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.

Just riding around

Well not much has happened since I got back from Germany, I had a recovery week on the bike so I didn't ride too much this week. The weather has gotten much nicer from the snow we had last week and I even took off my gloves for the last hour of the ride today. The sun felt good. I am just about done packing to go to Holland and France for this weekend. Saturday's Hel van het Mergelland is going to be one tough race. The start list includes Baden Cooke, pro tour teams Milram, Rabobank, and Silence-Lotto, and a bunch of Pro Continental teams. Luckily the weather is supposed to be pleasant so hopefully I'll be able to last better on the climbs then some of these pro guys. We'll see. Sunday we drive to France and do a 1.2 UCI race, which should be much flatter, and windier, and after Mergelland it will probably seem pretty easy.

Meanwhile here are a few sights that I encounter training basically every day.
The local park in the center of Horsens:

Some of the local scenery, I will take more when I get back, some of the views from the hill tops can be really nice.Finally, one of the perks of living in Denmark: