April 19th - Amsterdam

I arrived in Amsterdam bright and early on Saturday morning and was able to leave my luggage and bike at the airport before heading into the city to meet up with one of my friends from the UK who was still recovering from the previous night there. The early part of the day was quite nice taking in the city, the canals, and the Van Gogh museum. My general impression was that I have never in my life seen som many 6 foot tall blonde girls riding bikes. The scenery was quite pleasant.




After the museum the drinking part of the day began (and it would not end for another 12+ hours). It started nicely at a small cafe near the museum and them moved to an outdoor seating area near a town square and then finally into a series of bars, pubs and restaurants. With an ample supply of belgian beer.




For some unknown reason I ended up being spanked in one bar by both the bartender and a random woman from an adjoining party.



After dinner, we headed down to the red light district and pretty much hung out until we called it a night. Other things happened but I prefer not to think or talk about them. Suffice to say, I have done Amsterdam and have no need to go back.





It is off to Maastricht, Valkenberg and the Amstel Gold Race.......

Vacation time......

Well, my much anticipated trip to the Netherlands and Belgium is finally in sight and I am getting very psyched about it. The heavy dosage of the spring classics over the past few weeks has my very fired up to watch the big boys battle it out on the Cauberg during the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday (20th) and then again on the Mur de Huy during Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday (23rd).


Sprinkled in with the watching of the big boys are a few rides in and around Valkenburg (Cauberg), Liege, Huy (the 25% beast that is the Mur de Huy and possibly a day trip to the west to ride the cobbles of the Arenberg Forest and towards the Roubiax velodrome.



I am hoping that I will be able to catch some of the pro teams out and about doing their recovery/training/recon rides on Monday and Tuesday.


For the trip to be a success I am going to have to survive the very first day/night in Amsterdam with some friends coming over from the UK. Could get ugly.

A series of unfortunate events....

Well the much anticipated weekend of racing that officially kicked off the 2008 campaign for me ended in complete disappointment.

First out of the gate was the Tour of Walkersville on Saturday morining in beautiful Walkersville, MD. The weather forecast leading into the weekend called for relatively cold temps and consistent rain throughout the day so I got my mind prepared for those conditions. Turned out to be an absolutely gorgeus day, albeit windy as hell.

The 3/4 race had a somehwat ominous beginning when 3-4 people in front of me banged together during the neutral roll-out...IT IS A NEUTRAL ROLL-OUT PEOPLE!!!!.... Following that the race jumped immediately after entering the course (so much for the initial feeling out of a 40 mile road race). Heading into the wind on a slight uphill with rollers was a pretty decent wake up call, unfortunately I got stuck onthe right side of the road and managed to pinch my front tire between the side of the road and a drainage grate. The telltale psssst sound pretty much signlaed the end of my day before it even got going. I was fortunate in two regards following this incident 1) the nice lady that was marshalling the corner offered a tube and a pump so I was able to fix the tire and 2) the flat kept me out of the crash that followed not too long afterwards (taking down one of my teammates). After hopping back on I paired up with him and took a leisurely ride around the rest of the 8 mile course and enjoyed the scenery before calling it a day.



Day 2 of the weekend brought us the Tyson's Corner Crit, in not as beautiful Tyson's, VA. And the weather that was supposed to be with us at Walkersville managed to find it's way to Tyson's. It was rainy, windy, and just a bit cold (much like Tour of Flanders that was ongoing at the same time)....Following sign-in and warm-ups I made my way the start line with the rest of our team and awaited the opening whistle. Immediately following the "tweet" my first pedal stroke caused my chain to pop completely off and somehow get lodged between the small chain ring and the frame. To say that I was disgusted would have been quite an understatement because I ended up throwing my bike into the grass. Apparently it worked to unstick the chain and I was able to get it back on and was faced with the decision of simply strolling back to the car, warming up and calling it a day or trying to make a pointless effort to rejoin the field that was a good 2+ minutes gone. For some strange reason I opted for the latter and buried myself (as much as I can) to try to catch back on. I was never able to catch back on but did begin to pick up some off those that got spit out the back along the way. I made a few efforts to pull some teammates back into the mix before popping and riding out the end of the race. I didn't finish well (34th), but I did finish and was happy with that.

I would have thought that my bike was cursed given these events, but the fact that I used a different bike for each race puts that fear to rest.

I have decided that with upcoming vacations, and my 5 year old's busy schedule with hockey and t-ball, that I am taking the next 6 weeks off from racing and will attempt to build a second base for the end of the season races (June/July/August). We shall see how it goes.

