Louenhout

I have had some request topost some phots on my blog, but since I have reverted back to the old fromat, SLR film Camera, this would require a bit more technology than I have at the moment. If you want to check out some photos from the trip, go to this web site. http://planb.smugmug.com/gallery/2203726 These photos are by Joe Sales, who has been over here taking our picture all week. The race yesterday was pretty hard. It was muddy, cold and raining, but that wasnt the hard part. The course changed a bit this year from last, and the new section, which essentially was a big drag strip though a field, was very hard. It was about 400 meters long, and went from kinda muddy, to very muddy as you progressed along it. By the end you were barley moving through hub deep much, and then you had to ride up a steep, 30 foot high bridge. Not very easy. The remander of the course was prety good though, flat fast muddy turns and the usual whoop section, only this year it was covered with astro turf so it was about 100 times scarier. On the first lap it was pandomonium, everyone going every direction in the mud, but things finally settled down and spread out with me sitting in the high 20's to low 30's group. This is were I would stay for the remainder of the race, riding faster than, and some times slower than, the people around me. I made it through without getting lapped, so that was nice. I am pretty worked today, but we have 2 dasy to recover before the next race in Diegem, so no worries. I better go get on the bike though, so I can be back in time for my massage at 2. Word.

Nasty

Hofstada

Today was the world ucp race in Hofstada, near brussels. We drove over there in relative comfort, as we upgraded this year from a Voyager minivan, to a huge Sprinter van. It is sweet. The course was pretty much the same as it always is, maybe a little easier in the parts that are not the beach, but the beach is still by far the defining feature. I am still felling pretty wiped out from this head cold I have been battling, so I decided to take the start, but not really push it as I want to save some gas for the ramainder of the races. It was pretty amusing riding in the back at the start watching all the chaos. Guys were going bezerk trying to pass each other, and would then get balled up in the subsiquent turn. After the dust settled I was chillin pretty near the back, unfotunatly with most of the other US riders. I rode with them for about a lap, but an up close inspection of a tree let a bit of a gap open. I went hard to get back up to the group, and after about a minute I realized that that was a bad idea because my chest started hurting and I wanted to die. As I rode through the pits Geoff told me I was out of the top 50, so no points, and no point riding around anymore. After I got changed I cruised back over to the course and stood by the Jumbotron so I could see what was going on in the front of the race for a change. It was pretty inpressive to watch those guys battle it out in person. I know I was riding poorly, but man, those guys were just flying! Nys couldnt ditch the 5 Fidea riders marking him and got fed up so he just made it his goal to beat Wellens, which he did, and Vervecken got the win. Tomorrow is another recovery/preperation day, as we are racing in Louenhout on thursday. Hopefully by then I will have kicked this cold, and my ass will stop getting kicked as hard as it has been these last 2 races. Anyways, untill then, I am looking forward to my massage tomorrow morning!

Nasty

Watchtabecke

Well, the first one is in the books. I was talking with Geoff the English teacher tonight and he was comenting on the quality of my typing on this blog, so from now on I am going to try and at least spell check my entries before putting them up. Or maybe read through them before hitting "post". Anyhow, todays race was up north near Brussels in a small town called Watchtabecke. We got there fairly early and were able to have some time to check out the course and hang out in the back of the spinter van with the heater going. The track was pretty straight forward. No technical challages at all, just long flat grass sections. The problem was that the grass was made out of a mixture of glue and mud. It was a super slow bog fest, with about 3 staircase run ups on these little dirt mounds in the middle of the field. While Powers and I were warming up, Nys et all rode past us, so we decided to try and do a lap with them to see how they rode it. I am happy to report they dropped us, on the warm up lap, while going easy. It was sweet, one second we are just crusing along, the next, Bang! they are half a lap ahead of us. Oh Boy, this is going to be fun! I got called up on the front row, and feelt a bit tenative at first, but then thought, "What the hell?" so I pinned it off the start,and lead it out for the first half lap. But all of a sudden reality hit and I got swarmed so bad it was like a plague. Of locusts. Yeah, pretty well swarmed. Guys were going by me so fast that i couldnt even try do anything about it. I was trying to ride, but basically I became some drift wood while the tide flowed through. I finally emerged at the back of the pack and continued to flail my way around the track. I felt like shit and was going very slowly. I finally started almost getting it together and then I got lapped. Awesome. Cant wait for the next one! I aksed Ells on the way home if the Belgians really thought Nys was not using drugs. She told me he went to bed every night at 9:15. That is why he is so fast. So, here I sit, it is 11:10 pm, and at leat now I know why I sucked so bad. Add to that a building head cold and you have the recipe for some good old Belgy cross fun! Untill next time, I am going to try and sleep in untill 9:15 and see how things go tomorrow.

Nasty

Nationals and On

SO it is pretty sweet that Ryan won CX Nats. I feel like I rode well, but tok my self out of it on the last lap with a pretty wicked stack. I even meesed up my thumb pretty good. It has been a while since I went down that hard. My head even bounced off the dirt. I guees that is what I get for trying to push it a bit to hard. The race was super fats, probably the fastest I have done in the US ever. I felt pretty good the whole time though, untill the last 2 laps when page and Timmy were attacking each other. Then I started not feeling very good at all. My quads were cramping and I couldnt tand up to accelerate. I was still keeping it rollig though, and was almost back on terms when i went down. My plan was to catch them up as the slowed on the pvement to look at each other and immediatly attack, but then I decided to attack my slef into the dirt. oh well, live and learn. After a sweet party at the HUb in providence and some spctating I headed to belgium. Pretty ok trip, didnt sllep due to tthe crying babies, but made it here and am getting settled in. It is strange to be back here. Everything is the same as when I last left, so it is almost like I left and then it all stoped and didnt start until I got back. I feel a lot more comfortable here this year though, and have great expectations on my self for the racing. anyways, thats about it for now. I sleept like 13 hours last night and need to go ride my bike now. Our first race is saturday and I will put up a post after that. Word

Nasty

Sewwing

For real! I was able to dissassamble some Dugast tires, patch the latex tube and then reassable them, and they are still holding air! I am a master crafts man. And it only took me about 2 hours. Now I could probably bust them out in like 15 min. Anyways, 2 weeks untill the big race. Then off to Belgium and the real racing as they say. I feel sorry for those guys who dont live in California right now. Nothing but sunshine and balmy temperatures for some sweet as training for nats. I dont care what they say, you can only do so much "conditioning" for cold weather before it really just sucks out and you cant train like you want to. I know how to ride in the snow. Bring on the sunshine! Word.

Nasty