The Road to the Peloton

International Water Boundaries - Iraq and Iran

2007-04-05T09:12:00.001+02:00

Thinking some more about the international water boundaries - it may seem really strange, but water boundaries are a completely different beast than land boundaries for a lot of different reasons, and some of these can easily explain how British navy troops were 'found' in 'Iranian waters' when they were 'supposed' to be in 'Iraqi waters'. Water boundaries, specifically international ones, have some strange characteristics:
- how a water boundary is defined: for example with a line perpendicular to the shore.....but what defines where the shore is?? Storms and seasons affect the definition of shorelines all over the world, which immediately affects any line perpendicular to that shoreline. And a small (1 arc-second) change in a shoreline doesn't mean much on land, but when you follow the 'new' perpendicular line out into the ocean 10 or 20 or 30 km's then you can easily be several hundred meters to either side of the original line.
- how a water boundary actually comes into being: usually international treaty, but even that is a bit sketchy as the oceans are still claimed by countries from all over with many many many disputes still unresolved (the number of international water boundaries in dispute is several times more than the number that are actually defined and agreed upon by treaty). And as shown by Saddam in the '80's when he ripped up the treaty that defined the water boundary between Iraq and Iran, it's just a piece of paper - it's not as easy to defend or hold up as a land boundary.
- how water boundaries are measured: they didn't get into this in the article I read (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6496559.stm), but how you define the "equipotential surface" (this is a mathematical model that defines the surface of the earth - there are so many variations in ways to define the surface of the earth and their accuracies and possible uses that it's mind-boggling!!!) greatly affects your position on the globe. It's very similar to the example mentioned about changing a shoreline by 1 arc second, except this is on a much bigger scale. GPS uses one surface that 'fits' or 'models' the world best, but that doesn't mean it accurately or best defines the surface of the water in this corner of the earth the best - this model just statistically fits better than any other for the world as a whole. The Iranian and Iraqi charts where the positions were plotted could actually have been generated using different surfaces that may have modeled their respective countries better. For example, for defining property boundaries in Canada the government has defined a projection as best fitting Canada in general. This projection is based on a math model of sine’s and cosines etcetera. This model likely best fits Canada in the central region (Ontario probably), however as you get farther and farther east, west, and north the accuracy of the projection declines, and once you leave Canada altogether and go to Mexico the model is likely WAY off. Another way is to picture an orange peel - it shapes around the orange great, but when you lay it down flat it gets all bent out of shape and splits and looks ugly - more and more ugly as you get further from the center of the orange peel. You can't have that on a map or chart, so that's when you use a math model to represent the distortions caused when the orange peel is flattened. It's actually not that hard then the orange peel is perfectly round and has no variations.....but the surface of the earth is imbued with variations, so the math model gets very complicated; so complicated that often countries keep things a bit simpler by using a model that fits their country best.
- how the boundary is demarcated: as mentioned in the article the boundary was defined by marker buoys, however I'm sure the maintenance and upkeep of the marker buoys was NOT on the top of Saddam's list of things to do for the past 10 years. So many things could have happened to the markers: storms moved them; vandals changed them; tidal variations change their surface positions - the list is huge. Even rising global sea levels would change the position of the markers on the surface of the water - the markers are anchored on the ocean floor with a fixed chain to the buoy on the surface. When the buoy is right above the anchor the chain must be straight - this could happen at high tide for example, when there is a big volume of water between the anchor and the buoy. But at low tide the anchor is still in the same place but now there is slack on the chain so the buoy moves around with the current, thus 'position of the border'. And if the water level were extremely high the buoy could possibly start to lift the anchor off the ocean floor and move it with the tides.
- how far out do the boundaries stretch: this is really not well defined by international law. Typically there is about a '3 mile limit' (this was typically how far a cannonball could be fired from land - pretty archaic way of defining it, non?) that countries can claim sovereignty over. After that 3 mile limit the boundaries get fuzzier up to 12 miles, and more than 12 miles it's very fuzzy. The problem also arises when the 3 mile limit actually extends onto another countries land.....so where is the boundary drawn in this case???

All of these problems aren't something that's limited to 'foreign' countries that don't have 'our standard' of civilization (tongue in cheek) - these problems of defining a water boundary are totally alive and causing problems between Canada and the US today - however because of our friendly relationship these problems typically don't come out in the news. But when you get into a hot-spot such as the water between Iraq and Iran the potential for misunderstandings is enormous. As the article mentions - neither side is right in this situation. I think it's all a lot of political posturing.

Information Age

2007-03-31T16:43:00.000+02:00

So I was watching my first Saturday morning television in a LOOOONG time – wow, not quite what I remember it being like. I remember Saturday mornings being full of cartoons, starting at about 7:30 or 8:00 with the G.I.Joe + Transformers 1-2 punch. This was usually followed up by a flurry of different cartoons from Astroboy to the Smurfs, to name but two of the 10 or so. I’d often call an intermission for a few quick games of Nintendo before it was back at the shows again with a second round (often a set of re-runs but still watched none the less) of G.I.Joe + Transformers. Only when the bell rang for lunch did I actually make it out of the house to play for the later part of the day – knowing full well that Sunday morning, chock full of its own cartoons, was just around the corner.

So this Satuday I tuned in – not quite sure what I’d get, but assuming it was going to be something similar. Nope. This Saturday was jam packed with a ‘new’ type of action. I say new because the programs have been around for a while, but to my knowledge (which of Saturday morning programming is admittedly pretty sketchy at best) they never played on Saturday mornings. I’m talking about episodes of shows like Baywatch and Knight Rider, intermingled with random episodes of The Simpsons. The only kids program I could find was Sponge Bob.

Keep in mind here that I don’t have cable – if I did I know I could find Donald and Daffy Duck and Barney shows to my heart’s content (actually only about 2 minutes of those shows would be enough for me, but you get my drift).

Now I’m not sure what that really means. Is it a good thing that kids are watching these types of programs on Saturday morning? I’m no psychiatrist, but me thinks not. Are they outside playing in the streets more? Not very likely. Do kids even WATCH tv on Saturdays any more – or are they too busy playing online computer games, visiting chatrooms in cyberspace, or finding wormholes in Windows Vista? Probably.

I just got one of the latest gadgets – a pocket PC that combines a PDA and a PC. It’s got the full GPS navigation too (it really is sweet – I don’t know how I’ve made it this far without it!). I’ve also seen the internet offered over the mobile phone frequencies – all you do is get a little USB stick from your mobile provider, activate the right plan, and you can get internet on any computer anywhere in the world (depending on coverage and subject to phone call rates). Sweet.

Why these random thoughts? Well it’s come to my attention recently that many of my friends and relatives have had, are having, or are busy trying to ‘make’ babies. Kudos to all for trying, and good luck to those who succeed. I’m all about the family and kids (sorry Mom – no news for now :o) but I find it daunting to try to raise a child in today’s world. With the information that’s at everyone’s finger tips it’s totally changing the way children grow and form into people and ‘functioning’ adults.

In the history of human kind there’s never been an information age that comes anywhere near to this. Cave paintings? People were more worried about their next meal than raising their kids right so they’ll grow up to be good cave-people. Smoke signals? Doesn’t really count for disseminating information and influencing the publc. Snail mail? Hardly registers on the radar. Telephones? Even though phones are all about chatting, have you ever heard of a chat group over the telephone – if you’ve ever been on a conference call you know phones don’t work this way. Television? These broke new grounds in communication, but with the flick of a switch it’s off, and it took years for the tv to really catch on – for most of it’s life it’s been a few programs, mostly on in the evenings. Ease of travel with planes and trains today? I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to randomly let my kids get on a plane or train without my permission. Computers and Email?

So in today’s information age parents must constantly be on the lookout for what their children are watching, hearing, saying, and doing. Now more than ever there are strangers virtually right there in your home and in the faces of kids. I’m not saying not to go with the information age – it’s incredible what creative powers can be unleashed in the right environment or harnessed for the right cause. Of that there’s no doubt. And tackling today’s most daunting problem (the poor condition of our environment) wouldn’t be possible if we still communicated via smoke signals. But todays parents, unlike any others before them, are faced with the challenge not of filtering the information their children get, but rather molding how their children will filter information for themselves. It’s a shame to see kids with poor filters today :o(

A month in Provence

2007-03-14T10:29:00.000+01:00

So it’s been a while since my last post – what else is new :o) Well I’ve all-of-a-sudden found myself with much more free time than I’ve had recently: my job at Trek finished on Feb 28th, so now I’m joining the ranks of the unemployed! Am I worried about that? Well not really – more to come later ;o)

So what’s happened recently? Well the major part of January was spent in Provence helping Trek Travel move into the new warehouse there – check out some of the pics. It’s in a truly stellar location which is quiet and in the country-side, surrounded by absolutely amazing riding in all directions, and close to a few towns and some big cities (within an hour to Avignon – a stellar city).

Unfortunately Kiersten was pretty sick with a fever for the first week we were there – it just happened to coincide with the best week of weather! It was about 20 deg C and uber sunny. Wow. And that was the middle of winter! The blossoms were actually starting to come out on the trees! But being there for work kept us pretty busy setting up the new warehouse – fun work, but still pretty hectic. Things look pretty solid there now for the warehouse, guide house, and office, and we were able to get some good riding in too.

It got dark around 5:30 while we were there – and on one ride we didn’t leave until about 2:30 (yup – not the brightest move on our part :o) We spent about 2 hours climbing up to the top of Col de la Ligne – where we were in snow! From here we planned on dropping down the backside and coming around the shoulder of the Col back to our starting point – but after starting out we quickly realized that plan was a disaster waiting to happen!!! So back we went over the Col de la Ligne and down the front side – bombing along the whole way. Cold fingers and faces wasn’t enough to keep the grins off our faces too, it was such a fun and long downhill. So after an hour we found ourselves in familiar territory and back on the road home – arriving just in time for dusk, with cold fingers and toes. That pretty much sums up our Provence riding :o)

A hairy affair

2007-03-14T10:28:00.000+01:00

Well as you can see by the pics I’ve changed my hair ‘style’. Special thanks to “Kiersten Styling” for their talented staff and friendly service (complete with a kiss too). I had been thinking about doing this for a while and finally decided that while we were in Provence working for Trek Travel would be as good a time as any to lop it off. I thought of sticking with the mo-mullet (cross between a mowhawk and a mullet), but with my bald spot it looked more like the dotted line in the center of a highway…..so it all came off.

The Future??

So now that I’m unemployed, what does the future bring? Well I’m not really too sure about that. I’m busy applying for some long-term things (ie business schools, a couple of jobs that will take about 1 year to make it through the hiring process). Basically I’m going to treat the next 6-12 months as a transition time where I try to figure out what I want to do in the future – I’m not worried about picking up a ‘career’ job right away, but rather I’d like to think about what’s really important for me in the next 5-years and also a more long-term plan of where I want to be in 10, 15, and 20 years. As always with my plans they’ll be flexible, but it will be nice to have an idea and some more direction in the long-term.

Am I worried about the future? Heck no! I’m actually really happy to have the freedom to pursue whatever path I deem the most important. I can’t remember the exact quote, but there’s one from Mark Twain about setting sail from the familiar harbour, getting out on the open sea, and finding what you can with freedom. Although I can’t remember the exact words, the meaning of the quote has always been with me and I use this as a guiding light for the next phase of my life.
Kiersten and I are having a great time together – that’s a wonderful start for this next phase :o))))

A realization about space in NL

2007-03-14T10:27:00.001+01:00

Well I’ve come to a realization recently about living in the Netherlands: I’m claustrophobic here. Not because of the amount of people in a tight space – it’s actually the most densely populated country in Europe. And it’s not living in a city – Nijmegen has about 120,000 people, and although I live near the downtown it’s still nicely spaced and is actually a wonderful place to live. And it’s not the woods where I ride around Nijmegen – I’ve spent my fair share of time in the woods in Nova Scotia and Alberta.

It’s actually when I’m in the open spaces that I feel the most claustrophobic. That might not make sense right away, but if you go out into a field and look around in the Netherlands you can see a few km’s to the nearest line of trees or a building or whatever. But if you look just above that line of trees the next thing you’ll see in the distance is the sky – and that’s pretty darn far away. So there’s nothing in the ‘middle’ ground to give some depth to the countryside.
I really noticed this the last time I was in Provence when I realized I could look around from the center of a field or clearing and see a tree line or a line of buildings or whatever, then behind that in the middle distance I could see some hills or a cliff, and usually behind that I could also see a mountain, and then the sky in the far distance.

I know that’s not a huge difference and probably a lot of people wouldn’t notice anything, but for some reason it’s really been weighing on me recently that I miss having hills around and I think this might be the reason why.

Anyway, there’s a random though for ya, so chew on that for a while :o)

Happy Holidays y'all!

2006-12-23T09:23:00.000+01:00

As usual I haven't managed to write up a Christmas card for everyone - not even a Christmas form letter I can send out - this is the best I can do! I don't know what it is, but it's comforting reading Dave's blog and how he and T get caught in the same situation.

I hope everyone has a happy holidays with whatever they have planned and wherever it will take them!

Here's a shot of Kiersten, Janet and I in at the Aguille du Midi in Chamonix (in the French Alps) about 2 weeks ago as my Dad flew over from Halifax to visit my sister who lives there now (he's the one taking the pic!). So Kiersten and I made the drive from the Netherlands to spend the weekend there - what an awesome time! The first day we were there we were able to do a hike to a waterfall as there was no snow in the valley floor. Then toward mid afternoon it started raining a bit....and as afternoon turned into evening it started snowing. Dad had a prediction: "big snow equals little snow, little snow equals big snow", referring to big snow flakes amount to very little snow, and little snow flakes amount to a blizzard. Hmmmmm.....you wanna revise that theory Dad :o)

So Kiersten and I are going back to Chamonix today to spend Christmas with Janet which should be a great time - we're really looking forward to it!

Happy Holidays all!
ANDREW

I'm all for Peace!

2006-11-23T22:45:00.000+01:00

I'm not a big fan of war. I know that sounds pretty stoopid, but c'mon, why fight wars??! So this website seems like a great idea - a much better way to spend your time on the first day of winter.....well, on ANY day for that matter!

http://www.globalorgasm.org/

No Reason for an update, but you get one

2006-11-19T20:36:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a while since I've written an update. Seems like I've been saying that a lot recently, and I think I know why. Things for me have been totally changing since my 30th birthday - everything is totally up in the air now! Some of the pieces are already falling into place, but there are some big ones that are still completely undecided right now:

JOB = totally changing roles, I'll no longer be based in the Netherlands, and I won't be full time. More to come on this soon I hope.

APARTMENT = moving out, but the question is when? I still don't have my new role hammered out yet, so I'm not sure WHEN I'll be moving from NL. Where will I move to? HA - that's even more uncertain than WHEN I'll be moving. I'll let you know when I know more.

GIRLFRIEND = moving to Europe in 1 week (absolutely wonderful :o), but it's going to be a huge step. So where to live? THAT'S the question of the month!

CYCLING = I'm no longer going to be chasing my dream of being in the peloton, and I'm totally ok with that.

I've been living my life like a Choose Your Own Adventure book - if/when something comes into my life I have a choice, and I always look at what I have and where I'm going and decide if I want to change my course or not based on this new thing (in this case a person) in my life. I'm happy to say that Kiersten is going to be a wonderful influence on my life, and I really want to spend time with her and share things with her - travel, work, play, living. I've thought about it a lot, and I know that training and racing is extremely demanding on a relationship, and I'm not willing to put this relationship in the back seat while I pursue a racing pipe dream. I want to focus my energy and devote my time to enjoying the feelings I have for Kiersten.

I'm still going to ride tonnes (she likes riding too - that rocks!), and I'll do more fun rides like Les Marmottes and Marathon Dolomities and other rides. Oh yeah, I might be doing an epic 183km trail run around Mont Blanc - in 1 day! But I haven't totally been convinced of that one yet (keep working away at me Sean......).

Anyway, those are some random Sunday night thoughts.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

2006-11-09T12:04:00.000+01:00

Ha - I can't remember who I was talking to recently about the TMNT, but I remembered all their names now:
- Donatello
- Michelangelo
- Leonardo
- Rapheal
Hey - I didn't say I could SPELL them correctly......

hehe - a little offside, but at least somewhat current....

2006-11-06T14:19:00.000+01:00

George W. Bush and Tony Blair are at a White House dinner.One of the guests walks over to them and asks what they're discussing."We are making up the plans for World War III", says Bush."Wow", says the guest. "And what are the plans?" "We're gonna kill 2 billion Muslims and one dentist", answers Bush.The guest looks to be a bit confused. "One...dentist?" He says."Why will you kill one dentist?"Blair pats Bush on the shoulder and says, "What did I tell you? Nobody is gonna ask about the Muslims."

Some pics

2006-10-31T15:30:00.000+01:00

Some blisters, and how I got them (ie riding my cross bike :o)

St.Michielsgestel Cyclocross - coooooool!

2006-10-30T22:45:00.000+01:00

So Sunday’s Karcher Super Prestige Cross race in St.Michielsgestel turned out to be a great day – I don’t have any photo’s from the race, but check out the start list at:
http://www.superprestigecyclocross.com/cms/default.asp?contentID=565

For those that know a bit about cross racing, yup – those are the ones. Sven Nys is the Lance Armstrong of cross racing, Richard Groenendal is the Jan Ullrich equivalent, and Bart Wellens…..well, he could be the Ullrich equivalent too – always second to Nys. Among the other big hitters from NL, Czech, France, and Belgium. Oh yeah – and yours truly!

The day couldn’t have been any better for cross racing with the temperature between 10 and 14 degrees, the skies mostly sunny, a little wind, and all the trees changing color and leaves all over the ground. It had been wet the week leading into the race but not soaking, so the course was absolutely perfect – tacky cornering, with just a little bit of mud (I think that was thanks to the local fire department as I heard they watered down part of the course….no joke, they were – that’s how serious they take ‘crossing here, they don’t mess around!).

I went with my friends Hein, who raced the Amateur A category at the start of the day, and Wilco, who would be our mechanic and soigneur for the day. It’s a great routine as we get to the race early so we get a great parking spot, and I get to wander around the course and be support for Hein as he’s racing, then we swap roles when I’m racing. Then I eat, get changed and prepped, and get out for a warmup – all in good time! This was actually the best prepared I’ve been for a race yet as I had about 2 hours warmup – clearly not riding the whole time (that’s way to long of a warmup), but just checking out the course, going to the toilet, etcetera – getting everything well prepared.

I started with bib number 8, but since I have no points in the series of course I got put to the back of the pack, literally at the back of the start group. This would be my one and only chance to get on TV for this race as I knew I’d never see the front group after that! So the gun goes off and of course the riders immediately hit into the fastest sprint I’ve even been in – up until the first corner, which was a hilarious bottle-neck. Then the endless series of twists and turns that made up each lap, complete with the drunk Dutch and Belgian fans lining the entire course to cheer on their favorites.

Actually it was pretty funny – Hein and Wilco had convinced some Belgians to cheer for me while I was racing, so as I was going around the course I could hear my name being shouted out at random places in a crazy Flemish accent, so it really got me grinning :o)

But alas even with the cheers of my Flemish fans ringing in my ears I still wasn’t able to keep up – I just didn’t have any top-end speed or acceleration. My handling skills felt pretty good though (it’s funny, this was only my second time on my cross bike since last season, but it just felt really relaxing and good – and I was hitting some of the corners faster than I thought I could).

I wasn’t at the back of the pack, but for all intents and purposes I might as well have been. And to be honest it was actually really nice! I got to thinking I was all alone because I was in the LEAD, and all the fans were there to watch me win the race……but that still didn’t help me go much faster.

In the end after about 45 minutes the blisters on my hands popped and I knew my day was done – 2 on each hand, with one on my left hand about the size of a quarter right on the pad of my hand. I couldn’t even hold onto my handlebar at that point, so it wasn’t long before Nys came tearing past me…..and he was going so fast I didn’t even get a chance to slow him down ;o) At that point I was coming around the start area with the jury, so I pulled out of the race to watch from the sidelines (it’s no fun having all the top riders tear past you in the single track, and I know all I’m doing at that point is slowing them down anyway). But I had more than reached my goal – I had hoped to make it at least 30 minutes without getting lapped, when I ended up making it about 50 minutes, and if my hands hadn’t gone I could have held on longer.

So in the end it was a stellar race, but my performance was a little lacking. Do I care? Not really – I got to line up with all the big guns, so of course it was a great time!

Here are the results of the race – turns out I didn’t do that badly after all!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2006/oct06/SPMichielsgestel06

2006-10-21T22:22:00.000+02:00

Here are some pics from the Harderwijk cyclocross race I did - the first of the season in NL. Sorry they're out of order, but Blogger is super shitty for dealing with photo's and I don't have the patience to deal with it....ever!!

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Some Pics

2006-10-21T22:13:00.000+02:00

Here I am at the Dutch National MTB Marathon Championships on Sept 24th - the race was in Nijmegen, so I was able to ride right from my apartment to the start line! That doesn't happen very often!

I'm aweful at updating this blog :o)

2006-10-21T21:08:00.000+02:00

Wow – it’s been another long time since I’ve updated this blog! My sincere apologies to any blog followers I've got out there - life is taking up an aweful lot of my time and energy these days! It’s really funny; since I’ve gotten rid of my TV I’ve never felt so busy….how the heck was I making it through life WITH that thing!!! It’s really nice not to have a TV actually:
- I can still watch DVD’s on my computer when I want
- I watch ‘seasons’ of shows I really like (Simpsons, Family Guy, Seinfeld, etcetera)
- I read a lot more – books, mags, newspapers, online news
- And I feel like there’s nothing tying me to my apartment, so it’s much easier for me to get out with friends
- I ride my bike more since I don’t get sucked into the TV :o)

So what’s been happening recently? Well, quite a lot actually. I’m not sure where my last blog entry left off (I’m not online right now), but I remember it was after the Tour Alsace in July, so I’ll go a bit from there.

At the end of August I flew to Wisconsin for my good friend Sean’s wedding – he and Brynn tied the knot at her parents place on a lake in Wisconsin (can’t remember the name of the lake right now ;o) It was a really great wedding – couldn’t have been better! I’m still waiting for photo’s, so I’ll post some when I get them. Lots of great people around and I had a really fun weekend catching up with Calgary crowds. After Wisco I wandered to Chicago with Mike and Danny Bristow (brothers who are great friends from Calgary). We hung out in town for a few days and had a stellar time together catching up and getting lost around the city. But the visit was too short - they flew out after 2 days!

Then Kiersten flew to town and we spent 5 days together which was wonderful. We really explored town and saw lots, some highlights include:
- boat tour through the Chicago River (LOTS of history in this town and it comes out on a tour like this)
- museums and Imax movies (Wired to Win - about the Tour de France, with STELLAR cinematography - my favorite scene was the camera right down below a riders rear derailleur as they descended high in the mountains, and as the rider took a sharp turn to the right the camera kept going straight and over a huge cliff - no idea how they filmed that, but the vertigo I got was stunning!
- jazz tribute to John Coltrane at the Opera House downtown – that was a last minute deal that was really amazing (I have new respect for musicians!!!)

