New Photos from TTT (from last month)

These photos have just come in of the Team Time Trial Champs I did the day after getting back here from the US. (I know it's been like a month, but we are in France afterall, with the exception of racing we do everything at a different pace over here!)
Just thought I'd share them.

Disclaimer for all US people: One picture shows a rider not wearing a helmet, F'in' deal with it!

Castelsarrasin/Bouygues Telecom warming up for our TTT run

We worked well as a group

The course, being French, included the usual hills...

The Final lunge for the line after was painfull

G.S.Blagnac beat us

As did Madiran with the current ITT champ

Tour International Des Hautes Pyrenees.

Not a bad race. I wasn’t sure how fit I was going into this. Having done a BIG week in the mountains as training a little under a week before this stage race, and having caught a bit of a cold during that big training period… also not sure if I had any real “punch” in the legs of just good endurance.

Training on the Specialized sporting the Cycling Center shorts in the Pyrenees. Over 900km of mountains in 1 week. Is that enough to get ready for the Tour International des Pyrenees?

Stage1: 98km

The stage started off fairly flat and it wasn’t long before I was thinking that maybe I would quit the sport. Cycling is a hard sport and I really wasn’t feeling too good. I wondered why I was bothering with all this and was feeling like I would last too long in this race. Then we started to hit some hills and I was seemingly able to hold my own. The finale saw us climb a pretty long climb about 20k from the finish. Come the top of that climb I was feeling a little better. There was a group off the front, but at the top of the hill I attacked the group and got some pretty good king of the mountain points. Then we had a good downhill followed by a steep 5km climb to the finish line. With a couple km to go we could actually see the breakaway a little ahead of us. So with 1k to go, I attacked and tried to catch the breakaway group on the line. I caught a couple of the guys, but there was a Spanish rider 2mins up the road already. So I finished 5^th and got a few more Mountain points.

Stage 2:

The Yellow Jersey group up the Aspin

Day 2 had us doing 165km. The first part of stage 2 was around the valleys, then we hit the Col d’Aspin where things got interesting. I found myself in the yellow jersey group up starting the Aspin with a few guys from the early breakaway up the road. The attacks came thick and fast. The yellow jersey group got wittled down to 4 or 5 of us. The attacks kept coming and I eventually had to let 3 guys ride away from me. I caught one of them pretty quickly, but 2 french guys and the Spanish yellow jersey stayed up away. By the top I had caught all but one or two of the early breakaway riders and crested the summit of the Col d’Aspin in 6^th place alone. I hit the descent pretty hard and had 25km of valley road before a 3km uphill finish. According to my director in the team car, I rode most of the valley road at 70kph, and after a long, hard and lonely chase, I caught a 3 man group ahead of me. The yellow jersey was further up t road. Come the finish I we sprinted it out and I got yet another 5^th place on the stage. Moving me up to 4^th overall on the General Classification, and 6^th in the Mountains Classification.

Stage 3 was 97km back out of the big mountains towards the foothills of the Pyrenees. We had done some calculations and found that even if I took all the remaining Mountain points I could not take the jersey. So I totally gave up on that idea and focused on keeping my place on GC.

The stage was pretty nervous. I hated it. Small roads, wet and damp roads, lots of ups and down but no “real” hills. We had a guy in the break all day until a short climb 5km from the finish. The guy in 5^th overall attacked the yellow jersey on this climb but it didn’t go anywhere, so I countered in the hope of getting a little time to consolidate my 4^th spot overall. Over the top we all looked at eachother too much and the the group came back together. We almost caught the remains of the early breakaway on the line. Sadly for us we didn’t quite catch them as our sprint took the field sprint for 5^th only a couple wheels lengths behind the breakaway group. I finished not too far behind him and kept my 4^th place overall.

So overall not a bad International Tour of the Pyrenees. 4^th place overall and… actually I’m not sure where I ended up in the mountains classification.

New Time Trial Bike

Time trials. I’m not THAT good at them but I do like them. I have pulled off a few good TT results here and there. I might not be the fastest guy out there, but I can usually hold my own.

Wheels: ever important, at Castelsarrasin/Bouygues we have a wide choice of Mavic Cosmic Carbons, Hed 3s, team disc wheels (by Corima I think) and Spinergy front wheels, take your pic according to the conditions.

Although there is no TT in the tour of the Pyrenees, and not every stage race has a TT in it, training on the TT bike regularly I believe is a must if you want to perform somewhat reasonably.

