First race of the Season: Jefferson Cup (USA)

I usually quite enjoy the first few races of the season. I always sit in the back, get in some race miles and go in with no expectations. I expect to get dropped as my early season form isn't usually much to write home about. Last year was a little bit of a surprise and the first couple races of the year (in the snow in France) went relatively well with a top 20 and a 6th spot, but I expect nothing, and that can be nice at times. It's basically just training.


This year however I am kicking off the season with a spot of US racing. My first race was to be the Jefferson Cup, a litte local race in Vriginia that I had done a couple times as a Junior way back when I was a mountain biker. I had been told this was the Milan-San-Remo/the Grand Prix Montastruc of the Mid-Atlantic. The start list looked impressive with a few names I actually vaguely knew and a couple Pro teams. So I wasn't expecting anything on the day. Add the fact that the course was nothing but short sharp hills, and that it was pretty windy... and the race was looking decidedly "northern". That's the kind of race I suck at, power hills and wind and I just don't get along.

The race started off quite strangely. It was very stop-and-go, the rhythm was all over the place and for the first 30+km it never really got going. We seemed to be pootling along waiting for something to happen. After about 40 odd KM things started to liven up a little bit and, seeing as I wasn't feeling TOO bad I popped up to the front and had a look at what was going on. There were a few attacks off the front but none of them sincere. It was really frustrating to see people half-heartedly attacking and not going anywhere. We were in a perpetual state of "just about to attack" all the time, with nothing real ever coming out of it, and no one really believing in their actions. The opportunities were there for a group to form off the front, but no one committed. The racing was frankly soft. Everyone raced defensively and no one grabbed the bull by the horns and got on with it. There were some teams who had a bunch of riders in the field. And I believe that the Richmond Pro Cycling team actually have a couple guys who have spent some time in Belgium. Why either Richmond, Kelly or Harley Davidson cycling team didn't just get to the front, wind it up on a hill, put everyone in the gutter with the cross-winds, nail it over the top, line us all out, hit us right and left and split the entire field apart still baffles me. Some guys were using defensive "tactics" of having a guy on the front with one of their team-mates sitting about 5 or 6 guys back, then they'd let a gap open presumably to try and let the 6 or so guys get off the front... but that can only work if you've had the whole race in single file for a while and have started to hurt people. As it was there were 100 guys sitting easily behind them and any one of those 100 guys could close the gap easily. In the fast 40k or so, a few guys did seem to pick some good spots to attack and kept going at it, it got pretty hard a time and I started to suffer a little bit, but it still wasn't a long hard effort.

Taking a feed durring the 120k Jefferson Cup

What surprised me more however was the amount of wobbling going on in the field. For a race of that level there seemed to be a lot of "hubbards" out there. Guys were all over the road. We were braking going downhill, and braking going uphill. Guys didn't seem able to judge speed at all and would shoot up into spots in the field and SLAM on the brakes. At one moment, I was going round a corner, alone on the front, and some kid rode straight into me for no reason what so ever. The only reason imaginable is very poor bike handling skills. This all obviously led to the typical US racing mass crash with 5 or 6k to go. This was absolutely shocking! For no reason at all, people where all over the place and half the field went down. Crashes are a part of racing, but this was without rhyme or reason.

On the approach to the finish, I thought I might actually take part in the sprint. The headwind and slightly uphill finish I figured might actually be ok for someone with appalling sprinting skills like myself... but once again there were riders all over the road on the approach to the line, so I ambled across the line. That being said I was somehow in 14th place, which isn't bad at all.

Crossing the line in 14th spot

I caught up with a couple of Aussies on Team Type 1 after the race and they seemed a little baffled by it all as well, so it's not just me.

I've found it hard to come to any kind of conclusion after that race. I'm not sure where my fitness is. In an early season race like that one I should really have been struggling and I should have been dropped. I'm not too sure what to think of the style of racing and safety of the next few races I'll be doing over here. I guess we'll see. The positive side of all this is: and there are quite a few positive sides... I don't ONLY complain!

