Still got some work to do...

So things didn’t work out quite as planned the other day. I didn’t find the right holes in the start, and I didn’t really have the horsepower to do anything anyway. Long story short, I ended up sucking wheels for most of the race, lost out in a 3-way sprint for 14th and finished on place 16. Again, not too bad, but not great either. One of my teammates stacked right in front of me on the first lap resulting in me breaking his carbon rim and then almost breaking my own finger in the pileup. Not that that had a huge effect on the race, but my finger does really hurt right now.

I don’t have to race again until October 3rd in Berlin, so I’ve been doing some long training rides this week, which is something that I have been missing lately. Things start to heat up a bit after that; here’s my schedule.

• Tue 3 Oct – Berlin Cross im Park C2, GER
• Sat 7 Oct – Harderwijk Prijs Shimano C2, NED
• Sun 8 Oct – Grote Prijs Neerpelt C2, BEL
• Sat 21 Oct – Kleicross Lebbeke C2, BEL
• Sun 22 Oct – UCI World Cup, Kalmthout, BEL
• Sun 29 Oct – City-cross Hannover, GER
• Wed 1 Nov – Magstadt C2, GER

There may be some races on the 14/15 weekend, but I haven’t seen the plan yet. I fly home on 2 November (assuming I can get my flight changed) and I’m planning on being at the Aurora UCI C2 race on 5 November.

GReain

Demolition Man

Things to do this year- Not blow up.

The first race of a new season is always the same. You never really know where you’re at, so you’re mad nervous on the line wondering if you’ve done enough work, if you’re fast enough, if you can pilot the corners alright. Hell, you don’t even know if you can make it to the end of the start straight without getting dropped.

Second row call-up, good. Slow to get into the pedal, bad. Running the 48 all the way down to the 12 before hitting the dirt, good. Riding in the lead group without breathing hard, good. Getting gapped off the top five by a Slovakian rider, bad. Chasing with Nijland and van Gils, good, then very, very bad.

All that to say the first 20 minutes were really good, next 20 so-so after I blew sky high trying to chase back to the lead group (but still in the top ten I think), last 20 minutes really slow as I had been caught and blown out the back of a couple of chase groups. So I kinda backed off on the throttle a bit in the hopes that conserving a little bit today means that I have some extra gas to give tomorrow and maybe hit the top ten. Here’s hoping the guys who killed themselves to get there today are a little cracked for tomorrow!

I ended up 14th, which is rather encouraging given the fact that I have little to no race form and essentially soft pedaled the last 3 laps. Considering I can hit the top fifteen in a Euro C2 without killing myself is a good sign for things to come this year. I used to need a stellar ride to make that kind of result.

More after tomorrow.
GReain

Impending Doom

So it used to be fun for some of guys on the team to make fun of my accent when speaking German, but that had faded away of late and people were kind of getting used to it. Then at dinner last night Christian told me that I spoke German with a French accent. Whatever that means. Now it’s whole worlds of fun for the boys again. Thanks Christian.

We just got a whole pile of wheels last night and today, so we basically spent the whole day glueing tires onto rims after an hour spent getting stabbed in the ear by a doctor while turning hot laps on the race course. I’m not too sure if bike number 2 and wheelset number 2 are quite up to the job tomorrow, since I haven’t actually ridden them yet. Better save them for next week in Berlin.

Hm, yes, that’s right, the return of the Berlin park race. For those of you not with me at this time last year, just look in the archives for a course description. Tight, mossy, hilly pavement path criterium makes for a good short version. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to mount the file treads before then, but that would require another set of wheels which may or may not appear by then. Did I mention how much fun the early season is? Great anticipation of new gear countered by the agony of getting it all ready in time when it shows up mere hours before the first time one has to race it.

Still no sign of it cooling off here, and no air conditioning in sight.

Groenendaal is racing here tomorrow, as is Wilant van Gils, Steve Chainel and probably some other OG’s too. The chances of scoring UCI points are diminishing rapidly. Nothing like racing to build form! Oh yeah, and the start list is currently at 75 in the elite field, on an extremely narrow and twisty course, so basically where you start is where you finish- unless you eat shit, and then you’re finishing worse. Moving up really isn’t a realistic goal here.

More Pre-Season Fun

Today we had our team presentation & photo shoot for the media. Basically that meant hanging around for 4 hours in our race clothing doing a lot of posing, Euro-style. About the best thing that came out of this was the fact that I have not one, but two, photos of me on the top of every page of the media package. I scored a couple of these to feed my ego.

We also had a sneak peak at our new Carbon Team bikes, which we are supposed to be receiving in mid October. Only the prototypes are around right now, but they are to be kitted out with Easton carbon cockpit and fork, full Shimano Dura-Ace, Mavic Ksyrium ES wheels (or Stevens carbon) & Challenge tires. They look pretty damn hot and are way lighter than year’s aluminum bikes. In the interim we’ll be riding this year’s Super Prestige aluminum frames.

That’s all for now.
GReain

Oh yeah- Kim G, you can stop sending me your BlackBerry bills now that I'm updating this thing again.

Back form the dead?

So, just in case anyone has been wondering what I’ve been doing all summer (assuming anyone is still checking up on this long out-of-date blog), here’s a quick rundown:

• Beauce – got dropped most days, didn’t finish
• Nationals – pulled this weekend out of the toilet and picked up top tens in TT and RR.
• Tour of Qinghai Lake – got dropped most days, did finish
• Mtl-QC – made the final selection then missed the key counters to finish 11th
• Spent most of August burnt out and kicking tunes at CL

And now I’m back in my other home, Hamburg, for the Stevens Racing Team pre-cross season training camp. I guess it’s not really pre-season, since there have already been UCI races in Czech and Belgium this weekend. First up for me is a double header next weekend (23 & 24 Sept) here in Hamburg; the Stevens Cross Sup UCI C2 events. Let’s hope my new bikes and wheels show up before then, otherwise I’m using one somewhat battle-worn ’06 chariot.

Things are looking good, fitness-wise. I was definitely a little sketched out after basically not riding a bike for the critical month of August, but I’m coming around pretty well. There’s a pretty huge diesel engine sitting under the hood right now, and with a little high-speed race tuning the turbo should be coming into service soon. With a bit of luck and some hard work I should be killing it in time for ‘cross nats in early November.

I’ll drop the word on my schedule just as soon as it is confirmed, but it’s looking like I’m doing some early World Cups as well as a bunch of C2 races in Holland and Belgium before I come back to Canada. Maybe this year I’ll have enough UCI points to actually get a call-up at Nationals…

Kay, I’m off to bed.
GReain

Oh yeah, I think Kool & the Gang stayed in this hotel once (no shit!)