So with that in mind, I recently got my grubby little hands on a nice new Jamis TT bike. Now apparently this bugger has the best wind tunnel test results without a rider. The Jamis also have a patented supers fast fork and hidden front break. The rest is pretty standard for TT bikes these days. Aero frame, internal cable routing, hidden breaks…

The Patented design hides the breaks out of the way of the wind... though frankly I think more training would make a bigger difference to my TT times, but whatever...

Break the wind... hmmm, maybe I should refrase that: "Slice through the wind."!

The Aero Vision brake levers are extemely thin, and hurt the hands a little bit. They actually use shifter cables rather than standard break cables for a more aero fit win the brake lever... again, I think more training would make a bigger difference, but whatever...

Internal cable routing... extremely aero, and more to the point, and extreme pain in the butt to work on, but it's all worth it for that 0.0001 time gain... or maybe I should train more... hmmm...

Tour of the High Pyrenees equipment check...

With the International Tour of the High Pyrenees fast approaching, and with last weeks big mileage, I’ve been mainly recovering and checking over and getting my bike ready for one of the hilliest races of the season. As far as I know, the biggest climb on the Tour is the Aspin. The Aspin is a climb I know really well and is also a climb that is somewhat special to me. As a kid we used to go and camp during the summer holidays in a campsite at the base of the Aspin. I rode my first climb there and saw my first big pro race there as well.

The Aspin isn’t a particularly hard climb. We will be climbing it from the hardest side, and the last 3km are the hardest. But overall it is a pretty steady and regular climb. Just as I like them. The other riders will make the climb hard, not the climb itself. So with that in mind I am going to be sticking with standard crankset, and opting for a 12-25 casette. Hopefully that will be ok. It’s not uncommon to spend a few hours totally spun out in the valleys during some stages, so I’m hoping the 53x12 will be big enough. I stupidly forgot my 11 somewhere in the US. A 39x 25 should be ample to climb most of the climbs on the Tour, including the Aspin at race pace.

A 12-25 should do the trick in the mountains.

I’m a little nervous about the carbon wheels on the descents and in the chance of rain. I’ve had scary moments in the mountains in the rain with carbon wheels in the past. However if the weather holds up, the descent from the Aspin is relatively technical, but it isn’t very long, and if it really rains hard, we’ll be switching to standard Alu wheels.

Corima Carbon specific break pads should insure good breaking on the mountain descents.

The black and white front end is pretty standard.

I wonder who prived the seat? Not sure what brand this is....

This clever little thing will keep the race number out of the way.

Trans Pyrenees.

So, the day after riding 185km in the Boucles du Tarn Elite race, I jumped in the car at 5am and drove down to a little town just south or Barcelona. From here started the Trans Pyrenees Challenge, and I was a guide with Thomson Bike Tours.

We spent a good part of the trip on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees.

The idea is to ride your bike from one end of the mountain range to the other in just 6 days. Personally I was pretty buggered and it took me a good 4 or 5 days to recover from Saturday’s race and start to get some feeling back in my legs. So the first few days were pretty hard for me. Of course ever single day included multiple climbs, and not just hills, real climbs!

So here’s the breakdown of my week:

Sat: 185k

Sun:50k

Mon: 152k

Tue: 140k

Wed: 160k

Thu: 128k

Friday: 106k (“Only”)

Sat: 140k

So that’s over 900km for one week. The list of climbs we did it not even worth including, if it’s in the Pyrenees, we did it! Over 21000 Cal!

But what a GREAT trip. Very good training, a great group of people, a perfect and smooth organization. Only downside was one day of rain on which I managed to catch a cold… :-)

We were up pretty high for most of the week.

to the hills.....!

Time Flies!!! I’ve been back home a little over a week already! Nuts.

Well, you know it’s summer when:

- You sneeze every minute from hay-fever,
- The narrow French roads are melting and your tires make a sticky whirring noise as you ride through the wet tar.
- The Boucles du Tarn is tomorrow
- Tomatoes are starting to grow in my garden
- I actually find sweat dripping down my face on a recovery ride
- You start having to think about the Tour de France
- You eat more veg than anything else
- You can’t find your leg and arm warmers
- You’re happy!

Tomorros is the 150km Boucles du Tarn. Probably my favourit race of all time. Big names like Vinokourov, VandeVelde, Bocharov, Jalabert, etc etc have won this race in the past. I’ve always wanted to do well at this race but have either not been in shape due to whatever reason, or have had to miss the race. The only time I was fit for it was last year, when we had a guy in the break, which blocked the rest of us a bit, and finished 17th (team mate finished 9th) and the rest of the team where behind us. Top 20 it that race is pretty darn good, and I was pretty flippin’ happy with that.
Tomorrow however we have more riders that spots in the team cars, so a couple of us will have to ride 30k back to our own cars/the hotel. I’m pretty sure I’ll be one of those riders. :-)

Then Sunday morning I’m leaving at 5am for the 5 hour drive to Barcelona to work with Thompson Bike tours at TransPyrenees! We’ll be doing some big rides through my beloved Pyrenees. Days of 150 and 160k, (I think the shortest day 97km) some days with 3 or 4 major climbs. I can’t wait!!!

