Moving my blog

In order to get a more relevant URL I have decided to move my blog to MaxProRacer.blogspot.com

I feel this change makes the url easier to remember and associate with me, especially now since I am no longer racing out of Denmark.

Thank you for reading.

I am still alive...

Despite what my lack or recent updates may have you believe, I am in fact still alive and doing ok. I am a bit sick at the moment, but its nothing too major and should be over pretty soon hopefully. I'm living in Davis now and have been taking it pretty easy the last month since the last race. I've already started to get back on the bike a little bit, but nothing too structured or serious.

I did do a 30 min cross race practice this Tuesday, which was pretty fun. I had a good time and got "2nd" although I probably didn't deserve it since I skipped a dismount a couple of times during the race. Here is a photo of the podium courtesy of Phil Mooney

I other news, I have signed a contract for a big US based Continental team, but since they haven't returned the counter-signed contract yet, I don't really want to talk too much about it. But assuming everything does work out like it should I will be in a great place next year. Europe was fun but its also going to be nice to be home a bit more this year. Either way, I am expecting some good things this year.

Its a wrap on the season

The last race of the season was the Münsterland Giro last Saturday, and it was the biggest race of the year for our team with a start list that included teams such as Columbia, Saxo Bank, Milram, Cervélo Test Team, Vacansoleil, Skil Shimano, among others. It was run on the windy but flat roads around the western German city of Münster.

I am somewhere in that mess with 5km to go

The defending champion from Columbia, Andre Greipel, was the clear favorite after his win in the points classification in the Vuelta and strong ride at the world championships the week before. The home team, Milram also had a strong sprinter in Gerald Ciolek. So everyone basically knew the game plan, someone would attack early, Columbia and Milram would set tempo and probably bring them back with a few km to go setting up a bunch sprint.

The action started from the gun, with my team mate Ricky attacking and getting into a small break, however a lot of teams weren't satisfied so they got brought back quickly. There were a bunch more attacks and I got into a decent group of 6 but then another small group came up with Greipel in tow so our group was doomed. I drifted back way too far after we got caught because my legs were still pretty loaded up from going so hard only 15minutes into the race and I found myself 70 riders back when the real break of 6 riders went. Ricky was also a bit back from his earlier efforts and my other 3 team mates were no where to be seen so we missed the break. So much for that.

We then settled in with Milram and Columbia setting tempo as expected. It was still very nervous in the peleton because the wind made the chance for a crosswind split quite high so everyone was battling to stay near the front. Still they kept it pretty mellow in the wind except for one time at about 80km to go which was one of the few times I found myself in the back half of the group. Milram successfully split the group but there were still about 50 riders and most of the favorites in the front so the rest of us had no problem getting back when they sat up. But sitting up really cost them dearly because when they started chasing again, the gap to the break didn't come down very quickly and they actually managed to stay away by a few seconds. Quite a shame we didn't have anyone in there, it would have been a great result for our team.

I tried to lead out a team mate in the closing kilometers but he couldn't hold the pace and drifted back. I still tried to stay near the front but I am not exactly a field sprinter and I didn't get very far. I ended up finishing in the middle of the front group which was reduced to about 80 riders at this point and sadly I was the first guy from our team. So the result wasn't great, but it was a good experience, because I learned that I can race with the big teams and be mildly competitive, I'm not dying just to stay in the peleton. It gives me good hope for the future.

I'm back in CA now and enjoying a nice break. Its been a long year and I definitely need it.

Last Danish races

Weekend summary: flat, crosswind fun!

This past weekend we did the last two races of the Danish season, both in the southern part of Denmark, right on the German border.

On Saturday we raced in Tønder on a pretty exposed 28km course for a total of 140km. 12km into the lap we made a right turn from a headwind into a cross tailwind and after about 2km of that the peleton exploded. I came around the turn back in about 40th wheel but realizing the danger I managed to get to the front when there was still a bit of shelter from some houses and made the split. I had a team mate right next to me when we came through the corner and I told him to get on my wheel when I moved up on the windy side of the group, but once the split happened he was no where to be found. However, Berling and Jacob both used their experience to make the group, so that we had three riders out of 18. Concordia had 4 riders as well as Capinordic. Once the split happened everyone put their heads down and worked to make sure the gap stuck. The peleton was chasing behind and got back to about 25 seconds 30 km later, but then they cracked and the race was over for them. Still, because of the wind, our break kept the pressure on and it wasn't easy. We worked pretty well together until the start of the last lap when the attacks started. A group of 7 ended up getting away and I missed it because of a bad hesitation.

Me hesitating instead of following Morten from Blue Water

I attacked on my own a few km later to try to get back up to them, but I only got to within 10 seconds of them and 40 seconds in front of the rest of the group before I cracked. I ended up getting caught by the rest of the group again. I still wanted to race a bit so I attacked again with 1.5 km to go and took two riders with me who sat on my wheel and then sprinted around me so I got 10th. Jacob couldn't get away from the front 7 and finished 6th.

Loosing the sprint for 8th

That night most of the guys from Concordia, Energi Fyn, and Capinordic, as well as Berling, Linde and I went to the German border city of Flensbourg and partied. It was a good time, but probably not the best thing to do before another race on Sunday morning. I didn't feel too bad about it though since all of the good guys in the peleton were out doing it too. Still I got home at 3am and had to wake up at 7 for a 10 am start which was a bit rough. Its just practice for Boggs later in the winter....

The legs were definitely a bit heavy the next morning, but I still managed to make the 12 rider break that went after 15 km. Only me and one other rider from Concordia who had been in the front group on Saturday made that group on Sunday. It was pretty obvious that the peleton didn't want to race and we soon had a 4 minute gap without working too hard for it. The attacks didn't start until the last lap with 25km to go, but once they did it was full on. I tried to keep pretty cool for a while but then I got away with one other rider with 12km to go. We got a 1o second gap and I was killing myself trying to make it bigger. The other guy wasn't as strong so I was doing most of the work. Sadly we got caught after 4 or 5km but my legs were starting to get a bit cooked. I tried again a few times, once coming from the back before a turn with one rider on my wheel, but I drilled the corner so hard that he got dropped and ended up just towing the group back up to my wheel. By the time the actual finish came up I was completely cooked and couldn't even contest the sprint so I got 12th. The rider from Concordia who had been in the group yesterday finished 11th, so I think Tønder took a good edge off both our legs.

Still it was a spirited end to my season in Denmark. This coming Saturday we are racing the UCI 1.1 ranked Münsterland Giro in western Germany. Its a big race with lots of Pro teams so its going to be pretty hard. Still, its the last race of the season and I don't have much to loose so I'll go what I can to get off the front. Last year Griepel won in a field sprint so I'm not expecting much, but I can't go to a race and not even try to win, what would be the point?

update

Well I guess I've been a little MIA for the last two weeks. I put it down to laziness and a general lack of motivation. The motivation I still do have is being used to convince myself to go out every day and ride my bike. Yes, unlike most bike racers in the US who don't do cross, my season is not yet over. I am still in Denmark and I have two more weekends of racing. This coming weekend we are doing two basically flat races in south western Denmark, and then next week we do the UCI 1.1 ranked Münsterland Giro. This is going to be only my second 1.1 race ever and I hope it goes better then my first, which was the Hel van het Mergelland where I crashed and broke my bike after about 20km. So if I make it 21km, it will be better.

