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.