After that it was back to NL for Sept and the start of Oct, which included some more racing which was super fun. My season was winding down, but I was still able to cram in a few races and have some fun at the same time:
- celebrated my 30th birthday with some surprises – I woke in the morning and had to finish some work, but when I turned on my computer I got the ‘Black Screen of Death’. Normally it’s blue, but in this case it was so bad it was black…..great, all my data (and personal stuff) lost. Of course my fucking backup didn't work properly - why would it? It's only called 'Backup' - it's not like I'll ever need it to work properly.... The day ended on a good note though as I went for a fun MTB ride with Wilco, ending with a beer in the warm sun on a patio. Then off to Indian food for dinner with some friends, and a few Mojito’s to finish off the night. In bed by midnight though….I’m getting old!!
- Dutch MTB Marathon Championships – it was a cool race because I was in the lead group of 15 riders until the 2 hour mark, then I crashed in some sand and lost contact. After that I lost motivation and ended up 29th overall – not bad, but I really expected better after how well the first ½ went.
- A week in Provence for work, and I was able to do a little riding. First with Renny (colleague) for some great riding in the PR countryside, then Renny and Frank (husband of a colleague at Trek who was vacationing there) and I rode Mt.Ventoux, from the Bedoin side of course! That was a great ride as Frank and I continued over the top and down the backside (hitting speeds of 85kph on open roads!) and came back through Malaucene….probably my favorite ride of all!
- I stopped in Karlsruhe (Germany) on my way back to have a drink and dinnies with Michelle Boucher and her husband Misch and lovely little girl Kaya – and great news, they announced they’re expecting their second child!!
- The next weekend was off to Harderwijk for the season’s first cyclocross race. This one was the official opener of the Dutch season, so many of the big hitters were there – Richard Groenendal, Thys Als, Zdenek Stybar, among others (Nys and Wellens decided to stay in Belgium for a race that day – whimps!). It was my first elite level cross race, and overall I think it went pretty well – I finished 44th out of about 85 starters – not bad considering I was hung over, it was my first time on a cross bike in MONTHS, my warmup was shite, and I started dead last
- Then last weekend I was invited by one of my teammates to join a few guys going to Paris for an invitational criterium – Criterium International de Levallois (a suburb of Paris, about 15 minutes ride from the Arc du Triomph). Teams from all over showed up – Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, and of course France! The race was great fun actually, and I was really happy with how I rode – the first break got away from me, but after that I was at the front of the race for the entire time with my teammate Marco. We tried (unsuccessfully) to get into another break that might catch up to the leaders, but it didn’t work out. By the end we were both ridden into the ground, so with 10km to go we dropped back to finish with the main group.-
Now I’m off to Toronto to spend the weekend with Kiersten – wahoooo!!! Can’t wait to get off this plane since she’ll be waiting there to pick me up…..but we left about 1.5 hours late….I hope she waits for me ;o)
- Next weekend (Oct 29th) I’m registered for the St.Michelsgestel cyclocross race – which should be a-fucking-mazing!!! This is part of the SuperPrestige series, so ALL the worlds best cross riders will be lining up for it…..with me included!!! I’ll be way at the back, but this is such a cool opportunity – to say I raced cross against Nys (one of the top 3 crossers EVER), Wellens, and Gronendal – along with all the new top riders chomping at the bit. Should be incredible too with all the drunk Dutch and Belgian fans along the race course….yikes, I’m getting butterflies just thinking about it already :o)

Is This for Real????!

2006-09-04T15:59:00.000+02:00

http://www.inventist.com/

What the fuck are these things?? Wow - I always wanted to be an inventory, but if this is what I come up with - somebody please put me out of my misery.....

What the???

2006-08-16T20:10:00.000+02:00

You know, it always strikes me as amusing/scary about how the media can influence the publics perception of an event. Take this article as an example.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/08/16/plane-diverted.html

In the second paragrah, you think nothing of it - I can totally relate to how the passenger might have felt and I can almost see the scene unfolding.

In the fourth paragraph the reader is introduced to a completely new possibility. Where the fuck those items came from, or the REPORT refering to those items, I'll never know.

But the point is - which report will the media choose to publish? The right one? Yeah right - just watch Fox news and you'll be exposed to the 'right' report. I have very little faith in news reports from one source.

Anyway - good ramblings, eh?!

Pretty cool website

2006-08-16T20:06:00.000+02:00

Check it out - any sound you can think of you'll probably be able to find it here. Then you can play a short mp3 of it to see if you want to buy it (why I would want to buy a sound bite I'm not sure, but if the urge ever grabs me I now know where to go).

http://www.soundscalpel.com/listpacks.php

Another weekend of riding fun

2006-08-14T15:43:00.000+02:00

So this past weekend was fun - Saturday my friend Wilco and I tossed the mountain bikes into my car and headed to Limburg (Southern NL) to explore some of the fun trails down there. It's about a 1.5 hr drive, and in the end we were surprised to find ourselves at the start of the ride.....in Belgium! Surprise - we'd crossed the border and there weren't any signs or anything!

But the day was sunny (if a little chilly for this time of the year), so we set off planning to do a 51km loop that was rated the best trail in the Netherlands....even though it was in Belgium. Make sense? (Not to me either :o) So up and down and up and down we rode through the fields and the woods - some of the sections were pretty great MTB riding, while some portions were on paved roads, but it was a good mix. Wilco took a pretty good spill on one of the downhill sections and shredded his jersey - and got some good scrapes too (nice!). After that though we took it easier and soon we stopped at a cafe for.......waffles!!! Warm waffles with cherries and whipped cream, a capuccino, and a La Chouffe (one of my favortie Belgian beers).....mmmmmmm

By this point we'd already been gone for 2.5hrs of riding, so we decided to bust it back on the road rather than continue on the technical climbs and descents for another 20km. But it turns out on the road it only took about 15 minutes and we were back at the car! Oh well - all in all it was a good ride.

Then on Sunday I joined some teammates for a criterium - 80km around a 2.2km loop, complete with cobblestones (of course), 2 minor climbs, and 8 corners (one of them a shicane.....spl?). There were 80 riders, and soon I found myself settled into a rythm in the middle of the peloton. Things were going fine for most of the race until about the 1hr mark when my teammate (who was trying unsuccessfully to chase the 2 riders in the lead break) came back to the peloton. By this point the peloton had already been whittled down to about 50 riders as the pace had been pretty high - 45kph average with all the corners, yikes!

After about 10 minutes of riding he and I worked our way to the front, and he started a hard pull. I looked over my shoulder and realized we had a gap of 100m, so we thought to take a try. We worked a bit together for about 1/2 a lap, but eventually the peloton caugh us - and I'd make a miscalculation. I didn't have the stamina for that kind of effort, so I slowly found myself getting pushed back further and further in the peloton. Eventually after another 10 minutes of absolute suffering (by this point my whole body was tingling - something you can only feel when going ALL OUT for extended periods) I got dropped by the peloton. Shit.

But it turns out I'd made it down to the last 19 in the race, and since it was after the 50km mark they qualify all the riders that drop out after this point. So in the end I finished 19th and in the money - wahooo!!! This was my best placing so far - but it really felt weird, since I wasn't able to finish the race with the 'peloton' (I'll use that loosely since it was only 18 guys!). My teammate ended up 4th - pretty good, but he was really looking to make the podium.

In the end I guess the result wasn't that bad - and not finishing with the leaders shouldn't be seen as a loss - it just means the pace was so high that the rest of the field couldn't keep up. Also, in races like these, the jury isn't shy about pulling riders off the course and they usually only finish with about 20 riders.

Oh yeah - and I was reading an interesting article online - it's got some pretty funny views of the different media sources from around the world about the Israel/Hezbollah peace. You have to take them with a grain of salt (they could just be random editorials), but still realize they can and do sway public opinion in the countries where they're publised. Kinda funny, kinda scary. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4790219.stm

Top 10 Doping Excuses (All Time)

2006-08-10T12:35:00.000+02:00

A tongue-in-cheek article from the CBC website - some of the excuses ARE pretty funny (Castro's is the best!).

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/10-doping-excuses.html

Some photo's from Tour Alsace

2006-08-09T14:50:00.000+02:00

I found some better photo's of the Jan van Arkel/Rabobank team at the Tour Alsace - they're posted now on the clubs website. In addition, the club posted my blog story about the stage race - you can read it there (they've edited out parts of it and censored others.......what happened to the right to free speach??!?! - kidding!).

http://www.janvanarckel.nl/
- for the photo's go to the story "Elite - alle foto's van de Tour d'Alsace", you can see all the photos there. Some pretty good ones too - I'm in a couple of them :o)
- for the blog post go to "Elite - Andrew Davison over zijn Tour d'Alsace"

Fun stuff!

In addition, there was a race on Monday night - 80km on an 800m track with some cobblestones. The race started at 19:30, which meant we were finishing JUST as it was getting dark, so the timing was perfect. It sucked when it started raining 1/2 way through the race though :o( I was doing fine until this point, when my left wrist started seizing up in the rain/cold (from my injury when I did the Paris-Roubaix). Unfortunately I had to drop out of the race, but somehow I was still in the money - once we'd made it more than 60km they considered everyone finishing. I was the 28th rider (out of 80 starters), so now I've got to go collect my price money :o))))) It's too bad about dropping out though - it was the best I've felt in a while, and it was actually a really fun race!

Anyway......no, those aren't pics of a Trek Travel van at the Tour d'Alsace......why do you ask?? :o)

TOUR ALSACE – July 27-30

2006-07-31T13:21:00.000+02:00

(This post is from the whole race, so grab a coffee and get comfy!).

PRE-RACE INFO

Ok – so this post is from on the road (this is after the first stage and I’m writing in my hotel room) – I’m in Mulhouse now, and we’re doing the Tour Alsace. There are 6 of us racers here, with 1 mechanic, 1 soigneur, 1 directeur sportif, and 2 vehicles. This is pretty great actually. Yesterday we drove down here from the Netherlands and got in mid-afternoon. Just in time to check in, get into our kits, and roll into the center of town for the team presentations. It was actually pretty stellar – I’ve never done anything like this before. We rode through the main square in front of the church, got off our bikes, and walked up on the stage to be presented over the loudspeakers and then we all got kisses from the podium girls (wahoo!!!) and presents too. Oh yeah – and Laurent Jalabert was there to present the teams too, so I gave him props and a shout-out.

To give an idea of what’s going on, this is a 5 stage race held over 4 days (yup – this morning we did a road race and tonite we’re doing a team-time trial in the center of town) of the Alsace region of France…..renowned for its hills!! This is going to be a long set of stages. The organization is pretty stellar too – we’re staying at the Mercure in the center of Mulhouse, and we’ve gotten everything taken care of – meals, gas, entrance fee, hotel rooms, etcetera – how cool is that! I feel like a pro! We stay here for the entire time – we don’t have to move hotels, so that’s pretty awesome. The stage today was patrolled by lots of Gendarmes – 14 from France, 2 from Switzerland, and 2 from Germany….cool! And lots of other great stuff too – publicity caravan, TV crews, fans along the course (especially at the start and the finish!) :o)

Here’s the website for the race - http://www.agence-aujourdhui.fr/touralsace/2006/ and you can check “Cliquez ici pour ouvrir le minisite de la course” in the upper right corner for a better layout of the stages and results.

DAY 1 – SAUSHIEM to HUNINGUE, 94km flat stage – July 27

The stages look pretty tough – this morning we did a 95km flat stage that ended in a bunch sprint. The average speed – 47.5kph. Yikes. And it doesn’t help that there’s an epic heat-wave across most of Europe right now, so even though the stage was done in 2 hours we still had to battle cramps – it was a real concern. One of my teammates had made it in the break, so I spent some time at the front trying to control the breaks, but it was to no avail and they were swallowed up 10km from the finish. But anyway, stage 1 out of the way, and a team time trial coming up tonight.

TEAM TIME TRIAL, SAUSHIEM 4.5km

So we finished the team time trail – but barely. What a cluster fuck that was! I can’t believe how poorly we performed! Our warmup was shit – but I expected that, so I went off on my own and made sure I was ready. Then when we started, one rider almost fell over, and another wouldn’t step into his place. Eventually we sorted ourselves out, butthen throughout the race we were so poorly organized we were passing in the corners, not keeping tight formation, or whatever. I think the biggest problem was the disparity between the strongest and weakest riders on our team – and the fact the race was only 5km long! One rider was scared in the corners, but rather than tell us before the race he just went ahead like there was nothing wrong – so when he went really slowly through the corners we almost throttled him!

It was a pretty strange race though at only 5km – we had to be ready to go from the start, and give it FULL THROTTLE the entire time, which trust me, feels like hours. Wow – what a hurt that can put on you!

So after the race it was back to the hotel for showers and then dinner – jeeze, I never thought I could eat this much! It’s pretty crazy, but I’ve just been stuffing food down my gullet to try to keep up with how much we’re burning – I’ve never had anything quite like this.

Then after dinner I got a rub down from our soigneur, and now it’s just relaxing while watching TV before going to bed.

I have no idea how we’re doing – the results were supposed to arrive at dinner but didn’t, so we left and we’ll figure it out in the morning…..but after that TTT, wow, we can’t be doing that well :o)

Tomorrow is going to be a huge day – super hot (about 35 degrees and super sunny), lots of hills (we’re in the Alsace – it’s great!), and some pretty stiff competition!!!! These Frenchies drive like animals – so freaking fast it’s unbelievable!

So we’re pretty much in our own world here – but we have heard about the Landis positive test, which is freaking crazy. After what he said in a press conference just before the Tour about anti-doping, then to get caught during the Tour. Wow – I have pretty much 0 respect for pro racers right now….

DAY 2 – STRASBOURG to LE BISCHENBERG, 158km, 3 major climbs, rolling terrain July 29th

So it’s a bright Saturday morning in Mulhouse and it promises to be a hot one today – rats! After yesterday’s stage I think we’re all looking for a little cooler weather, but what can ya do. So yesterday’s stage – what happened? Well it was a pretty epic stage as far as I was concerned – 160km including 1 Cat 2, 3 Cat 3, and 1 Cat 4 climb. It didn’t help that the pace right from the start was pretty uber fast for a road race – right up there at 48kph (ouch).

Unfortunately it feels like something is wrong with me I didn’t have great legs or lungs at all, so I was hurting for a while. At about 70km there was a break of 30 riders that I completely missed, but again – I was hurting anyway, so I wouldn’t have been able to do much. Eventually I got dropped by the peloton on the Cat 2 climb that came at the 105km mark, but was able to chase back on just a the top in time for the downhill, so that was good. For the next 30km I tried to fuel some attacks and spent most of my time at the front – I finally instigated the attack I wanted, with 7 strong riders, however my efforts had taken their toll and I got sent off the back in the first big climb to join the peloton again.

My efforts really killed me, and when our Directeur Sportif came over the radio to tell us we were out of water bottles I knew I was in trouble – I had none left, I was really thirsty, and I was starting to bonk….and there was still about 20km to go……uh-oh.

But I was able to get 2 small cans of coke and an energy gel from the team car just in time for the last climb, which was a 2km wall. I finished just behind the main peloton, but I think that means I’m pretty far down on the overall standings….not a big deal, considering I’m getting my ass kicked all over the place by these guys – the pace is just so high and the temperatures so hot that I can barely keep it together!

Oh yeah, and we got the general classification at breakfast this morning – it turns out our team is 16th out of 24, and I’m sitting in 118th place, about 17 minutes behind the leaders. Fuck – 17 minutes!!! At least I’m not last (but jeeze – I’m pretty close – only 135 riders still in the race!). Hopefully today will be a bit better and I’ll have some better legs than yesterday.

DAY 3 – CERNAY to RIXHEIM, 160km, 4 major climbs, rolling terrain, July 29th

So stage 3 was another epic stage – but this time for different reasons. We got to the start line just as it started to rain…..great! And did it rain! For the first 2 hours of the race it was pouring down on us – all the way up the days first big climb at the 70km mark (make no mistake though – lots of smaller climbs between the big ones!), then all the way down the other side. That made for some interesting descending as the roads were super slick – only a few small crashed though as the peloton took it pretty easy on the wet roads. The best part of the rain: it cooled things off for once!

I was able to ride at or near the front to the top of the first climb (30km into the course), but after that I was slowly working my way to the back of the peloton. It’s not nearly as bad as in NL though – the roads are wide and the riders much nicer in France, so being at the back isn’t the end of the world.

So about ½ way through the race and near the top of the big climb was the feed zone, which is where my trouble started. I was with the main group and grabbed my mussette bag, tossing it over my shoulder. The problem was when I was taking it off it got caught on my glasses which I had in my helmet, so they promptly fell off – rats. Double rats: they were my Rudy Projects with prescription inserts that I just got 2 weeks ago and have been AMAZING to wear while racing. Triple rats: there was no stopping to get them! So going down the downhill I was having some trouble seeing what was coming my way – it made it pretty interesting (in a bad way).

Then at the bottom of the downhill I had my other major problem – the peloton was CRANKING along at sprinters pace along the flats (seriously – I was BARELY hanging on the back, all the while wondering who the fuck was pushing the pace at the front!!!). So I popped into my 53x11 and cranked a few hard pedal strokes – and that’s when my chain skipped. I was so happy I didn’t die – at 60kph when you click out of your pedal and get thrown off balance the first thing that goes through your mind is “where’s the nearest soft spot where I can crash”. My heart was in my throat – but somehow I didn’t fall. Eventually I clipped back in and got my chain back on, but by this point I’d lost contact with the peloton. And my legs were on fire already, so this was trouble.

I just couldn’t keep up with the cars either, so eventually I got spat out the back. Fuck. But by the next big climb I caught up to another rider and we ended up riding together all the way to the finish – some 60km away. We easily made the time cut (we finished 24 min back from the leaders – super shitty, but the time cut was 35 min so we had plenty of time). I can tell you that 60km was pretty painful too.

DAY 4 – CERNAY to GRAND BALLON, 160km, 4 MAJOR climbs, July 30th

Right from the start I knew this day was going to be tough – just look at the elevation profiles! I mean wtf! With this heat (this was the warmest day yet) – and the previous days of racing – this was going to be epic. I also knew it was going to be tough when I woke up totally un-rested, stiff, and grumpy. This had tough written all over it.

As soon as I threw my leg over my bike I knew I wasn’t going to have a good day – my legs were completely blocked and I had an empty stomach at the start line – even after that huge breakfast. Luckily there was about a 25 minute neutral start, so I was able to at least warm up my legs a bit and get some blood going in them. I assume that’s why the organization did that – because I’m SURE the whole peloton needed it!

But unfortunately right away after about 20km we hit the first climb (Cat 3) and I (along with a bunch of others) was spit off the back. Down the other side we formed into chase groups and surprisingly we eventually caught the peloton again – wahoo! I totally thought they were gone, so that was a good surprise for once :o) BUT – next up was the Ballon d’Alsace, the Cat 1 climb and the toughest we’d see during the entire race. Right away at the bottom the peloton blew up, and again I was one of those off the back. It’s a 16km climb, so all you can do is set your own pace and grind it out – and grind I did. I haven’t checked the data yet, but I think I was cranking at about 65rpm – well below normal (95-105rpm), so really hard on the muscles and the knees. Shift you say? Well – that was my easiest gear!!!!

At the top was the feed zone, and our DS actually asked us to get into the team van, but I wanted to keep going and finish my first stage race, so off I went (hehe). I joined up with 2 other riders, one of whom was EPIC on the downhills, and onward we went. Oh yeah – the downhills. SOOOOOOO much fun when you’re with a small group, on closed roads, and hammering. I’ve never gone so fast around corners in my life, and I have a totally new confidence with it – just epic G-forces, and I could tell we were on the edge through many of the corners. I can’t say this enough – SOOOOOO much fun!!!

After about 1.5 hours riding together we came across another group of riders (including the green sprinters jersey!) about 20 km from the finish. Just in time for the last climb to the summit finish – on the Grand Ballon. It was another epic grunt in the heat, but I was able to make it in 40 minutes behind the winner, and just within the time cut-off. I was so done by the top – this had been a long 4 days!

So I’d finished every stage of my first stage race – wahoo! I have to say the 1.5 hours on the flats into the headwind was pretty tough going, and I thought more than once about quitting (ok, maybe I thought about it once every 5 minutes!).

THE PLAYERS

Here are some of the teams – most of them are French Continental teams, however most of the foreign ones are like ours (we’ve got 2 continental pro’s on our team):
- AG2R (France)
- Cofidis (France)
- Coogee/Saar (Switzerland)
- Lapierre (France)
- Rosthause (Germany)
- Davitamon (Belgium)

Each team is allowed 6 riders and there are 25 teams, so that makes 150 starters in total.

So I haven’t mentioned much about the guys behind the scenes who are keeping us on the bikes and in good moods. The funniest I think is Willy – he’s the soigneur. He’s a really interesting guy as he’s been around the block as far as cycling is concerned – he’s been a soigneur at all the big races (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Espana) and everything in between. Now he’s semi-retired and running a massage clinic out of his house. He’s FULL of awesome little tricks to get the most out of us:
- before the race he gives us a high-energy drinks and makes sure we drink them :o)
- during the race he keeps us tip-top with either water, energy, or mineral drinks as we request
- after the race he sprays us with a ‘refresher’ over our faces and legs that tingles – feels nice!
- then of course come the massages at night, which are a MUST (I had NO idea how much this really makes a difference – you cannot race a stage race without massage, no way)
- and before the team time trial he gave us some stuff that was like tiger balms that he put on cotton balls and we put up our noses to keep the breathing passages wide open – cool!

And perhaps the funniest thing about Willy is that he looks EXACTLY like the Willy who was the soigneur at Fesina who got pulled over by the Belgian customs back in 1998 that was at the center of the “Festina Affair”. I actually asked him about this during my first massage and he pulled out an old scrapbook and showed me pictures of him next to the other Willy – it turns out he’s not the same Willy as the Festina Willy after all! But he has been in the business for 30 years, so he sure knows what he’s doing.

Our mech is Theo, also an interesting character – he’s got Leukemia, but he’s been taking a new experimental drug (costs 65,000€/year!) and it’s been keeping him alive and well much longer than the average leukemia patient. He’s also able to work full time, and he can still hang out with us for the weekend (he used to be a racer too, so that’s why he’s interested in it).

Our Directeur Sportif is Wim, who is the typical DS – bald, scolding, deep voice, and stern. He also smokes like a chimney, drinks coffee till he shakes, and drives like a mad-man. Pretty funny actually, but a great guy all around.

So that’s the support team at the race – none of this would be happening without them!

DAILY ROUTINE

The usual morning routine is that we’d get woken up by a knock at the door (around 8-8:30), drink a glass of water, put on some clothes, and go downstairs to eat breakfast. Breakfast consists of stuffing our faces with as much food as possible. Period. Then drop our bikes at the van, go back upstairs, prep our gear for the day, and rest for about ½ an hour. Prepping our gear includes selecting clothing for the day (socks, undershirt, jersey – with your numbers pinned to the back, shorts, gloves, helmet, shoes at the least, along with HRM gear, food for the race, and something to look at in the car ride). Then off to the van for the transfer to the stage start, reading about the stage and muching/drinking all the way.

At the start it’s: find a good parking spot, the mechs set up the bikes and chairs while we head off for a quick pee, then it’s back to gear up, last minute check of the bikes and food count, then off to sign in for the race. Then we cruise around for about 20 minutes to loosen our legs and check out the scene around the start – pretty fun actually, as all the attention was for us!!!

Post race it’s cross the finish line, get shuffled to our team area by the mech or soigneur, and flop down into your chair that’s such a wonderful break from the saddle! There’s a towel, bottle of water, cola, and recovery drink waiting for us – these guys treat us well :o) Eat our snacks while changing out of our clothes, hop in the van, still eating our snacks, and drive back to the hotel to shower and stretch (ok – I’m the only one on the team that stretches!) before heading downstairs for the team dinner.

Dinner is very similar to breakfast – stuff our faces with as much food as possible. They say the person who eats the most is the best rider on the team – for 2 reasons. 1 – he’s the most recovered (it’s really hard to eat food when your body hasn’t settled down enough after the race) and 2 – he’ll ride the best the next day.

After dinner it’s up to the rooms to relax, watch some TV, and just generally chill out before going to bed. No wandering the town or anything at this level of racing – one late night and you’ll be screwed! Bed time is typically 10-10:30.

FOOD CONSUMPTION

So what do you eat at a stage race? For those that have no idea of cycling and what’s involved, here’s a little breakdown. Notice the quantities of pasta (for the easy carbohydrates) and salt (needed to retain all the water we’re drinking!).
Breakfast – must be finished 3 hours before start time to allow ample digestion:
- 1 bottle water immediately after waking up
- 2 croissants with jam
- 1 roll with butter and salt
- ½ baguette with ham, cheese, and jam
- 2 yoghurts
- 1 litre water (I prefer the bubbly stuff, with fruit syrop to give it some taste)
- 2 glasses orange juice
- 1-2 servings of pasta (about the size you’d get if you ordered just pasta in a restaurant) with tomato sauce, cheese, and salt

Lunch – skipped as the stages normally start around 12:30 or 13:00, so you don’t want to eat too close to the race:
- however usually good to have a banana and a Powerbar about 1 hour before the race, sometimes the banana on the start line, and always a bottle of water near your side!

Race Food – to be consumed with copious amounts of water of course:
- electrolyte replacement drink (2 bottles/stage)
- mineral replacement drink (2 bottles/stage)
- water (4 bottles/stage) – usually I’ll start with 2 water bottles on my bike and 1 in my jersey pocket. A lot of this ended up dumped over my head and back to keep me cool on the climbs (so freaking hot!)
- 1-2 small cans cola (usually near the end of the race for the sugar)
- 4 Powergels (about 1 per hour)
- 4 granola bars (about 1 per hour)
- 1 Powerbar (1/2 every 2 hours)
- 1 banana (usually near about the 1 hour mark)
- 2 apple sauce packets (there are found only in France and are AWESOME!!!)
- Obviously these amounts change with the pace and temperature, and the timing of consumption depends on the pace of the race and the terrain (you can’t ask the peloton to slow down on the climb because it’s time to eat your banana!)