After USPro I went back to Denmark and spend a whole three days there getting used to the time zone before we left to do the 2.2 Tour of Hokkaido in Japan. It was a pretty sweet trip, got to see some beautiful landscapes, experience a bit of a new culture, stay at hotels with spas, oh and do a bike race too.
The race itself was a bit strange. First of all, I could see over the whole peleton without really trying to look up. Second, although there were some good climbs in the race no one but me and some guys who weren't very good wanted to really race up them, and they weren't steep enough that I could just ride away from everyone. Thirdly, although we went around an island, we somehow managed to have a headwind for the last 80km of every stage. All of this meant that every day was a field sprint, despite our team's best efforts.

Although I got the closest of anyone got to beating the peleton. On the third day I got off with a tiny Japanese guy about 110km into a 180km stage. We were given about 2 minutes after 20km of riding and then we basically stayed there. There was a really annoying climb from 30 to 25km to go that wasn't steep but had a massive headwind blowing. So we were just crawling up it and our gap fell to only 30 seconds. Still we didn't give up and we kept that 30 second gap from 25 km to go until a hill that wasn't on the profile with 5km to go. If it hadn't been for that hill, we still may have stayed away, apparently the guys working in the peleton were starting to crack.

Although I am generally really bad at taking photos, I did take some and I posted them to facebook, which can be found here.

We came back last Monday and I spent most of the next week trying to get over the jet lag. I did manage to do an SFR workout on Thursday, but since my SRM was getting its battery replaced I did it by feel and went way too hard. This managed to completely trash my legs for the next three days. So we did a Danish race on Sunday and my legs were still complete garbage. But my teammate Chris won, so it was a good day for the team. Although I didn't really do much to help them.

Life is easy in the laughing group.

After a million attacks in the first hour, 18 riders got up the road in small groups and then came together to form a new peleton. Five of our 8 riders were up there so the three of us who were left basically did nothing, and after a few people tried to chase for a little while, the rest of our group did nothing too. Out of boredom and a desire to be finished, I pulled most of the last 30km so we only finished 7 minutes behind the winner, not 15 or more.

Well I guess that about sums up the last two weeks. Perhaps I should do shorter posts more often, instead of these long ones every couple of weeks... hm....

USPro RR

Welcome to the big time I guess. My first Pro nationals. I was racing by myself and had no idea of how the race was going to play out. I did manage to get together a follow vehicle for myself, Andrew Talansky from Amore & Vita, and three Land Rover riders. Thanks to Andrew for finding the driver. So at least I wasn't behind the 8-ball before the start even took place. And what a start it was. It was completely nutty, groups of 30 kept going off the front and we were doing like 45 km/hour on a really technical circuit. I panicked a few times and jumped across to a few of these groups, inevitably right before the peleton caught them. Eventually the race settled down and we let Zabriskie fry out there on his own. After the climb the first time another break of about 13 went but no one too prominent was there and Kelly and BMC both missed it so I wasn't worried. Lewis from Columbia then set a wicked tempo up the climb the second time up and probably shredded a bunch of guys. I was still feeling pretty comfortable though and had to problems. The pace did bring back the 13 riders and Dave Z though.

Again right after the descent a break of 4 went, with Chris Jones of Type 1, Howes of Garmin, Stewart of BMC, and Ben King from Livestrong. They were given a bit of leeway but again we went hard up the climb. This time Lewis took it half way and then Hincapie attacked himself. This really destroyed the group and we came over the top in a group of about 18 with me hurting but not in danger of getting dropped. However, we messed around on the descent and another group of about 25 came back again. Then there were the usual attacks on the flats after the climb with everyone taking a go, Hincapie and myself included.

Nothing stuck though and eventually teams got organized to do a legitimate lead-out to the bottom of the final time up the hill. Again Lewis took the first kilometer on the front and then Hincapie put in a massive attack. I started the climb too far back and didn't move up quickly enough at the bottom so I got stuck behind a wall of Garmin riders moving backwards. Once I got around them the gap up to the front group of 7 was too big for me to close on my own. I strongly believe that if I had been on the right side of the split, that I wouldn't have gotten dropped and made that front group. Next time.

So over the top there were 10 of us. Two riders from Garmin, two from Kelly, two from Type 1, Burke from BISSELL, McCarthy from Saxo Bank, White from OUCH, and me. The Kelly guys weren't working since they had Bowman and Bajadali in the front group. Type 1 had Jones who managed to not get caught until right after the climb so could hang on to the front group, but they weren't too happy with it so they were helping us chase. Garmin missed the front group completely so they were pretty motivated. Personally I helped a lot for the first 10 km, but then I got some wicked cramping in all of the muscles in both of my legs.

I'm cramping badly here, but at least its hard to tell... trying to develop my Scott Moninger look

It meant that I couldn't pull that much on the three 7km long flat finishing circuits. We got to within 10 seconds of the front group, but we couldn't close that extra distance. Maybe if I hadn't gotten those cramps we could have, one more guy taking strong pulls may have been enough.

Either way we rode fast hoping that they would start messing around in the front but they never did. Then there were a lot of attacks in the final to 2km, that really made it a drawn out sprint. I came in the middle of the group for 14th place. I am pretty satisfied with it, but I am left wondering what might have been if I hadn't started the last climb too far back, or if I hadn't started cramping in the finishing circuits.

Tour of Utah

Well what can I say, this race was a mixed bag. I had a mediocre prologue, partly because I spent the whole afternoon before the race taking care of team business, the stuff that a manager was supposed to do, but our composite team didn't actually have a manager so I had to do it. But at least we had a caravan car and a driver, and although he was pretty inexperienced, he figured it out pretty quickly. The first stage was pretty mellow until I flatted right at the base of the final 10km climb. So instead of starting the climb in the top 20, I started it at the very back of the caravan. I worked my way back up to the peleton but I was too gassed to make the front split when Sevilla and Mancebo attacked with 4km to go. I still made the second group and only lost 1 min to the main group which was ok considering the circumstances. The third group lost 5 minutes and then it just went up from there.

Putting the frustrations of the first stage behind me I focused on Mt. Nebo. It is a gruelling 36km climb that goes about 4800ft vertically and ends up at 9300ft. The first 90km of the stage were basically flat and a break went that everyone knew was going to come back. I started the climb a bit further back then I wanted since I was out of water and hunting for a bottle in the feedzone right at the base. I had to work my way back through the peleton to make several splits as OUCH was drilling it at the front. Near the bottom Lill from Type 1 attacked and split the rest of the group to pieces. I was again in the second group but in the company of some good climbers. We could see the front group basically the whole way up the climb and we caught some of them as they started cracking towards the top. There was actually a slight downhill to the finish and thinking that I could still get a top 10 on the stage I sprinted out of our group and won the sprint in a bike throw over Brent Brookwalter of BMC. Sadly there were still 10 riders up the road so I was 11th, but it was still a good day.

The next stage was the 15km ITT and I had another mid pack ride. I haven't really spent any time on my TT bike since March and I think it showed here. But we've done so few TTs in Europe that it didn't really make sense to train on that bike too much. This Utah TT was actually only the second non-prologue TT that I have done all season, so I guess I can put my mediocrity down to lack of practice. I really need to strengthen this part of my racing to be a real GC threat.

The final road stage ended up being the only really hot day of the tour, and the heat definitely took a toll on my body. I barely made the front group of 25 over the top of the first climb over Alpine Loop and then suffered through the rest of the stage until the bottom of the finishing climb up Little Cottonwood. I held on as long as I could, but I really didn't have good legs and ended up finishing the stage in 19th place. But due to other guys crashing going down Alpine Loop and others cracking harder then me I ended up moving up from 23rd to 15th overall. I then rode pretty conservatively in the crit, just staying in the top 30 but out of the wind to keep my place and the prize money that comes with it.

So now the plan is to rest a lot this week and hopefully this race will give me great legs for the USPro road nationals in Greenville this coming weekend. I am already in South Carolina and enjoying the abundance of oxygen.

