I'm pooped! back to the US

This trip has been fantastic and I am sorry to leave the beautiful Belgian country side, but I have all but worn out my welcome. Just kidding. Seriously though, I needed a break so my return has come at a convenient time in a way.

The experience overall has been an incredible journey of learning on and off the bike and I feel like it has helped me mature much faster than would have been possible spending the same time (any amount of time??) in the US. Bernard, Anne and the staff were, in addition to being super nice, very knowledgeable, understanding and imparted mounds of wisdom upon me. To conclude a particular one on one session with Bernard he asked me after hearing me say less and less: "have you had enough or do you want more?" I had become saturated over the course of that hour and a half. That just helps illustrate the amount there exists to learn in this world. I turned over a stone out of curiosity only to find two stones beneath it. So the quest continues...

I made some good friends staying, training and racing with one interesting group of guys. These were intelligent and motivated people searching for ways to give 110%, but also with a good sense of humor. Of course the mood was up and down depending on race outcome - high spirits after good team outings and a somber mood of reflection after muck ups. Even individual feelings of personal doubt seemed to blow away quickly in the positive team atmosphere cultivated at the center. That in addition to all of those individuals will be missed.

So where does this leave me? Geographically I am back where I started, although I have taken many steps down a path of learning in a short time. I have a better understanding of bike racing and all that is required to be competitive at the top level of the sport. I have gained fitness and knowledge, measured myself against one of the toughest proving grounds in the world, and I am left hungrier than ever. I feel I have gained in confidence from racing and not backing down; assured of my abilities on the one hand and seeing how much room there is for improvement in every area on the other.

One thing that has never escaped my mind is the sense of gratitude I feel towards all of those people who have offered me there support in any way large or small. From the friendly folks I meet in passing on the side of the road, super fans in the US and Belgium (Thanks Blanca!!), friends and Club members and the CC of course, and most of all my family. Traveling and racing in Europe has always required a tremendous effort to do properly and there is no way I could have done it alone, not even close! I was so hesitant to even take the first steps but AV members I spoke to encouraged me and the club then stood behind me all the way. I can't thank you guys enough for helping play this big part in my development. Thanks!

Lastly I have some pictures which I am trying to round up in order to present in some form but have had bad luck with posting in the format I desire on this blog, so stay tuned. And of course feel free to email me with questions/comments, I love talking about happenings from the east siide(of the pond.)

best
Nick

In loving Memory of Wesley Jacobs

Who left us for the comfort of home. Yes the beast from the (south) east was what he was called. Ok so maybe Pretoria is the north east of the south? Whatever anyone from South Africa is just plain from the south because that is about as south as it gets. Wes left us about 2 weeks ago and the hole in our hearts still hasn't been filled.

Imagine if you will someone who has all of the banditry about him of say Robbie McEwen (won hi 3rd stage today) and take that to the nest level. You see Wes is an ex-cagefighter with a flawless record (he was banned after killing a man and then beginning to eat them.) He brings all of that intensity to bike racing but instead of a sprinter he has the power-to-weight of a champion climber and the palmares to prove it (he last year podiumed at the provincial climbing championship despite being a spritely 17 which was good for 1st junior).

With all of that.... anger you might imagine he isn't very social but, to the contrary, he practically had a harem of Belgian Ladies at his beck and call. Yes, equipped with a pimp South African accent he can ask for directions and end up with a date. In some ways it isn't fair.

In addition to all that, he is an ace computer hacker and the only person capable of beating confounding motorcycle trials computer games.

Yes he was as likeable as he was versatile and he will be missed. We can only hope his travels take him to the US so he can dazzle us and with any luck we will meet again at the CC next year.

Wesley Jacobs Every Body

An American holiday in Belgium

I had a pretty darn good 4th with much meat consumption. We kicked off the day with a pancake cook-off that was hotly contested. When I say hotly contested I mean people were traveling to Brugge for secret ingredients and not one of the top teams was divulging any of their recipes. I am pretty sure there was even betting involved. Anyway in the end my entry of apple cinnamon whole wheat and oat pancakes was beat by some elaborate fruit and chocolate entries. Sigh. All of the pancakes were beyond delicious though.

A little game of soccer helped make room for the meat which was to come. We Grilled and Grilled and then grilled a little more. Along with freshly made salsa, tortilla chips and and several other delicious dishes.