Post Race Food – to be consumed immediately after the finish:
- 1 bottle recovery drink
- 1-2 small cans cola
- 1 bottle electrolyte replacement drink
- Small sandwich with jam and peanut butter
- Energy bar (if I can down it – normally not – too turned off after racing so hard)
- 1 banana

Dinner – eaten after returning to hotel and showering:
- 1 serving protein (not beef, but can be fish, chicken, or pork)
- 2-3 large servings of pasta with tomato sauce and salt
- 2 rolls with butter and salt
- Large salad with carrots, lettuce, beets, tuna, etcetera
- Broccoli and spinach
- Soup if you can get it (the salt in soup is a great starter for dinner)
- Dessert – apple pie, yoghurt, applesauce, usually something sweet to finish the meal
- Generally you jam AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE down your gullet at dinner, and go to bed feeling bloated, so your body can digest and use the food during the night!

Snacks – eaten at any time:
- TUC crackers (they’ve got salt and are tasty, crispy, and pretty neutral for your stomach)
- Wine Gums – no fat, good sugars, and super tasty – I have a new appreciation for them (I’m hooked!)

THE ALSACE REGION (France)

The Alsace is a region running North-South along the French/German border, straddling the Rhone River (this is the border). The area is famous for the Black Forest, it’s really hilly and wonderful roads through the countryside, and it’s wine production.

The race itself was great – really beautiful countryside, along some of the best roads I’ve ever ridden (really smooth and wide open), and really undulating terrain (such neat little towns throughout). And the fans lined most of the course – it was great: we’d roll into each town and the fans would be out there cheering for us and splashing us with water, it was really motivating. But one strange things I heard lots though – “Sans drugs” being shouted by about 20% of the people. It was great to hear, and I couldn’t agree more – go UCI and WADA!!!

The terrain wound around small lakes, through tiny towns and large cities, over tiny humps and large mountains with wonderful views, through vineyards and orchards, and most of this was on the best asphalt I’ve ridden on – the roads really make the race, and these were wide, smooth, well patrolled by Gendarmes and marshals, and were completely a pleasure to ride.

The Coolest Start: Strasbourg for sure! Right at the base of the huge church in the center of the old town. The village surrounded the church and was full of people and vendors, and the atmosphere was just like the start of a TdF stage! The rollout through the old town was pretty sweet too.

The Coolest Finish: Gotta be the last stage on the Ballon d’Alsace – course lined with people, writing on the roads, epic heat, and huge crowds gathered at the finish to cheer us in. Stellar.

The Craziest Moment: Tie. Stage 1 when I almost hit a post in the road when nobody in the peloton indicated it was coming (it brushed the hair on my arm as I swerved past it at 50kph – so freaking close!). Downhilling from the Grand Ballon behind a German rider – I’ve never gone that fast in the corners and it was so incredibly fun and crazy. We would have died if we’d gone off the road – nuts.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m writing this as we’re driving back to NL, so maybe I’ll have some more reflections after a few days. But my first response was one of utter disappointment – I’m so disappointed with myself that I wasn’t riding better than I was. I know I can ride better – and I’ve done it tones this year. Why wasn’t I riding well? It could be a number of things: I’m not happy with how things have been going with my life recently which has been a pretty big distraction and drain; I was recently in the French Alps for about 1 week that was pretty intense (very little sleep, some good partying, some REALLY hard training, and work – I was wiped out when I got back to NL); I found out I’d be riding this race while in the Alps, so I only had 1 week before the race to get my shit in order; the week of ‘getting my shit in order’ was a pretty intense week of work (long hours, lots of stress trying to get things turned around after the TdF trips). All in all, I wasn’t stepping into this race with my best foot forward.

On the brighter side of sports though, I actually finished the race. That may sound lame, but there are several good points to this: it’s my first real stage race (I was taking it day-by-day, and after the 2nd day my goal was just to finish); all the guys on the team were pretty happy I finished the race – this was a really tough stage race overall, so it was even harder since it was my first one; I got dropped on the 3rd and 4th days but was still able to ride in before the time cuts, which can be pretty demoralizing, so I’m happy I kept it together for that.

Also on the brighter side, it was such an incredible experience. Being with the guys on the road has been great, seeing the Alsace region has been stellar, and now I know what level of competition the UCI 2.1 stage races are at (tough!). All in all it was a really great time, so I’m glad I made the push prior to the race to get things in order so I could come. My work may have suffered a bit, but barely (I put a lot of time into it the weekend before coming), so it was totally worth it.

Wow

2006-07-21T10:46:00.000+02:00

Huh - funny how things change - sometimes it rains, sometimes it pours. And sometimes there's sunny patches and sometimes you're blinded by the light. Definitely blinded right now - here's a quick summary:
- awesome visit with my sis in Chamonix (short, but stellar - hopefully pics to come this weekend)
- fun time at the TdF with Trek Travel - seeing the gang, showing the guests a good time - brilliant
- some epic riding (ran into Chris Carmichael at the top of Col de la Croix de Fer where he was epically bonked and mowing down on Mars bars and chips!) - more to come later
- riding with Lance and Jake Gllynindal (spl??? - the dude who's going to play Lance in the "Lance movie", yet to be titled) whom I pushed up the hill so he could beat Lance back to the hotel (sweet - in return for that favour I'm going to hit him up to see if I can be a cycling extra in the movie :o)
- found out that same night that my club is going to a big race in France next week and they want me (and my climbing legs!) to be there. The last stage finishes on the Ballon d'Alsace, which the Tour has visited a few times. It's the Tour Alsace, 5 stages in 4 days, and full of some pretty stacked teams. Check out the site - follow "La Course" and then "Les Equipes", I'm with the Team Westland-Rabobank, Pays-Bas (unfortunately the link doesn't work, but whatever). Typical French website though - crazy organization (lack of), and doesn't flow at all :o) This race is huge - it's going to be unbelieveable!!!!!! I'm getting nervous already!!!! http://www.agence-aujourdhui.fr/touralsace/2006/

Off to France for the weekend

2006-07-14T10:57:00.000+02:00

Well no racing for me this weekend - I'm off to Chamonix today to visit my sister (she's working in a hotel there). It's been a while since I've seen her, Christmas actually. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again - I really miss her!

Then on Sunday I'll be down in Alpe d'Huez for a bit of work (and hopefully some riding). I'm planning on doing La Marmottes route on Monday - it's 175km and goes from Bourg d'Oisans (the base of Alpe d'Huez), over the Col de la Croix de Fer, over the Telegraph, over the Col du Galibier, then down to Bourg and finally back up Alpe d'Huez.....should be epic!

Then Tuesday the Tour finished up at Alpe d'Huez, so I'll catch the action up there and drive back on Wednesday in time for the last 3 days of the Nijmegen's 4-Day March. It's a crazy weird festival that has it's roots as a military training march. Basically everybody walks 50km/day for 4 days, and people (both military and civilian) come from all around the world to do it. It's evolved into a huge festival though, with bands and entertainers from all around the world performing all week, with the culmination on Friday night. Over the past 2 days they've been assembling the stages and band-stands, and it's been hard for me to get out of my neighbourhood in the mornings - my apartment is right downtown at the finish line of each day's March (literally - there's a line on the road about 100m from my apartment!). 100's of thousands of people come out for this festival - it's bigger than any music festival!

Every year since I've been here I've been away at the Tour, so this is the first time I'll get to see it and I'm pretty excited!

Ciao for now.

A Somber Look

2006-07-10T21:24:00.000+02:00

Here's a somber look at Canada's role in Afghnistan. I'm pretty removed from the Canadian media, so I'm really not sure why we're there. I think it's to keep the peace (or instill the peace?). I know the speach from "A Few Good Men" by Nicholson, and I actually agree with it. But still, I also live in the viscinity of several Canadian war cemetaries in and around the Nijmegen area - that's also very moving.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/casualties/total.html

What a Difference

2006-07-10T20:33:00.000+02:00

What a difference a week can make.

After my last post I got a lot of phone calls and emails from family and friends offering words of encouragement and generally wondering what’s going on and if they can help – and it was wonderful. One of the biggest things I’ve realized is that I’m lonely here – really lonely. And I’m not that kind of person. I know I can take care of myself on my own, and I do like doing lots of things on my own, but I really need a balance – which is something that’s completely missing in my life right now. Here I have none. So that’s one of the changes I’m working on right now. I felt so much better after getting other people’s opinions and thoughts – it sounds really dorky, but if you’ve ever spent a long time without them you’ll know what I mean. As I’ve mentioned before, don’t make any decision’s when you’re on a really big high or really big low – so although I haven’t made any concrete decisions I’ve started to look at things with a different eye now and it feels good.

But I digress – I should tell the story of the weekend. It actually started LAST weekend when I did the Sunday crit. It was 80km with 12 corners – generally regarded as one of the hardest crit courses in the Netherlands. I went into it feeling OK – not great, but after getting some coaching from my Dad the night before I was in better spirits. The race started well enough (I did all the good things I’d done the day before), and soon enough I found myself in a break of 12. Unfortunately I didn’t realize we were already in a break, otherwise I would have worked harder, but it was so early in the race it might not have made a difference anyway. So I settled back a bit, but still rode near the front. Soon enough 2 of my teammates made another break of 12, so I knew my job for the rest of the day – control as much as I could. So I spent the day riding at/near the front of the peloton, and any time someone tried to go I’d be right on them. It probably wasn’t necessary as the break was strong enough to stay away, but it sure felt great. I was at or near the front and felt like the strongest riders there. In the end I have no idea what place I finished, but I won some money, so that was pretty cool (and my first winnings!).

So – this past weekend was the club championships: the 12 best teams from the south, and the 12 best teams from the north squaring off with their 6 best riders each (144 total), winner declared the best in the country. The first race was a 9km prologue – so I got decked out in all the time trial gear and hopped on one of the clubs TT bikes and away I went. This was the first time I’d done a real time trial and I didn’t know what to expect, so I just went as hard as I could. I made some mistakes (could have gone faster thru the corners, smarter in a few sections, etcetera), but I was actually in 2nd place for a little while! (Not long – but it sure felt good!). I ended up in 50th place, about 40 seconds slower than the winner, 15 seconds slower than my fastest teammate, and 4 seconds slower than the next fastest – so I was 3rd on my team, not bad! I felt I rode just about as well as I could at this point, so no complaints.

Next up was the crit – 100km on a 3.5km course. This was a killer race with a really fast pace and a really nervous peloton, and after 2 hours I got caught at the back in the wrong group and was gone – fack. But I still got points because a few of us worked together and kept going until the end (the points are tallied over the weekend to decide the winning team). My only teammates that finished ahead of me were the 2 guys who beat me in the time trail too. I was riding stupidly in the peloton though – taking dumb pulls, riding in the wind, etcetera, which really cost me lots of energy in the end. I was not happy with my riding. It’s funny how easy it is to say ‘that’s not how you should do it – try this’, but when push comes to shove it can be pretty hard to do it sometimes, especially when there are 140 other riders trying to do the same thing!!

The next morning was tough – mostly because on Saturday night my roommate couldn’t sleep, so he was tossing and turning and kept me awake. Eventually he left to wander around the hotel, at which time I finally fell asleep – only to be woken up when he came back (he forgot the key, so he was knocking on the door). I’d had about 2 hours sleep by the time the alarm went off and we headed off to the team time trial – I felt like a deer in the headlights, and my coffee that morning didn’t even pep me up at all :o(

23km with some windy sections, this was going to be interesting – especially since we’d never ridden together in formation, which is pretty hard to do with aerobars. We didn’t even have time to see the course – how shitty was that planning! In the end my roommate was the first off the group (about 5km from the finish), and I fell off about 2km from the finish. Overall we ended up 9th out of 24 teams – pretty good for such a young/inexperienced team (we were really happy with that result). I had lead in my legs the entire time, so I wasn’t happy with my effort and felt I could have helped more – but I just had nothing after such a crappy sleep. I was also really scared for what was coming up in the afternoon…..

So Sunday afternoon was the race of truth – the 150km road race. We lined up feeling pretty tired to say the least – we only had 3 hours from the end of our team time trial to the start time to shower, eat our lunch (spaghetti of course!), recover, get our gear together, do our warmup, and get to the start line. I was pretty worried – I had no idea how I’d handle it, but I was sensing disaster.

The pace from the gun was quick as usual, and pretty soon riders started shooting off the back. I was trying to learn from the day before by riding as covered as I could during the windy sections (which were plentiful – lots of crosswinds in this one!) and making up time in the tail wind sections. It turns out things were going fairly well for me though – after 2 hours I was still with the peloton (no lead groups at this point) and we were trucking along nicely. We’d dropped about 50 riders, so things were thinning out a bit too – from what I was hearing from my teammates (they speak Dutch so they had radios) there were riders falling off the pace all over the place – trying to use team cars to catch back on, and just general carnage of the peloton.

For me things were great though - all across the board I felt much better than I’d expected: more confident riding at speed in the peloton; eating was easier; grabbing food was a cinch (musette bags et al!); keeping out of the wind was easier; the cobblestones were a piece of cake (totally reminded me of the Arenburg forest – really, huge cobbles for 2.5km through thick forest, you’re never sure if you’re going to emerge on the other side!); and just generally moving around the peloton was fine.

After a little while though things changed and a break of 25 pulled away, which sucked – we missed it. By this point only 3 of us were left in the race too, so what to do? We decided just to ride out the rest of the race and see if anything happened. There were some more splits in the peloton and we lost another rider to a back group, so now it was just down to 2 of us. We both stayed near the front though to make sure things didn’t break up any more, which worked well for us. For the 2 finishing laps through town we were near the front – I was doing a lot of pulling to make sure it would finish in a sprint (I knew my teammate was a really strong sprinter). In the end he won the sprint for 26th place, and I finished just behind in 37th place – out of 144 starters! This was my best result so far, and it really felt good. I was near the front most of the race, feeling good almost the whole time (the first time that’s happened for sure!), and never really worried about it – and I almost made the break.

So that really helps me out – to get results, and the rest of the club was really happy for me – they knew this was great for me so they were ecstatic (our directeur hugged me at the finish line and said he was proud!). Now I’m SUPER tired, but much happier :o)

In the end we finished 14th out of 24 teams (10th as a team in the prologue and 9h in the team time trial) – we were pretty happy with that considering our team: one old guy with no experience and bad results all year (moi); one 21 year old with great results but not much experience (my roommate), two 24 year olds with not great results and not great experience, and two 21 year olds with no experience or results. This was mostly a development club that will try for better things in the coming years!

Anyway – I’ve got to go eat – my spaghetti awaits me (did I mention that’s all I ate this weekend and muesli in the morning!).

Questioning this.

2006-07-02T11:07:00.000+02:00

So yesterday and today there are some criteriums/kermesses rather than the classic road races. These are my first crits in Europe, so I’m pretty interested to see how things shake out. Yesterday I went to one just outside Rotterdam – 100km crit, 60 laps of a 4 corner circuit, all of it on cobblestones. JFC!!! Who the hell designed this course anyway!

The best part about the day: something I learned from my last race paid off in spades. After being shelled in Belgium I took a step back and realized I couldn’t warm up with my teammates any more, since all they do is a soft pedal for 15 minutes – and when the races start with an average speed of 48kph in the first hour you’d better be ready to ride right from the start (no warming up in the peloton!!!). So this time I made 3 fundamental changes to how I go to races (I know I should have been doing these from the start, but sometimes you get so caught up in things that you miss the basics):
- do a solid warmup with intervals (1/2 an hour, with at least 4 intervals of 2 minutes each – they hurt like a biatch when you’re doing them, but when the race starts you can ride at full speed right away while others are hurting to recover)
- get to the start line early and be at the front right away (this makes life so much easier when you already start out in a good position!)
- learn more about the race before arriving there – start times, course description, feed zones, have a basic strategy, etcetera

So yesterday I did all three and it worked out wonderfully – I did my research and knew about the race before hand (however as I was riding my bike the 2 blocks to my car to drive to the race I rode over some glass and shredded my rear tire – I had to speed by work to steal a tube and tire and SPEED to the race to make it on time – never a dull moment :o), I did my warmup on my own (it hurt, but I knew it would help), and I got to the start line early so I was on the front row (actually right behind last years winner and this years points leader in the crits – I’ll see if I can find some photos).

So the race started really well as I was in the top 20 and even higher for the first 20 minutes – and feeling GREAT. I was even taking some pulls, which was probably a bad thing to do – I don’t have enough experience/fitness to take pulls and still expect to ride a good race! But after about 40 minutes of racing something happened – I don’t know what it was, but I started dropping back, and soon I found myself well back in the peloton, which is exactly where you don’t want to be – ever. After another 10 minutes I dropped out….and I was feeling really shitty about it. My legs were still good, but I didn’t want to be there – I just wanted to crawl under a rock and cry.

I don’t know what exactly happened – but it was totally mental. As I’ve mentioned I’m having a tough time with how things have been going for me recently, and I don’t feel very strong mentally or spiritually. I’m really questioning whether I want to keep doing this racing routine. I think it’s natural to have highs and lows (if you’re always on a high or a low I think somethings not right), but the lows should last a week at most before you start really wondering what’s going on. Well I’ve been down for a few weeks now, so it’s not like this has just popped up on me.

The question that keeps popping up in my mind is: am I having fun racing in the peloton?? My first race in Belgium was a complete blast – I really did have a fun time then. But what’s happened since then? I’ve had nothing but DNF’s, and it’s really getting me down. I’m not really having fun in the peloton any more – and if I’m not having fun, why am I doing it?

There’s so much to do and see in life and I’m spending all my free time and energy whizzing past it all trying to stay tucked safely in the peloton – and right now I’m not enjoying it. I’ve got to find out what I’m really getting out of this and decide if it’s worth continuing or not.

I’ve got another race this afternoon (80km criterium), then some teammates and I are going out on our time-trial bikes to practice for next weekend: the Dutch Club Championships. It looks like a great weekend of racing, with a time trial and criterium on Saturday, then a team time trial and road race on Sunday…..not much time for recovery, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. The top 12 clubs from South Netherlands and the top 12 from North Netherlands…..yikes.

Great weekend of riding

2006-07-02T10:46:00.000+02:00

So last weekend there weren’t any classic races planned, so I joined a few friends who were going to Belgium for a ride on Saturday – we did the Tilff-Bastogne-Tilff course (virtually the same as Liege-Bastogne-Liege except without the shitty Liege parts!). The course is absolutely stellar, with some amazing views in the Belgian Ardennes – stuff that I haven’t seen in what seems like years! I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was!

It helped that the day was 30 degrees with not a cloud in the sky – this was the absolutely perfect cycling day: good friends riding at a solid pace, early start (right – 11:00 on the bike :o), great route planned, and nothing to do all day but ride ride ride. In the end we didn’t get back to the car until about 6pm, but no complaints – we all had an absolute blast. This day was right up there with Paris-Roubaix for fun factor (PR wins based on sheer coolness though :o)

Then on Sunday I woke up and decided to ride with the Wedrenners, who were doing a special Sunday ride of 130km. This turned out to be a stellar ride too, as we hit an area near Nijmegen that I never even knew existed! I couldn’t believe it – tiny winding country roads through rolling hills, no cars, and stellar views that at times rivaled those of the day before in Belgium…..why didn’t I know about this place already??!? What a great ride though – so much fun. And just as we crested the finishing climb the rain started, how good was that timing? It was one of those warm summer rains that comes just at the right time to cool you down, so it was perfect. We finished the ride home in a light drizzle with huge grins on our faces :o))

That afternoon I went into work for one of the guide teams that was coming back with their unit of bikes (so I had to let them into the warehouse so they could unload). I quickly realized I wasn’t feeling very well, and had the chills and an upset stomach. I ended up tossing my cookies, so I kicked the guides out and went home, where I spent the better part of the night either on the toilet or in my bed, with just enough energy to get up and watch the end of the Dutch getting their asses kicked by Portugal for their ticket home from the World Cup.

It wasn’t until Tuesday night that I felt I started to have strength again, and all week my stomach was a little bit off – which made it hard for this weekends racing!

Another race another DNF

2006-07-02T10:35:00.000+02:00

So what’s been happening with me since my last post…..it’s been a while, no? It sure feels like ages since I last posted anyway. So after the Paris-Roubaix I had a pretty easy week of training, just doing my intervals and drills and minding my own. The next weekend was pretty easy too as I had a race the following Tuesday – this one just outside Kortrijk in Belgium (Chris and Jess – remember Kortrijk and the bangers with the flying shoes??!).

So Tuesday morning bright and early we head out in the team van down to Kortrijk and get set for the race start at about 2pm. It’s a 170km race around an 11km loop, with a small climb on the cobblestones (“yehaw” I thought!). I won’t get into the details of the day, as it was pretty disappointing – I got dropped (again). This time there were 7 of us on the team, and 6 of us were in the 4th group when the peloton shattered. We rode hard for a while but couldn’t make up any distance, so there were about 30 of us that got pulled off the course after 2 hours. Shi-tty. It was really frustrating as I’d taken the day off work and gone that far for a 2 hour crappy ride, and the cobblestone hill was nothing more than a rise on cobbles (which was a breeze since I’d just done PR!).

But more importantly I was getting pretty down about things. A lot of stuff isn’t going my way these days, or as I’d hoped they’d go, so it gets pretty frustrating. I know it’s wonderful just to have my health, a good job, and the freedom to do what I want and when I want, which is great – and please don’t think I’m taking that for granted. But with these freedoms and abilities I should be able to lead a happy life, however I define ‘happy’ (it can be anything, from riding my bike to working in a bar to sitting on my ass watching TV). And also knowing that these freedoms and abilities can change at any time I would rather take advantage of the situation while I can and do the most with my life.

So again – it’s not that things are bad at all, but things just aren’t working out as I’d hoped in so many ways and it’s getting me pretty depressed. The poor cycling results are just one of many things that are getting me down recently.
But on the drive home after that race in Kortrijk I had a chat with our mechanic and he seemed to think I was being too hard on myself and expecting too much too soon – to just jump into the fray and expect to get good results at elite level bike racing is a pretty daunting task. That definitely helped boost my spirits a bit, but I still wasn’t feeling good about things.

Blisters Anyone?

2006-06-19T08:16:00.000+02:00

So here are some pics of the blisters I got at the Paris-Roubaix ride last weekend. I'm still beaming about it - SO much fun. Well worth it :o)

Words words words

2006-06-16T10:51:00.000+02:00

"When you get to the end of your rope
Tie a knot and hang on."
- Frankin D. Rosevelt

Paris-Roubaix

2006-06-15T21:14:00.000+02:00

So this past weekend I did the Paris-Roubaix cycle-tour ride. On Saturday I drove down to Roubaix to meet up with a group from Trek that had driven over from England – we had a pretty good group too! We dropped a bunch of cars at the end and all drove down to Paris together (ok not quite Paris – it starts in Compeigne). I had been hesitant to decide on which option I’d ride though – 260km is a pretty long ride, while 180km, although still long, was a much more reasonable distance.

But once I got there on Saturday I knew there was no way I could only do 180 – so I signed up for the full monty: 260km, of which 55km were on the (cycling)world-renowned cobblestones (aka pave; aka kinderkopjes). Including the 2.4km of the Arenberg Forest, (cycling)world-renowned for swallowing up whole pelotons full of strong able-bodies riders and spitting out blubbering shells of human beings…..cool.

Sunday started early for us – notice that I didn’t say ‘dawned’ early. That’s because we started the ride at 04:45….in the dark! This was by far the earliest I’d ever been on my bike (except for a 24 hour MTB race, which was a blast!). So off 3 of us started in the cool dark morning and quickly joined up with a few groups and soon we had about 60 riders trucking along. We weren’t going hard at all though – we all knew it was going to be a LOOONG day in the saddle.

The first 3 hours were really wonderful – just cruising along at a steady pace, watching the sun coming up over the horizon as we wound our way through the hills and forests just outside Paris. This was a REALLY nice place to ride, probably made even more so because of the complete lack of cars at that hour of the morning. It wasn’t until 82km into the ride that we hit the first checkpoint where we could stop and refuel, in addition to stamping our cards. This is where most of the rest of my group started their ride – just in time for the cobblestones!

It was at 97km into the day that we hit the first cobblestones. It really amazed me too – it was about 3.5 hours into the ride and I really felt like the ride had just started. The time had just flown by! So as we came into the first cobblestone section I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear, and as I relaxed my upper body, dropped into a harder gear, and really let loose on the pedals I could hear myself laughing out loud – this was so much fun. Crazy? Perhaps. But I wasn’t alone – all the other riders had huge grins and some were also laughing out loud too. As bizarre as it was we were loving the cobblestones.

This continued for the next 3 or 4 sections of cobbles, but then the realization came upon me – I still have 23 more sections to do (along with a HEAP of km’s!) before the finish. So on we trundled.