Horsens Crit

On Thursday we raced a crit in our home town on a super hard course that went up a steep 500 meter climb every 1.8 km. A break managed to go on the second lap, it was 5 riders and we had 2 so we were pretty satisfied. But the rest of the group kept attacking on the hill and I was having a hard time following all of the attacks but I stayed in there as the peleton was shredded from 65 riders at the start to about 20 after 20 minutes. Two riders eventually got away and made it across to the break, then about 35 minutes in I got away with 3 other riders and it was much easier because we could ride relatively steady up the hill and not have to do massive attacking efforts every lap.


That being said it was still super hard, but I led our group up the hill every lap where all of the spectators were. So at least I was showing off the jersey in front of the home crowd, and Bjarne Riis who showed up to watch. Then with 3 laps to go, Ricky bridged up with a Capinordic rider so we became 5. Coming through 1 to go Ricky attacked and all this did was pop me off the back since I had been pulling up the hill. I caught back half a lap later and immediately launched an attack but they got back up to me and so I just led out the sprint hoping that Ricky could take it. He got 3rd out of our group for 10th, I was last for 12th. In the front our two riders finished 5th and 7th. So we were pretty active but the result wasn't super.

I then went home and had two hours to pack my bike, eat, and make it to the train station to make an 11:30 pm train so that I could make my flight out of Copenhagen at 6am to go to Salt Lake City for the Tour of Utah. It was hectic and then I got basically no sleep on my 29 hours of travel door to door. But I am in Utah relaxing now. Looking forward to some real hard climbing, the form is good so I am expecting some good things.

Fyn Rundt

On Sunday we raced the oldest race in Denmark and one of the oldest in Europe, the 210km Tour of Fyn (one of the Danish islands). The race was a flat and fast start and a big break went in the first 10km of about 20 riders. We had two riders so we decided to sit back and see what happens. Two teams missed out completely though and chased hard so that the gap was staying at about one minute. The roads got a bit narrow and hilly after 70km and Michael Rasmussen attacked on the longest hill taking about 20 riders across to the break. As soon as we got there there were a bunch of attacks and when all was dusted there was a group of 26 riders clear of the peleton and with Berling and I coming from the Rasmussen group and Chris holding on out of the break.

Then not much happened until we hit the four 6km long finishing circuits.

The tactical cat and mouse games started as soon as we reached the circuits. The first group to actually get away had Chris with 5 other riders. That group was hovering about 20 seconds in front us and the gap to the peleton was falling from two minutes to about a minute. I was having a hard time following the attacks since my sprint is even worse then normal at the moment, but I decided to try one of my own and got into another group of 6 that made its way across to the front group. I was still not feeling great so I didn't want to work, I did my best pain face while sitting on the back and no one even asked me to pull through.
Just as soon as we caught the front group another group of seven came across with Rasmussen and some others, but sadly Berling missed out so we were down to just two out of 19 and neither Chris nor I can really sprint. About this time my legs started coming around and I started feeling much better following the attacks. Chris attacked like 6 times in the last 6km but didn't get far any time. I took my time and went just once at one kilometer to go. I got a decent gap but got caught with 350 meters to go and passed by everyone except Rasmussen. Figures that the only rider I beat in the sprint was also the only rider skinnier then me. Chris finished 14th, near the back of the group. Funny thing is that I felt somewhat blocked up until the last 10km, so it took me 125 miles to warm up, that's got to be a new record.

Herning Crit

Last night we did a crit in the town of Herning. The big star attraction was Fränk Schleck and a few other Saxo Bank riders. So a huge number of people made it out to watch the race. There were people lining the whole two kilometer course.

I was fortunate enough to roll to the line just as people started lining up so I got myself a second row start just behind the two TdF stage winners Nicki Sørensen and Schleck. There is me chilling in the background.

The first prime of the race happen on lap 3 and a group went off the front going for it. Then the Danish champ Matti Breschel went across, then Brian Vanborg from Liquigas. Sensing that this might be the break of the race I went after Vanborg. I never got onto his wheel but I made it up to the break on my own, and I was the last one to get across. We then worked smoothly, but no one was really driving it. Breschel and Vanborg were taking pretty weak turns so the rest of us were content to do as they did. It meant that we never got more than 30 seconds on the peleton, but we stayed that way for an hour.


We were pretty content to share the work and the primes.

Then with 9 laps to go the attacks started out of the break and I ended up in the back split, with 4 riders in front. But since the peleton was so close everyone ended up coming back. Once I got caught was content to just roll across the line, getting out of the way of anyone trying to sprint. Berling got himself to the front and did a great sprint to end up 3rd.

In the end it was an all Danish continental team podium, with the best Saxo Bank guy, Anders Lund in 4th. I like that in Denmark most of the post tour crits are not fixed like they are in other parts of Europe, it means that you actually get to race with the pros instead of riding around in a parade. Overall a decent day, this was my first time being in a real break in a pro crit, so I think the from is good before the big goals of Tour of Utah and USPro nationals.

Beach

The beach is only about a kilometer away from where I live in Denmark, but the weather has been pretty cool and wet so I haven't been able to go. Finally this week the weather was nice, mid 70s and sunny, so I spent a few days going down there. Its not much by California standards, but its still nice to get out and enjoy the sun. Here are some pictures.

This is the back way to get there with a nice view of the Horsens fjord

The actual beach is pretty small, but its still popular.

Still there is good fun for people of all ages.

Tour of Utah climb profiles

Unsatisfied with the profiles of the climbs provided by the race organizers, I made my own. Because I am a nice person, I will share these with everyone.

Stage 1:
Climb #1, Old Snowbasin


Climb #2, Emigration Canyon

Stage 2:
Mt Nebo (to the finish line)


Stage 4:
Climb #1, Alpine Loop


Climb #2, Traverse Ridge


Climb #3, Little Cottonwood Canyon (to finish line)


I think these are going to make for one hard race. I'm excited.

Kjellerup crit

Today we also did a real live crit. I didn't really know what to expect as there was a 70 person field, with 3 saxo bank riders and Michael Rasmussen was making his return to cycling. The first 20 minutes were crazy hard as the riders couldn't carry speed through corners to save their life so I would be doing a full out sprint out of every turn just to stay on the wheel. Eventually a break of 12 went up the road and our team (of only 3 riders) completely missed it. But with so few guys we were hardly in a position to bring it back. Then we rode slow for a while when the rain started. The peleton was going embarrassingly slow through the turns, at least by US crit standards. One rider from another team even told one of my team mates to tell me to slow down in the corners. And I thought I was taking it easy. Anyway, I kept getting more and more frustrated by their lack of pace so with 3 laps to go I followed an attack by a Vacansoleil rider. It turns out we got a gap on the peleton with a Capinordic guy on our wheel. They went super slow through the turn at the bottom of the little hill and then sprinted up the whole way and dropped me a little bit. But I got back at the next corner because they braked and I didn't. I knew that I couldn't let them to that again so I made sure to pass them on the short downhill and took the two corners before the hill at a fast, but still pretty safe speed. I put about 5 seconds into them right there and didn't get caught before the top. This was with 2 laps to go. Then I just kept riding, keeping my speed up through the turns and ended up finishing the race 7 seconds in front of the peleton.

These guys don't have a hope racing crits in the US since they corner that slow. I don't think I should be able to ride away from the field with 2 laps to go, but I'll take it. Even if it was just for 13th place.

I'll post some pictures if I find them.

Tour of Liege

Sorry for the recent lack of blog posts. I have been feeling rather unmotivated to write.

