Same old

So. I just noticed that it has been a little while since I hit you with an update. It's not that I've been lazy, it's just that nothing exciting has happened since last weekend. Maybe that just means I'm getting into the groove more.

I suppose that I did get my second set of Mavic Ksyrium race wheels and some lovely new racing tires from Challenge yesterday. Bit of a jam to get them all glued up and ready for my first race in Harderwijk tomorrow, but no problem really. It's not like I have a heck of a lot else to do when I'm not training...

Checked out the Stevens factory here yesterday as well. Pretty organized and German, for sure. Lots of product floating around, but it's all in boxes so it's hard to see what's what. I'm told the 2006 line isn't in yet, so I didn't get any cool spy shots or anything, but I did see my #2 2006 'cross bike in-process so I guess that'll be ready soon.

We're supposed to get some of our new clothing today, which is a good thing because I think that we are required to be at the factory for a dealer open house on Sunday. Better to be in clean new stuff for that little affair I think. More photos and PR stuff I imagine.

After getting spanked around by Johannes on a local training circuit here on Wednesday it felt good to put the boots to him and Jens in training today. I just started to get a really good feeling for the cross bike today and by the time we hit this ~750m beach sand section of trail I was just jamming- no way anyone could stay with me. Oh yeah, that's also retribution for getting tossed off my bike 4 times last Sunday in training. I've got the leg wounds to prove it!

Here's hoping all goes well racing tomorrow. UCI C2 points race, so it'll be fast. For those of you reading this in NorAm - a C2 race here is ludicrously hard to actually get points in. They're a bit of a gong show back home, but here it's harder than a World Cup to score. At least in a World Cup the Belgian contingent is limited to like 7 or 8 guys and the points go deep. Really deep. C2 only goes ten deep and loads of Belgians usually show up. And that's only C2. C1 and it's not even worth going; Belgian World Championships two times per weekend.

I'll let you know after the weekend is out.

GReain

Criterium Racing - German Style

Raced a crit last night in a little town called Cloppenburg, which is I think somewhere south of Hamburg (I slept all the way there). We loaded up the Ducato at 4.30pm so that we could sit in traffic on the autobahn for an hour, but we did in fact make it with an hour to spare and arrived just as darkness was falling. Perfect.

Super short course (1.1km) and very narrow through the center of town, with a very fast and wide open slight downhill section on the back. At the end of said downhill section we had to negotiate the left hand quarter of a traffic circle followed immediately by another super tight 120 degree left / 90 degree right combo, all on a combination of interlocking brick and cobbles with really nasty metal barriers. Fun. Then back up to full speed for 200m before diving into an almost complete U-turn (still on brick), out of the floodlights, before tearing back uphill out of the center while trying to get your eyes to adjust. The back stretch was pretty dark and there was a huge pothole buried somewhere back there that I smoked hard like three times before figuring out where it was. Surprisingly there were no crashes, but I did see a few close calls.

Apparently this was the last national level crit of the year and it was pretty darn fast, even though it was only open to Div 3 pro teams and amateur teams. I think it took me like ten laps to get to the front, then after doing my bit up there for two laps I slid back through field and took another ten to recover. By the time I hit the first 20 spots again the break had gone, but I didn't know cause I was sucking at the back. At least we had a guy up there, and had I known I might have been able to help out a bit. Malte ended up 4th in the end, but I think he would have been happier with a podium. Starting a 55km crit at 8.45pm makes for a late night, so I didn't get home to bed till 12.30am or so. I think we'll take it easy today.

cheers,
GReain

Italian Coffee

This has possibly been the best day yet for me here in Hamburg...I finally managed to track down a moka pot, so I can now make some proper coffee in the apartment. Usually I never leave home without mine, but in accordance with the first law of international travel (one always forgets something) I left mine in Ottawa. Drag. At least it wasn't anything super-important.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my last update re: media coverage. There were a lot of constructive solutions to follow up on. Hopefully I will be able to get in the news back home a little more now.

Nothing really groundbreaking today.
Later,
Greain

New clothing?

Crashed again in training today. Nothing too serious, but tore a whole in my second-from-almost-new pair of shorts, leaving me with one out of three pair that I came here with serviceable for display duty (ie racing). Any guesses how many cx races a pair of white shorts is good for? Right. Here's hoping the new stuff gets here soon!

Also supposed to take delivery of the first of my two '06 cross bikes today. Should be pretty dope so I'll let you know once I get it set up and running.

I think this is a current list of '06 team sponsors-

Stevens - Frames, yo
Shimano - um, shimano? (D.A. 10)
Mavic - Shiny new wheels with one red spoke
Deda - Cranks & BB's, Bars, stems, some post
Santini - White white Italian clothing
Giro - Helmets
Adidas - Eyewear
Pearl Izumi - Shoes, socks, hats, gloves etc.

I may have left some out and for that I apologize, but I'll update as I find out.

GReain

"He has the face of Murdoch and the hair of B.A. Barracus"

You heard it here first. CvdB is nuts. This goes back to dinner on the last night of training camp. The boys were making fun of some dude in the dinner room and CvdB dropped that little gem. F-ing priceless. The Euros were killing themselves. 80's TV references are alive and kicking here; sometimes I can't even keep up. Them we went to the bar in town, then CvdB and PeterP went to the disco till 3am. dude.