1) I guess my fitness isn't TOO shocking
2) I got some race miles into the legs
3) It was really really good to race with my old Teammate from France and good friend John Parks again. John pulled on the Casel/Bouygues kit as well and it was a bit like the good old days of racing together back in France.
4) I got to race along side Chris "I beat Tyler Hamilton in a stage race" Hayes again. I didn't see too much of Hayes on the day, which was a bit of a shame because the guy has more international racing experience and class in one back pocket of his racing jersey than the rest of us all put together.

John Parks and I joined forces once again, only this time on the other side of the Atlantic

Last, but not least, thank you to Warrenton Cycling Center for getting me a rideable bike after my Cannondale cracked when I got back from Australia. The bike is a very nice looking Specialized Tarmac. Thanks Tim/WCC!!!!

The Warrenton Cycling Center got me on this great new Specialized bike!!!

You can find race results for the Jerfferson Cup at Gam Jams ( www.gamjams.net )

One of the Favorites?!

Sunday is my first race of the season. A local American race in the state of Virginia called the Jefferson Cup. I got an e-mail from a friend of mine telling me that some web-site (gamjams.com) which I didn't know, had me listed as one of the favorites for this Sunday's race.

I had to go and check this out, and sure enough, there is a poll where people can vote for the rider they thing will win the race; and I'm listed.

I wonder if anyone should tell them I crashed last Sunday, will be on a bike I've had for 2 days, and more to the point, I always just sit in the back of the pack and get in some race-miles for the first few races of the season?!

Check it out at http://www.gamjams.com/ Vote for me and I'll be the biggest disappointment in the history of the event. :-) So do NOT vote!!!

Anyway, that's enough of that, it's time to go for a nice 2 hour morning (erm, FREEZING morning) ride with a few buddies.

Photos of my new bike to come soon... (yawwwn!)

Great Rides, Cold Air and a tumble

Though the weather has been miserably cold here since I arrived about 10 days ago. I have actually been keeping up my mileage. Although I have been doing the intensity I should have been doing. Partly due to my frame being broken and partly due to my Asthmatic lungs not coping with the cold too well. But things are still going to plan for a late May, early June fitness.

This weekend was a little bit warmer (of course that's all relative) and I got in a nice 145k on Saturday, and even better 130k on Sunday morning with some locals. We did a great loop out towards the hills. The skies were crisp and the views were great. We got in a couple of gravel roads, and I even managed a tumble on one of them tearing my brand new Pezcyclingnews shorts. But the ride was great. And although for some reason our little group in Warrenton often has difficulty sticking together as an organized group, this Sunday was just a dream ride. Proper Endurance pace, organized group, good company, and with the exception of a conversation on the new 3.0 software I understood NOTHING of, the conversation was good!

My new (and non-cracked) frame should be in Wednesday, so I can finally start riding with a little more confidence. And that'll give me 3 days to ride it before the first race of the season. The first race of the season for me this year is a little local race herein Virginia called the Jefferson Cup. I have ridden this in the past a few times. It's a circuit race of about 15-20k loops I think, for a total of about 120k. So it should be a perfect early season race to sit in the back of the field and just get accustomed to things. Though with the ludicrous cost of race entry fees over here... and the fact that you have to pay them yourself out of your own pocket, sitting in the back and getting back into the swing of things is quite a costly affair. And all that to do a race out in the middle of nowhere, with no caravan and on a circular course. Anyway, not to be negative, it'll be fun to race somewhere "different" I'm sure.



In the meantime: Here's a pic of Tim (the shop owner) Dingus and Tom boonen....

Tom is the one on the right in case you weren't sure. ;-) One of these guys won Paris-Roubaix. Can you guess which one? Think hard, you might be surprised...

Minus 6!

I'm up early for a day of riding. I have just looked at the temperature, and it is -6 outside. -6 at the end of March. Apparently the sun is beating down on the balcony back home in France and the veg garden is going in.

