a bit more luck when I get into the winning move. I do not doubt my ability to do that again, and I also do not doubt my ability to find the finish. These things are yet to be known, but racing has been a blast the last two days…and I feel like a truck hit me when I get back home…that is a great feeling.

I think I have about 5 million other things to write about, but for now I will leave it at that. I hope those of you who read this enjoyed it. I guess I assume that I am rambling on and on. Don’t hesitate to let me know what you think, and as most of you know, I love getting e-mails! Please send me your questions, or comments…anything! For now I will say good-bye, I need to call home and run to the bakery! Adios.

bryan