So on the angry-man tip- how many Canadians are racing for Pro teams in Europe right now? Three. Two with Discovery Channel, and me. Plus Dionne at Saunier Duval next year. So. You'd think the Canadian cycling media might be interested in what I'm doing. Not the editor of Canadian Cyclist. Both I and my team press officer have contacted him woth a net result of zero. So if you feel angry like I do, feel free to drop a line to editor@canadiancyclist.com

In my new apartment in Hamburg now. Dope spot, tons of room, close to downtown and easy to go out for a ride. Home for the next few weeks. Roommates are cool, and I may even learn to speak some German.

Word,
GR

Freiburg --> Hamburg .:. 800km in 6hrs

Um, yeah. Schnell, anyone? You know that when 140km seems deathly slow that you've been moving really fast. With Captain Jens Schwedler at the helm we made short work of the German weekend traffic and arrived here in Hamburg in time for some coffee and shopping in Hamburg centrum. Not that I can afford ridiculously expensive clothes, but it is nice to look sometimes.

I am installed with Jens and Astrid just outside the city for a few days while a room is being made ready for me at the team house in Hamburg. I owe them both a big 'vielen dank' for letting me stay with them in their very nice apartment, which is in a converted farm house.

We made a light 3-hour road training this morning with Stefan, who had the dubious distinction of chauffering our bikes back to home base in our Ducato team bus. I'm pretty surehe never hit 230 in that thing... Jens won every sign sprint and succeeded in not killing Dano and I, so I consider the ride a success. Very nice roads and little traffic, so I think that training in this area will be good. I just have to try to remember how to get around. Euro roads are a little different from Ottawa.

There is apparently a night criterium not far from here on Friday, which we will be attending. Hopefully they turn the lights on, but I am not getting too optimistic. The good news is that I am much better than one week ago, and the good feelings are starting to come back on the bike. Soon I will have to see how it feels to go hard again.

Tomorrow, some cyclocross training while Jens stars in another photo session. Prima.

A good place to get near-realtime cyclocross updates is cyclo-cross.info. There is an English translation for this page in case your Flemish is a little rusty. Look to the upper right when you get there.

ciao ciao,
GReain

Alles gud in Deutchland

So. Training camp here is pretty much over. Tomorrow we drive north to Hamburg and I get to adjust yet again to a new setting. In theory I have a place to live there, but no-one seems to be really sure exactly where that may be. I'm sure it'll all work out. As with everything related to cycling here things kind of have to come to a head before you get any real concrete solutions. No problems.

We had a team meeting on Monday with the main management figures here at the hotel. We worked out all the details pertaining to equipment, race programs and logistics for the season. It'll be good - we'll have a camper and the team bus at all races where the team has a contract to ride, complete with mechanic, soigneur, and a full stock of reserve equipment. That makes me happy because more than anything I like to know that I have enough stock to cover any possibility on race day. The fact that now I do not have to stress over it myself is a great relief. After that we got some more new stuff - Giro Atmos helmets & hats, nutrition products by Enervit and more Team casual clothing. Quite frankly I don't know what to do with all this stuff!

The team press officer came down yesterday to do a photo shot and interviews for a forthcoming press release. Hopefully there will be updates to the stevens-racing.de website shortly. The photo session was a bit rough since I was still kind of sick and swollen (more on that later), so I made my brief appearance in team kit and went straight back to bed.

Yeah, about that sick thing- I got some really bad allergic reaction mid day on Monday that started in a fairly innocent manner but then by Tuesday got really bad. I went to a local doctor, got an antihistamine that didn't work and spent 2 days in a really not-so-pleasant state. Finally I went with a teammate to the Freiburg university hospital sports med clinic and they hooked me up good. These are the people that take care of the German National cycling teams and a lot of the German profi-teams, so I was in good hands. Really short wait times, good consultation and fast blood work. Got some drugs and almost immediately started feeling better. I was able to make a light training for only one hour on road this morning, but the feeling was good and it should be possible to resume normal training next week. I will not know for 2 weeks or so what the reaction was from, and it is possible that they will not find it in the blood because it may have simply been stress related, although I did not feel especially stressed. Who knows?

Anyway, early next week I will set a training plan with Jens and talk about how I may get into good race form for Canadian Nationals on Nov 5. My first race here will possibly be 1 October at Hardewijk, Ned., but I will for sure be racing in Berlin 3 October. It looks like I will do eight races before returning home for the 2 USGP races in Massachussetts and then Nationals at Barrie.

Hope everyone is doing good at home!
Vielen Dank,
GReain

Ankomst in Deutchland

Yes it is true, I am alive and well nd living in Germany now. I am currently in the Black Forest in southern Germany in a town called Elzach, which is near to Freiburg. I am on a 2 week training camp meeting my new teammates of Stevens Racing. Some of them I know from Tour de Beauce, others I am meeting for the first time.

The jet lag has been not so bad this time thanks to some good sleeping pills from Marie. I will not say that sleep has been perfect, but nearly so. It is very beautiful here and perfect for training. There are many hills, but also some flat terrain and good areas for cyclocross training. On our second day we went road training and were joined by Hanka Kupfernagle, which was a bit of a surprise. She and Mike Kluge stopped by the next day but we were not to be road training that day. Those of you in the know will realize the significance of those names. They live not far from here.

Today was a rest day and we went to the European Pearl Izumi warehouse in Kirchzarten for our new shoes (road and mountain) for 2005. We will get the new 2006 models in 2 months or so. Clothing is not yet ready, but will be in a couple of weeks, as will our 2006 race bikes.

It has been great to practice my cyclocross skills again, and with riders such as Jiri Posposil, Christian Heule and Carmiel van den Berghe to train with I will learn much very fast. They are all three among the top 15 or so riders in the world. Hopefully I will join them near the top this year!

That is all for now, thanks for reading and be sure to check out our website at www.stevensracing.de

GR