Its hard to sum up a stage race in a few words, but I will do it anyway...
First stage: attacked half way though with 1 other rider, got caught by a group of 12 stayed away to the finish, got last in the sprint (12th) but ended up with KOM jersey
Second stage: Didn't make the split in the crosswind to a group of 15, chased all day, ended up finishing 36 seconds down, lost KOM jersey because I couldn't sprint well enough at the top of climbs
Third stage: Rode like a complete idiot, and missed several chances at making the front group, including the obvious split up the Mur de Huy (1300m long 9.6% average with 800 meters at 16% average), started the Mur at the back of the group and couldn't ride up it fast enough to catch the lead group. Lost 2.5 min
Forth stage: felt good, but race got cancelled with 40km to go when an tragic accident killed a spectator, the trailer off of the broom wagon fell off and hit him
Fifth stage: hot day, felt kind of crappy, suffered like dog for the last 50 km trying to stay with the yellow jersey group of about 10, made it to the finish, only to find out that 15 riders had gone up the road early with 2.5 minutes of the peleton

Overall it was kind of a mixed bag. I blew the third day pretty bad, and my GC hopes with it, but at least I had a day on the podium.

Leesville and Davis Crit

Last Friday I raced Leesville Road Race, this is one of my favorite courses in NorCal. It was a bit of a strange start since I went early in a break of about 7 riders without really attacking that much. Maybe its just the difference between racing styles in the US and in Europe. I'm used to having to do a ton of accelerations before any move goes, here I followed maybe two attacks, took a couple of pulls in some groups, and suddenly we were off the front. Once we hit the rough roads 30 minutes into the race, our little group stopped working all that smoothly, but I think it was because a few of the guys were on the limit. It meant that we started getting caught by a chase group leading up to the first climb which was about 30km into the race. I didn't want to get caught before the climb and have to think about attacking again, so I took a few good pulls to make sure we stayed away until the bottom.

Once the climb started I just rode a hard tempo and ended up off the front by myself. I saw Jesse and Vince Owens chasing me from the remenants of the break but I kept going and was holding them at 15 or 20 seconds. About half way up I looked back again and saw Jesse by himself trying to come across still 15 seconds behind me. Not wanting to ride the whole race by myself I eased up just a hair so that Jesse could catch up, but I made him work to do it. I pulled him to the top of the climb and down the descent, but soon after we started working really well together and we would stay away until the finish. Given the really flat run in, I knew it was going to be a challenge dropping Jesse, so after a few short lived attacks, I concolled myself to try and sprint it out. Knowing that Jesse is the better sprinter I made sure to get behind him coming up to the line. I was trying to keep a small gap to him in front so that I could have some draft to accelerate into, and coming up to the 200m to go sign Jesse stopped pedaling briefly and I took that as my cue to jump him. I got a decent gap at first but the line wasn't coming nearly fast enough and he squeaked past me with 30 meters to go. It turns out that Velo Promo had put the 200m to go sign about 400 meters before the finish line, but with the road being so straight and flat I had a really hard time judging the actual distance to the line, and gave Jesse plenty of time to come around me. I was pretty disappointed to have messed up the sprint like that, but it was still a fun race.

Not much to say about Davis Crit, I attacked a bit during the race, but the breaks I got into never really wanted to work well to keep the gap so we would always come back after a few laps. The race slowed down in the last 3 laps as individuals battled for position as there was no team willing to take control of the race and do a lead out. I wasn't super comfortable trowing elbows while going six wide through the turns so I didn't manage to move up to the front in time and finished 18th. As such I got my entry fee back in prize money, which is more than I can say for my second place from Leesville. Atleast the Leesville tee-shirt was pretty good this year.

Nevada City

Well I now know for certain that Lance Armstrong is a beast. When he went on the fourth lap I didn't even try to go because I knew that I would last for maybe two laps and then explode horribly. I spent most of the race trading attacks with Paul Mach and Nate English in the second chase group. We were holding steady at about 30 seconds behind the first chase group, but Lance and Levi were putting like 20 seconds a lap into us. I knew it was just a matter of time until they lapped us and then we would all be hanging on for dear life. As it turns out once they did lap us, the pace picked up but not so much that I was really suffering. The group exploded though, I guess a lot of guys were already right on the limit.

It didn't help matters that with 7 laps to go we lapped the last group still racing and caught the chase group that had been in front of us all at the same time right at the top of the hill. Suddenly I was 25 guys back with a bunch of worthless guys between me at the leaders. I had to drill it pretty hard on the downhill to get back to the front, and then that lap Lance decided to attack. After going deep into the pain cave I looked up to see that I was still with the front group, but Lance was already completely gone. After a few more attacks in the last few laps, it ended up being a sprint for fourth. I got behind Gerlach with a lap to go thinking that he was going to set me up nicely for the sprint, but then he sat up half way up the hill and I stupidly came around him. Of course at that point no one wanted to pull so I got stuck leading out the sprint. I am not sure how many people came around me before the line. I remember Horner and a few others, but I think I ended up somewhere around 10th-15th place. Not bad considering I'm coming off of some really solid rest. It looks promising for some good form coming back to Europe.

Due for some time off

Well this was my final weekend of racing in Denmark before I come home for a month. I am glad its over. I am definitely due for a break. I am starting to feel both tired and undertrained, which is a clear sign of too much racing and not enough training.

Yesterday was a relatively flat race with just enough wind to make it a bit hard just sitting back in the group. There were only 40 starters in the race so it was super aggressive from the start, any break that goes won't come back. After almost getting dropped twice in the first hour, I missed the break that went. But we had 6 out of 13 riders. However, there was one rider from Saxo Bank in the group, Andre Steensen, but he wasn't doing much work and his dad was our director so I think there was some mixed priorities there. He ended up riding away for the win and our riders finished 3, 4, 5, and some more. I gave my two team mates back in the peleton a lead out for the sprint for 14th place and they finished 15th and 16th, so not too bad. I missed out on money by about 3 meters and came 21st. But I basically sucked.

Today was our local race in Horsens. The course was pretty hilly and we needed to win. It was a strange race, 30 km into the race the field split in half and we had 6 riders there, myself included. We rode hard for a while until it was clear that the second half wasn't coming back. Then half way through the race there was another split in the group and we had 4 out of 15, again I was there. Finally, with about 40 km to go Jacob, who was our strongest guy today, attacked and took 3 others with him, and we basically stopped. Their gap went up to 2 minutes within 5 km. Because we were going so slow, a few riders caught up from behind, but the race didn't really opened up again until 10 km to go. In the end we ended up 8th, 11th, and 13th. I was the one in 13th. Honestly I didn't care enough to race hard for the minor places, especially since there is no difference in prize money between 10th and 20th. So I did ride a bit better then yesterday, but the course was also much more suited to my strengths and the race still felt way harder than it should have.

Tomorrow, I will be back in California, I can't wait. I need the time to rest and rebuild before the next big objective: the UCI 2.HC ranked Tour of Denmark at the end of July.

Rogaland GP UCI 1.2

This weekend four of us made a trip up to Norway for Monday's 1.2 ranked GP Rogaland. This turned out to be a really bizarre race. I rode to the front of the peleton in the neutral section and then the moment the flag dropped an attack went. This in itself wasn't too surprising, but all of the good teams had one rider in it, which was pretty strange. So I decided to go after it too. Then a few minutes later another group came up that had one more rider from each of the good teams. Then suddenly I heard that we had a minute on the peleton, and that teammate Frederick Just was bridging across on his own. So I sat on the back until he came up, and suddenly we also had 2 guys in the group. However, he was suffering after digging really deep to come across to a group of 15 on his own. Then we rode around for a while, our gap hovering between 3 and 6 minutes, but it seemed pretty clear that we were going to stay away.

