Mullet Styles

Mullet Styles
Originally uploaded by hmbrg rprsnt.

Had to get this one up. This is a classic; from the GP Sven Nijs in Baal on 1 January 2005. Rocking the flowing mullet. Incidentally, there was a photo of my right foot from this race that made it into the GVA series newspaper insert in the fall. Didn't see any royalties for that one though!

Snaps

I'm just collecting and uploading some photos from Worlds and other races from the season past to my Flickr.com gallery.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmbrg_rprsnt

I'm still trying to figure this shit out, so it's a little all over the place but at least they're up there.

Post Worlds Update

If you're reading this, you're probably enthusiastic enough to have checked out the goings on from Zeddam on Canadiancyclist.com or something like that. But, in brief, it was cold, Sven crashed, Bart didn't win but Erwin did (for the second time) and Page put in a killer ride to slide into 10th place. I finished 47th. Numerically, that is an improvement from last year (I think I was 56th or something), but there were fewer starters this time around. Not exactly the top thirty, which was where I had wanted to be.

Last row start, which is rapidly becoming a tradition for me here at worlds, but I managed to move up pretty well due to a fancy crash avoidance maneuver on the start stretch and some good cornering thereafter. I couldn't sustain my first lap effort and had to let go of the group I was in and slide back to the next one after a couple laps, then got popped out of that one a lap or two later, but I did find some guys to race with and so managed to salvage something of the day. I had a good elbow wrestling match with one of the Japanese guys in some corners, much to the enjoyment of the crowd. I dealt with him OK, but then he rode around me a little later and proceded to execute a perfect Kamikaze-style T-bone attack on my Stevens teammate (and Austrian champ) Peter Presslauer in a corner directly in front of me. They both went down, but Peter didn't get back up. I was a little pissed about that, and seriously contemplated educating him in the ways of the NHL, but I couldn't quite seem to find the right moment.

We had a great support crew over here again this year. Norm did a stellar job stepping in as project manager after Kris Westwood broke his foot and couldn't make the trip. We had great mechanical support from our friendly Dutch mechanic Pim and his friend Bert, as well as Stu Thorne from cyclocrossworld.com. RobbieO pulled a surprise visit from Ottawa in lightning strike fashion - in Friday morning, out Monday morning. Funny, but he didn't seem to be suffereing from any jetlag. Tons of people out there cheering for us this year - I guess the fact that we keep coming back and more of us are racing here during the season means that we are cultivating a fan base.

I barely had time to get back, shower and throw my bags outside the bungalow before the Stevens crew came by for a rapid surgical extraction, and now I am back in Hamburg once again. No post-Worlds partying for me this year! I'll be flying back to Ottawa on Feb. 2nd for a quick rest before the spring training camps start again. Big things for the Stevens continentat road team this year...

home in a flash,
GReain

The Land of Rabobank

I've been hearing rumours that people are wondering what the hell I've been up tp for the last three weeks. No reports, no race results no e-mail. Well, two of those can be explained by the fact that internet access in Belgium is harder to find than, say, a decent hockey team (I watched some Belgian "pro" hockey game on TV here last year. Ouch. But then, that's probabally what we look like racing bikes). The no race results thing is a by product of not doing any racing, due to a really nasty cold-type virusy thing that laid me out for like two weeks. Ironically, I came to Belgium in January to do more racing than I could in Germany but ended up doing less.

I am back on my feet again and installed in Zeddam, Netherlands in the lead up to the World Championships this weekend. I've only been training for a little over a week now, with the World Cup in Hoogerheide last weekend being my first race back. That was an exercise in pain, let me tell you. Nothing like jumping into the last World Cup before Worlds when everyone is firing on all cyclinders and you're running on like 4 days of training. Anyways, the fact was that I had to do it in order to bring myself up for Worlds, so mission accomplished I guess. The upside of that thrashing was that I managed to not get lapped on arguably my worst race day of the season, and I was able to ride in a group with all the top Americans for a few laps (JPage doesn't count; he's a full-fledged Eurostud now) before getting popped. Last year I rode the best race of my season there and barely crossed the line before getting passed by the leaders (who were sprinting for the finish).

I've been turning laps on the course here in Zeddam for 4 days no and I am starting to get pretty confident on it. Even if I am still getting dropped with relative ease by my teammate Christian Heule in most of the corners, I am still riding way fast that ever before in a technical sense. The state of my fitness remains to be seen and that will become obvious on Sunday. For now I am just riding a bunch and doing a little intensity when it feels right, because all the work has been done at this point. Now it is all about being comfortable and confident going into the big day on Sunday.

I'll let you know next week how it all pans out.
GReain

Installed in Belgium

I've been in Belgium for about a week and a half now, staying chez Tim & Joscelin in Tielt-Winge (try that in Mapquest). The accomodations are great, the weather has fabulous, but I've been sick. Bit of a drag, but there is still plenty of time till World's and I am in a great situation for training - plenty of locations and great groups to train with.

Current residents at the house include Dave Coughlin (from Ontario), Helen Wyman (recently crowned UK champ), Barb Howe (US CX team & cyclingnews.com diarist) and Mark Perry (in his first year with a Belgiqn U23 road squad). Hamish Haynes of the cyclingnews.com team should be arriving soon, thereby completing our little piece of English speaking Flanders. If anyone is thinking of coming to this part of the world, you can get in touch with Joscelin (joscelin_at_joscelin.com)and she will hook you up with everything you need to know. We are right in cycling country here, and I really don't want to have to leave.

There is a new diary entry on PezCyclingNews.com, so be sure to check it out when you get a chance.

GReain