Unfortunately there were really no fireworks so the celebration felt a bit hollow. So we decided in our over-fed stupor to fill that void, not the void that could exist in one's stomach if improperly nourished which was far from the situation in our collective case, but the emotional one left when our precious, dearly beloved celebration of independence from the clutch of our mother Europe, with a game of DISCO bowling - an activity that would have been met with the heartfelt approval of our ancestors.

The next day we went to see the tour which was AWESOME. We went to the start and checked out all the riders up close!!!! (try 15 centimeters - hey it's Europe, we don't use inches). It was a zoo and crazy and music was playing and people were screaming and cheering. We were getting thrown out of the riders area every 2-3 minutes but going right back in. We saw Leipheimer and Julich and of course George!! A few guys made it a mission to get as many autographs as possible and they got tons. That is just the tip of the iceberg too. Landis and Boonen (in Flemish it actually is Bone-in) were a little harder to get close to but hey. Tons of people, tons of sponsors giving away stuff and selling stuff, and tons of just craziness. And the stage hadn't even started. Fantastic.

We also caught up with the tour at the feed zone thanks to the back roads knowledge of our director Bernard who hustled us over there just in time to see the pre race caravan (probably 100 cars and 10 helicopters) and then the race that was by in a flash. I got a quickstep water bottle that someone threw at me. cool.

Now that we have relaxed our minds it is time to rage. We have a race a day starting saturday and it looks like I will be in 2 of them before coming home next thursday. I miss the states but I am having a great time here so it will be sad, and then happy. see you guys soon
Nick

France racin'

Yesterday I went with a team of 8 riders and 3 support staff into France for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Preux-au-Bois, a UCI 1.12 race. It was cool to get out of the country and see a little of France but the heat was oppressive. It was pretty close as it took about 1.5h to get there by car.

The race consisted of a 8.2k circuit done 15 times for about 124k. The circuit had a quick stint through town, a long open road with pretty bad cross winds, narrow section through a neighboring town followed by a stair step climb with more cross winds. The field was about 140 strong and pretty motivated. From the word go it was strung out and attacking. Unlike my last UCI race I got right to the front in staging which was good for the aforementioned reason.

The plan was to have a couple guys follow the first move and about 15 guys got off within the first lap with one of our guys in tow. This group shuffled a little but went the distance. Behind the attacking was non stop and the heat was brutal (I think around 35-36 C). We had guys, three others and myself, representing the attacks and generally riding at the front. At some point our man in the break had a mishap and was out of the race but I am not sure when exactly.

As the race wore on I found I was getting the chills and goosebumps from dehydration (I assume) but I just kept drinking as much as possible. The second group split a few times and I bridged a couple of times after being caught out (man there were a lot of attacks, maybe 3-5+ per lap.) My final bridge came with 4 laps to go when I jumped away from my group when we had closed to within about 250m. I sensed that no one else was that willing to work so rather then have the gap go up I jumped away and one other dude came up to me. The 2nd group (the one in front of us) suddenly picked up speed and it took an entire lap going impossibly fast to catch up right as they slowed momentarily.

At this point I was about 3 laps beyond spent and went to the top 15 immediately to try and conserve and make the finish (have you ever hoped to be pulled?) After 2k of suprisingly orderly riding the attacks began to come again and 2 jumps later I was cooked!!! Shit. The team car came up and told me to just ride tempo and recover. Apparently we had opened up a multiple minute gap on the rest of the group with my 2 remaining teammates. I gradually got some strength back and with the encouragement of my DS rode solo with all my might for the last ~20k coming in about 1-2 minutes behind group 2 (about 45th place) and another 2+ minutes back to the 3rd group of 30-40 (I don't know if there were more left on the road maybe they were pulled.)

Well crap. I finished my first UCI race in (relative) style with plenty of attacking and taking ZERO BS from the locals, I did a lot of yelling and that seemed to get me places (literally). If I had conserved energy a little better here or there etc. would I have finished in the 2nd group? Maybe, but that is for another day.

I feel like lots of the little lessons I have been learning here came together in this and got me through one TOUGH race. But still there is plenty of room for improvement. I needed this race to help instill confidence. After a string of mishaps I was left hungry to race. After this race, though, I have the advantage of also having the confidence that comes from performing knowing that you can perform - not just have the ability to do so.

But I have to go get a good nights sleep for our 4th of July BBQ.
Nick

Guess What.