With the guys I was riding with a pattern quickly formed. We would leave a rest-station together and ride until we hit the first pave section, then I would drop the hammer (did I mention the best way to ride pave is as fast as possible?? – seriously – it’s a well known fact, even as weird as it sounds) and speed along the cobbles as fast as I could. Upon reaching the other end I would latch onto another group of riders and ride with them to the next cobbles, at which time I’d drop the hammer again and speed away on the cobbles. Although I’ve never really done them before I seemed to have a knack for riding the pave – and I was absolutely loving it.

With the hot weather I also realized it would be really easy to overexert and/or overheat. It was about 31 degrees C, not a cloud in the sky, a brisk head-wind, and SUPER dusty (that gives another dimension to the cobbles…..but at least it wasn’t wet!). So at every rest stop I filled up on water and got some food, and made sure I was really taking care of myself throughout the day.

It wasn’t until the 160km mark that we hit the Arenberg Forest – wow, what a beast. I’ve never ridden anything that hard on a bike before, and after about 200m I actually pulled over to the side to reload and make sure I wanted to do this. After a few seconds I realized I did, so back into the center of the road and off I went…..bouncing all the way. It was amazing though – the biggest cobblestones I’ve ever seen, with huge gaps in between, and NOT A SINGLE PATTER TO THEM! There was nowhere to ride a smooth line or an easier line – it was just pure hell for 2.4km…..and I loved it. Still grinning when I emerged on the other side!

From there the rest was a piece of cake – except for the massive blisters I developed (this through my gloves!) and the searing pain in both my wrists. It was really strange – the entire ride I didn’t once have problems with my legs, butt, or back, but my wrist and hands felt like they were being torn off – really painful. Even as I type this (5 days later!) I still have lots of pain in my left hand, which I’ve had wrapped up all week in a tensor bandage to keep from moving it!

So at the end of the ride we rode into the famous velodrome in Roubaix where we did our little spin – what a feeling that was entering the velodrome. I can’t really explain it – just such a special feeling. In total, from start to finish was 11.5 hours, of which I estimate I was riding 9.5 of them. That’s an average speed of about 27kph – not that fast, but that’s not why I was there.

I can honestly say that was the funnest day I’ve ever had on a bike, and even when I crossed the finish line I thought about doing it again in 2 years (it’s only done every 2 years). Such an incredible feeling knowing that I’ve ridden the same tough course that the pro’s do every year. And even they have trouble with it – most don’t finish, and those that do say they’re still messed up 1 week later!

An absolutely stellar day on the bike, just what the doctor ordered. So fun.

I’ll never forget that hot and dusty day spend riding the French countryside – it’s a massive paving stone on the road I call my life (yeah yeah – really cheesy, eh?!).

Ha - I found a photo!

2006-06-09T14:54:00.000+02:00

I was hoping somebody would post something from the top of the climb :o) These ones was actually taken about 500m after the top of the climb and you can see the guy bridging up to me. We didn't last long at all - but it was pretty freaking cool to be at the front of the peloton! And I checked the start list - there were 7 Continental teams, 1 National Selection Team, and the rest were club teams like mine. What a blast!

Wednesday Race Night - what a blast!

2006-06-09T10:32:00.000+02:00

So Wednesday was race day – not your normal day for a race (no holiday, nothing – just a race!), but it still looked promising. The race was in Harderwijk, which is about 40 min from Amsterdam. The start was at 16:30 along the canals of the old town, which was super beautiful – and it was actually a really fun start at the marina. We wound through the cities old streets during the roll-out, all the while policemen blowing whistles, people cheering, etcetera etcetera (it was so cool I almost peed in my shorts).

The day was beautiful and sunny, warm but not hot, and there was hardly any wind (just a few puffs), which was pretty amazing for here – these were great conditions for me. I don’t do so well in the wind – some of it’s probably psychological, but really, the Dutchies are super strong in the winds and they know how to ride them, so I always get burned :o(

This course looked pretty interesting too with most of it on narrow roads winding through the woods – which is what I LIVE for – so fun! After my past few performances I was interested to see how my body would respond though, so for the first 30 minutes of the race I was just sitting in the peloton as we cruised along at a steady 47kph (yup – that’s pretty freaking fast!). I was feeling pretty good, and at one point in the race we were coming out of the forest canopy and all we could see up ahead was the road veering steeply upwards and disappearing behind the canopy above us (we were basically in a tunnel). One of my teammates knows I LOVE climbs, so he got on the radio and said this was the only hill in the Netherlands…..and I took the bait :o) I made a couple quick moves and found myself attacking before the climb. I broke free pretty easily. It was still early in the race, so they figured (correctly) that I wouldn’t go the whole distance (oh yeah – did I mention it was a 185km race?!). At the top of the climb were a bunch of photographers because the scene was so neat with the whole peloton behind, so hopefully I’ll see my photo turn up somewhere! Sure enough someone bridged up to me and we pulled for a while, but after 5 minutes the peloton was on us again.

We rode and rode and rode and I was having a blast – I hadn’t felt that good in ages and was just happy to be there! However as the course narrowed one of the riders went down in front which caused a pile-up. Normally when there’s a crash somebody says something, but somebody had hit the ‘mute’ button with this peloton, so I didn’t know what was going on until everyone in front of me was blindly weaving to the side of the road. Unfortunately for me I was already near the side of the road and I was pushed off into some trees and an embankment – over the handlebars I go. Nothing serious though as I had a soft landing, but my handlebar and shifter we both turned pretty far. So after straightening them out I was back on my bike, but now I was at the back of the peloton (rats).

I worked my way back up just before the section along the dyke, which was the plan (you don’t want to be near the back when you’re in a potentially cross-windy section as the peloton can split!). But again, I was where I’d planned to be at this point in the race, so I was happy. So I started eating again, and with a mouthful of bar I came upon the 2nd pileup of the day. With only my rear brake to stop (the rest of the bar was in my hand at the time) I realized I was going to plow into the guys on the ground, so I threw myself to the side and down the grassy slope of the dyke. As I was getting further away from the road I realized I should get off my bike – I was only picking up speed! As I tried to dismount though things went wrong and I cranked myself in my right hamstring with the nose of my saddle.

Off the bike I scampered up the dyke and back onto the asphalt. I had to make my way through some cars to the back of the peloton again, but at least I was there…..or was I. About 5 or 10 minutes later, after the adrenalin had died down, I realized my hamstring wasn’t right, and shortly after it started cramping. This just as we headed into the woods and up a false-flat climb. I couldn’t follow – in fact I couldn’t even stay on my bike any more, so I flopped over on the grass like a fish out of water trying to release the cramp-of-a-lifetime. I couldn’t, so they threw my bike on the team car and me in the back of an ambulance and off we went to follow the rest of the racers. My day was done (fuck). Actually, double fuck – the course was awesome for me and I was feeling good up until that point. But I’d made it 2.5 hours at 46kph, which was the best effort I’d had in a while and did wonders for my confidence!

The race was tough on my teammates too – 3 others ended up dropping out before the end, and the only finisher was well back in the peloton (he’s been fighting a stomach flu for a week and this was his first ride back).

Oh well, better luck next time I guess. You should see my rear tire though – I have no idea how it didn’t blow – there’s a 2 inch part of it that’s down to the wire!!!!

Anyway, off to Paris now for the Paris-Roubaix ride. Can’t wait!!!!

Short Post this time

2006-06-07T10:26:00.000+02:00

Yeah I know – really creative title, eh?! But not too much news to report on this end. I pretty much took last week off to try to get rid of this cold. I’ve got issues when a cold moves into my sinuses – for some reason it’ll stick around a lot longer as I tend to get sinus infections pretty easily (right - I’m sure you need to know that).

So last Satuday I went for a pretty easy spin with Wilco in the morning for 2.5 hours which felt OK, but not great. I was really drained afterwords, and a siesta would have been ideal! But my friend Lalo (see the sidebar for his website) and his girlfriend Sasha were having an open day at their atelier in Arnhem, so that afternoon was spend up there checking out their artwork and visuals – some pretty cool stuff. Lalo’s website is really impressive too (I find the organization a bit confusing, but still a neat site).

Then Sunday I decided I’d better not do any intensity and just get some long km’s into my legs, so I joined the Sunday jam group (same as the Tuesday group, only they go a lot longer and a lot slower on Sundays!). We did about 3 hours together and then I was back home, but I still felt really good and I knew I wanted/needed more km’s in my legs, so I grabbed my iPod and some more food and went for another 2.5 hrs solo, which was great. I was toast when I was done, but I’d ridden about 175km and spend a lot of hours in the saddle, which is what I needed for this week!

And most importantly – I tried 2 small efforts with the Wedrenners (not more than 5 minutes total) and my HR was able to get up and my legs felt pretty good. That’s a HUGE change from my last few rides when I couldn’t put anything together. That sickness was really weird – I’ve never felt that drained on the bike before.

So Monday was a rest day, then last night I joined the Wedrenners for the Tuesday jam session. I wanted to see how my body was doing with efforts – hills and pulls at the front. It’s been a while (3 weeks?!) since I’ve felt good and had a good body feeling while riding, so I really wanted to see how it would feel. I played it safe for the first ½ of the ride and just got warmed up really well. Then I hit it a few times on the last 2 climbs and I was really happy with the results. I got my HR up to 187 (I haven’t seen it that high since cyclocross last season!) and everything felt pretty good: my legs were spinning well, my lungs were doing great, and I felt pretty solid. My recovery wasn’t so great after the efforts though, so I took another 45 minute spin after the ride to clean out my legs and get some food in me.

Then last night I slept well but still woke up tired – I still feel this cold in my sinuses, but what can ya do!

Today is a big day – 185km race this afternoon. It starts at 16:30 and ends at 20:45 – luckily it’s light here until about 22:15!!! But I’m not setting huge goals for this one. I’ve felt so crappy and things haven’t been going my way over the past 4-6 weeks, which has been really playing with my head. So I’m just going to try to sit in and finish the race with the main group and get more experience and practice riding in the peloton. I’m not going to worry about breaks and the like – I also don’t think I have the fitness to worry about that stuff right now.

This is also in prep for this weekend – I’m registered to do the Paris-Roubaix cyclo-tour. 259km with 52km’s of them on pave (cobblestones). Check out the course at http://www.letour.fr/2006/PRX/LIVE/us/100/carte.html

This should be an interesting week! Not sure how I’ll do since I haven’t built into this well (ok, I haven’t built into this at all!), but I’m setting low expectations. That’s my new motto :o)

Ullrich moves into bike production.

2006-06-01T10:18:00.000+02:00

So Jan Ullrich has started to make strides for his post pro racing life......I wonder if his heart is really into the Tour this year. I've actually heard a lot of people say he's just not passionate enough about riding to win the Tour again, which is a huge waste of talent- but just because you can do somethings doesn't mean you should do it. Anybody got 3,000euros burning a hole in their pocket they'd be interestet in spending on an un-tried and un-tested carbon road frame?

http://www.janullrich-bikes.de/

Good luck with that Jan-man!

Random thoughts (not related to cycling)

2006-05-31T20:28:00.000+02:00

Here are some interesting websites that you may like. The first 2 are socially responsible - I really like the Right to Play one personally. It was a big movement here in the Netherlands, and you may remember some of the Winter Olympians (most notably Joey Cheek and Clara Hughes) donated all their winnings directly to this movement. The last one is good for a laugh or two :o)

www.righttoplay.com - movement to help fund/create programs for children around the world to have a chance at sports, which can often pull people away from gangs and other wasteful undertakings

http://www.blueplanetrun.org/ - run around the world to raise awareness for safe drinking water for the public - whatever country they may be in

http://dailydancer.com/ - wow - sweet moved dude....

Basso and the Oilers

2006-05-31T19:51:00.000+02:00

Not that the two are related, but they will both be mentioned on this post.

Basso - wow, what a hero. Winning the Giro in THE most convincing fashion by destroying all his major rivals on their turf - and in the process making it his turf now! With such a dominating performance he's my pick for the Tour as well. He's smart enough to taper off and then re-peak 5 weeks from now when he needs it, and he's got the team and support network to do it with him. He'll be amazing to watch - Basso, Floyd, Valverde, Ulrich are my pics for the top 4, in that order. You heard it hear first folks - don't forget it!

The Oilers - wow, what heroes!! Into the Stanley Cup Finals to face either Carolina or Buffalo (each of whom are super tricky opponents). I have to predict an Oilers win, and I think they can do it too - my only hope is I can find a bar in town that's willing to a) show the games on their big screen TV and b) stay open late enough on game night to allow me to watch! Go Oilers!!!!!

Bad race near Rotterdam - I'm blocked!!

2006-05-31T19:50:00.000+02:00

Well another week has gone by and now it’s already into Wednesday – my how time flies like an arrow (and fruit flies like a banana…..thanks for that one Groucho :o) Outside of a dog, a book is mans best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read (thanks again Groucho – now get outta my head for a while!).

So after the last race I had a pretty good fever but still had to go spinning on Monday – I knew my legs would completely seize up if I didn’t. So I took a 1.5 hour spin with a couple small hills in it and really, I felt pretty good! My legs didn’t feel bad at all (a bit tired, but not NEARLY as tired as I expected them to be) and my cold wasn’t bothering me at all. But I knew with a fever it’s best to be off the bike, so I took the rest of the week totally off the bike (even driving into work……gasp! – sorry Geoff! :o)

So Saturday rolled around cloudy, cold, and promising rain. I wasn’t 100% yet after my cold but I was needed at the race (otherwise we’d be short a rider), so I decided this is what I’m here for, lets do it! Luckily it was a much easier day since the race was closer (just outside Rotterdam……which means FLATTER than the flattest flat mc-flat-pancake you’ve ever flattened), so Saturday turned out more relaxed than the previous weekend.

6 of us in the race, same routine as last time, but this race was a bit smaller scale. Still, it promised to be interesting. The big thing my teammates all said was to be in the top 40-50 riders when we hit the crosswind section, otherwise it’s game over. 50% of the peloton will drop out almost immediately (ok after 50km) because of the winds and the remaining riders will split into smaller groups, so you’ve GOT to be in the front groups or you’ll be chasing in vain all day.

So the race started and I was doing well enough staying at the front…..that was until we left the neutral start and the race actually started! BAM!! Suddenly I’m being overtaken on all side and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s like I dropped an anchor – really, I must have been towing someone. But I managed to stay in the middle of the peloton until we hit the crosswind section, then the shit hit the fan.

I knew it was going to happen too – I just didn’t have any juice in my legs, my lungs felt clogged, and I didn’t have any energy overall. My heart rate wouldn’t get over 165bpm (that’s really bad – I’m used to racing at a 160 average with peaks 180-185). Something wasn’t right – and I mean REALLY not right. No matter what I tried I just couldn’t get warmed up properly, so slowly but surely I was being spit out the back of the peloton in a very ungraceful fashion. By 40 minutes into the 170km race I was done and dropped, and there was nothing I could do about it.

My only condolence was I wasn’t the first to get dropped – there was already a contingent of about 10 that hadn’t made it as far as me. So I still hammered away for 10 minutes (towing the others with me) in the vain hope the peloton would realize I wasn’t with them any more and they’d slow down until I caught up, but alas that future did not unfold. By the time I sat up there was only 1 other rider with me, and we immediately realized we had no idea where we were or where we were supposed to go. And rain clouds were moving in. And it was getting windy. And cold. Great – this day just got better and better.

As luck would have it the other riders spoke Dutch and was able to converse with the locals, who gave us completely mixed directions back to the start. To make a shitty story short, we made it back to the start area just as the rain started to come down – and wow, did it come down! Oh yeah – did I mention my bag of clothes (including my car key) was in the team car, which by this point was about 70km from where I was?? Yeah – wonderful day for yours truly.

My teammate managed a 9th place, another came 20th, and another 34th, so not bad overall.

So with my pride bruised but intact I headed home, intent on riding on Sunday. However Sunday turned out to be a similar day – very strange feeling in my legs, no energy at all, and no lungs – and my HR still wouldn’t go above 160bpm. Sign of being sick? Normally I would say yes, but I’ve never felt like this – ever. There’s just NO juice anywhere in my body, and when I tried to get my systems warmed up and working (blood delivering oxygen to the muscles, digestion delivering glucose to the blood stream, lactic acid being cleaned from the muscles, muscles working smoothly and properly, heart pumping blood well, lungs breathing in oxygen into blood stream, etcetera) there was no response. It’s like I’ve transported myself back to my first day of training this year when nothing was working and I had to slowly build everything from scratch. And the weirdest thing is my head and heart are TOTALLY into it right now – all I want to do is ride, but my body is saying no. I’ve really never had anything like this and I’m not sure what to do :o(

I just hope this clears up soon – I’ve got another interesting race (this one with a HILL!!!!) on Saturday, then 2 more races during the week next week. Shite – I hope I’m feeling better by Friday when I do my warmup ride for Saturday, or else I’ve got a big problem……

Quotes - I haven't posted new ones in a while...

2006-05-24T19:37:00.000+02:00

....so I feel like I should - I love quotes. Other people always seem to say things better than me!

"I shall desire and I shall find
The best of my desires"
- Rupert Brooke

"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water."
- Franklin P. Jones

Oh yeah, and the Oilers......wow.....what can I say. They rock. Big time.

My First Real Team Race

2006-05-23T22:00:00.000+02:00

Puurs - just outside Antwerpen, Belgium

So Sunday rolls around and I’m scheduled to meet the other riders at 08:00 for the drive to Antwerpen and the race. I get there just on time (in typical fashion it was in sheer panic though – I was running on fumes in my gas tank until I found a gas station with 24h pumps, which are according to Murphy’s Law virtually impossible to find when you really need them).

We toss our gear in the team van and the bikes on the team car and head off. I wasn’t sure what the day would bring, but I only had a few goals for this race – none too lofty:
- work on leg speed
- get comfy in the peloton, especially working on staying out of the wind and getting to the front
- learn about riding as a supported rider
- finishing the race (at 160km with 160 starters this was going to be big!)

So we arrive in town and we all wander into this little café where our directeur sportif Wim (who, by the way, is exactly as I’d picture him) says is the registration location. Huh – 09:15 and they’re drinking beer, smoking, and pounding coffee….and yup – in the back room is the race committee! So we sit down and drink coffee and enjoy the 2nd hand smoke for an hour while things get straightened out. Then it was time to start things up :o)

So when we get back to the vehicles the team mechanic already had the bikes out and was checking gears, putting on numbers, and upping tire pressure (130psi, or 8 bars). Great – I’ve never had a mechanic before, but I like it! So off to the change rooms we go at the sports center, where the 5 of us (only 5 riders in this race for our team) got warm-up massages from our 2 soigneurs (yup – soigneurs!!!). Then back to the bikes where Wim gave us the radios and our pep talk before the race.

It actually turns out the other 4 riders were younger (20-23) and were here only for getting experience riding such a race, so that’s why they had me along too – to get experience in a no-pressure race.

The Course:
It was the Klein Brabant Classic of 160km from the town of Puurs, consisting of 1 round of 60km, 1 round of 40km, and 8 rounds of 8km (those strong in math with notice that’s 164km….which also doesn't match the total km's at the end of the race.....but who am I to complain!). The finishing 8 rounds had a hill (an overpass actually, but with the headwinds it felt pretty big!!), a feed zone (more to come later), and a 1km long cobblestone section…..sweeeeet

The Start:
Getting there early really has it’s advantages, as we were able to sign in (yup – they had a sign in table!), check out the start area, the rollout zone, the 12 motorcycle cops, the caravan (yup – full on caravan!), the media vehicles, the helicopter, and just enjoy the moments before we started hammering each other. The start went great as we were lucky/early enough to line up at the front, so for the first 20km we had Jan van Arkel guys in the top 20…..which would change!

The Race:
Flat Flat Flat. Wow was this course flat, with lots of sharp corners and headwind/crosswind sections. It was like a criterium! And over the first 2 hours it really showed as we averaged 44kph, even with the wind. Wow – these guys were F A S T!!! Then we started slowing down a bit as the front guys started getting tired, but by this point I was well into my lesson for the day: don’t be in the last 2/3 of the peloton. Ever again. Ever. No matter what you do you’ll be spending more energy than the guys at the front, so whatever it takes don’t be in the back, especially on a course with lots of turns. Does the term accordion mean anything to you? Maybe you get the idea, as 160 guys accordion through the turns, with the ones at the front going a steady pace and the ones at the back having to HAMMER out of every corner just to catch up.

So I was pretty dead by the time we started the finishing laps, but luckily there was a feed zone. We had 3 people handing out mussette bags and bottles, but it took 2 tries before I could grab anything. You ever tried grabbing a waterbottle at 40kph? There’s a technique to it – trust me, I know it now. You don’t just stick your hand out and grab it, you’ve got to put your hand FORWARD and snap it backwards over your shoulder as the bottle carrier whips past, and if you’ve closed your hand at the right time you just might be lucky enough……and the same goes for the mussette bags.

Probably the funniest thing was me opening the mussette bag and ending up with a small can of Coke in my hand about 1km from the cobblestones and the question in my head “do I drink this before or after the cobbles?” Think about that for a sec – if I save it until after the cobbles it’ll explode when I open it, right? Right. If I drink it BEFORE the cobbles it’ll explode in my stomach, right? Right. So I quickly downed ½ of it and threw the rest away – and I think it was a good call!

Oh yeah – the radios. I learned that you shouldn’t set the volume too high – I couldn’t tell if my guys were speaking Dutch or English – it was total gibberish!! But eventually I learned the leading group of 12 had 1.5 minutes on the peloton, so the race was pretty much for 13th place.

On and on we hammered, and I was still having a great day just cornering, working on not cramping any more than I was, practicing feeding, and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and what I’d do next time. Eventually after 4 hours and 170km of racing (= 42.5kph average….yowzah!) we rolled across the finish. Me with the main bunch in 90th place out of 120 finishers, and one of my teammates in a small break got 20th place. One other guy finished with me and the other 2 dropped out earlier.

Not bad, not bad – but I learned a few things:
- eating/drinking is an art that MUST be perfected at all costs
- riding at the back of the peloton will no longer be tolerated (I won’t allow it!!!!)
- I can hammer and corner with these guys, now I’ve just got to do it

Even the US U23 team was there and they didn’t fare much better than me – they finished with the group right along side me, so that made me feel pretty good :o)

But unfortunately I got a bit of a chill after the race and now I’ve got a cold, so hopefully it won’t keep me out of the saddle too long as there’s a big race coming this Saturday. Wish me luck!!!

Sidetracked on Saturday - well worth it!

2006-05-23T21:35:00.000+02:00

Saturday was going to be a light training day, but there was a Social Forum/Congress at the university with such big wigs as Robert Fisk and Vandana Shiva among others. I only intended on catching 1 or 2 speakers, but I ended up spending the whole day there bouncing back and forth between workshops, films, and speakers. Some incredible stuff going on in our world, both good and bag.

Good = WTO summit in Seattle 1999, and the combined efforts of environmentalists, anti-globalizationists, and workers unions from the US and around the world to rattle the meetings until they collapsed. There was a very moving film about this (see links below), with more good things than bad, but I had lots of chills from both!

Bad = Palestinian/Isreali conflict. I’d only recently become aware of some ‘details’ of what is actually happening in this area, and I’m truly awestruck and saddened that the governments of the world are standing by and letting things get to where they are. This forum really opened my eyes about what we as people can do when we don’t feel our governments aren’t standing up for what we believe. Check out the link below for a simple map of the ‘barrier’ that Isreal is erecting – notice where it actually goes.

Some interesting links:
- This is What Democracy Looks Like - http://www.thisisdemocracy.org/ (from the WTO meetings in Seattle 1999 – really, a chilling movie, in both good and bad ways – but in the end more good than bad)
- We Feed The World - http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/index.htm (a file touching on Pioneer, the largest seed ‘operator’ in the world, bigger than Monsanto, but also focusing on more issues involved with our food chain – no, I am not going to become a vegetarian, however I will be looking into making smarter choices that are small changes for me, but if other people do them too it really will make a difference)
- Bullshit - http://www.peaholmquist.com/bullshit/about.htm (about Vandana Shiva - unfortunately they didn’t screen this film for some reason – it was never explained to me, but I’d love to see it!)
- Nederlands Sociaal Forum - http://www.sociaalforum.nl/spz/pub/website/main.php?obj_id=388835667 (the website in English for any additional readings!)
- Security Barrier Map - http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/22f431edb91c6f54852
5678a0051be1d/bb027df1429e73c6852571720054c874!OpenDocument (I had to cut the link in half so it would fit - just copy the whole thing into your browser, it shows the ‘security barrier’ in relation to Palestinian territory – and scary as it was, on the radio today I heard something about Isreal wanting to set it’s border in the eyes of the international community….you guessed it, along the security barrier, which was erected with a 100% promise from the Isreali government that it was never intended to mark out it’s territory)

A Focused Training Week

2006-05-23T21:33:00.000+02:00

So after the race I quickly realized my legs were dead. So was my body – even my arms were sore. How the heck were my arms sore? Two theories:
- I was wrenching so hard on the handlebar on the climbs and then the brakes on the descents that I cramped my arms
- There was so much lactic acid in my body that it spread to my arms
Both are viable in my mind – it was probably a combo of both.

So on Sunday after the race I went for a 3 hour spin to try to clean out my legs – and I had NOTHING in the gas tank. I had trouble holding 30kph with very little wind. But it gave me time to think about the race and what to do for the next time, and I came up with 2 things to work on immediately: legs speed and cornering. So now I just had to work on both, no problem, right??!

So on Tuesday I found a (fun) criterium in Arnhem and decided to join. Knowing that the coming Sunday I was going to do a 160km classic race in Belgium I also realized I should get some serious km’s in my legs, so I left work early (don’t tell my boss…..ok go ahead – I was there until 10pm on Monday night) and rode to Arnhem to check out the course, then go for a spin in the woods.

I did about 2.5 hours of spinning and working on leg speed a bit before the crit, then joined up with them. 4 corners and a 2km course = lots of laps! So we rode for 1.5 hours at about 41kph, and I hit my goals of working on leg speed (it hurt a lot but I could tell it was helping) and cornering – I was hammering through the corners by the end of it! Then I rode home 1.5 hours, so that made for a long day in the saddle, but really – I needed it!

Then a casual spin on Friday afternoon almost killed me – what had happened? My legs felt like they were totally clogged, and my lungs didn’t work any more! Shite – and the race was on Sunday! Uh oh……..

My First Race!

2006-05-23T20:58:00.000+02:00

First Test Race in Germany

So 2 Saturdays ago (May 13th) I had planned on going to a race near Liege in Belgium – in the Ardennes made famous by both the German invasion back in 1939 to kick-start WW2 and also by the spring classics such as Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Amstel Gold Race, and many other more minor races.

Unfortunately there was an error on the website of the cycling organization, and the race was only for the region around Liege, it was a local championship. So on Friday night I was on the phone with other racers trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately most of my teammates bailed on the racing – the only other race nearby was a criterium on a really hard course. But from talking with some others I found out about a race in Germany (Remscheid, just outside Dusseldorf) that was only 2 hours away for me, so I decided to go.

All I knew about the course was that it had a climb somewhere in the 8km loop and it was 100km long. Ok. “Here I go” I though :o) So off I set on my own, with no teammates, no support for my first race, and directions that turned out to be incorrect – my German is so bad that I actually showed up at the race organizers HOUSE rather than the start of the race…..yup, I’m so S M R T. But eventually I was able to find the course and make my way back to the start area – just as the skies opened up. Great.

So after signing in, getting my number, eating some last-minute food, and being pretty nervous, I have to pee. 4 times. Nope – nothing wrong with my bladder, it’s just what happens to me when I’m nervous at races, along with yawning like I haven’t slept in 3 days. It’s a strange site to see I’m sure – me sitting gape-mouthed on the start line like it’s siesta time, wondering where the nearest tree is….

So off we start in the rain, and 100m into the downhill is the first 90-degree right turn. I touch my rear brake in the turn to avoid running over the rider in front of me, which promptly locked my rear wheel and I ended up skidding around the corner – luckily without falling. But that would set the tone for the day. The downhill, with speeds well over 65kph, had several high speed turns that left the peloton jittery – just in time for the 5 hairpins and then the last 90-degree right turn before the uphill began. Crashes galore to say the least! Some SCARY sounds come when someone crashes onto pavement while riding a carbon bike and someone else on a carbon bike runs them over.

But I made it down the first descent and into the uphill, where I left it in the 53x23. We were CRANKING up that climb – so fast that people were crashing in the corners on the UPhill!

So I was able to more than hold my own on the climbs though, which made me feel good. Unfortunately the descents were a different story, as my confidence was shaken by the first descent and I was never able to recover. 10 laps in the story was the same every lap – after the descent I’d be dead last going into the climb, and by ½ way up I’d be in the front 10 of the peloton, which started with 160 riders. That took some serious effort to make it to the front on every climb, which really took it out of my legs. And sad for me on the 10th lap I took a pull at the front and couldn’t quite recover – so I got dropped on the descent and couldn’t catch back on. My day was over.

But I made it to about 40 riders left in the peloton in my first race, so I was pretty happy with the results. I also finally had some racing under my belt, and most importantly I knew where I had some glaring weaknesses and that I’d have to work on them!

Here’s the HR plot from the race – wow! Did I mention there was not one single flat section to the course??! It was either up or down - no flats. It’s hard to tell what each plot is – they’re all doing identical patters. The most encouraging is the HR plot - that I could repeatedly get to that HR for 10 laps before I started to die - that makes me happy!

Congratulations Scott and Abby!!!

2006-05-13T09:21:00.000+02:00

I just got the wonderful news from Scott - he and Abby just had their first baby. Jay Miles and Abby are both doing great. Love you folks, life is unbelievable.....

Scott - now that you've got a family you have to start a blog site dude. No joke - enough is enough from you :o)

Whats up with the website

2006-05-13T09:04:00.000+02:00

So the astute of you will have noticed that the link for one of my books on the right takes you to this website: http://allfreeessays.com/ Now, I'm no genius, but what is the purpose of such a website? To held disseminate great insight into people/places/books/topics of our time? Or perhaps is it to help students cheat on their term papers (the title of the website should provide a little hint).

I mean wow - that's a totally different can of worms than when I was in school. I think we often forget how hard it would be to be a teacher today with all the crap you've got to deal with (ie plagiarizing)....or also how hard it is to be a student, when things are so competitive, and the option to cheat is just a 'print' button away.

But really - does this website need to exist? C'mon.

A Good Week of Training

2006-05-13T08:14:00.000+02:00

So this past week turned into a pretty good week of training (luckily!). After the crazy hecticness of work and getting all our equipment out the door for the Giro (ok not quite done yet - 2 more sets to go later this week, but I feel OK for them) I was able to recover my sleeping pattern, get back on a semblance of a diet, and put in a couple of hard (if short) efforts.

Monday I also managed to finish my new rig. I'll get some photo's posted when I find my camera (haven't seen that in a while - where the heck is it??!!!). It's a Madone 5.9 with mostly Dura-Ace 10-spd and an EPIC handlebar....but more to come on that in a later blog :o)

So I took it for a test ride on Monday and since all seemed well I figured I'd bring it out for the Tuesday jam session - and I'm glad I did! I guess I had some built up energy or something, because I'd already ridden about 2 hours when I went to the jam and all I wanted to do was attack! My legs felt pretty good (still improving anyway), so I spend more than my fair share of time at the front, and even attacked on all the climbs. I also tried a solo effort in a headwind section and was able to stay away from the bunch for quite a while - that felt good.

Then coming into the last hill I launched a solo attack about 2km from the base of the climb. I was able to stay away for the entire climb, and I even had several riders catch me at certain points only to drop off my wheel. In the end I didn't hear these 2 riders coming and they were able to scoot by me right at the town sign - shit!

Then on Wednesday I went out again and thought I'd just sit in the pack, but nope - I still had some good juice. So I was attacking every hill and sprinting for every town sign, in addition to some good pulls at the front.

Now it's Saturday and, fingers crossed, I'll be racing today and tomorrow. Still a little up in the air about today - I was going to go to Belgium for a race in the hills around Liege, but the cycling union website had some incorrect info (it said the race was open but it's actually closed as it's the district championships!). So now I'm scrambling to find another race to do today......

Keep the rubber side down!

Beck

2006-05-09T12:49:00.000+02:00

I think Beck says it best:
"I think we're going crazy
Nothing seems to phase me
Her left eye is lazy
Nicotine and gravy"

Yup - you tell'em Beck!

Go Oilers!!!!

2006-05-02T08:41:00.000+02:00

Wahooo!!!! The Oilers rock!!! Ever since seeing Wayne, Mark, Jari, Paul, Glenn and Grant douse the Flyers (led by their goalie Pelle) in game 5 of their Stanely Cup Final on TV. It was my first time really watching hockey, and I was amazed. Gretzky set a record that year with 47 points in 18 playoff games - abso-fucking-lutely amazing. Since then the Oilers have held the #1 spot in my heart, so after last nights victory I had chills down my spine.

http://www.edmontonoilers.com/

GO OILERS!!!!!

Back in the Saddle

2006-05-02T08:40:00.000+02:00

Wow – what a crazy time it’s been for the past 6 weeks! Very little training but still very intense. Work has been out of control (what else is new!), but more manageable this year than in the past. The guides have been enjoying their time in the Netherlands, so that’s a huge boost to my confidence.
But really – the training has sucked ass. So as of Thursday last week I’m:
- back on my training diet of no coffee, max 1 beer per evening when I’m going out, and nothing but GOOD FOOD all day long – not the most complicated diet, but you’d be amazed how much it helps :o)
- riding to work as a minimum, even in the rain (so what – it’s only a bit wet!)
- slowly building my legs back underneath me with some rides that test my fitness, including some long distances, sprints, and hills

It doesn’t help that the weather has been incredible here – good and bad. Last Thursday it was 25 degrees C – wow! The leaves started to bud, the cherry blossoms were out, and spring was definitely in the air. But then on Saturday it was hailing, snowing, and super windy all day long – so it knocked many of the leaf buds off, which when mixed with the hail/snow/water on the roads made for a very slick conditions!

So combine that with work and I was still only able to get marginal training in this weekend – NOT what I was looking for. Oh yeah, and it was Queen’s Day, so all the Dutchies were out drinking, and unfortunately my apartment is on one of the main streets out of the downtown area, so I got woken up every night several times between 11pm and 4am by shouting drunk pricks. Not too impressed :o(

Monday dawned with the sun shining and a clear head, so I decided I’d go for a long ride after work. That came into question by about 10:00 when the clouds had moved in and the rain was falling – but this wasn’t the normal Dutch squall. Instead of intense bursts of hard rain and wind, this was a constant rain with steady winds. It lasted all day – ALL DAY. Pretty weird for here.

But by 5pm I was itching to ride, so I popped on my iPod and hit the road. A quick swing by home to drop my bag and switch bikes (I needed one with fenders!) and I was off again. The riding was actually really great – I was testing myself still with some sprints that were loosening up my legs, and I was happy since I hadn’t felt this good in a few weeks. After about 1.5 hours I ran across the University cycling team out for their Monday training session, and since I know and ride with a lot of the members I decided to join in.

That turned out to be a great decision, as we proceeded to do seated power drills up the hills, seated power along the flats, and some medium to high intensity flat riding all the way back to Nijmegen. And it all felt wonderful.

Sure my legs were burning, but it was definitely the right kind of burn and I was happy to be feeling that again. All in all it was a 3 hour ride with rain the entire time – we were COMPLETELY soaked when we got back home. But it was such a great feeling to have my legs under me again and feeling strong.

So tonight is the Tuesday jam session, but I think I’ll just sit in the fast group. I can already tell my legs are pretty fried from yesterday, but the good kind of fried :o)Keep the rubber side down!

By Popular Demand.....

2006-04-11T14:30:00.000+02:00

.....Kiersten (et moi!)

Costa Rica and the good times!

2006-04-04T23:21:00.000+02:00

Ok – so now I’m the one behind the blogging :o) But I have a great excuse – I’ve been very busy! Yeah, I know that’s original and all, but really – I HAVE been busy, and having a lot of fun too!

So to start things off I was on vacation. And not just any vacation either – this one was special on a lot of levels. Kiersten and I decided back in December that it would be a blast to go on a Trek Travel trip together – to Costa Rica. This would be the first ‘guided’ vacation I’ve ever gone on, so I was really looking forward to it. Also, I’d never been to Central America and I’ve heard so many wonderful things about CR. To top it off – I’d get to spend a few weeks with Kiersten (that was the clincher for me!).

So on the 14th I took off for London, England where I stayed with my high-school friend Carmen and had a great catch-up. The next day it was off to Miami to rendez-vous with Kiersten, and then on to San Jose (CR). I was great to see her in the airport – I thought I was early, so I didn’t even see her when I arrived at the departure gate (ooops!!!).

So off we go to CR, where we spent the first night in San Jose and then hopped on a commuter bus to the Carribean coast and Cahuita (following May’s advice to spend a few days relaxing there). Black sand beaches, white sand beaches, some impressive waves, some jungle walking, and some great hammock time added up to a very relaxing start to my vacation. The town had no paved roads and pretty much the only thing to do was relax – this was why we made the trek to the Carribean side!

After a few days we hopped back on a bus, then another bus, then another, and still another, then into a cab for a rally-car ride to the top of Mt.Irazu (~3400m) to meet up with the start of the Trek Travel trip we were taking. Wow – what an incredible place for a picnic! Above the clouds and nothing but ridiculously bright and warm sunshine!!! We hopped on the Trek Fuel EX9’s and bombed down the side of the mountain for quite possibly the longest downhill I’ve ever done. 2500m vertical drop in about 30km – lots of it over rock-strewn double-track, which the Fuel’s went over like warm butter on popcorn.

Oh yeah – except for the 5 crashes suffered by the group on the first day (Kiersten was able to account for 2 of them – way to go Kiki! :o) None of them too serious (except for one guy almost knocked out his front teeth and another lost some serious skin on his hip and elbow), so onward and downward.

Did I mention Gary Fisher was with us on the trip? Not as a legend or anything – just as a guest on vacation like us! How cool is that!! (more to come later). But on that first day bombing down the hill I got a chance to try to keep up with Gary. It was pretty sweet riding, and as I rode his wheel around some of the corners I was struck by what I was witnessing: this was Gary Fisher and I hot-footing around loose gravel corners. I was instantly reminded of the photo’s I’d seen of Gary on day 1 of the history of MTBing as he hot-footed around corners on the famous Repack trail and the Marin Headlands across the bay from San Francisco (they were single speed coaster brake bikes ridden off-road for the first time – and the braking was so hard the hubs had to be repacked after almost every run, hence the name of the trail). That was a major WOW – this trip had started off on the right foot (and the left foot too! :o)

Zack (one of our guides) and I got a chance to try to keep up with Gary on the paved downhill section, but with 20 years of road racing under his belt we didn’t stand much of a chance, and he steadily worked his way out of our reach – pretty impressive since neither Zack nor I are slouches on the MTB!

What followed was THE best vacation I’ve ever had in my life. When I think about all the things we did and saw and experienced, and how easy it was (Trek Travel took care of everything) I realize that I was entering a new phase in my traveling. As I mentioned, I’ve never taken a guided vacation before but I’ve GUIDED my fair share though – and now I know what it’s like from the other side. Absolutely amazing. Such a fun time. I don’t know how else to say it! It really helped that the group was so great too – many of them were really fun people that helped make the vacation!

Granted this type of travel is different than what I’m used to (ie backpacking on your own timeline with your own agenda, where getting there really IS ½ the fun) so it took a little adjustment period (all of about 15 minutes if I remember correctly). I know I still want to backpack on my own since it’s such fun, but I will always consider guided trips from now on – I have a totally new respect for them.

Anyway, I’m babbling. The trip was so jam-packed full of fun I can’t even delve into it here, but to mention a few highlights (and these are only the ones on the Trek Travel portion of our trip!):
- bombing down Irazu on day 1
- full-day rafting on day 2 (class 3 and 4 rapids had us on our toes the whole time)
- nature hike, waterfall visit, canopy ‘swooping’, and hot-pools on day 4 (this was voted by us as the best day of the trip)
- boat ride and sweet MTB ride on day 5, complete with dunking in the Pacific at the end of the ride
- sea kayaking, snorkeling, boogie boarding and wave riding on day 6
Remember – those are just the highlights!

After the trip Kiersten and I staying on the Pacific for an extra night to just relax on our own and enjoy the sun – and did we ever! But one funny story on the last morning of the trip. We’re sitting at breakfast with Gary, his girlfriend Amanda and their son Miles and a few guests were asking Gary about his riding history. Gary told a story about his early days of riding but one of the guests hadn’t followed the conversation very well and asked if that was MTBing or road riding. Gary’s response (not in a conceited way at all, just a modest matter-of-fact way): “No that was road riding….I hadn’t invented MTBing yet.” Ummm yeah, I guess that’s about right!!!

So after the trip we flew back to San Jose and spent a day there exploring the cities biggest festival of arts, crafts, food, and entertainment. We spend about 6 hours just walking around a soaking it all in – such a neat festival with capaueira (Brazilian ‘fight’ dancing, which my spell-checker doesn’t recognize!), musical bands, and a native dance to celebrate the ‘little devil’ (full of history, but you’ll have to research it on your own – too much for here).

Then it was on to Madison Wisconsin for a week of Returning Guide Training – for me it was a mixture of giving and receiving training (since I’ve never done the Trek Travel training, either as an instructor or student, it was a good idea to attend). Good times had in Madison, but now I’m happy to be heading ‘home’ for a while so I can get back to racing :o) But now Kiersten is back on London, Ontario (boooooo!!!!).

Things will really heat up for me in terms of work over the next 3 weeks though, so I’ll see how my motivation holds up. With what little riding I’ve done over the past 3 weeks I’m really well rested and dying to get back on my bike – and I’m super curious to see how my fitness is now!!!!

One Strange Nite

2006-03-02T11:04:00.000+01:00

So I was on a nite MTB ride last night with a friend of mine – just the two of us on our regular weekly nite ride, nothing special to speak of. Until we got about 1 hour into the ride and we’re in the middle of the woods doing one of the longer climbs on the loop. I get to the top and wait a bit for my friend who is normally right on my tail – but this time he’s a bit far behind.

When he gets to the top he doesn’t look so hot – breathing really hard and not looking happy. He says he’s pretty tired and his HR isn’t coming down at all, so he gets off the bike and stands there for a bit – then says he’s going to be sick. Wow – what’s going on? Hands on his knees I’m expecting him to bring up a bad burrito or something like that, but nope, nothing. And he’s getting worse – his head is spinning and he’s not walking straight any more. He says he’s really getting dizzy now.

So I clear the snow off a bench and have him sit down – but that doesn’t help and he’s getting worse. Remove some more snow and he’s on his back on the bench now (if he passes out he won’t fall anywhere). So at this point I’m trying to figure out where the nearest road is (actually I would have gotten this test wrong!) and what to do if he blacks out: do I leave him and go for help or stay with him and monitor his vitals. Of course there’s no choice – I’d go for help immediately.

Luckily it didn’t come to that, and after about 5 minutes lying down he started feeling better and he was able to walk out to the road where we got on our bikes and spun home. We chalked it up to a sudden dip in blood pressure that caused him to almost faint: nice to have a theory on what it was, but what really caused it? No idea.

So it was a pretty weird ride to say the least. But when I got home I had a message from a friend of mine on the club I’m trying out for, so I called him back. Turns out there was some terrible news – the Belgian pro I rode with 10 days ago had just died of a sudden and massive heart attack. He was driving his car home from some track training in Amsterdam with a few others in the car with him when it happened. He was 26 years old. He’d had heart tests at the start of the season from his team doctors. He was in TOP form – he’s a cyclist who knows his body and he can read signs. But this one was too sudden to do anything about.

Just incredible – the guy was only 26 years old, in the prime of his life and now suddenly he’s gone. It’s incredibly shitty and really hard to believe it happened.

Life is short – you never know when something sudden might happen, and often you take life for granted. Don’t. Enjoy every day to the fullest – don’t waste any time.

“Yesterday is a cashed cheque; tomorrow is a promisary note; today is the only cash you have. Spend it wisely.” – Unknown.

Snowy Nijmegen

2006-03-02T11:00:00.000+01:00

So it snowed a lot in Nijmegen last night. I took these shots at about 2am when it was really quiet in the streets - I would have gotten a lot more but my batteries died in the cold and I couldn't find any replacements (where's a 7E when you really need one, eh?).

Love the quotes

2006-03-02T10:58:00.000+01:00

"Cyclists win the competition in bed"
- Wilco Fleuren
(what competition are we talking about here??!)

Life in general

2006-02-27T23:12:00.000+01:00

Life is like a box of chocolates? Nope - I heard a better quote.

"Life is like a plate of spaghetti" - my mom.

Think about it - it really applies to life!

Quote:

2006-02-26T19:29:00.000+01:00

"Facts are not science - as the dictionary is not literature."
- unknown

My First Dutch Race (sort of - it was a training race :o)

2006-02-26T17:43:00.000+01:00

So the weekend training – how was it? Super! On Saturday I slept in (I didn’t hit the sack until about 2:30 after going to Amsterdam for the Cartier-Bresson exhibition and then dinner at a really tasty Arabic restaurant – lekker!!!). So I missed the Eindhoven training again and just went out with 4 friends – into the cold, clear day with HOWLING winds! Holy shit was it a strong wind – for a while we were riding 23km/hr into it along the dykes – yikes (no rhyme intended :o)

After an hour of that the guys turned around and were going to head back along another route, but I wanted to get more riding in my legs so I kept going on my own – along a similar route that I’ve ridden the past 2 Saturdays but with some additional little loops to explore the Dutch countryside, and it was well worth it. It was really sunny and nice, so I wanted to take advantage of the weather (ok – it was pretty damn cold too!). But I knew on Sunday I had my first training race, so I didn’t want to go too long or hard or deep (wow – sounds like a porn movie scene, non?).

I ended up doing about 125km in 5 hours – not a great average speed, but given the winds I figured it was ok. And I was having so much fun I didn’t even need my iPod :o)

So the big test was today – my first training race! I met up the espoir rider I’ve ridden with a few times in the past week at his place and then the coach of the new club showed up too. We headed out (into the cold wind – and even snow this morning!) to ride the 40 minutes to the race. Perfect – we get a bit of a warmup! The coach managed to register me even though I don’t have a license yet this year (hehe :o), and then we did 2 rounds of the course before the start.
It was actually a super neat course for this kind of race – about a 2.5-3km loop (I never actually measured it) on a closed circuit that they use for cycling and I THINK car racing, but to be honest I’m not sure – there were no tire marks. But the track was brand new, so it was super smooth pavement with wide turns – and even a hill – which was a big surprise and would DEFINITELY play into the race. So the course basically did a spiral up the hill in the middle and then swept down to the finish line and a loop around the base.

The wind. Wow. What a wind it was. Unfortunately the windy sections included all the climbs (one ‘major’ and one minor), and lots of the flats were either head-wind or cross-wind and REALLY unfortunately the hill blocked the wind during most of the flat sections and the downhills, so it was either head-wind or no-wind. Greeeaaaaaat.

The race started poorly for me though – I was freezing off the start (granted everyone was!), but I still tried (stupidly) to ride at or near the front. Well after about 2 rounds my legs felt like lead and I was quickly dropping places – right past the coach and the espoir I’d arrived with. Rats. So as the pace picks up I’m dangling at the back of the peloton, which is about 60+ riders made up of elites and espoirs (this is 1 level below pro – cool!). I was suffering too – there was very little shelter from the wind at the back since it was mostly cross winds, and I couldn’t seem to get warmed up.

After about 20 minutes I was seriously thinking of quitting – I was a hurting unit! But of course I wasn’t going to do that (I’m a sissy, but not THAT big of a sissy!). So I managed to work my way back into a good position and started to ride a bit better. By this point there was already a break of 4 riders and a chase of about 6 (including the espoir I was with). No way I was going to try to catch them – this was my first race and I hadn’t seen efforts like this in MONTHS. My legs were really screaming, and there were few chances for recovery.

So on and on we ride, and eventually we whittle the pack off our wheels until there’s only 7 of us in the group – me and the coach, 2 randoms, and 3 riders from one team who were working together. We started working well as a group, and coach and I even made a break effort that would have worked beautifully if we’d timed it for the last lap (which we thought we were doing!). Rats.

So the effort took pretty much all the pep out of my legs and it was just try to hang on until the finish – I’d been doing the lions share of work with the group, so I was happy with my ride at this point. Stupidly I took a long pull heading into the last sweeping corner that dumped out into the headwind for the finish straight. Such a cool corner though – I’ve never cornered that fast before. The bike is REALLY pushing back at you when you’re going that fast – and you really hope it doesn’t slip out, cause you’d loose all your skin for sure. We’re hitting this corner at about 50kph and carrying it through the sweeper until the headwind. F-U-N.

I had nothing for the sprint, so the 4 guys beat me, but by then we’d dropped one guy and coach.

All in all it was a really fun race – 60km in 1hr20 minutes – you do the math (that’s about 43kph average!!!!). Cool. And after the race the coach and the espoir were really happy with my ride and positioning – they said I had quite a bit of potential considering my race experience. So we rode home the long way to make it a 4 hour day. Great training and great fun. The coach will call me this week to find a spot for me on the team – coolio! Lets see what happens!

Henri Cartier-Bresson

2006-02-26T17:31:00.000+01:00

So I’m not sure if anyone has heard of this guy before, but here’s a short biography: http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/bresson.htm

He’s a French photographer born early in the 20th century, he got his start as a painter and moved into photography, which would take him around the world many times and to some of the most important events in the 20th century. His approach to photography helped redefine photo journalism: “Decisive Moment”.

This past Friday a few of us made the trek to Amsterdam to see his last photo exhibition – he passed away last August. I didn’t know much about him before I went, but I have to say I’m thoroughly impressed with his work, his skill, and what he was able to do and see in his lifetime.

He was privy to meet many of the most famous minds of the 20th century, from working with J.P. Sartre and Henri Matisse, to photographing Ghandi only 2 short hours before he was assassinated, to being in China during the late 1940’s when Mao Tse-Tsung’s army defeated their opponents (wow – I can’t even remember their name – that’s how I know Mao won the war!) after a bloody 3-year war to take control of China.

In addition he was a prisoner of war for 2 years during WW2 – and managed to escape on his third attempt when he joined the French underground. He also spent 30 years traveling to EVERY corner of the globe and being published in every major magazine under the sun – in English, French, Chinese, Russian, and every language in between.

But what I found most impressive were 2 traits of his photography: he would always develop his shots to the edge of the negative (so there was no cropping or touching-up), and his subjects never posed (they were real action shots). Truly impressive given what others were doing with photography at the time.

From all regards he let a very full life and left a lasting mark on the world. Well – I had to inject SOME culture into this blog (it’s been severely lacking! :o)

Some Barcelona shots!

2006-02-21T21:55:00.000+01:00

So I finally got the pics from Barcelona but I'm too lazy to figure out how to link to a slide show, so you only get 3 of them :o)

This first one is of one of the BEST meals I've ever had. We were pretty hungry at this point and had just descended from Montsaray (or something like that) - it was cold and there was snow on the road - and it too about 1 hour to climb (if I remember correctly, which maybe I don't!). So were were hungry, and the sun was out, so we stopped for the BEST coffees (we had 2 each - so f'ing good) and these pain con tomat jambon (bread that's lightly toasted, brushed with garlic, tomatoes are spread all over it, and then the most heavenly ham to top it off.......arrrrgggghhhhh)

This is actually the only riding shot I could find of me - not that exciting, eh?!

And here's a shot of Montsarat, a convent just outside Barcelona. We didn't ride in the area, but you can imagine there's tonnes of great windy roads through the limestone cliffs......coolio

It's been a while since a quote....

2006-02-21T21:20:00.000+01:00

"Maximum efficiency from minimum effort"
- Ray Mears (aka 'the survival guy')

Training on the weekend – what else??

2006-02-20T12:24:00.000+01:00

So this past weekend was a great training weekend. The weather ‘cleared’ (I’ll use that loosely) for Saturday morning – which was much to my surprise. I skipped the Eindhoven early training since I thought it was going to be raining/snowing. Turns out it would have been great! So to repent I hopped on my bike and went solo – this time with my iPod fully charged :o)

I did my regular Saturday loop – 2.5 hours along the flat dykes and just going from town to town. Then about 3 hours in the hills/forest near Arnhem (Posbank, Veluwezoom), then back home. In total it was 6 hours and 160km with a good mix of everything. I felt pretty solid and strong, especially on the climbing, so that’s a good sign. I was pretty tired and stiff at the end though. Why did I go so long? Because the weather was supposed to be shite all weekend, but while it was nice I was going to enjoy it and get in some good riding, so I just kept going and going and going.

Turns out I was late for dinner and a movie with some friends because my ride went so long – but they understood my reasons :o)

So during the movie on Saturday night (Munich – one thumb down – didn’t really enjoy it at all and I was expecting better things) I got a message from the coach that they weren’t going to the training race the next day but rather just a group ride – so instead of the training race at 2pm (which would have given me time to clean my bike after getting it dirty in the rain/damp of the Saturday ride) I now had to make it to Meerkerk by 9am. Shite – nothing was packed, and it was approaching midnight!

So I blazed home and got things ready – and figured I’d just ride a dirty bike since I didn’t have the time or energy to clean it that late at night. So I make it to the ride start and changed on time (early actually – yeah for me :o). We start the ride with myself, the coach (who is a former pro and at 37 is still a STRONG rider), another elite from the club. We quickly rendez-vous with 2 Belgian pros (1 who just got back from the Tour of Qatar, the other who’s an espoir with a Belgian team) and a little further we meet with the espoir I rode with last Tuesday.

So I’m pretty intimidated at this point. Which isn’t helped by the facts:
- I did 6 hours/160km the day before solo
- My sleep was shitty and short (house party in the neighborhood)
- My brain wasn’t awake yet – no coffee I was in such a hurry

But away we go, and ride we did. After about 2 hours at a decent pace we hit the hills – and lost the other elite rider (he turned back – maybe he knew what was to come?). Down to 5 we continued to ride at a solid pace, with efforts on the hills and spinning drills on the dykes. In the end we did 140km in 4.5 hours. I was toast. I mean really done – like stick a fork in me. Like done like dinnah! But I’d more than held my own with these guys – on all the climbs I was right there, and only on the flats during the spinning drills did I have to bail out.

But they didn’t drop me – not even close. And they were pretty impressed with my ride the day before too :o))) I was pretty stoked after that!!
So what does this mean? This week I’ll be in contact with the coach again and we’ll figure out where I fit on the team for the practice races this coming weekend. Then from there – who knows?! But this sure boosts my confidence and gives me an idea that I’ve at least got the fitness to ride with these guys. No I just have to get used the peloton in the race – that’s the last big unknown in my mind. I’ve heard Europe is pretty crazy, and I can understand why.

Lets see what this week brings! But for today I’m only doing easy spinning/recovery. I’m pretty tired after that weekend :oP

This post worked - I think :o)

2006-02-17T18:06:00.000+01:00

Howdy faithful readers (have I got any of those???!). I admit I feel much better about my erratic bloging when I’ve looked at the other blogs you see to the right – turns out I’m not that bad! Maybe it’s something to do with the new year and people have new things on the go and aren’t bored yet and don’t need the blogs to keep them entertained. Or maybe not – whatever.

In addition to realizing I’m not the worlds best (nor worst) blogger I also realized I may have been getting away from my real reason for this blog. I wasn’t doing it to have a place to voice my political tyraids (or loose them, like the past post – what a pain in the ass). Rather I’m doing this blog thing to keep people up with what’s going on in my life, most specifically with my training and goals for riding.

So without further adieu, here’s an update:
- the training camp I did in Barcelona rocked (you already knew that if you read some of the previous posts) – I’m supposed to be getting pics on Sunday, but it’s been a month already so I don’t have my hopes too high (doesn’t it just drive you CRAZY when somebody says they’ll get the pics for you and then they keep delaying…… :o)
- riding in NL since I’ve been back has been pretty solid too – I had about 10 days where I didn’t do much riding, but since then I’ve been at it pretty hard. Last weekend I did a 5.5 hr solo ride on Saturday sans iPod (battery died) and it was SUPER awesome – just exploring and going further and further and feeling strong. Sunday I did 3 hr ride with some friends in Nijmegen and we got hammered by a hail/snow/rain storm at about the 2 hr mark, so we came back early (it was going to be another epic one – turned into a Dutch ride :o)

And the big ride was on Tuesday when I had a ‘riding interview’ with a club team from Meerkeerk (near Utrecht, about 75km from Nijmegen). The club looks to be one of the best organized around – here are some good points:
- huge membership, so they have groups of riders at every level
- they enter a TON of races and always have teams out
- in the past 5 years they’ve had about 20 riders make the jump to the Rabobank teams (junior development, continental, pro tour)
- their top team has 8 elites (3 of which are neo-pro’s) and 5 espoirs (under-23)
So on the ride it turns out it was only with 1 other guy (the coach bailed because of a bad back). So they send me out with the 21 year old and I’m thinking “Ok, that’s fine – but who is this guy?” We get to talking and it turns out he finished 13th in the Netherlands last year as an espoir – and he was only 20 at the time. I have to admit it was a bit intimidating, but I figured lets just ride and see how it goes – maybe he’s not in shape yet this year or something :o)

So we ride for about 4 hours mostly in the hills and rolling terrain (nothing major to speak of) and some on the dykes too. He tried to drop me on most of the hills and couldn’t, and there was even one section of a few km’s through rolling forests where no cars were allowed, so we hammered and tried to drop each other – I won the hill at the end no-problem!

Then we came to the last hill, and since he hadn’t been able to drop me he asked me to try to drop him. Well allllllllll-right then – lets crank this up! I popped into the big ring, dropped down a few and let’er rip. I felt pretty in control the whole climb, and my HR maxed out at 180bpm – but I felt done at the end and I was glad it wasn’t a longer climb (but I was consoled by the fact that last fall I was riding cross races for 45-55min at that HR!). So I didn’t manage to drop him, but it took him about 2 minutes to recover enough to be able to talk – and he complimented me on my climbing :o) (yeah!)

So he was going to talk to the coach and said my ‘report card’ looked pretty good (we also had good conversations the whole ride, which is important!). Now I’m still waiting to hear back from the coach about a training race on Sunday – the club has teams that go to several of them, so it’s just a matter of which one they want me to come out to. Fingers crossed it’s the Elite/Espoir team that I’ll ride with (that’s what I’m aiming for and I really think I can ride there).

I figure things are going pretty well too since I haven’t really done much tempo or interval work – it’s all been base base base with some form (spinning) and muscle tension. I’ll be getting into the tempo soon enough, and it’s a REALLY long season – but really, I’m just itching to go now!!!!

Well tomorrow is a training ride with a group from Eindhoven (about 60km south of Nijmegen) – we ride into Belgium and do 10km loops of a course that’s perused by Belgian pros on a regular basis, so I’ll keep my eyes open for Boonen…..oh wait, isn’t he in a race somewhere right now? :o)

Have a great weekend all!

Make Ignorance History

2006-02-11T11:21:00.000+01:00

fuck fuck fuck. I hate this blogger editor. I just spent 45 minutes writing up my latest tyraid, and again it's deleted. Fuck. I'm going biking.

Long time since last post :o)

2006-02-09T09:22:00.000+01:00

Wow – I can’t believe how long it’s been since my last blog! My only consolation lies in Marcos and Nan (who’ve been out longer!) and that I’ve been really busy recently with work, training, and traveling – so it’s not been because I’m lazy :o) Still, it’s been about 1 month – a bit too long of a hiatus (I’ve been feeling it).

So what’s been happening? Well, my last blog mentioned a training camp trip to Barcelona that was a blast – I went from Saturday to Saturday with a friend who used to work at Trek. He lived in Barcelona for 2+ years, so he knew all the good roads to ride. To sweeten things, he also had some good friends at the biggest bike shop in town, so they hooked us up with some Kona MTB’s and we were able to hit the single-tracks a few days.

In short, Barcelona is an ABSOLUTELY amazing place to ride! For MTB we’d leave from the center of town and inside ½ an hour we’d be at the top of Tibidabo, the largest mountain (ok – it’s a really big hill, but it’s nothing like Nose Hill in Calgary – this is covered in forest with steep slopes and is connected to a whole network of hills – so really it’s a small mountain) in Barcelona. From there we could HAMMER on some wonderful technical singletrack or swoosh along the doubletracks that criss-crossed the hills. Whatever our hearts desired, this place had it. Including one roller coaster downhill that was built by BMXers, so all the corners were banked, there were rollers all over the place, and it dumped out onto a BMX course! Super cool! I was pretty out of practice with my technical skills (both up and down hill), but after ½ a day I was back in the saddle so to speak – and lovin life!!!

And the road riding wasn’t too shabby either ;o) We hit a bunch of cool places, from Garaff (coastal mountains just south of the city) to Montsarat (touristy mountains a little bit inland with lots of convents and abbeys scattered throughout) to Montserey (the tallest mountain in the area – we ran into some snow and REALLY cold weather up there, but stellar riding throughout) to Girona (we took the train north along the coast and rode with Leah Vande Velde, wife of CSC pro Christian). Actually the Girona trip was a real blast as we got a tour around Girona from Leah, and she was pointing out the houses of Levi Leipheimer, Michael Barry, and others all within 2 blocks of her place! We met Christian after the ride too – he seemed like a really cool guy, and he’s pretty pumped about the start of the Giro in Belgium coming up in about 2 months. So I’ll have to make a trip down there to check out the action.

Barcelona = one of my favorite towns on earth. I’ve had nothing but fun there, and special thanks to Marc Llado (aka Marquitos aka Rocky) for his hospitality and the guys at ProBike for their help and fun time.

Ok – I’ll end my post there (apparently I write long posts, or so some people have said ;o) But I’m back up and running (er, I mean riding), so I’ll be posting more regularly now.

Keep on rollin

Back on the Blogging Train!

2006-02-09T07:05:00.000+01:00

Severe lack of posting.....

2006-01-10T13:03:00.000+01:00

Sorry for not posting, but I'm in Barcelona for a week long training camp now and pretty busy with it (going to catch a Barca game tomorrow night - how cool is that!!!!!!). Look for more posts next week :o)

PS - the riding here, both MTB and road, is absolutely amazing. Tonnes of it, and super quiet! Singletrack heaven right in town too - incredible.

Hasta luego

I've got a SkypeIn Number now!

2006-01-05T10:32:00.000+01:00

Wow - this Skype stuff keeps getting better and better! So I got myself a SkypeIn number now - you can call it from anywhere in the world from any phone (land, mobile, internet) and you can reach me directly. If I'm not in just leave me a voice message and I'll get back to you. Coolio!

The number is based in Madison, Wisconsin, so if you call me you'll have to pay charges to there (unfortunately there aren't any numbers available in Canada yet - but when it happens I'll get one there too!). But calling the US from Canada is cheaper than calling Europe, and now I've actaully got voicemail too :o)

The number is 608.554.0448

Coolio!

And the question for the day today - eBay bought Skype recently for over $2billion. Why would someone pay so much for Skype? What do you think the company is worth? Do you think it's a steal-of-a-deal? Also, there's talk of 'Tech-Bubble 2.0' in reference to tech companies being built on nothing and garnering huge amounts of capital - and then going belly up. Is Skype one of these? Think about it, and see my next post for thoughts :o)

Cyclocross pics

2006-01-01T23:42:00.000+01:00

Some pics from the race on Saturday:

Here's one of me eating a Belgian waffle while watching a cross race in the Netherlands in the cold, rain, and mud....I know you're jealous!!

Here's on of the ride/run stairs - in the background you can see the ribbon for the course on the other side of the lake - really nice layout for the spectators!

Heress some jackass spectator thinking the corner wasn't slippery enough so he's tossing a banana peel out there.....oh wait - that's me!!! :o)

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Another Cross Race - this one slippery and wet!

2006-01-01T23:21:00.000+01:00

Another cross race – this one was for real! It was on Saturday and the day dawned sunny and warmer than the day before (thank God – or so I though). I quickly realized (by looking out my window) that the temp had gone up enough to melt most of the snow and thaw the ground – which mean it was going to be MUDDY!!!! Oh yeah – and slippery :o)

So I headed down to the race with my friend, both of us having learned lessons from the race the day before – he brought a spare bike, I brought a spare set of wheels, and we both left them in the pit area in case we had flats :o) We also got the best warmup I’ve had yet – riding the course twice and also some sprints along a side street. My legs didn’t feel that great though and they had very little pep, and I think the week of partying in Chamonix and my cold were finally catching up to me (sign of things to come).

So the race started fine, and I felt I was working my way through the pack OK. As per usual we had started on the back row – it’s incredible how important it is to have points in this kind of series!!! I think I was sitting in about 20th place out of 40+, so I was doing alright. The first few laps were pretty uneventful as I tried to pass when I could and just keep things under control – it was REALLY slippery out there.

The course was super cool too – in the middle of Eindhoven (a large city) it wound through a park: around a lake; over the playground sandpits (3 times :o); through some pretty dense woods; and of course the wet cobblestones at the start/finish area! There was still snow on the course at the start of the race, but it was melting pretty fast. Couple that with some showers during the race and it was crazy! We managed to pack it down pretty well, and every corner had different degrees of slipperyness – and it changed with every lap! Needless to say we had to be on the ball the whole time!

Fortunately I was able to keep it upright for the entire race, although I spent quite a few turns in the tri-pod stance :o)) About 25 minutes into it I ‘hit the wall’ – my legs hadn’t had any pep all day, and they just up and quit on me! I soft pedaled for a few hundred meters to keep going, then settled into a slower pace for the 2nd half of the race (but my day was over, so I was just out enjoying it!).

I don’t know how I place. They didn’t have me in the top 20, but I think that’s about where I should have been. Oh well – still a super fun ride! So we stuck around and watched the juniors, womens, and pro’s races too – really great to see them riding the same course! The pro’s were awesome – check out some of the photos.

Cold Cross Race in NL!

2005-12-30T23:33:00.000+01:00

Wow - what a day for cross racing!!!! So the day dawned bright and cheery, if a little cold (-5 C). Not bad though, since that meant everything would be dry....if only I knew! So here's a shot of Frank (I work with his wife Joke) and another friend Hein (he's the coach of the local university team Mercurius in Nijmegen) as we're going out the door to the race. In case you hadn't guessed, it was pretty chilly.

After a short 30 min warmup to the race we did a few laps of the course and a few things became very apparent:
- it was cold (we'd already known that though)
- it was windy (we'd already know that too)
- it was solid - and I mean SOLID. Everything was frozen solid - so every little tire track in the mud all of a sudden took on the properties of a curb - if you rode along it and weren't paying attention you'd go down, and it would hurt to do down on the frozen Dutch tundra!

Since this was the Championships for the region, and also the last in a 6-race series (yours truly was sitting in 3rd spot after having missed 2 of the first 5 races - not bad!) there were a ton of starters. I didn't get an exact count, but I estimate 40+.

I got off to a decent start this time - finally was ready for it and had pre-ridden the first section, so I knew what was coming up. I found myself last in a group of 8 that was slowly pulling away from the pack during the first 2 laps. Since I wasn't working very hard to keep pace I realized something was going to happen soon - somebody was going to make a break! So I decided to push forward in the group. After passing 2 guys I came into one bumpy section a bit too hard and fsssttttttttt-ssssstttttt-ssssssttttt-ssssssss......... (for those uninitiated that's the sound of a pinch flat). Fuck.

So here I go sprinting back to the start area where I had my pump and tube burried in a bag. A quick change didn't keep me on the lead lap though, so I realized my race was really over (if I was still on the lead lap I would have gone all out to make up as many places as possible to get points).

So off I go again and ride one lap at a slow pace - then I decide to hammer for the rest of the race to see if I can catch up to the lead group. After about 1/2 lap I get another pince flat - my days over! I managed to bum a tube off some guy so I could ride home at least - the snow was flying and the sun setting on us as we rode, so good thing we made it back before dark!

Hein didn't fare too much better - a slow leak knocked him out about 5 minutes after my second flat. Frank was able to finish the cold race pretty well - but his back was giving him problems, so he couldn't go all out.

All in all a great ride though - I saw my HR above 180bpm for a while, but the monitor didn't work properly so I don't have any data (p.o.c.).

Well, tomorrow is a national race, so it should be a lot of fun: snow; mud (it's supposed to get warmer over night); tough competition; me still sick (today didn't help!).

Some more pics from Chamonix

2005-12-30T09:47:00.000+01:00

I can't seem to post pics very well when there's lots of text, so here's a couple more shots from Chamonix: (again, I can't post very well, so the formatting will likely be ugly)

Janet and I and Santa :o)

Here's the spread the bar put out for staff and orphans - saweet! Eet smakelek!

Token peak shot - no idea which these are though :o)

The Chamonix Experience

2005-12-29T11:21:00.000+01:00

So Christmas in Chamonix with my sis was a pretty interesting experience. I arrived on Friday night with a warm welcome from my sis. I grabbed a quick bit to eat (actually, I can’t seem to remember eating but I must have – the food on the train was crap so I arrived STARVING!) and then we went to her work. This is where the fun started :o)

She works at the Queen Vic – a mostly English (not Brit, but English speaking) bar in the heart of Cham. Upon arrival I’m warmly welcomed by the bar staff, most of whom insist on giving me beer. Luckily they’ve got a version of Leffe on tap, so I don’t have to drink French beer the entire time (no I’m not a beer snob, but if I have the choice I’ll go Belgian). The evening quickly descends into shots of green Chartreuse, followed by some other concoction I can’t quite remember, lots more beer, and then it’s off bar hopping with some other patrons while my hard-working sis is left to tend the bar.

So right about when I left the Queen Vic is when I lost the plot. Don’t quite know where I went, don’t quite know who I was with, but I do have odd flashes of dance floors somewhere and that’s about it. Next thing I know I wake up on Christmas Eve about noon on my sisters floor in my sleeping bag – on my un-inflated thermarest. How I got there I don’t know – in fact I’m sure nobody knows. How I was hung over ‘like a dog’ (as the Brits like to say – what that means I’m not sure) was something I was going to have to deal with immediately. (I wouldn’t see the photo’s on someone’s camera until the next night – so I didn’t know right away how dastardly drunk I was….)

So instead of doing something smart about my situation, we decided getting on a chairlift and gaining another 1000m elevation into the cold would be a good idea. Oh yeah – did I mention I was coming from sea-level in the Netherlands to about 1500m in Chamonix? Mix equal parts: sudden elevation gain; dehydration; hangover. What do you get? Somebody who wants to be sick on the chairlift. Luckily I was able to tough it out and enjoy a great day on the slopes (if only that sun wasn’t so bright……)

What followed for the next 5 days was a sure-fire way to NOT make it as a pro cyclist. Keeping in line with the recipe kick here’s another – mix copious amounts of booze, a sister that works in a bar, lots of people who are there to party (Cham is a party town – every now and then somebody goes skiing or boarding, but I now know it’s true colors!), late nights all around, epic amounts of food on Christmas Day, and marginal amounts of downhill and cross country skiing. Et voila quoi – one tired-assed wanna-be pro who’s shooting himself in the foot!

Having said that, I had a GREAT time and it was awesome to meet my sister’s friends and check out her life there – she’s got it really great, she lives in a paradise, and she looked great working! It was funny – I’d never actually SEEN her work before until I saw her behind the bar serving drinks! I know she HAS worked, but I’ve just never seen it – so it was great to see her in a new light.

All in all a great vacation, but it’s actually strengthened my resolve to bear down and focus on training – I know it was only a 6 day break, but I feel pretty bad about not being true to myself and sticking with my training. So my resolve to hit the bike even harder/smarter than before is even stronger. This week of cyclocrossing will be a good test – Friday afternoon is the last race in a local 6-race series where I’m sitting 3rd in the points, and Saturday is a national series race – then Sunday I’ll just take it easy and train on my own.

Unfortunately after the partying/skiing of the past week I feel a bit under the weather - and the lack of sleep on the train last night didn't help. Hopefully I won't destroy myself tomorrow! Bring on the racing!!!

To and From The Chamonix Experience

2005-12-29T11:13:00.000+01:00

So I just spent the last 5 days in Chamonix (plus a travel day on the front end, and a travel NIGHT on the back end – see more about the night later on) with my sister Janet for Christmas. I arrived on Friday afternoon/evening after a day spent on the train from Nijmegen. Looking at the flight schedules it looked like it actually made sense to take the train and not fly or drive…..hmmmmm…..lets think about that for a sec (hindsight – what a wonderful concept):
Driving:
- entire day (9-10 hours) spent in the car
- nobody to talk to, no iPod right now either (warranty)
- have to pay gas and tolls too
- the benefit of having a car in Chamonix is outweighed by not needing one there
- decision: driving alone suks
Flying:
- either from Amsterdam or Brussels (the only airports that service Geneva or Lyon)
- Amsterdam = 1.5 hr train ride Nijmegen-Amsterdam and a 4 hr train ride Geneva-Chamonix
- Brussels = 2.5 hr train ride Nijmegen-Brussels and a 2 hr train ride Lyon-Chamonix
- Add in the flying time, plus time spent at large airports with the security and the holiday rush and I decided to check out other options
- decision: flying during the holidays blows (however I would do it next time)
Train:
- 12 hrs total
- Very easy transfers (2)
- I can take the sleeper train back (where I’m writing this now)
- The thought of having 12 hours to tap away on my computer and read my book in virtual peace (with 3 spare laptop batteries) actually appealed to me quite a bit
- decision: the sleeper train fucking suks - 0 sleep :o(

So the trip to Chamonix was a resounding success. That’s the longest period I’ve had yet to actually work on my computer and I took full advantage of it. I enjoyed the train ride too, as I could take breaks and walk around, hang at the food car, and generally take an easy day.

Where I’m at right now is a little tough. So I’ve traveled overnight on trains before and actually really enjoyed it – I find it quite a peaceful sleep with the consistent rocking of the train. This time is a bit different. I didn’t think anything when they booked me on a sleeper car in a compartment for 6 – again, I’ve traveled on a train overnight before, so I knew what I was doing, right? Haha. So as I’m walking along the train I notice there’s compartments with tones of space and only 2 beds – I think “Jeeze, that looks pretty comfy! Can’t wait to see what I’ve got!” Then come the compartments of 4 – still pretty roomy, and I think I’m in for a good nights sleep.

Then I get to my car – holy shit. They’re the same size compartments as the 2-beds, but they’ve stacked them 3 high. I have barely enough room above my body to open my laptop screen – I can’t remember the last time I felt like such a sardine! Not to mention everybody’s got huge bags, and where exactly are they supposed to go? Wtf – who designed these things! So I’m on the bottom bunk, which means I’ll spend the night with the massive pile of luggage in the ‘center’ of our compartment balancing precariously over my (hopefully) slumbering head. If I don’t send this out it’s because I’ve been crushed by some German lady’s massive roller suitcase, or maybe my own backpack – wouldn’t that be ironic! I could see the headlines now: “Backpacker lives out of backpack for 1 week, then smothered by own pack in freak sleeper-cabin mishap.”

If they make a movie out of it (ok a short movie) who’d play me??? Probably a cross between Chevy Chase and Vin Diesel (yeah for those of you that haven’t seen me in a while I’ve pumped up a bit….yeah, riiiiight.....). Oh well – sweet dreamzzzzzzzzzzzz…………

Ahhhhh Christmas Shopping.....

2005-12-19T02:18:00.000+01:00

….what fun Christmas shopping can be. Not to mention blogging – I just wrote a huge entry, but when I tried to post it my network cable popped out and I’ve lost it in the ether known as cyberspace. Rats.

So I don’t have the drive to harness the creative juices again to recreate my previous work, so this quick summary will have to suffice:
- Christmas shopping is actually fun. Buying hot chocolate cause you’re freezing your balls off. Swimming upstream like a salmon against the hordes of other shoppers. Lightening your wallet at every step of the way.
- If you are looking for a gift idea for anybody on your list I recommend the following:
o Sponsor a wolf through Wolf Awareness Inc – unfortunately you can’t purchase online yet, but you can fill out the form and send it it – the result is still the same (however you won’t have anthing tangible to show under the Christmas tree). Try http://www.canadianrockies.net/wolf/
o Donate in the name of someone to the Red Cross at www.redcross.ca – they’ve got lots of wonderful causes that would benefit from your attention

And last but certainly not least, I came across something cool on the Red Cross site. If you follow this link (http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=011274&tid=015) it will take you through the Red Cross site to Amazon.ca, where 7% of your purchase price will be donated to the Red Cross. You have to go through this site though – don’t go directly to Amazon.ca. How cool is that – it doesn’t cost you anything, and the Red Cross gets 7%. I hope to see more businesses support this program (could you imagine if Esso or Irving tried something like this at the pumps – the Red Cross would be rolling in the dough!).

So happy shopping and remember – if the women don’t find you handsome they should at least find you generous.

Some More Cross Pics

2005-12-17T17:16:00.000+01:00

These are from the Stramproy race - what a blast that was (being in Wisconsin now I'm REALLY missing the riding - but I'm going for an XC ski today, so that makes up for it!). Technically I'm not sure I can ride in Trek Travel clothing, but nobody's said anything yet - so keep it on the lp!

Political Rant - my 2 cents.

2005-12-17T17:13:00.000+01:00

So there’s an election coming up in Canada – great. I don’t pretend to be privy to the political landscape of Canada. I’m not one to debate politics since I don’t pay much attention to the parties – I’m the first to admit my weakness and apathy toward this. But for me there’s something more important here. This is a LONG post, so sit down with a cup’o Joe and put your thinking caps on :o) I realize we need to elect a government – that I’m not concerned about (I figure the general public will elect whatever it feels is right). My concern is with the political system – does it make sense? Does the best party win? What are the ‘other’ choices for national parties? DOES EVERY VOTE ACTUALLY COUNT (definitely the most important question in my mind)?

I’ve been thinking a bit about Canadian politics recently and 2 things jumped out at me:
- what happens to a spoiled vote (ie. I don’t like any of the candidates, but I still want to vote and I want my vote to count)
- why aren’t there more political parties on the national scale (ie more choice)

Topic 1

On the first topic, I found back in March 2003 Hon. Charles Caccia proposed the following amendment to the Elections Act (I got this from the Government of Canada website – it looks like minutes of a hearing in Parliament):
Hon. Charles Caccia (Davenport, Lib.) moved for leave to introduce Bill C-319, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act (declined vote ballots).
He said: Mr. Speaker, this bill aims at amending the Canada Elections Act. It would permit the introduction of a declined vote ballot. It would allow electors to cast a vote indicating dissatisfaction with the parties and the candidates listed on the ballot and yet register a valid vote rather than casting a spoiled vote. The affected elector would thus be able to indicate his or her wish to decline to vote for any candidate standing for election without having to spoil the ballot, as is the case now.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
However a cursory search of the Canada Elections Act, its Provisions, and Amendments Not In Force yields no actual mention to Bill C-319 – so I don’t believe this is actually included in the Act. I will be watching closely as to how the results are posted this year – if there IS such a thing as a “declined vote”, will the media even bother reporting it?

My feeling is that there are a lot of people out there that don’t like the major parties and won’t vote for them (see the next section of this post) and feel their vote goes unnoticed – especially if they don’t like some of the tertiary parties involved. In theory, a person should be allowed to vote “declined”, and this should be recorded as such – they have taken the time to come out and vote, but they are sending a message they do not like the political landscape.

Confused? Here’s an example:

In Riding ‘X’ there are 100,000 eligible voters, of which 50,000 take the time to vote (50% turnout – not bad, eh?). The Liberals win 35% of the votes in a riding. Conservatives 30%. Bloc and NDP 10% each. Spoiled and smaller parties take the remaining 15% of the votes. In actuality only 17,500 people voted Liberal, and yet they control the riding of 100,000 voters. Does that seem right?

What if a section called ‘Declined Vote’ was introduced? The election results for riding ‘X’ could easily look like the following. Of 100,000 eligible voters there are 50,000 that take the time to vote (assuming we’re still at 50% voter turnout, which I propose would increase with the introduction of the ‘Declined Vote’). Liberals get 30%, Conservatives 25%, Bloc and NDP 8% each, other 10% - and ‘Declined’ gets 19% of the votes. That’s 8,000 voters out of 100,000 that took the time to come out and vote and ACTIVELY voted AGAINST all the parties because they don’t like what they see.

Any smart politician on the Conservatives would look at that and say to themselves

“We lost the election by 5% of the voters – and yet 19% of the voters took the time to come out and vote and yet still didn’t vote for us. What can we change with our policies to attract 5% more from the “Declined” ranks – these people are saying they are politically active but they don’t like what they see. It’s not like we have to convince people to come out and vote – they’re already at the polls. We just need to somehow convince them to vote for us…..what can we change in our policy to get their votes?”

Needless to say I think you’d see a very different political landscape as parties started vying for the 19% “Declined” voters – which could swing an election.

Topic 2

Delving further into the issue we know that the Canadian political system is based on FPP (First Past the Post, or since there’s no actual post we call it Furthest Past the Post). The party/representative that gets the most votes in a riding is elected to the House of Commons, and the leader of the party with the most seats is Prime Minister (even if he/she doesn’t win their own riding). The parties that finish second, third, fourth, etcetera in a riding don’t get a seat in the government for that riding – in fact they don’t get anything for their troubles.

According to Dulverger’s Law (he was a French sociologist), any FPP political system will invariable form a 2 party race. There are bound to be small disruptions when a 3rd party is introduced on the national scale, but it will invariably return to a balance with 2 main parties (regardless of what those 2 parties are). Here’s a quick explanation:

Back in riding ‘X’ the Liberal wins the riding, and thus gets the seat in the House. Next door in riding ‘Y’ the Conservative party wins the riding and gets the seat. In both ridings the NDP came 3rd with only 10% of the votes. If this continues across the country it means that 10% of Canadians voted for the NDP ACROSS THE COUNTRY, and yet they didn’t win any seats. (Obviously we know there is more variance in the ridings and NDP or Bloc will win some seats). But the point is that if the party isn’t strong enough nationally they will not have a national force, which brings out 2 things:
- FPP will slow the introduction of new 3rd parties. In my mind this is good – a cluttered political landscape, like the Dutch system, is so confusion it’s hard to imagine how people can decipher it. People will also have more confidence in the parties because ‘fad’ parties won’t be able to break onto the political scene – only new parties that strike a chord close to Canadians hearts will make it into the Big 2. Sticking to the point – if the timing and message of a 3rd party are true to Canadians, the population will gradually take them aboard and they will become stronger
- FPP speeds the digression of outgoing former Top 2 parties – once they loose their footing in the top 2 they find themselves out pretty quickly. No political fodder on this landscape.

So what does this all mean? Not much really – like I said, it’s my 2 cents. But take the time to think about not just which political party you want to vote for, but also how our voting system works. If you don’t like it, let your MP know.

The message – apathy should not be tolerated. Maybe we should introduce something like I’ve heard they have in Australia – you get fined $50 if you’re eligible and don’t vote! How cool is that!!!!

Cyclocross race again!

2005-12-13T02:08:00.000+01:00

Please don't mistake this blog for anything chronological - it certainly isn't. I'll rewind to 2 weekends ago back in the Netherlands for this one (2 days before the flight mentioned in the next entry).

I joined a friend for my first national cyclocross race in Stramproy (about 1 hour from my place) on Saturday - figured it would be a good time! Since I had no national points though I started ont he back row of about 25 guys who all looked pretty pumped up and ready to go - this was going to be a little tougher than the local series I'd been doing.

So while I'm listening to the announcer rattle on in Dutch about the race I start playing with my HRM to make sure it's set right. Unfortunatley I wasn't even in the right starting gear at this point either. Next thing I know I hear a whistle and everybody's GONE. I'm left standing there looking around wondering what the heck just happened! I looked behind me to see the juniors rushing forward to get their starting positions and I realized I'd better get outta the way! So off I go in dead last place - yehaw!

Luckily I'd at least ridden the course 2 times, so that was a vast improvement on my previous best (1/2 lap pre-ride). I knew there was nothing to hold back at this point, so I just got warmed up good and let'er rip. I thought it would be interesting to see what happens and what I could do. I started passing people, but in the open field sections it was pretty clear to me the leaders were already pretty far ahead - good luck catching them! But I tried as best I could and managed to pass a good chunck of the field.

About 40 minutes into the race I caught up to a rider who was going a good pace so I settled onto his wheel for a bit to catch my breath. Realizing I only have 20 minutes left though I quickly decided to pick up the pace - if he could follow me good for him, if not I'd go alone and try to bridge to the next rider. Sure enough he stuck on my wheel and shortly he passed me too - hammering all the way. I wasn't sure why he was going so hard, but I knew I'd stick with him. Over the running section we went, then around an off-camber turn into the finishing strecth when he dropped the hammer and started sprinting - but we still had a good 10 minutes left, right? WRONG again! (Jeeze - I think I'm going to have to make every mistake possible in cyclocross before I start being smart about it!).

Turns out the race had been dropped from 60 to 50 minutes, and this dude just outsprinted me for a spot - rats! Oh well - no big deal - I didn't know where I was, but I didn't think I was on the podium.....but it turns out I was pretty close. I'd lost track of how many people I'd passed (since they run a few races at a time you always get slower traffic and it's really hard to tell who's in your class and who isn't). I ended in 6th place, which I was pretty happy with considering my dead-last start!

Not a bad result, and I felt great the whole race - good signs! I've got a couple shots I'd put here, but I'm having troubles uploading them now (pop-up blocker is messing with it :o( Stay tuned!

Missed flights and another good quote

2005-12-13T01:47:00.000+01:00

Well I'm in Madison, Wisconsin right now for Trek Travel end-0f-the-year meetings (read: have a few meetings then party our assess off with the guides who took the time to come :o) It's been great so far, but this week the guides have gone home and it's just the office staff to stick it out in meetings and training for now.

Fun story on my way over here - I somehow managed to show up at the airport 1 minute too late for my flight from Amsterdam to Detroit (they had moved the flight time up 15 minutes without announcing it - bastardo's!!!). So they wouldn't let me on the flight :o( No big deal, right? Everybody's missed flights before - they just book you on the next flight out and you wait at the airport a couple hours. Wrong.

Seems my travel karma had finally caught up with me. I've always showed up within 1 hour of flight departure and never had any problems - but this time things changed. Not only had I missed the flight, but the airline had cut a lot of their scheduled flight times, so instead of catching the normal flight 2.5 hours later I was going to have to spend the night in Amsterdam! Oh yeah - maybe I forgot to mention too that the ticket was non-transferrable/non-refundable. So not only do I have to dish out for a new flight (not cheap), I also have to find myself a hotel.

I thought about it for about an hour and realized I was a dumbass and it's finally caught up to me, so I went back to the counter to buy the ticket. Hoping against hope things would be different with this person I immediately started in complimenting her about her ring (which was actually super cool) and the Sinter Klaus pin she was wearing. Sure enough, the good karma returned - she gave me the ticket and I didn' t have to pay (she didn't say anything about it, so I wasn't sure if I should thank her or not - in the end I didn't but I sent her happy thoughts!). Not only that, but I didn't have to pay the extra baggage fee OR a transfer fee! Yehaw!!!

To top things off, I got in touch with Geoff's sister Tracy and went into town to have dinner and beers with them - great chance to see them and their place before they move to Montreal in 2 weeks.

The next morning I'm on my flight bright and early and make it to Madison a 1/2 day late :o) All in all a good experience salvaged from near disaster - looks like Christmas was early for me this year!

OK - gotta get out of here for now - but no training today (too cold, and I've been riding the trainer and running the treadmill all last week and it's driving me nuts!). Actually I got out yesterday for a 1.5 hour MTB along the bike paths in Madison with a friend from work that was pretty sweet - at least the sun was shining (can't say that reminds me of Nijmegen!).

Churchill.

2005-11-30T12:40:00.000+01:00

Don't know much about Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, except he was considered by many to be an alcoholic; he ate lots of red meat; smoked lots of cigars; and really made a name for himself covering the Boer War as a journalist. He does however have a quote that I find really great:
"If you're going through hell, keep going"
Great stuff from this guy!

The Snowy Dutch

2005-11-29T09:36:00.000+01:00

Last week on Friday the snow started to fall for the first time in what seems like AGES over here (it's only been since last winter, but a lot's happened since then :o) The temperature turned south, which is an ironic idiomatic phrase since the temperature in the south is undoubtedly warmer than here.

So Friday dawned with slushy snow falling and winter arriving. Little did I know what they day would bring! I decided to drive into work, since I wasn't at all prepared for the winter riding. What a mistake that was. All morning at work the heavy snow was falling mixed with light rain, all of which immediately turned to slush upon contact with anything earthly. About midday the snow began to build up a little, and it looked like it would be a interesting drive home.

I left the office thinking nothing of the drive home - big deal, it's just a little snow on the road, right? Yeah, something like that. Gotta remember I'm in a country where they're not used to snow. So my drive home, which normally takes all of 20 minutes door to door (which is why I don't drive much - way more fun to ride it and it only take 25 minutes door to door on a bike!), took a whopping 1 hour 10 minutes of near standstill traffic. Wtf?

The funniest/scariest part was while I was sitting in my car for so long with no iPod (which has crapped out on me and is currently being serviced back in the US) I got to listen to lots of Dutch radio. I was struck by 2 traits of radio in het Nederland: the first being that the Dutch like to talk A LOT on the radio (it's very annoying when you just want to hear music); speaking of music, the second thing is that Dutch radio stations play an alarming amount of Lionel Ritchie (http://www.lionelrichie.com/) and Bon Jovi (http://www.islandrecords.com/bonjovi/home.las). Since I was stranded in my car I was forced to choose between the two - naturally the Dutch radio announcers won hands down.

While listening to the Dutch announcers I was again struck by two realizations. In chronological order: at first I thought my Dutch was horrible and I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I soon realized that my Dutch was bang-on; the second, upon realizing I understood the announcer, was that this country is NUTS! I listened to the same news update at least 5 times, and at one point I timed how long it was - almost 90 seconds. What were they announcing you might wonder? Why, the list of traffic jams of course - what else? They were going through a roll call of ALL the highways in the Netherlands and listing how long the traffic jams were - ranging from 4km to 76km. Yup - not a typo - 76 fucking kilometers of traffic jam. Again, wtf?

In total they set a record - there were over 800km's of traffic jams on Friday, with some motorists being stranded for the entire day. The ANWB (same as CAA) was driving up and down the emergency lane handing out hot choclate and blankets (much better reaction than the US governement in New Orleans, but I'm not gonna go there).

Step back and think about that for a sec - 800km. This country is roughly 200 km x 400 km, smaller than New Jersey, and containing 800km of traffic jam. I'm sure you could see this from the Space Station! The CIA fact book lists the land use as: 26.7% arable land; 1.0% permenant crops; 72% other. I vote for a new category - 15.8% traffic jams (file in Dutch). Why can't the CIA get more detailed than that - 72% 'other' - that's a pretty large concentration of other, no?

Oh well, at least the Dutch have come to terms with their problem and sitting in traffic is the official Dutch pass-time.

Pics from Chamonix and Cyclocross Race

2005-11-22T18:56:00.000+01:00

Nope - I didn't do a cyclocross race in Chamonix - I was just there visiting my sister, sans velo. But we did have a great time partying our asses off and hiking lots. We also went up to Aguille-du-Midi - truly breath taking (not just because it's 3,800 m above sea level). Wow is an understatement! Oh yeah, and for the skiers out there - no snow in Cham by mid-November is a bad sign :o( I bought a pair of Bandit XX's while I was there and left them with my sister for 'safe keeping' (ie so she can use them while I'm not there!), but I don't know how much use I'll get out of them this winter if there's no snow. I could have brought them back to the Netherlands, but.......

Here's a shot from Aguille-du-Midi looking east over the Savoie toward the Massifs-Central.

This one looks west at the top of the Mer du Glace (Sea of Ice) glacier/valley.
Here's another of the Mer du Glace - this one from across the valley near Lac Blanc (great hike!).

And for a little variety here's a shot or two from the cyclocross race last Saturday :o)

The Title is No Title

2005-11-21T17:23:00.000+01:00

Living in the Netherlands has definitely dulled my senses in a few ways, one of which being that I definitely don’t feel clausterphobic here. This place is so flat that during long road rides I routinely mistake tree-lines in the distance for upcoming hills. I get excited at the prospect of winding up and down some climbs to break up my ride only to find myself shooting straight through a harvest forest and out the other side before I have a chance to be disappointed by the lack of even a rise.

Having said that, I do thoroughly enjoy riding in the Netherlands. There’s always a town nearby – whether it be for a coffee, beer, appleflap (“met slagroom – ‘turlick!”, or a bike shop to fix your 3rd flat of the ride. Don’t even get me started on the bike paths here – absolute heaven. And with the abundance of roads in all directions I have an endless choice of routes for each ride.

So this past weekend I did my 3rd cyclocross race of a local series. Due to my past performances I decided I should REALLY get there early so I could pre-ride the course and hopefully keep up with the competition. I have come to the conclusion I am destined – yes DESTINED – to never be early for anything let alone on time for it. I swear – I’m going to be late for my own funeral (that’s not a bad thing, is it?).

I had my bag packed the night before, I had me alarm set early, I even made it out the door on schedule this time – so what the fuck went wrong? Fog. Thick, pea-soup fog. I had to drive so slowly it was torture. Then when I was only 10km from my friends place another thorn in my side: bridge construction. And they hadn’t put up the detour signs yet, so I had to strike out across the countryside on my own to find my way. Daring as I was, we still made it to the race about 20 minutes before the start – enough time to check in, change, and pre-ride at least ½ the course (a record for me).

Again on the start line my friend was pointing out all the riders I hadn’t seen before: “ohhhh – he came 4th at the Dutch Junior Championships this year”, “wow – he’s on a trade team from Amsterdam”, “and don’t forget the regular crew of guys to compete with”. Great – I was starting to get excited. And for the first time in years it happened – I was so nervous at the start line of a race that I started yawning. It’s really weird and I don’t know the explanation for it – some people have to pee, others have an upset stomach, still others need to listen to Ramstein – I don’t, I just start yawning. And it’s not like 1 or 2 yawns and I’m done – it’s a solid 5-10 minutes of it right up until the gun goes off!

And when it did this time I was in trouble. We were late and there were a lot of guys, so we started on the second row. Leading into the first corner I was in about 10th spot – not an ideal position on such a tight course. I pulled my regular routine where I started passing guys to try to keep contact with the leaders, but as usual I found myself working too hard just to make up for a bad start – and this time there was a group of 5 that had taken off the front.

I chased and I chased and I chased, and when I wanted some variety I chased for a while. And it worked: the lead group had splintered into 3 at the front and the 2 in front of me, and I had dropped the rest of the field. But things weren’t going all that great – the course was a little muddy from the week of rain and I hadn’t had much cyclocrossing in these conditions. On one lap alone I had 3 stand-stills (2 due to contact with trees) and about ½ a dozen near misses. But about 35 minutes into the race I was able to catch and pass one more guy, so that left me in 5th, and I soon passed another to move into 4th. With about 10 minutes to go I caught up to the 3rd place rider who wouldn’t let me pass. Not a big deal though, since I wouldn’t be able to catch the leaders anyway, and nobody was catching up to us, so I just sat back and figured I’d ride his wheel to the end and then take off for the finish line. Race Strategy Note: don’t ever do this again.

So with about ½ a lap to go I was getting ready to make my move when a mere moment of inattention changed things – my left pedal cranked a stump in the grass, tossing my bike to the other side of the trail and dropping my chain. All the cursing in the world couldn’t put it on fast enough, and when I was finally up and ready to go again the other guy had taken off – he’d seen what happened and realized that was his chance.

So I crossed the line in 4th place, with the strong junior winning the race in a sprint against the regular guy who beat me in the other races.

Still – a very fun race in tricky conditions.
To make my weekend complete I went for an MTB ride on Sunday with the guys from Marco Polo Cycling – but about 1 hour into the ride my front tire flatted. Not normally a problem, but when you’ve got tubeless tires you know it’s something bad (not to mention those tires are on there TIGHT!!!). After destroying 2 tubes trying get the tire back on we realized my ride was over, so I had to ride the rim home….ouch.

Oh well, c’est la vie, non?

Cyclocross Race Part 2!

2005-11-07T08:39:00.000+01:00

Well it looks like the cyclocross season continues in the Netherlands! I went to my second race today not sure what to expect. Had my first race been a fluke? Was I going to blow up in the middle of the race after having taken 10 days off for the flu? Here a shot from my first race (the photographer got a little creative).

Well the day started out with the sun shining, the birds singing, and me late (some things are a given – kinda like gravity). For some reason my alarm clock didn’t go off this morning, so I woke up about an hour late. Good thing I’d packed my gear the night before (maybe in my subconscious I already knew what was going to happen!). I blazed to my friends place as we’d planned to meet there and ride to the course.

Luckily we had a good 35min warmup into a strong head wind to get to the race, but for the second time I didn’t get to pre-ride the course. You’d think after all my years of mishaps due to not pre-riding that I’d have learned by now….so you’d think! So at the start line I saw a lot of faces I didn’t recognize from the last race, and some of them were wearing kits from one of the Dutch road racing teams – and they looked fit! My friend said they were strong riders, and he also pointed out a few others I’d never seen before that looked strong, so I realized this was going to be a much different race than last time :o)

There were about 55 of us in the open category (more than last time), and when the gun went off everyone took off like a bat out of hell. I was able to pull the same routine as last time where I rode in about 5th place for the first ½ lap to suss out the competition. Unfortunately 2 guys took off from the front again in the first single track section (1 of them was the guy who won the last race). Again I realized too late that nobody in front of me was going to chase, so I struck out on my own to see if I could catch them (on a course I’d never seen!).