I decided to not go for the KOM points because I was afraid of dropping Frederick and I wanted to save it for the finish. However, there was also an intermediate sprint competition and 500 meters before the first sprint we were directed the wrong way. Luckily Frederick and I were both at the back of the group so we turned around first and crossed the sprint line 1-2, Frederick being first. After that I told him to go for that competition since it seemed likely that he was going to get dropped on the small hill on the finishing circuits. He then took second in the next sprint.

Nothing much happened until 165 km into the race when we started the five 6km long finishing circuits. There were some attacks the first lap and Frederick got gapped off a bit, but managed to come back just in time to attack before the second passage of the finish line, which was the last intermediate sprint. So he easily took it and won the competition. Immediately after the finish line the hill started and some more attacks and he was done for good. I took a little dig half way up the hill that lap but there was a pretty big headwind so I didn't get away. However, after I sat up, the weak rider from Designa Køkken attacked and everyone just stared at each other. He instantly got a 30 second gap, but nobody was worried. So we rode the next two laps pretty easy while two guys slowly reeled him back in. This was bad for me since they weren't getting tired and I was going to have a harder time getting away. This was also bad for Designa, their strong guy couldn't really sprint either and he needed a hard pace just like I did. Still thats the way it went.

When he did come back there were a few more attacks, but it seemed like most of the group wasn't too interested in getting away, and the headwind on the climb really killed it. So it set up a 12 person sprint for the win. I pretty much blew this finish completely though. I was near the front of the group with a km to go, but I got swarmed right before too tights turns that ended 400m to go. I came out of the turns in 8th and that is where I stayed because the finish was super fast due to the tailwind.

The front group attacking up the hill in the finishing circuits. The guy leading was the strong Designa rider, the guy to the right in red won the race, the guy in blue was third. Those riders along with myself were clearly the 4 strongest. But the Designa guy and myself couldn't sprint and we finished 5th and 8th.

So its a mixed bag. I got my first UCI points for 8th, but at the same time I was definitely one of the 4 strongest guys in the group so I feel like I could have ended up on the podium. But it just didn't go my way, they weren't interested in racing hard enough for me to have a good chance. Still it was a pretty good day for us in Norway, two guys in the top 20 (Frederick hung on to get 20th), and 1st and 3rd in the sprints classification since my second place in the first sprint was good enough for 3rd. Not bad for only having 4 riders on the start line.

Well I can't go well every day

Well despite feeling like I have good form, today's race in Silkenbourg was a bit of a disaster. It had a really good field for a local Danish race and it was a bit windy. In the first 35 km two groups of about 8-10 guys attacked the peleton and were pretty clearly gone, we had 3 people up the road and the groups quickly came together. Then a third group of 9 went and I was in it. Riding in the break felt pretty easy, I wasn't having to work too hard to rotate through and after chasing for 30 km we eventually caught the big group up the road. After a brief respite, the attacks started. This is when the day started to go quite sour for me. On the couple of little hills on the lap I started going backwards in the group and eventually missed a big split in the break. Unfortunately, one of my teammates, Ricky, also missed the split and there were a ton of people up the road. So we started to chase. Then another teammate Nicolai, came back from the front split to our group, so we started to chase even harder. Then I took a good pull and suddenly I could not get on the back of the group, we were going about 55 kph in a tailwind and I just could not get on the wheel.

I wasn't going to chase back on my own, so I just had to ride by myself until the peleton caught me. There weren't riding hard and there was not much to do except sit and wait for the finish. Remarkably another group of like 8 guys came back from the breakaway, also clearly destroyed. Then there were a bunch of attacks again for the finish, I tried to chase some down to give Frederick a chance for the sprint. Then they sprinted. I finished somewhere in the middle of the group. C'est la vie.

I think what it was is that I've had a pretty easy week after Fleche du Sud, and my body tends to pretty much shut down on rest weeks. So I think that doing this race will actually make me ride way better in the 1.2 we are doing in Norway on Monday. At least that's what I am telling myself. I had form a week ago, so I don't see why it would suddenly dissapear.

Fleche du Sud

Last week we went to Luxembourg and did the UCI 2.2 Fleche du Sud. It had a prologue and 4 stages. I was hoping for a good ride at this race as it is one of the hillier races that our team does. However, as usually the case, the prologue ended up being more decisive then most of the mountains.

The prologue was 4.2 km on a technical course with some narrow off camber turns, but also some long straights that definitely favored a TT bike. I basically suck at prologues, they are the opposite of what I am good at. But I knew that I needed to do a decent ride if I was to have any hope of doing well on GC. I took it a little too conservative in the corners, but I still averaged 45 kph (28 mph) and finished 50th. That doesn't sound too great, but thats like 30-40 places higher than I normally finish in prologues, and I beat Bart Wellens, so that was ok. Michael Faerk put in a decent ride and got 4th, but he was hoping for a bit more since he is the part of the current world championship winning team persuit team. Phinney crushed everyone and won by 3 seconds, but he also previewed the course way more then we did, and that meant that he was going so fast through the turns that he clipped a couple of curbs according to an interview I saw. Considering Faerk and I only rode the course 3 times, which was just barely enough to get a grip on the direction of the turns, loosing by 6 seconds isn't so bad for Michael.

The first stage looked pretty easy on paper, and turned out to be pretty easy in practice as well. There were two categorized climbs, but they were both pretty gradual and neither seriously broke up the field. The only real excitement came when the started the three 10km finishing circuits and the heavens opened up for a serious deluge. Mathias Gade had just gotten away in a group of 10, so we were hoping they would make it to the line, but despite a small crash by Phinney and some of his team mates in a slow corner, they were still caught with 15 km to go and it ended up being a 100 person field sprint. I just tried to stay near the front and out of trouble and rolled in somewhere in the mid 30s. However, for some reason they put a 4 second gap to the first 20 riders across the line, so Faerk lost a place on GC.

The second day had three categorized climbs in the first 80 km of the race and the first one, which came 26 km into the stage was like 12-15% for the final 500m. I think a lot of guys were pretty nervous about that climb, so when a group of 6 riders went about 15 km into the day, the peleton basically let them go. There were a bunch of attacks up all of the climbs and both Faerk and I were pretty comfortably at the front. Phinney got dropped a few times, but always had guys with him who would help him come back. Then after the last climb we were on a plateau with some good crosswinds so we decided to try and break up the field there. At first a Dutch team was also helping us but they started off going to hard and couldn't sustain it. So we ended up trying it with just 3 guys, me, Michael Berling, and Mathias Gade. We did break the field into three groups, but once we stopped, all of the impetus went out of the front group and I think most guys got back on. At least we hurt some legs, which was pretty evident when we hit the final 60 km which were done on four 15 km laps. Guys were visibly tired, but Faerk was also struggling since he hadn't eaten enough during the first part of the stage, so we didn't want to blow the race up either. I attacked with 6km to go and again with 1500m to go so I gave it a good effort, but again was caught before the line. Since the peleton was so tired, no one really organized a chase of the early break and they ended up staying away by about a minute. It tured out to be the deciding factor on GC.

On the third stage I decided to give it everything to get into a break, but despite countless attacks in the first hour and a half, the break didn't go. Eventually a small group did get away, but they were pretty doomed. The four finishing laps had a good 300 ft climb and I thought it could be a chance to make back some lost time. But despite being off the front at the top of the hill each lap, the downhill was too fast and non-technical that the peleton would basically come back together every lap. So again, it was a 70 person field sprint.