I have been having terrible luck at these races. Last weekend my chain got a stiff link 5 minutes into the race. Have you ever heard of this?? I cleaned my bike the previous day and lubed it well. Then I rode it. On the day of the race I rode it 1.5 h to the race no prob. then wham! My legs felt brilliant as well, full of snap and without pain in the warmup and the hard start of the race. So I race Tuesday and I am well placed in the second group of places 9th through I dunno on a hilly (yes hilly????!!) course after 5 of 11 laps of 10.? k and ~1.5h. Guess what. They up and stop the race because too many cars are on the course. I can't seem to catch a break.

Ok, I am done whining. I race in France on sunday, cool! No details besides the country yet but when I find out I will fill you in. Speaking of France, the whole of of the CC is planning a trip to watch stage 4 of the tour (we will watch from Belgium). That will be the day after our 4th of July party which includes a BBQ, SWEET! Should help to get a little mental down time, I think everyone is looking forward to it. Should be a good time.

Weekends mean racing

And this weekend is no exception. Saturday I race in Oostrozebeke a kermesse of 115k or so, I don't have all the details. I do know that we will be 8 and riding to and from the race in order to get a legit 5 hours with a super hard 3 hour race in the middle. Should be good. I want badly to get a decent result and I am pumped to be racing. I have decided to play the card that seems to work the best which is: stay near the front, don't go with early moves, and if I ever get outside of the top thirty move up FAST even if it means punching it HARD. Basically things that are simple and easy on paper but can be hard in these fast and chaotic races. So we will see.
So yesterday I went down to Waragem (wara-hem) for a fitness test. It was a step test with 3 minute/ 50 watt steps with lactate readings at the end of each step. I was pretty comfortable until 350 watts when my desire to ask the doc all sorts of training questions was suddenly stemmed by the need to use a significant portion of my lungs. I ended up stopping about 30 seconds from 500 which I know regret. Apparently it is important to continue until failure as a maximal lactate reading has some value. oops.
Anyway the doc said my endurance was pretty good and Bernard tells me something similar. It is good that I can stay below 2mmol(taken to be 'aerobic threshold') for a long time and at a moderate heart rate but there is still plenty of room for improvement in all aspects of form, following additional base work over (both in the short term and over the next years of development), cool. power at 4mmol (taken to be 'anaerobic threshold') was pretty good too.
To summarize I guess I fall into the category of Americans who have reasonable power but have much to learn in order to be successful in this environment (not really news to me or anyone else.) So I am excited because this reinforces my belief that I still have lots of room for improvement, both physical and mental, although it looks like the mental aspect is my biggest limiter at the moment.

well gotta go, improvement awaits...
N

Christmas at the CC

So I came here wholly unprepared when I didn't bring a computer. I had thought that there was a communal computer but I guess that was a fixture of the past. After bumming computer time from a few increasingly agitated house mates I received a care package from none other than AJ with a laptop. Get right outta town, that was unreal. What a way to start a day! I needed something to cheer me up after a race gone awry. Thanks AJ!!
Unfortunately all of the potential for a good performance at yesterday's UCI in Geluwe went to waste. The race was a huge production with team specific changing rooms and showers, a big through town loop past crowded outdoor eateries and a small fair, a big race caravan etc. Unfortunately I was sucked into the mob of racers that was herded to the start area and I let myself get stuck in it a forced to a bad starting position. Of the 150 or so riders starting the 150k circuit race I probably started around 100th. I should have just hid in the bushes and jumped out when they were about to start and gone to the front line but I was hesitant to do so since this was the big time.
Anyway I was able to move up into the middle of the field some where but after only about a half lap there was suddenly hard breaking on a straight road and I was removed from my bike by the fellow behind me and to my right as we preceded to slow from 50 to 15km/h for no perceivable reason. I got up as quickly as possible and chased for the next lap and a half (15k laps I think) but the field was going ballistic and this was a not a real possibility. Crap!
Well if anyone ever tells you racing over here is easy spit in their face, cause it ain't. The level of experience is sky high. On the positive side my California 'education' on the bike has allowed me to tread water. I am trying to get to the point where I can swim though. Dr. Dag tells us that overall the people who he tests from the CC have, on average, a higher level of fitness then Belgians of the same age. I get tested tomorrow so we will see if this holds true for me as well. What this means is it is up to experience to learn to race and train to maximum effect. I feel like I have learned so much here in such a short time. I am looking forward to trying to get as much out of the experience as I can. Just learn as much as possible each day.
Well that is a bunch of stuff so I will log off
Lata
NHH