Back home... and racin'

The flight back home to France via Germany was pretty painless for once. Although I’ll miss a lot of people, and although it is sad the “adventure” has come to a close, it’s nice to be back home. Nice to be able to drive down a narrow road at 80 mph. Nice to not have a slow person in a big powerfull Chevy stop on the side of the road because you are driving on the same stretch of extremely wide road. Nice to find all my beloved cheeses again, Nice to find my collection of wheels and endless bike crap… best of all, nice to get back to racing!

I Left the US Tuesday evening, (Where Greg announced over airtraffic controle to everyone that he was wishing me good luck for my upcoming races) arrived back in the south of France on a wonderfully warm and sunny Wednesday. Then raced the Team Time Trial Championships Thursday.
I left for the race Thursday on my own as the event wasn’t too far from my house and I was meeting the team there. I got off late… then realized I had forgotten my cycling shoes… so turned back around to get them.
Then as I got off the motorway I got all disorientated and took a wrong turn, effectively going back the way I had just come. Anyway, I eventually got there nice and late… but as it turned out our start time wasn’t for a couple hours anyway.

The race was fun. We had a really good group of 4 (3 had to finish) and we rode better than we have ever ridden before. Technically for a TTT we couldn’t have done much better…Ironically however, we didn’t do as well as in the past or as expected. Although we rode better and although our time was better than the previous 2 years, we only finished 4th. A pretty crappy place to finish. I’d almost rather be 6th and clearly out of it. The last 2 years we finished 3rd and 2nd… and this year, no medal. :-(

Oh well.
Next will be the Boucles du Tarn, then off to ride from one end of the Pyrenees to the other with Thomson bike Tours for 8days, then it’ll be time for the International Tour of the Pryenees.. Hmm… I might need to get in some climbing before then, The flatlands of the US won’t be helping me much up the Aspin and company.

Thanks to everyone everywhere. The Shep for putting us up in AUS, to Greg for the hospitality in the US, to Todd for the hospitality and the use of a car! The Rick for “everything” to Tim for all the obvious stuff, to Lisa for keeping me somewhat sane, to Jim for the beers… to Chris Hayes for giving me endless SHIT, to JP for making the racing fun and to Haymarket and NCVC for having me guest ride with them.

Now, it’s 5am, I’m awake for some reason (Jetlag I’m guessing) and it’s time for a coffee watching the sun come up over the hills behind my house.

Rain and wine.

My previous post “tour of Ephrata Summer is here” was a little overstated to say the least… it has done NOTHING but rain the whole time since then! I’ve pretty much been off the bike… watching the rain a falling. Not much to say or report on that. Only about 2 weeks now before I’m back home in Europe… I have Team Time Trial champs in 2 weeks and I’m not even really riding at the moment. But as they say, “c’est la vie”.

In the meantime I’ve been having lots of coffees and going wine tasting. So you really can’t complain about that!!!!

Actually finished a CRIT!

As I‘ve said before, I hate crits with a vengeance! I haven’t finished a crit for about 3 years. Crits in Europe are not “real” bike races and are more of a summer time “show”. They are certainly never included in a stage race. So it was with much trepidation than I entered the second day of the Tour of Ephrata. The morning Team Time Trial I was actually quite looking forward to. We VERY nearly missed our start with NCVC. A few of us went to take a pee and next thing you know they are counting down our start time. We literally only JUST made it. The first section of the TTT was flat, then it turned uphill. The first section went not too badly for us at NCVC. It’s always extremely hard to do a TTT when you don’t know each other too well or how everyone rides. But we did a pretty good job for the first half of the course. Then once the road went uphill it was a little harder to judge everyone’s state of freshness. Especially after a pretty hard race the day before. But we did the best we could considering we don’t ride together regularly, and at the end of the day it was a fun event. The afternoon event wasn’t looking so good… a 4 corner extremely short course Crit… and with US riders who spend 80% of their time riding these kinds of events.

I must say I am actually very proud to say I actually managed not only to hang on, but also to stick it out through the intense boredom of going round in endless circles and seeing the same scenery over and over again… I actually finished a Crit.