Next up for me is a trip to Netherlands and Belgium for the Amstel Gold Race and the Fleche Wallonne and perhaps a few efforts up the Cauberg and Mur de Huy, possibly a trip across Belgium into France to give the Ardennes' Forest and Roubaix cobbles a go. Stay tuned for more

Cold Toes - Part Trois......

Well today went pretty much as expected, except for the fact that I wasn't even really able to cover any early attacks, fortunately there weren't any. I felt like total crap from being sick all week and was only able to hang with the group for about 4 laps before falling off the back. After 2 laps of trying to catch up I was ready to quit but drove through it and was able to catch back on to those that also fell off the back. I made contact right about the same time that the leaders came back around to lap us. After another lap I was at the point of puking so I called it quits, headed to the parking lot, puked and was good to go. 2 weeks to get some sort of form before the Walkersville/Tysons weekend. We shall see how it goes.

Later

Flu like symptoms....

I suppose I got a bit of what has been floating around here for some time now. I am not full blown sick, but simply feel like crap. As a result I have had precisely ZERO time on the bike this week although I have gotten in a little gym/cardio time. This dosen't really bode too well for this weekend's race but might tie in nicely with my plan of attack.

Hopefully with a forced week, or at least a few days of rest, I will be fresh enough to hit the beginning of the race hard and ride until I pop. I plan to try to cover any early attacks and take some pressure off of my teammates for as long as possible. In my current condition that may not be too long.

Maybe I can hope for rain and wind again.....

Cold Toes-Part Deux

Saturday marked the second leg of our (Evolution Cycling) training race series. I actually felt pretty good this week and had a decent week of training and was looking forward to the race. The weather was considerably better this week than last and brought at a somewhat larger field. We had 5 guys on our side (Ryan, Chewy, Ugh, Spam, and me). I was feeling so good in fact that I went to my "quiver" before the race and picked out the Pinarello for the day.

Also found out that the race was going to run counter clockwise today, as opposed to clockwise last week, so I made sure I got in some extra training laps to get used to the new layout. The first noticeable thing was that the first turn went straight into a headwind which I knew would cause some separation in the pack, a corner is bad enough, but a corner into the wind is not good. Anyway, the race began and I started near the back, wasn't in the mod to get to the line 10+ minutes early just to get a front spot. As the field headed towards the first corner I moved up a few spots on the inside and was getting towards the middle of the pack to get some coverage into the headwind along the back. As the group approached the final turn into the tailwind finish line I moved up on the left side a passed a number of people to get near the top 10 going into the first corner again. I had good positioning and was ready to settle into the pack when the two riders in front of me touched wheels. And when I say touch, that is a bit of an understatement. The one guys rear deraileur ripped spokes from the other guys front wheel before it loked like it ripped off itself. I had to get on the brakes hard and unclip to prevent piling into them. No one in the group went down but after I clipped back in and got going, the peleton was about 100 meters away and I was inthe headwind by myself. I stepped it up to try to catch back on and made contact into the final turn when everyone jumped towards tthe finish line. I lost contact and that was where I was going to stay the rest of the race. Being a training race I just kept my pace steady and rode out the last 6-7 laps, picking up an occasional rider here and there as they popped off the back.

The one good thing about being dropped off the back in that turn was that I missed the crash in the next turn that took a few people out. One guy from PoWER went down pretty hard and had some road rash to show for his day. He seemed to be doing well post-race so that is always a good thing.

The third and final episode of the Cold Toes Trilogy is next weekend, we shall see how it goes. Evo should be out in full force with our new kits. Should be a good time.

Later

Daylight Savings Time!!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy that DST is finally here. It has me back in the bike for the commute to and from work which means at least an extra hour a day in the saddle (actually on the road as opposed to the trainer). The main reason that I shut it down is that I honestly dislike riding in the dark. I don't trust myself, don't trust others, and especially don't trust the harmless looking woodlands creatures that I know are just waiting to F with me (WHERE IN THE HELL DID THAT DEER COME FROM?????).





Although the training has not been going well, I am starting to see some improvements, albeit minor. I had my fastest commute this morning without doing too bad on the HR. Again, I am not going to be a factor in any races in terms of being in the top of the field, but I am going to finish races, which is really my main goal for the year.

I am keeping a close eye on the scale and may very well dip below the 200 mark by this weekend. I have been able to successfully put 205 out of the way and lower the bar. I am hoping to be around 195 or 190ish by the time the racing season really gets going and approaching 185 to 180 by the end of the summer. Watch out next year once I am able to put it all together and keep it together.

Later