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.