Fourth day started off kind of strage as I found myself without team mates in a group of about 30 riders after 10 minutes of racing. Clearly being in a bad position I did no work until we got brought back. Then a group of 18 went and we only had Berling in it. So again he did no work until a few teams got togher and brought it back. Then there were a bunch of attacks and I got into a group of 8 which I though looked promising, but then we hit the first KOM of the day and our group exploded and got caught by the field. I attacked half way up and got into another group of 3 riders at the top, but we were caught soon after the downhill. Immediately after we got caught a group of 19 went away and we only had Luthando in it. Still, we had someone, so we sat back and let somebody else chace, while Luthando sat on. Eventually they did get caught. There was just one thing left that could change the race, and that was a steep climb with 15km to go that was followed by a plateau before a gradual descent to the finish. Three riders went right at the bottom and I was too messed up from the heat, it was about 87 F and humid, and couldn't follow them. But I did make the front group of about 20 which also contained Faerk. The run-in to the finish consisted of attack after attack as everyone was on their limit trying to make something happen. Another group of about 20-30 made it back on during the final km which included Berling and he helped keep some of the attacks in check. However, the three riders who had gone on the climb managed to keep a 16 second gap to the line and two of them got in front of Faerk and he ended up 11th. Since the group was a relatively small 50 riders, I moved up to 25th place on GC.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with how the race went. The tactics didn't quite go my way and I made the mistake of not going with the break on stage 2 even though I was in a decent position to go with it. It was a problem of condfidence. I was also worried about the big climbs on the stage and I feared that if I went and got caught that I would have been dropped. It turns out that I was probably one of the 10 best climbers at this race, I finished 5th in the KOM competition without actually sprinting for any mountain tops. So that shouldn't have been a worry. Still, I was getting dropped on these kinds of climbs in 2.2 races last year so I had that in the back of my mind. Now I have a better idea of where I stand, I will take the next race by the horns and attack without trepidation or hesitation. That is what I have done in the past whenever I have gotten good results, and now I have the confidence to do it here.

Copenhagen Pictures

I just found these two pictures of me from GP Copenhagen courtesy of Peter Kjel. As you can see, the weather was great. It turns out I finished 18th.

GP Copenhagen Bikebuster-Odsherred Classic

This race was great for the team, ok for me. We wanted to get Jacob in the break because we knew that he would crush anyone he was with after 150km and after a ton of attacks in the first 70 km, eventually Jacob went and took two guys with him. The field rode hard for another 10 km, where the break was holding 30 seconds. Then they sat up. Then the break had 3 minutes. Then 5 minutes. Then 8 minutes. Then 12 minutes. Then they started chasing. It was about 90 km to go, 120 in. We went super hard up a hill, split the (greatly reduced) peleton into two groups of about 15. Chris, Berling, and I were in the front, but Linde was too far back when the shit hit the fan so missed the front group. Thinking everything was good in the peleton, Michael decided to go back up to the break, and then 20 seconds later, I got a front flat, couldn't make a gentle corner and fell into a muddy field. It was great cause it felt like landing on a bunch of pillows. Another car eventually gave me a new wheel but by then I was in the second group. I was kind of pissed because I though the race was over, so I waited for a few minutes until we hit the next set of hills, then I just started going as hard as I could up everything hoping to either catch back, or at least really punish all of those guys in the second group cause they were pulling like a bunch of cat 3s. It kind of worked. We eventually got back, but it was basically only Linde and I chasing. So the two of us closed a 45 secondish gap by ourselves while 6 or 7 guys were on the front of the first group setting tempo. It took about 30 minutes of hard chasing.

Needless to say after that i was a little tired, and that was when we started the six 9km finishing laps. Each lap had a steep hill going up to the finish line. And I would basically go backwards on it. There were a ton more attacks from the peleton and the group exploded. Berling had a couple of bad punctures, the second one made Linde give up his wheel and that was the end of Linde's race. But Berling kept attacking and eventually got into a group racing for 10th. Chris was in a group racing for 6th and got 9th. Berling flatted again and ended up like 16th. I ended up in a group that was basically done racing. So I waited until the last lap and then attacked right before the hill and rode the last lap by myself to come in somewhere maybe 20th. It was a bit stupid though because I got to within 30 or 40 seconds of a group in front of me, so if I had gone a lap earlier I could have gotten like 5 places higher. I didn't really realize how tired everyone was. But then again I haven't done that many 130 mile hilly races in 46 degree rain before. In fact this was the first one.

Still I think I would have been in the top 10 if I didn't puncture when I did, so I think the form is there for Fleche du Sud. I am going to tell the guys to ride for me at that race. I am tired of being the one covering all of the moves in the first 80 km. Actually today was kind of cool. I think I spent 20 km from like 50-70km into the race sitting 4th wheel.... some guys would attack, I would just slot on the wheel, they'd go hard for a little while, then sit up. Then someone else would go, I'd get into 4th wheel, sit there for a bit, and so on. I don't think I was outside the top 15 for more then a few minutes until just before Jacob's break went. Thats pretty good.

Oh yeah, and Jacob basically rode away from the other two guys. First with 30 km to go, then he punctured and got caught. Then again with 15 km to go. So we were right, he did crush them after a while.

Overall the day was 6 hours, 5100 KJ, and TSS score of 423. That is my hardest day ever by far.

Sights of Denmark

Here are some of the sights I see on a regular basis. This is the monument signifying the highest point in Denmark, at a whopping 173 meters (567 ft).
The view from the monument is pretty good though.
Here is Horsens from across the fjord, I live about 1500 meters from the beach

Here is one of the many small hills through the woods.



Finally, here is a self portrait on a tiny bike path next to a stream.

Watching the Giro

It's been on live on EuroSport and I think its going to be one exciting race. One person that I couldn't help noticing though, is Voight. That guy is ridiculously hard watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oWcNGwu-rs

If everyone was like him I think bike racing would be way too difficult. But I met him in Stuttgart when I was at Worlds and I have to say that he also seemed like a super nice guy. Maybe I should start thinking "what would Voight do" and maybe I'll win more.

I found somewhere as flat as Davis...

... and that place is north west Holland.

We did the Omloop der Kempen, 200km with two overpasses providing the only elevation change. It was warm, sunny, and there was no wind. So it had the makings of a field sprint before the day even started. We were told to keep cool and out of trouble for the first 4o km then think about getting to the front and starting to get into breaks. As it was nothing much went until about 100 km into the race. We got pretty caught out though, the group that went was about 20 guys and we completely missed it. I was the closest to the front when it went, but I was still too far back to follow the right weels to get into it. Once I did get far enough up the gap was already too big for me to go across on my own and no one seemed very keep to work with me to get up to them. But luckily there was a pretty quick responce from the rest of my team as four of us got on the front along with 5 guys from the Sean Kelly team and pulled the group back about 15 km later.

Then another break went with 4 riders, and again we missed it. This one looked pretty doomed from the start though and we weren't too concerned. Sure enough, the group was caught just as we started the two finishing circuits with 22km to go. Lacking a sprinter, we all started attacking but to no avail. There were too many people who wanted to keep the race together. Berling tried to get up in the sprint and was on a decent wheel until 500 meters to go when someone pushed him into a curb going through a roundabout forcing him to unclip and loose a lot of speed. In the end he finished 43rd. I was just behind in 51st. There is not a whole lot that I can do in a field sprint.

Next weekend is the GP Copenhagen, which isn't anywhere that close to Copenhagen, but is supposed to be the hardest one day race in Denmark. It looks like its a legitimately hilly race. I am looking forward, hopefully I still know how to climb after all of this flat racing.