They say a picture tells a thousand words. And there is no doubt that this picture a friend of mine send me the other day certainly expresses the pain I was going though in that crit better than any words can. Now that would be a pretty cool pic if I were to tell you I had attacked and was off the front solo going for the win… but truth be told, I was dangling at the back all day suffering like a dog… (see pic).

Thanks again to the NCVC guys for a great weekend of racing!

Tour of Ephrata, Summer is here!!!!

So here we are. Another weekend another race. We’re sitting in a hotel room up in the Armish area of PA. This time John Parks and I have prostituted ourselves out once more, this time donning the NCVC jersey for the weekend. The NCVC guys were in need of a couple riders to fill out their roster for the Tour of Ephrata. The guys were very nice to accept us and have us join them for the weekend. Here's a BIG THANK YOU to NCVC!

Today was the road race. A 130k race on flat and windy roads in a “Northern” style of racing. I felt really shit all day, (possibly due to the past few days of riding). The racing was really hard and I suffered like a dog. Not the greatest day in the world but there you go. It was good training if nothing else. The organizers did have the extremely dubious idea of putting cone in the center line in the middle of the road in sections. No surprises it caused a few crashes and incidents! There were a few stupid moments of crashes once again out there today. I still can’t quite figure that out. In 3 races here I’ve already seen more crashes than in 1 year in France. The course was pretty much an oversized crit, and as Roger Hammond said, US riders seem to have an uncontrollable desire to shoot up on the inside on corners, bunching everything up and scaring the crap out of me… but there you go.

It was a warm and sunny day, and we were racing through Amish country, with horse drawn carts and simpler living styles. I love that part of the racing. It’s so cool to be racing through areas that are that different. Overall a pretty good day. We polished the evening off with a cold beer in Ephrata PA, with the NCVC guys, which is the perfect end to a pretty good day! Life could be worse!

Next up is a Team Time Trial tomorrow morning with a steep uphill finish… that’ll be…. Fun? Should at least be a little bit of training for the Team Time Trial Champs the day after I get home in France on the 21st of May. Tomorrow afternoon is the final stage, a washing-machine, I mean Crit in the afternoon… UGH, I hate crits, I SUCK at them!

Finally some miles...

I got 200k in on Sunday, so I figured I was on course for a good training week. I’ve been gradually doing less and less miles each week I’m here, and I’m not feeling really good about it. Monday and Tuesday it rained, so I didn’t do much but drink coffee. But then Wednesday I got in a nice 4.5 hours on the bike in the sun and in relative warmth. Thursday I got in 2 rides totaling 5 hours, this time it was pretty windy but at least it was dry… and Friday I got in another nice 2.5 hours. Looks like the warmer weather is finally heading this way…. Not sure what the future holds in terms of races yet though…

Tour of the Battenkill,

Well, this was actually good fun. It’s nice to do a “real” race again where things are steady and controlled. The gravel sections really weren’t the descider of the race as I thought they would be. I actually did better than I thought I would. I didn’t think I’d finish this race, especially as that “northern classic” stuff isn’t my style of racing… and I hadn’t raced 200k since 2004 in Austria, and the last time I did a “long race” of 175k was at the Tour of Cameroon at the end of 2007 season. My training has also been steadily decreasing since I’ve got to the US. So needless to say, I was pretty happy to finish, even though it was, as Darren Lill said to me in a E-mail “albeit LAST”. I got popped with 40k to go and rode the last 30 odd K alone. That was pretty horrible. I felt like total shit then!

All in all it was a great weekend. I had really good fun, enjoyed the racing. I really want to thank all the guys who helped out up there, gave us feeds etc. Special Thanks to Terry who drove the team car in the caravan having never seen a caravan before, and he did a great job.

Tour of the Battenkill. Pro Invitational

Early start today. We left at 8am… and got here (northern New York state) a little after 5pm. The drive was actually fine, it didn’t feel as long as it sounds, partly thanks to the really spacious and big US vehicles. A drive that long in the Castel Team bus or one of the cars would have felt a lot longer I’m sure.

We went straight to a “Press conference”, and then had a good old New York Pizza for dinner. That was pretty cool! Nicely American!

Apart from that not much to report. Sounds like it might rain for our race on Sunday. That will really suck for me!

In other news Tyler Hamilton has sadly taken a step down from the sport after an out of competition positive drug test for a agent contained in an anti-depression medication he took. It’s a real shame to see Tyler leave the sport that way. No matter what people say the guy is a true legend! Regardless, you can never take away what he has achieved in cycling! It’s also a real shame to know that the US national champion jersey will not be worn in the Pro Peloton this year (even if Tyler’s Team Rock Racing did put together a horrible “version” of the National Champ jersey which was sadly not easy enough to distinguish from the rest of the team jerseys.