A trio stuck to my wheel this time though – and the race was on. We see-sawed back and forth for the better part of 30 minutes when I decided I’d had enough. The leader was only about 30 seconds in front of me at this point, and I was pulling the pack along behind me (the other guy who took off at the start had blown up a bit and was in the pack behind me). So I had picked my spot on the course where I knew I was riding stronger than the others and dropped the hammer about ½ a lap before it – and it worked like a charm. By the time I hit that section I had a full head of steam and the pack had splintered behind me. I was able to drop all the followers and start to bridge up to the leader.

Unfortunately he saw me coming and dropped his own hammer – it was a really dangerous race, with all these hammers all over the place!

In the end I came second by 30 seconds (pretty close this time!), and the pack behind me didn’t make the last lap again. All in all it was an awesome race on a great course. The organizers had decided to run it in the opposite direction as the previous race and I really liked the change. Lap times were faster by about 30 seconds, and I enjoyed the course a lot more!

Here’s my HR plot from this race and the previous race. Things are looking good as my HR was up quite high for both of them, and at the end of this race I felt really fresh – if the course had been faster I might have been able to challenger for the lead. Well, better luck next time, eh?

Does Anybody Actually.....

2005-11-04T19:04:00.000+01:00

....read this blog? Just wondering - I haven't had any comments in about a month, so it seems like I've got this blog posted for my own good (which is fine - its about time I started a diary!). I've got another cyclocross race tomorrow - I think I've finally kicked this flu, so I'm going to get back at it. Should be a lot of fun - damn, I love cyclocross! Lets see if I can post the same kind of numbers I did last time!

Oh yeah - here's my HR plot for the last cross race I did. Wow - I don't know if I'll be able to repeat those max numbers tomorrow!

L8r Sk8rs

Fall in het Nederland

2005-10-30T21:28:00.000+01:00

Love those fall days…..when you’ve got your fitness from the summer and all you want to do is ride. I woke this morning to the clocks turned back and this view out my window – that meant I had an extra hour to ride in these incredible conditions! Unfortunately I’m still trying to kick this flu bug that’s got me, so I decided to take it easy today – but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride :o)

So I hit the road nice and early – 8:30 on a Sunday morning, and the town was still sleeping. So I had the roads all to myself. It was so perfect this morning. There was just enough chill in the air to keep things perky, the leaves were just dry enough to crumple under tire, and things were good. I popped on my iPod and started my spin.

On such a morning the destination is really not the point – it’s the journey. I didn’t know where my ride was going to take me and I didn’t care. All I knew was that I wanted to enjoy the ride and go as long as I could before I collapsed :o) So I started out by heading over to Germany, just a short 20km ride down the dyke et voila, I’m in the land of Krauts and brats and lederhosen (those funny shorts with suspenders that Germans made famous). It wasn’t an eventful ride at all – just a long steady jaunt, my first in over a week (out with the flu). My legs felt like lead and they had no power, so I just spun and spun and spun.

It wasn’t until I turned and started heading back toward home that I came across all the other riders taking advantage of this last glorious fall day. And not only were there riders, but also people on horseback, people on ponies, people hiking, people strolling, people with dogs, people with kids, people with parents, people, people, people. Wow – I was just glad I’d have my few hours to myself before it got too busy :o)

All in all a great day to be on a bike…..but then again, aren’t they all?

Back in the saddle.....well, almost.

2005-10-28T09:08:00.000+02:00

Wow - I can't believe how long it's been since my last posting. My apathy has been impressive, and I apologize. Things have been a bit busy recently, and unfortunately riding has taken a back seat (I have no qualms about it taking a back seat to certain things, which I will not reveal here - some things ARE more important than riding!).

So since my last post a lots happened, here's a quick summary:

MY "FRIENDS" (from a previous post :o): they're almost competelely gone and not bothering me at all, so I'm able to ride. With the assistance of a cycling friendly doctor I was able to adjust my seat correctly to take pressure off the hot spots and give myself time to heal. It's funny - I've never had a proper bike fitting before, so this was an eye opener. Turns out my saddle was too far back and too high, so I've now adjusted accordingly. I'd always thought you should find a saddle position that's comfortable and go with it, which I've done in the past. But now I'll have to wait and see how the new positions feel!

MY CROSS BIKE: I upgraded my Trek X01 cyclocross bike with Bontrager Race Lite wheels, a Bontrager carbon fork, carbon seatpost, and cross-cranks. The bike feels completely new, and I'm ABSOLUTELY amazed at the difference the carbon fork and post make - I've been riding carbon for so long on my road bike and MTB that I'd taken for granted the vibration absorbtion of the carbon! What a revelation!

MY FIRST CROSS RACE: I entered my first cross race last Saturday, not really knowing what to expect. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it :o) the weather was sunny and dry. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it :o) I arrived late and didn't get a chance to pre-ride the course, or even get a look at my competition. Luckily I registered as an Amateur A rider, and they called all the A's to the front of the line for the start regarless of how many points you had in the series. In total there were about 40 in the race, and I really had no idea how fast I should ride. So we took off from the start and I decided to keep pretty near the front (it's always easier to drop the pace a bit than pick it up), so I rode in 6th or 7th spot for the first 1/4 lap. In the first single track section one guy bolted off the front, and I was surprised nobody followed, but again I was not sure of the course or what speed I could hold so I restrained my instinct to hammer after him. Nearing the 1/2 way mark of the lap I found I could hold myself back no longer and I made for the front to chase after the lead rider.

Soon I found myself isolated from the lead rider (he held a steady 50m gap on me) and the chase riders (I held a steady 50m gap on them). Surprisingly enough I didn't bail on the first lap, and during the second I was finding smoother lines and areas where I didn't have to shift or dismount. By the end of the second lap though I'd started to loose the guy in front of me (he was much faster in the single track than I) and I was starting to loose the rest of the field behind me (I was much faster in the single track than them), so I wasn't sure what to make of the situation. Do I drop back and ride with the group or do I keep hammering on my own to see if I could reel in the leader (best case scenario) or ride it out on my own (worst case scenario)? With my competitive streak I never really had to ask that question - of course I'd try to reel him in!

So for the next 45 minutes I hammered away solo as the guy in front of me steadily pulled away from me, and I steadily pulled away from the guys behind me. By the end of the race my challenge had been held off by the winner (he won by about 90 seconds) and I held off the challengers to take second (the third place rider didn't make the last lap, so the field was 1 lap down!). 2nd place overall in my first race - not bad, eh? I managed to average 177bpm for 51 minutes of racing, with a peak of 185bpm - numbers that I haven't seen in years, and I don't think I've ever held an average that high for that long!!

THE FLU: after the race I went to a huge bike show (Bikemotion - probably the biggest in the Netherlands) and hung out with thousands of people in an exhibition hall during peak flu season after completely wearing myself out in a cross-race....doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened. The Sunday ride with friends (70km cyclocross, rainy at the end) probably didn't help much. By Monday morning I felt like a deer in headlights - I knew what was coming, and Monday night confirmed my fears. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in bed, and Thursday back at the office but not in peak condition. Today I'm still feeling it, so I'll probably take the weekend off.

THE TOUR DE FRANCE: they released the 2006 Tour de France route on Thursday at noon, so the trip designers (4 of them here in NL) and I were pouring over the route information and planning when and where our trips will visit next year. For us there two big surprises: no Mt.Ventoux (our leaks proved incorrect); no team time trial (surprise!). However there were several things that didn't surprise us: direction (flat, Pyrenees, Alps); the dates (our sources were almost bang-on!); Alpe d'Huez figuring prominantly again (sources were correct!); the snubbing of Lance.

On the snubbing of Lance, why WOULDN'T you ignore the 7-time defending champion at the route-presenting ceremony, give a 12 minute tyraid on ethics, and then have the president of the ASO (the group that organizes the Tour de France) Patrick Clerc state "Until we know the results of those investigations [into the 1999 EPO alligations against Lance], we should not take position on one side or the other," Clerc said. "We wanted to remain neutral as possible. Of course, when you are just neutral after seven victories in one event, you don't look neutral at all." What the fuck does that mean? They want to remain neutral, but since someone else is dominating they won't remain neutral? What about riders such as Richard Virenque (FR) and Eddie Merckx (BE)? These guys have been caught doping or admited to doping (respectively) and yet they still hold a higher regard with the ASO than Lance. I'm not even going to delve into the whole Cofidis (FR) team - why they are still allowed to race, given their documented history of repeated doping convictions and suspicions, is beyond me, but I'm just going to remain neutral on this one.

Adieu

Blog Assault and Ensuing Defense

2005-10-13T09:13:00.000+02:00

For those bloggers out there who are reading mine - do you ever have problems with people sending comments to your blog? I'm not talking about somebody writing a comment that blows your carefully concoted cover out of the proverbial water. RatherI'm referring (or reefering - don't forget I'm in the Netherlands) to the blogspam (did I just make that up? - creative, aren't I!).

So far my blog post about saddle sores has been hit by a plethora of links to acne cure pages - much appreciated, however I don't want them on my blog site, even in the comment field. I know this is public domain (being posted on the internet and all), but I still don't want anything to do with them.

Does anybody have any idea how to cure this new epidemic? Any suggestions would be good.

For the non riders out there: Bet You've Never Heard of This!

2005-10-02T18:54:00.000+02:00

As a cyclist of many years I have to say I've had my fair share of saddle sores. It's an oft ignored topic in cycling circles - something not often discusses as you sprint for your local town sign; yet I know others have had them at some time. So here's a little tirade on saddle sores. WARNING - if you are fait of heart or have just eaten you should not read this. Mom - you shouldn't read this either!

To start, for the uninformed (and curious), a quick definition of a saddle sore. Myriam-Webster Online says:
1 : a gall or open sore developing on the back of a horse at points of pressure from an ill-fitting or ill-adjusted saddle
2 : an irritation or sore on parts of the rider chafed by the saddle
Ok, those sound pretty close. But I haven't ever ridden a horse (nor am I a horse, for that matter), yet I've succumbed to the crippling effects of a saddle sore, so there's got to be something else.

A google search revealed some interesting results:
- depending how I type it, I get upwards of 350,000 hits - surely 1 of them must have the proverbial pot-of-knowledge at the end of this sweat and bacteria induced rainbow.
- one website has 8 pages on how to reduce/remedy saddle soreness, and then 1 paragraph on how to deliver the decisive blow to your unwanted nether-guests of bacterial origin. Not helpful at all - they just skipped over the juicy parts (hardy-har-har!).
- the Bicycling website has an 'About' section that addresses the issue quite nicely, including no nonsense descriptions of some afflictions to which the human body can succumb. If you're not a rider I'm sure you never dreamt (nightmared?) these conditions were even possible. Here's the link if you'd like some casual reading; or, for those that practice, some unique ammunition for your quiver of voodoo magic. http://bicycling.about.com/od/injuries/l/aa042699.htm

Enough of the web descriptions. In practical terms, a simple saddle sore is like a pimple somewhere between your where-the-sun-don’t-shine hole and you’re most-private-of-private parts, a few hairs east or west of the geodesic joining these two sensitive areas (aka choda…..wow, never though I’d use that word in my blog career). I can assure you the simple saddle sore is very uncomfortable, and often painful. However they often pass as quickly as your standard issue pubescent facial affliction know as acne. As an observation, like your teenage acne, the time for a saddle sore to pass may only be a few short days but it certainly feels like eternity.

Treatment is much the same as you remember from your junior education days – keep clean; dry the area often; disinfect if possible; wait for it to come to a head and drain.

Unfortunately every once in a blue moon something goes wrong with the acne cycle of life – perhaps the bacteria heard rumors of Darwins Theories and deciding he might just be on to something they refused to surrender to the standard onslaught of modern anti-acne SWAT tactics. Or maybe the thought of hard-core chaffing from sitting on a saddle too long frightened an emerging pube enough for it to make a 180 and head back where it came from (read: ingrown hair).

Whatever the source, sometimes a saddle sore does NOT fit the regular mold and refuses to die the quick and complete death it deserves.

A friend of mine recently had a problem with a "super" saddle sore - I use the term super to reflect the unnaturally strong characteristics of this saddle sore; I most certainly do not mean to lead you to think any thing about saddle sores (short of their departure) is super. It had been 14 days of relatively pain free riding on something he described as a fleshy buildup about the size of a peanut just below the surface that refused to come to a head; unfortunately the peanut would not go away, and was ever so slowly getting bigger. He had tried everything:
- 2 bottles of chamois cream in 2 weeks (probably a record)
- anti-bacterial soap and creams
- different shorts (at least 4 different types)
- two pairs of shorts at a time (to reduce friction – a tip I recommend for anyone getting into biking or at the start of the season – your butt will thank you)
- sleeping in the nude to keep the area well aired

Finally he’d had enough and took a week off the bike to see what would happen. During that time he spoke to his riding friends (some of which were sure good sources of information as the list included former Olympic and Tour de France cyclists) about their tips and also gathered contacts for cyclist-friendly doctors in his area.

After a long week full of sleepless nights away from the bike he is finally back in the saddle again – I just went for a 2 hour road ride and then a 3 hour mountain bike ride with him, and he’s pretty happy with the situation.

Hopefully this is the last my friend has seen of the dreaded saddle sore – but only time will tell. Wish him luck!!

Quotes - they can do a lot for you.

2005-09-23T05:07:00.000+02:00

I love a good quote; I get frustrated when things don't work like they should. Take, for example, the quotes and proverbs below (as in "These are quotes and proverbs I love - they're good"). For me getting frustrated, well lets just say I've spent the past 30 minutes writing up a wonderful blog on quotes, complete with pics, only to have the entire entry disappear without a trace. Wtf?! I'm not going to re-write it now (creative genius can't be turned on or off like a switch!).

Some good quotes/proverbs (always remember that a quote, like life, is just a word):

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream!" - Mark Twain

"When travelling, always remember that a foreign country was not designed for your comfort, but rather for the comfort of those who live there." - (don't know where this came from)

“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” - Groucho Marx

“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.” – Frank Sinatra

When cleaning out a tin can for recycling – “Careful – the edges are sharp – don’t cut yourself.” – Anonymous

“When it gets harder, you have to get easier.” – Kenyan running proverb (courtesy of Eric Harr)

“I was wrong to grow older. Pity. I was so happy as a child.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, the evaluating memo read: “Can’t act. Slight bald. Can dance a little”

“Laughter is the best medicine.” – Proverb

My Birthday!!!!

2005-09-21T10:32:00.000+02:00

Yeeeeehaw!!! Looks like I just turned 29 on Tuesday :o))) Getting older, but still playing pretty hard. Having said that, I didn't actually do any hard playing on Tuesday - more of a relaxing day!

I took it easy in the morning - when I woke up I realized I didn't want to go to work, so I didn't :o) I just stayed in bed for breakfast and read for a while. In the afternoon I wandered around with one of my housemates looking for a new shower/bathtub (she had to do all the translating as I don't know the Dutch words for 'tile' or 'leak' or 'destruction'). Then in the evening I went out for Thai food with a good friend (who conveniently forgot her wallet, so I had to cover everything ;o)

I got a lot of well wishes from friends and relatives, so that's for those :o)

Now I'm back at work after spending 1.5 hours driving around trying to find a baker that had cakes so I could show up at work with them. It's a Dutch custom that the birthday person brings goodies for everyone at work - I like it!

So, does 29 feel any different than 28? Yup! I haven't put my finger on it yet, but maybe it's the new page I've turned in my life recently. Or maybe it's the good feelings I get when I take the time to reflect on the past 29 years (actually, although it's my 29th 'Birthday' shouldn't it be my 30th? Why don't we count the first one - it's the most important) of my life and the good times I've had. Or maybe it's the confidence to go forward in time and do everything I can to make sure I'm still having fun (when was the last time you actually went out and 'played' at something? I mean played like a kid???!!). Or maybe it's cause I just shaved my legs.

I dunno, but so far I like it. It just feels like there's a lot of energy around and it's a great time to be enjoying it.

Keep the rubber side down.

Riding Weekend in Limburg (South of Netherlands).

2005-09-21T10:08:00.000+02:00

Well this past weekend was great - a co-worker invited me to join him and few friends in the South of the Netherlands just outside Maastricht (in the Ardennes "Mountains") for a weekend of riding organized by one of the local clubs.

It's a really well known weekend with a 70km MTB ride on Saturday and a 120km road ride on Sunday - encompassing many of the regions most famous/daunting climbs, some of which exceed the 20% grade criteria to become "ass-busters" (ass-buster = a climb so steep you not only feel the burn in your thighs and calves, but also in you BUTT - that's STEEP!).

So here's a shot of us after the MTB ride on Saturday - really hard day. It also helped that we were staying almost 15km from the start/finish, so before and after each ride we'd have a warm-up/cool-down spin - really helped the legs recover!

I don't know if I can really convey how steep the climbs were - you see the pro's ride up them (actually, sometimes you even see the pro's WALK up them!!!) and you think they don't look that bad. But do you remember the last time you watched a pro ride up Alpe d'Huez or Col du Tourmalet? They made that look like a cake-walk too! (Speaking of which, what the heck is a 'cake-walk' anyway: where did it come from? What does it mean??).

Side Note: I just looked up "Cake-Walk" on Google and found that most websites reference it as a dance from the deep south of the US during the days of slavery. The dance - actually more of a performance - was full of exaggerated bowing and bending and was means to moch the posh and grandiose mannerisms of the southern high-society - usually this was performed by slaves (and was at one time obviously strictly forbidden!). A quick search of the Cambridge online dictionary and Britannica online encyclopedia reveal the same references to a 'swing' type of dance. Well, that makes sense with the saying anyway, so I'll buy that for a dollar.

I digress (not that there's anything wrong with that). The weekend was a great time, full of good riding, lots of laughs, yes some booze (Chartreuse mostly), and we left one stinky trailer behind when we left on Sunday night!

Great training though as I felt pretty solid all weekend :o)

Ciao for now!

Some Photo's from Canada (Calgary and Vancouver Area)

2005-09-16T14:38:00.000+02:00

I finally got around to putting some photo's together from a great trip back to Canada in August:
- August 10th back to Calgary for Geoff's wedding on the 12th (what a great wedding - Geoff, where are the pics??!)
- August 13th Hang-Over/2544 Reunion hike (sans Geoff - he was a little busy with Maria.....)
- August 20th-25th on the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail on Vancouver Island - what an absolutely incredible place! We had uncanny weather, and hardly anybody there (lots of bear shit though....)

That's all for now - gotta go ride :o) This weekend should be good - going to the Belgian Ardennes for a 70km MTB rally on Saturday and a 120km road ride on Sunday......lets see how my body feels after that MTB ride (since I haven't been off-roading in a long time I predict I'll be in a world of lower back pain).

Here's a shot on the Hang-Over hike to The Fort (Kananaskis Country). There's nothing like this in the Netherlands! We hiked around this lake and then up a scree slope to the summit, where it was warm enough to have a 1 hour nap time (good for the hang-over crew!). That's one of the few times I've made it to a peak and been able to just sit and relax and not worry about the cold :o)

Here's an image from the Juan de Fuca Marine Trial looking at the beautiful sunset. Craig's got a ton of shots from this trip - I hope I can get them from him. The trail was a mix of hiking along the beach, tropical rainforest (was this Canada?), and cedar forests. Absolutely incredible hiking - highly recommended!!!

And finally a classic shot from the Prarie View/Jewel Pass Trail at the head of K-Country. You'll likely remember this shot if you've seen the cover of the MTB Rides of the Canadian Rockies book. I ended up going there on my own (it was a Monday and everybody else had to work!), so I did 2 full loops and loved every minute of it! The downhill is pretty chewed up these days, and Marcos' Kona Kula was not the best performance bike for this, but I was still loving it (too many people just use suspension to mask poor bike handling skills anyway.......Geoff???! - kidding :o)

Keep on ridin!

2005-09-15T21:41:00.000+02:00

So it's another rainy day here in Nijmegen, today all I did was ride to work and then drove home (today was a very distracting day - here's why).

So here's the situation - back in July I agreed to take my old job back as European Logistics Coordinator for Trek Travel, with the idea that it would be reduced to 30hrs/week so I could focus on training. This seemed like a dream situation - great job at a great company, very flexible job, and that would allow me tonnes of time to really focus on training and give this dream it's due attention.

Somewhere along the line (say mid-August) my boss dropped the hint - the job likely wouldn't be a 30hr/week job - it would require the 40hr/week that you'd normally expect, plus additional time (since I'm on salary there's no counting hours - if I work 50 hours in a week then it's my problem, no taking hours off or extra pay). Great. And there's no way around it, the job will be 40-50hrs/week, end of story. Like I said, GREAT! So here's my first big speedbump: what do I do about this pesky job?

I was so excited to give my dream the real attention it deserves, and now this comes along and I've got to decide if I'm going to stay in this job or not. To be honest, I'm not sure what to do. Originally the decision had to be made by tomorrow, but by some wierd change in the Dutch labour laws nothing has to be decided for another 2 months. I'm not going to wait that long. From the start I've had no doubt in my mind - quit the fucking job, follow the dream.

But after talking to a lot of people they seem to think I should give it a try - say 2 months, just to see if I can make it work. Not a bad idea really; it's a little silly to quit a permenant job in Europe. They're not that easy to get, cause once you get them you're IN for life - it's like joining the mafia - no easy way out. Have you got any idea how HARD it is for a company to fire a permenant employee??! It'd be easier to dock the Space Shuttle to the Space Station than try to fire a Dutchie!

Fuck I'm really confused though. I really want to walk away from this job, but at the same time maybe they're right about trying it for a couple months to make it work......

To top it all off, I've had a great week of riding. The first post I wrote last Saturday wasn't right - I ended up going for a 1.5 hr cyclocross hammer with Karel, one of the Lokomotiv's (a group of friends I ride with in Nijmegen, and Karel was my neighbor when I first moved here - great guy!). Then on Sunday it was 180km group ride with Mercurius (university students team - THAT's the team I should be on!!!! :o) I think there's only a few place on this great planet of ours where you can ride 180km and only gain 400m total elevation.....that was a flat ride (which means you've got to make it interesting other ways, such as riding each other into the ground ont he flats....ouch).

Then on Tuesday night it was the Wednrenners jam, a group about 150 strong in Nijmegen that break up into smaller groups and ride according to ability. I ride with the A1 group (long course, fast speeds). I went with 2 friends from Trek who do a LOT of riding (1 of them is an MTB racer), so we made it interesting and had a KOM competition for the 3 main climbs (1st = 3pts, 2nd = 2pts, 3rd = 1pt, 2 bonus points if you best the entire group). I took the first climb, with my colleagues 2nd and 3rd overall (good start!). I decided it would be fun to be at the front for most of the ride (I like it up there - it's a lot of work, but it's fun to set tempo and chase down breaks and try to break on my own!), so I took a couple of long pulls, and by the second hill my legs were pretty fried. I lost my rythm when we passed some slower riders, so one of my colleagues took the hill - we were tied for first place. On the last climb I took too many pulls leading into it, so when he punched the accelerator 1/2 way up I couldn't follow and he won the overall - rats! But I think this'll be a weekly event, so stay tuned as I whip Jeroen's ass next week (I'm not going to take any pulls - I'll do what he did and hide in the peleton!).

Then last night I went out on my own for a 2 hour spin in the fog/mist. It was so beautiful: no cars, no people, the fog totally damped all the sounds so it was just me, the bike, and the road. It was so peaceful with the mist and fog over the water and fields, and when I came back through the woods I thought I was going to stumble upon the Shire with all the hobbits (instead I get 7 ft tall blond people – ruined the moment).

OK - that's enough for now - but check back regularly as I'm going to get in the habbit of keeping this updated all the time now :o) I think I'll like this blogging stuff (and it's great to read up on friends blogs too - check my links to find them!).

Saturday Afternoon and the Dream is Stronger Than Ever.

2005-09-10T22:31:00.000+02:00

Things are a little uncertain right now - more to come later (once I figure out how this blogging stuff works - looks pretty easy so far though!).

So instead of riding today I'm in the office trying to figure out my options for the future. Right now the road to the peleton has put a series of speedbumps in front of me. I'm not going to let them get in my way - I just need a second to scan the road and find the best line through them.

You know I'm an engineer when I spent Thursday night until 2am creating a flow chart of my options for the future, outlining the positives and negatives of each decision, the affect it will have on my dream (of riding in a pro peleoton for 1 year), and the financial consequenses (this is by far the least important - it won't sway my decision at all, but I do want to know what I'm getting into).

In my heart I already know what I'm going to do, now it's just finding out which road to take in order to get there. The best thing about the flow chart: it reflects what I already know it my heart (so it's good backup and I can really go forward in this time of decision knowing my heart AND my brain are into it!).

I'm sure this sounds pretty vague, so I'll post the flow chart once the first major speedbump is passed (Friday September 16th 2005!).

L8r Sk8rs

2005-09-10T14:36:00.000+02:00

Andrew (me!)