GP Herning

Today I raced the GP Herning, it got downgraded to a 1.2, but it was still freaking hard. Actually, according to training peaks it was my second hardest day ever in terms of TSS scores (356). The lack of rain in April meant that the gravel roads had the same surface as a rough cross race in Norcal, deep sandy gravel. Honestly, I don't think I really spent more then 20 km in the peleton today. Every time we would hit the gravel I would open up a some gaps trying to keep my bike under control and then I'd have to chase back on the pavement. Eveyone punctured today, myself included. My first one was at a relatively mellow section of the race and I got back pretty safely. The second one happened at a really bad place though. The peleton was coming completely apart on the one gravel section that I pre rode earlier this week and I was just getting on the back of the front group when I flatted at the start of the downhill. The worst part is that it was about 500 meters past where we had a person with some spare wheels, so I had to wait for everyone to go past and get service from the neutral follow car. I was standing there for about a minute but because the peleton has split, Michael could only pace me back up to the second group. We chased hard for a while, but 30 km later we basically all cracked and rode pretty easy the final 60 km to the finish line. However, given the rate of attition our group still finished 24th-31st and we were the last group on the road.

Berling timed his punctures a little better and ended up 4th, but not before having some bike problems that allowed 3 guys from Designa Køkken to ride away with 1st through 3rd. One of these days we are going to win the bike race, we just need the luck to come together a little better.

On a side note, for those of you who were on Cal cycling in spring 2005, you may remember Even Sangnes, a Norwegian exchange student who started racing with Cal that year and ended up going to Nationals with us. Well he was doing the race today as well with a Norwegian Continental team and was pretty shocked to see me in Denmark. But given the hectic nature of the race I didn't really get a chance to talk to him. Maybe tomorrow at the local Danish race in Randers.

Herning Pre-View

There has been a pattern to my races for the last month, and that pattern involves gravel. First, three weeks ago we had the race is Esbjerg which had a 1.3 km section of pretty deep gravel that we did ten times. Then last weekend we had the East Midlands Cicle Classic which also had 11 sections of gravel or beat up roads. Finally, this coming weekend we are doing the GP Herning which is a 200 km UCI 1.1 race, has about 50 km of gravel roads, and is convinently about 60 km from here. So yesterday I rode out to do one critical section of the race where the field always splits. Its pretty clear why. The sector is 2.5 km long. Its only wide enough for 2, maybe 3 riders and it goes up and down a pretty ligitimate hill. Here is what it looks like from the bottom:
It may be hard to see the hill, but you definitely feel it. The downhill is going to be a challenge as well. The two sides of the road are both pretty sandy, but the middle is hard. However, the middle also has 5 deep, tire-flatting, wheel-breaking holes. By myself it was easy to see and jump over them, but in the peleton that won't be quite so easy, we'll see how it really feels.

I think most of the gravel roads are relatively nice though. I think they look more like this:
Still, you can definitely expect them to go all out on these sections so its definitely not going to be easy. CSC won this race basically every year since they started being a team, but Saxo Bank isn't going this year. So I think the race will be a bit different from the past and a bit more wide open, there won't be any Pro Tour team to take control of the peleton and dictate the pace. That being said, many Pro Continental teams can still do that so you never know. I do have to say thanks to Jesse and his rides though, without them I would be much less prepared for all of this offroad road racing.

Still, the highlight of my ride was this bakery stop. I was out of water and didn't want to eat another bar so I stopped in a small town and its bakery had this:
There was also a cholocate, vanilla filling. But, the most amazing part is that it was only 10 Kroner, which is like $1.5. Try finding that in a small down back home.

East Midlands

Yesterday we raced the East Midlands Cicle Classic. Its spelled cicle because one of the sponsors is called LifeCicle, don't ask me why. We arrived in England Saturday morning after a short and uneventful Ryanair flight. We had a 2 hour drive to our hotel and then we went for a little spin soon after we got there. Most of us were hungry so we stopped at a bakery:

From left to right its Kasper Linde, Michael Berling, and Chris J-J.

They finished the ride a little earlier then I wanted so I spun for an extra 20 minutes and took this self portrait, but you did't really get the view of the valley behind me:

Anyway, my legs felt good during the pre race so I was hoping for good things during the race.

As it turns out I did have pretty good legs during the race and I got into a decent break soon after the start with about 8 guys including Magnus Backstedt, however some of the big British teams missed out so we kept a 10 second gap for about 20 minutes before getting caught. The break ended up going about 20 km later and we had Frederick Just in it, but there were 3 guys from Ralfa Condor and 2 from the Pinarello team. At least it gave Frederick a good excuse to sit on. After 50 km, we started the sections of small, gravel roads that makes this race exciting. Our whole team was right in the front of the race, all of us sitting in the top 15 on roads that were only wide enough for 2 or 3 cyclists and then right at the end of the first sector of gravel roads, I got a puncture. We hadn't gone super hard yet, but there were already about 40 people off the back and the caravan was stuck behind them. So I rode the flat tire for 3 minutes ( I checked my SRM) before I finally got a new wheel. I chased super hard, but eventually got stuck in one of the many groups that were coming off the back of the bunch, it had maybe 25 people in it. I tried to get them to work to chase, but they were all pretty useless. It ended up being me and one other rider who had also punctured doing all of the work for about 40 km until we caught another group of about 15. Then some guys kind of attacked one of the gravel roads and I followed them. We roated pretty well for the rest of the race and I ended up finishing 56th, 7 minutes down on the winner. It wasn't the best day for me, but at least it was a cool course, always going up and down. I'd like to come back and get my revenge sometime, I think I could have had a good day.

The rest of the team rode really well though and set up Berling to get away with one other rider to race for the win. There was a sharp right turn 175 meters before the line into a headwind sprint. Berling was second through the turn like he wanted to be, but braked too much and opened up a few meter gap on the other rider that he wasn't able to close, so he ended up second. Still, its always good to be on a podium of a UCI race for a team like us and everyone was pretty happy about it.

PS. here you can almost see me in the break, but Backstedt is too big and basically obstructs me completely: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2009/apr09/rutland_melton09/CicleClassicP08

Finally, the legs are coming around

Well I may finally be getting some sort of form back after all of my recent setbacks. I actually had a decent race last Sunday. We did the first round of the Post Cup which is an important 5 race series here in Denmark. I was at the front the whole time and learned how to ride in the crosswinds so that I was actually in the echelon instead of dying in the gutter. It was a much better feeling, especially when I looked around after a particularly difficult section and there were only 2o guys left and we still had 3. Unfortunately for me, I think I got a little too excited and started doing too much work. It didn't really hurt at the time, but I think it probably cost me that edge at the end of the race. With about 30 km to go a rider from the Blue Water team attacked on the one longish gradual downhill and I jumped after him without even thinking about it. It was one of a bunch of similar attacks that weren't really going anywhere all day. The only difference this time is that the field didn't respond and we ended up off the front with one other guy from Concordia who happened to be on my wheel when I went. The Blue Water guy was super strong, the Concordia guy was pretty bad, and I was somewhere in the middle. We worked well for the first 5km, but then the Concordia guy started sitting on. We only got up to about 30 seconds on the rest of the group and thats about where we stayed until 15 km to go when my team mate Chris bridged up with a guy from the Pro Continental team Vacansoleil. Then the pace suddenly got a bit harder and I went from being comfortable to being on the limit. Chris encouraged me to work as much as I could so that we could make sure to stay away, but I really should have started sitting on a bit since I was really on the limit. Instead I got dropped with 8km to go and got caught by the field. Chris ended up 3rd in the sprint.