I did however hear from United Airlines yesterday and apparently my cheque is in the mail. So I should get it today or Monday. Which means I might get a bike a day or 2 before my first race. There is light at the end of the very vold tunnel.

Southern Discomfort? Cold Discomfort.

Southern Discomfort... Technically Virginia is in the "South" of the US... but the weather recently has been descidedly norther... Cold Discomfort!

The weather here in the US is getting ridiculous. It barely edges over 10 degrees if we are lucky on a good day. At home in France it is around the 20 degrees every day, and here the winter seems to hanging on for dear life. I still don't have any news from United Airline about my check for my broken bike, and I still don't have a bike I can ride that isn't about to fail on me any minute. This just means I'm doing relatively easy ride on the road bike... so much for all that good solid work from 3 months on the Sunshine Coast. I would get out and do a load of longer intervals on my Time Trial bike but the cold is affecting my lungs and I'm getting hints of Asthma again that I hadn't had for months. Oh well, I guess it's still almost 3 months before I want to be really fit. So no too much to worry about just yet.

Apart from that there's nothing to report. Not much happening really. Oh, there is one thing, which is quite something after spending my time sitting at the beach sipping coffee... I can NOT get a good coffee for some reason. All the coffees from Starbucks seem to be served in massive great big cups, so not only does the coffee not have any depth, it has no head, no flavor and it goes cold really quickly as it's spread thinly over a large area... Yanks, phuh. ;-)

On the plus side they do have shops full of really great things at dirt cheap prices. It makes me want to get all sorts of stuff. They have got that right over here no doubt!

Well, it's -2 outside and I have to go riding. :-(

From bad to worse.

Well, my flight from LA to Washington DC was delayed, just to add insult to injury. But it all went ok. Once in DC we had trolley races at 3 in the morning to pass the time. That was actually kind of fun. It's rare to see an empty airport, and rarer that you can bom around on a trolley and not get yelled at.

Trolley Racing!!!

My Friend Greg actually turned up early, and so we had a coffee and eventually stole his car and start off on the 45min drive to Warrenton. By the time we got there there was just enough time for me to build my bike and head out on a 3.5 hour ride. I actually felt fairly good on the bike, which is quite a surprise seeing as I hadn't slept at all that night and had only slept 5 hours in the plane from Australia to LA (ie: 5 hours total in a 38 hour trip). Of course the rest of the day I was fighting like hell to stay awake so that I could get to bed a usual time for here and get over jetlag ASAP.

My first ride left from Greg's Stunning Log cabin

Breakfast lunch and dinner all wrapped in one Apple Fritter... the biggest fritter I have ever seen.

The first couple days here were fairly warm, and although I have been wrapped up warm on the rides, everyone else has been in shorts (idiots!). As I type this right now however, it is snowing outside. Needless to say I am once again reminded of how much I miss my training partners in Tahlia and Luke, and obviously the entire group from Mooloolaba... my mind can't even get around the whole concept of having a nice relaxing coffee in Mooloolaba overlooking the ocean and the beach after a very sweaty few hours on the bike anymore... the snow and iced that part of my brain up.
I saw this on my frist ride in the US: hmmm... need we say more?

My new plan for the future: rob a bank and head back over to AUS for a couple weeks! Of course that will have to be after I get everything sorted here. During the flight the airlines managed to crack my frame, crack my rear wheel etc etc. It's all ok though, they are taking care of it. But still.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now that I am over here, it's time to thank a few people. Thanks to Des for lending me the TT-get-around-Aus bike. Wendy for the BarBQs, Shuttles for the entertainment, Jeff for... well.. thanks for Lydell Syndrome Jeff! Thanks to Luke for the long rides, thanks to Tahlia for the endless training and the stupidest ride ideas I have even seen, and thanks for getting me out there and extending my rides. And last but certainly not least: Thanks to Shep. There's not really much you can say about Shep... a simple "thank you" is far from enough. The guy put up with, and put up 2 people for 3 months, he pours a mean rum'n'coke and there's not no way for me to extend my gratitude enough. Thank you!

