6/16/2003
Hello Everyone,
Let me begin by saying how deeply honored and greatful I am to have recieved
even more help from my friends in the Atkins club. I have been able to
sort out the wheel trouble that I have had following Roubaix, and shortly
my rear wheel will be re-built. Of course I cannot thank you enough. I
hope someday that I will have the oppurtunity to repay you all in some
way and hopefully in the future I can help out young riders in the same
way. I do not believe that it is possible for anyone to go from nowhere
in cycling to racing in Europe without some extra-ordinary friends and
support, for myself, your help has made my experience here possible. THANK
YOU.
I wanted to write up a quick race report today from yesterdays action
before I forget, and before I race again tomorrow. the days here are slow
when not racing, so writing these really helps to fill up the day, and
allows me to realize all the mistakes that I make!
I found out on saturday morning that I would be racing with the national
team at a 1.6 in Bertem. Bertem is about 20k from brussels. The course
consisted of riding out to a large loop, then doing a small loop within
the larger, and then riding to the local laps in bertem. Noel, the national
team director told us to hang out for the first 70k, then begin to race
when the hills came just before the local laps. There were about 220 people
in the race, so I really wanted to stay forward the whole day. it turned
out to be a pretty tricky course with a few open sections, and a couple
of sidewalk like roads.
The team was able to get two men into the early break, which was the break
of the day. from the time they were gone, until the hills, one or two
teams set pace at the front as they were unrepresented. This meant basically
sitting around until the hills came along. Once we got the hills, I was
at the front quite a bit trying to make sure that we had a man in all
the moves. Of course there were four of us up near the front, so we had
things pretty well covered. I was hoping to lose more people than we did
before the local laps, but the hills were not enough to break the race
apart, and there was a pretty large group going into the final 40k....maybe
80-100. the local laps were not flat, more rolling, with the final corner
being a 90 onto a little road, with 400 meters uphill to the line. Again
we were able to get into many of the small splits, and at this point we
began to see guys coming back from the break. Unfortunately, both of our
guys came back after getting worked over pretty well by two or three Spaar-select
riders...including past cross world champ Bart Wellens (spelling?). This
wasnt good, but you must learn at some point, and getting worked over
by tough belgian racers is a good way to do so! From this point I was
working with a couple of guys making sure we could remain at the front
of the race. Once we got down to 1.5 laps to go, It was decided that we
would do a lead out for Oliver hoping to pick up whatever was left at
the finish. I took the lead-out from 2k to 1k to go, and then kevin took
it almost to the final corner. I am pretty sure that Oliver still had
to fight for his spot....but he ended with 15-20 I think...but dont know
for sure. I pretty much fell like a rock, but I think I was somewhere
around 50....but I dont really know!
Overall it was again fun to actually feel like you are racing....which
is something that I now have the confidence to do on a regular basis.
Of course I have major strides to take if I want to be at the front in
the final...but I am sure that I can learn, by getting my butt kicked
around, and get it eventually.
I am taking it pretty easy today, and tomorrow I am racing with the national
team again, this time near Liege. I am told that there are some of the
same hills as in LBL, so it will be fun to find out what it is like to
race with actual climbers...or get dropped by them!! I will keep you all
updated and send something out again on wednesday.
Again, thank you for reading and of course the continued support you have
given me this season. I am forever grateful, and anything I can do, I
will. I hope you all have a good day and dont forget to race in the 11.
bryan