It was definitely a bit of a tactical mistake. I think it was pretty clear at that point in the race that we weren't going to be caught since we had grown the gap up to 45 seconds on a drastically reduced peleton. If I had sat on then I would have had the opportunity to put in a couple of digs towards the last few km and I may have gotten lucky and not been chased, or atleast reduced the pressure on Chris and let him sit on while the others chased me. Still considering how bad I have felt the last month, it was nice to see some decent form. This coming weekend we are racing in England on a race that sounds pretty hard with some good hills and some bad roads. Hopefully I can build on this recent form and actually end up with a good result. All I know is that if I am one of 2 guys from my team in the final breakaway, then I will be there contesting the finish this time around.

some new stuff

Well new equipment keeps coming in. I finally got my carbon frame, I've been using an alloy one thats much heavier. Now the bike weights 7.0 kg as pictured with the SRM and rides as smooth as butter. Its the best bike I have ever ridden, SL2 included.

Who cares about brand name when the bike is this nice.

I've also finally gotten my new Time shoes, which seem to fit really well on first impressions. I definitely won't be having any heel problems like I did with the Specialized shoes since the heel cup is so tall and secure.

The only thing left to get is a new saddle, I've had this Toupe for two years and I think after that crash in Mergelland, its past its best. Take a close look at the rails
Ok, time to go out and enjoy the sunshine.

an up and down few days

This weekend we did 4 local one day races in Denmark, the first one on Friday was a time trial and then three road races each of the next 3 days. The TT was decent for me, I didn't set any records, but I placed in the money and was off the winner by 1:10. And that was after cracking slightly in the last 3 km. The power wasn't spectacular, but at least my position is good. After 3 years of working on it, I can finally say that I don't think I can really get into a position that is too much better. All it took was getting onto the smallest Cervelo they make, but hey, it works.

The first road race had 1300 meters of gravel each lap and we did 10 laps for a total of 157 km. It was pretty predicable: we went hard in the gravel each time, then there would be a ton of attacks on the roads after the gravel, then about half way through the race a good break went with all of the teams represented and we sat up. Then after it was obvious that the break wasn't coming back, we started attacking again until anyone who still felt like racing was off the front of the peleton. I was in a good group and we were catching a bunch of guys in front of us, but as we hit the gravel for the last time I started getting dropped a bit and instead of fighting it out for what I though was 25th place, I sat up and took it easy. Turns out we were racing for 13th and some decent money, so that was definitely my mistake. Next time I'll just go to the line, an extra 5 minutes of suffering won't kill me. We had Berling and Luthando in the break and Luthando went with the guy who won but couldn't get on when the winner attacked him and faded to 7th, but Berling won the sprint for 2nd.

Then Sunday was basically terrible. It was a flat, windy race with a lot of slow corners that we would sprint out of each lap. I felt like I was on the limit from the start and was basically useless all day. With 40 km to go I was actually getting dropped from the "peleton" which at this point was just all of the guys who weren't off the front. I'm going to put it down to dehydration cause I ended up drinking a lot during the race and a whole lot more afterwards. Our director, Michael Skelde, told me to go for an hour spin after I got home and had something to eat, so I did it and it seemed like it may have helped. It was hard to tell since I was completely cracked though.

Then yesterday was better, much better. I was a part of the race and set up our best sprinter to get into the break of the day. He easily could have won the race, but messed up the finish a bit by showing his strength too early so everyone was staring at him in the finale. Honestly the best way to picture these local races in Denmark is a mix between a collegiate crit and the aggie race ride, but for 3 hours, and with a 100 guys who are all pretty good. Basically its just attack after attack until they all get a bit tired, then they take it easy for 10 minutes, then they do it again. Repeat, repeat, until the break goes that all of the teams are basically happy with, then pause for 10 minutes, then repeat. Honestly its not a kind of racing that I am good at, all of those sprints basically fry my legs. My 850 watt max power is just not cutting it, and I end up having to spend some time in the wind closing gaps more slowly. I would really prefer if we could just go super hard for like 30 minutes and then I could actually have a shot of getting away. These races basically cater to my biggest weakness, so at least I'll get better because of it.

So far here in Denmark, I have been using an aluminum bike, but the team finally got the carbon frames that the rest of the guys use in the 58cm size so I spent the day moving my all of my parts over to it. I still need to cut the steerer tube down so that I don't have 3cm of spacers above my stem, but I'll take a picture and give you a rough weight tomorrow. Even with the SRM is should be right at 6.8 kg or maybe even a bit lighter with race wheels. Its pretty sweet. Who cares about brand names when the bike is super light and stiff. Only problem is that we've already broken 4 frames this season, so they don't exactly stand up well to shocks. But I'm tired of crashing, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Speaking of broken (and I appologize for this post getting increasingly rediculously long), we have managed to break 3 cars in the last week. First, at Mergelland our team car was rear ended in the caravan and needs a new bumper and rear door. Then Luthando got our team van stuck in a ditch, one of the sponsors was able to drive it out eventually, but not before doing some serious damage to the clutch. So although it made it to the TT on Friday, when we attempted to drive back it wouldn't get into gear and wouldn't move, luckily there was some extra space in some other cars and we all made it back home that night, but the van had to get towed back a day later. And then some really nice mechanic replace the clutch on Easter Sunday so that that van could go to France this week for the Tour de Loire. Then on the drive back from the race on Saturday, one of the backwards facing bikes on our second team car didn't have the rear wheel tied down and swung around on the highway and dented the roof and smashed the rear window. Because that car also had to go to France this week, they took the rear widow out of our first team car and just covered the hole with plastic. Now that first car is with the insurance people and the second car is in France doing the race and looking almost normal. Basically it hasn't been a lucky start to the season for me or the team. But what can you do other then just hope that it stops.

PS. Promise to have more photos on this blog soon. I am just bad at taking them.

Oh man, when will it end?

This weekend I started the Hel van het Mergelland a UCI 1.1 race. It was in the Ardennes, following a similar course to the Amstel Gold race, so a course that is pretty good for me, full of climbs between 1 and 4 kilometers long. Present were Milram, Lotto, and Rabobank, as well as a half dozen good Pro Continental teams. The race started off super fast like I expected but I managed to move up to the top 30 as we hit the first climbs. Going up I felt really good, the pace was fast but not at all difficult and I could basically move up whenever I wanted to on the climbs. Then 15 km into the race we were going down long gradual right sweeping turn when guys in front of me ran into each other and then suddenly there were a bunch of guys on the ground in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and went from 55 km/hr to about 20 km/hr until I eventually ran into one of them and hit the ground. I was basically ok, although my right knee is a bit bruised and swollen, but my bike was messed up. I had to stand there for a minute and a half before it was even rideable and even then I couldn't use my 11, 19, 21, and 23 cogs because my derailleure hanger was so bent. I chased and got to within 200m of the back of the field and then exploded. Eventually rolled home with a group of 6 guys who were also dropped for one reason or another. Mathias Gade had an awesome ride for a 19 year old to finish in the peleton for 41st place, he is two years younger then the second youngest finisher.

At least I got a good photo taken:

Then yesterday I did the GP de la Ville de Nogent-sur-Oise, a UCI 1.2. Considering I didn't finish the day before they put me to work covering all of the attacks and chasing down dangerous moves that we missed. I rode pretty well and did a ton of work, but 30 km to go we missed a big move of about 25 and so we needed to get to the front right away to start chasing. Three of us made it to the front. I was the last guy and when I got to the front they still had a decent gap so I ended up spending 1.5 km on the front going 50 km/hr to catch the break. I did it, but the problem was that I caught them 500m before the start of a decent 2km hill. Being at the limit before the bottom of the last real hill in a race is not usually a good idea and so I just missed the front split over the top. And my day was done. Berling had been saving himself the whole day and had good legs coming up to the finish but got a puncture with 10 km to go so he could not get back to the front before the spint. So basically it was an unlucky weekend all around. But oh well, there are plenty more races this year starting with the four I do this coming weekend.

I just gotta stop falling off my bike.