Final Battenkill Preparation

Well, it’s done nothing but rain over the day I had really wanted to get out there and ride myself into the ground, before having 3 nice easy days in the run up to what will be a hell of a race. So my final prep has involved a lot of coffee and chatting and relaxing with our hilarious host Greg. Not great for the race, but I’m not complaining, it’s been great! My idea of a perfect morning… get up, have coffee… then another… then another… then… another… and so on.

The race is shaping up to be a big’n. We are traveling up to New York state on Friday with the team. It’s a composite team and John Parks is also on it. So that’ll be cool. We’ve also got a guy from Rock Racing joining us apparently. The rest of the field for the race includes some “real” riders. Floyd Landis will be up there along with teammates Tim Johnson and Bobby Lea. I met Bobby a few years ago in Vegas, and I know his parents a little from Austria. Team Type 1 are sending some good riders. Team BMC will also be there hot off their participation in one of the world’s hardest and most historic races; Paris Roubiax. Also on the start list are some strong riders from the Bissel Pro team of New-Zealander and until last year Albi Velo Sport/AG2R rider Pete Latham. It’s gonna be… fun?!

Fawn-Grove Roubaix

Second race of the season. This was a race up in PA (USA) with a lot of gravel roads. Now this isn’t usually my style of racing. As my “results” indicate I need some long hills usually, and the flat, windy “power” type races are really not for me. But this was going to be one of those “classic” races… and with it being held on the same day as the Tour of Flanders, I couldn’t resist it.

The Race:
Well, I ate Humble Pie for about 2.5 hours. The gravel sections were covered in pretty deep gravel, and there were even downhill corners covered in Gravel. It was pretty hard core! I got put in the hurt-box pretty much from the gun. The first section of gravel was after just about a km or 2… and I was already in trouble. John Parks was out there with me again and he was looking pretty good.

I got dropped from the main group early. John then got a flat and before I knew it he had already caught back up to me. We formed a small 5 or 6 man group and chased hard. John was pretty impressive and was obviously using his experience from all the races he did in northern France. He picked the right moments, and did most of the work to pull our little group back up to the front group after about 20k of racing.

John Parks was looking really good, but 3 flats and he was out...

We were back up at the front with a fighting chance. Then we hit the gravel again, and I was slowly but gradually gapped AGAIN. After a while I had to watch a group of 10 ride away from me. John got another flat from the front group but wasn’t able to get back up to us again this time sadly. It took him a while to get a new wheel… and that one ALSO went flat… so after 3 flats, he was pretty much forced to DNF. Shame as he was looking on for a really solid performance!

I settled into a rhythm and spent most of the rest of the race in a 3 man group. I really wasn’t feeling great at all this weekend, and add in the fact that the race was not suited to me and there wasn’t much I could do. But I have a fair bit of experience in small groups, so we rolled on. We kept the front group of 8 or 9 in our sights for a while, but as I felt I was the one doing 80% of the work in the group, it quickly became clear we weren’t going to get back on, and so I relaxed a bit and the 3 of us shared the work a little more equally.

Our Group of 3: with New York Pez reader Colin Prensky on the right.

In the end we caught a couple of tired guys from the front group, and as we approached the line we were racing for 6th place. There was a fair bit of money for this race, so every place counted. Somehow one of the guys in our group let on that he was a track rider… which was a big mistake. I felt I was stronger than they were, and I had been planning to wait for the finish and outsprint them (or at least try with my pathetic sprinting abilities)… but when I found out he was a track rider, I knew I had NO chance of outsprinting him. So I attacked with 1k to go and held them off to the line, taking a nice little 6th place. Not a bad result. I didn’t really feel satisfied at the end of the day as I had suffered more than I felt I should have. I didn’t feel like I deserved that 6th place as I didn’t really go out and get it, I felt like I sat back, let the race control me rather than me controlling the race.

That all being said, it was a very fun race. One of those races that is horrible to do, but is fun to have done! Good race, fun day, and one to be remembered!
Thanks to John Neusbaum for taking me up to the race in his massive truck which was very spacious and comfortable on such a long trip.

What next? Not sure. I’ve been feeling pretty flat on the bike for the past 2 weeks. I think that until now I’ve been riding on borrowed fitness from AUS, and now my lack of proper training (due to the cold and shitty weather) is starting to kick in. So a nice weekend of riding whilst watch Paris Roubaix on TV hopefully, and then next weekend is the big 200k dirt race up in New York state with Floyd Landis and Time Johnson among others. That should be fun.

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 )