Tahls and Sim on yet another long ride (Luke took the pic)

Travels gone wrong...

Travel.. what a great thing.

So... I flew from Brisbane to Sydney... and that was fine, but from there things started going wrong. Because of the short time and a crappy bus transfer between so-called terminals in Sydney I missed my connecting flight from Sydney to LA. So right now I'm sitting in San Francisco airport, waiting for another connecting flight to Washington DC. 5 hours in San Fran, with nothing to do but do a few loops of the airport on the "Terminal Train" and travel is starting to loose it's sex appeal. My next flight gets me into Washington DC at 1am. almost 5 hours later than my original arrival time. Needless to say no one can pick me up in DC at that unearthly time in the morning... So I'll wait until my good buddy Greg (the former United Pilot turned control tower guy) starts work at 5am. I'll steel his car, head home, go for the 8am morning ride... then go and pick Greg up from work once he's done as I will have his car.
Ain't life great. Hey, you know what... apart from the fact that I'm getting dizzy right now through lack of food and sleep, these are the things in life that make our lives an adventure. If it's too easy it isn't fun!

Still.. the fact that as I type this the Mooloolaba group are sitting at the Prom' in Caloundra sipping coffees in the sun by the ocean before being drilled home at Jeff Lydell's hell-raising pace and sprinting for 60 signs doesn't do much to help me appreciate San Fran Airport much more.

Spriting for 60 signs in Mooloolaba Australia, beats sitting in an airport for 5 hours after 16 hours of flying with another 5 hour flight to go...

What next, we'll see... who knows what the future holds.

Until next time (or the next airport) Cheers for now!

It's a beautiful day...

Sunday, bang on a week before I jump on a plane and fly to the US. And as if the idea of leaving wasn't already bad enough, a couple of Friends (Wendy (Ex Tour de France Rider), and Des (Bike shop owner and local legend)) took us out for a perfect day.

We started the day off early with a drive up the coast to see and feed some wild Dolphins off Tin Can Bay. Luckily for us, a beautiful 2meter long dolphin had swum in for a feed and to say hi to a few two legged land creatures.

Once our little friend had had enough of us, she headed back out to deeper waters and left us to go and have breakfast and a coffee... and as usual in this part of the world, we had a great view over breakfast!

From there we headed to the stunning Rainbow Beach, known for it's naturally coloured sands, and had a swim in the crystal clear and calm ocean... once again, littered with great views. Rainbow Beach... stunning!

After the swim we headed out into the "bush" a little and had a look for some creatures... sadly, or maybe luckily, the nearest we came was to this Crocodile warning sign.

Crocs... and I'm not talking about the shoes!

Can you say: Crocodile Dundee?!

As if that wasn't enough, we then went back to Wendy's for swim in the pool with a nice refreshing cold beer in hand, followed by the traditional Aussie BarBQ...Wendy likes her saussages.

Ahhhhh... Christ I'm going to miss this!!!!

The perfect end to a perfect day!

Sydney

3 months is Australia and my training seems to be going very well. So far I'm very happy with how things have gone. I've added some longer steadier intervals (mainly uphill... seeing as I can't ride on the flat to save my life) and I've also been throwing in the odd little sprint here and there against the locals.

The numbers I'm getting in Training are very satisfying for the this time of the year and considering the types of workload and intervals (or lack there of) I've been doing. Hopefully this will all pay off come May and June when I want to be fit.

Apart from riding daily and loving the sun baked roads Aus has to offer, I recently shot off to Sydney for some tourist moments.

Got up one morning, went for a ride, jumped on a plane to Sydney, met up with one of my old Lecturers from University in France, walked around Sydney, saw the stunning Opera House, the Bridge, even had dinner in a rotating restaurant atop the Sydney Tower! This was just stunning, eating as you rotate, watching the sunset over the city and the lights of the town slowly come alive.

After a good night's sleep in a downtown hotel, we walked around yet more of the city, then jumped on a plane and we were back in time for another short ride and a cold beer. One of life's fantastic moments... A day that will never be forgotten!!!