Happy New Year

I nearly killed myself today during my training ride. It has been rather cold the last couple of days (sub zero) and I was quite surprised when it started raining on me about an hour into my ride. Well, rain isn't that special this time of year but with temperatures at about 25°F it was kind of unusual. Anyways, as you can imagine with a solidly frozen ground, it didn't take too long for the water to turn into ice (about 5 min or so). At first it wasn't too bad but after a couple of minutes the roads were covered completely with a solid layer of ice... those 23C tires are NOT made for ice, let me tell you. I had enough on my plate just to stay upright but apparently driving a car in those conditions isn't too much fun either as quite a few cars swerved by me in a somewhat uncontrolled manner. Nevertheless, I survived the ride (it took me 2h to get back home, the same way I had ridden out in 1h...)and made it back home safe and sound. Let's just hope that next year will get better ;-) That being said: Happy new year!

Oh, and here's a little something to cheer everyone up. It's kind of a tradition in Germany (at least with the people I know) to watch this little video on new years eve. I also plays on tv every year on the evening of the 31st. So, without further ado (do you spell this like that?), here it is:

Who would have thought...

that I am a celebrity? Well, I didn't but apparently I am because I now have an official "fan page" on facebook. I'm not exactly sure who's behind all of this but I've got some ideas... Thanks anyways, I'm flattered.

Check it out!

Cold... FREEZING COLD!

Ok, usually I would not complain about the weather as long as it is dry. On top of it all, we had really nice sun shine and clear blue skies the last couple of days but it has been darn cold! According to some online conversion thingy, the highs yesterday and today were about 24° Fahrenheit… that is measured on the SRM, not some theoretic numbers the guys from the forecast came up with.

This time I really had to pull all my tricks to stay warm but I still managed to get 4h plus rides in both days, so we’re good. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Well, we’ll see…

Christmas Ride

Christmas is a holiday... yeah, right. At least I didn’t have to go out on my own as my cousin Johannes was there with his dad for Christmas. He too is a passionate cyclist, even though his studies and woman keep him off the bike more than he would like. Anyways, we got a couple of hours in before the big feast. Good times.

Side note: today, Friday, is my off-day. Now, guess what kind of weather we have today, compared to yesterday. Any ideas? Correct: today we have sunshine and a clear blue sky; yesterday (on a 4h ride) overcast and just plain nasty. Oh well, what did I expect, right?

 

Enjoy the rest of the holidays! Let's go ride.

 

Happy holidays everyone.

For those of you on the team, take the opportunity to indulge one last time before getting really serious about this upcoming season (yes Peter, that would be you ;-) ), for all the rest, just have a good time with family and friends.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mercyfull Weather-Gods

After a week of absolutely miserable weather with snow, sleet, rain and temperatures around 30, the weather gods had mercy with me last Sunday and we actually had a clear blue sky and temperatures in the mid 40s for the last long ride of the week. I rode with some friends in a group, so I had some company, at least for some three hours out of the six. By the time I got back home I had actually managed to clock my first 100-miler for the season… Yey!

 

This week will be a little less time on the bike and more time spend trying to get all the stuff for Christmas. I guess that I won’t have time for that once the off week is over… so better get it over with now (once I made up my mind what to get everyone here). 

Getting Lost in France

Well, not exactly but my ride today took way longer than anticipated. I’m in Freiburg, Germany with my girlfriend at the moment, which is pretty close to the French border. The river Rhine actually forms the border between Germany and France here and - big surprise - it is nice and flat, perfect for base miles. Unfortunately, you need bridges to get over a river (at least one as big as theRhine). And exactly this was my problem today. So what basically happened is that I got stuck on the French side for much longer than I had hoped. Actually I knew how far I had to go to get back over but there was a darn strong wind blowing right in my face and I hardly made any progress… Anyways, I finally made it back, just shy of 6 hours and about an hour after the sun had set. Needless to say, it was snowing all day long and being out there in the dark was just plain nasty. Fortunately I came prepared and don’t even take off my back light during winter training, so I was somewhat safe at least.

Anyways, I made it back all right but I am really looking forward to a day off tomorrow and the whole next week for that matter: off week! I guess I’ll be busy anyways with Christmas shopping and all… maybe the bike sounds better after all. 

Oh, by the way, here's the forecast for today and let me tell you, it was pretty accurate.

For those of you non-metric-people: 0°C = 32°F

Some Pics from Sunday

more to come

Cyclocross... Euro-Style

So I found out last week that there was an international UCI C2 Cyclocross race here in Niederanven, the town I live in in Luxembourg, right around the corner so to speak. As it was so close I decided to give it a shot… Well, I’ve got four words for you: fast, pain, cold and mud. I experienced a lifetime worth of all of these today! But first things first.

Winter finally hit somewhen last week with snow and all. Over night, we got another dusting but the snow didn’t stay but turned the course into one big puddle; I guess we ended up in about 8 to 10 inches of the stuff. Now, the mud we have here isn’t your typical Texas-mud. Here, it is really gooey and sticky, clinging to everything and making riding a hell of a lot harder than if it was dry. So besides turning the downhills into something more suitable for skis, it also made a big part of the course absolutely unridable. Those who know me are aware that I HATE running, so you get the picture. Not to mention that the bike was about 20 pounds heavier after two laps or so (and I for one do not have multiple bikes parked in the material-depot).

Oh, and did I mention that it was just not cold enough for the darn ground to stay frozen? So mud it was with a temperature in the low 30s. So much for the mud and cold part.

Next up: fast. Guess what: apparently everyone in Europe was bored this weekend and decided to head over to this one race (except the really fast guys from Belgium and the Netherlands). Just to give you an idea: we had multiple national champions line up, among them the champs Germany, Demark, Luxembourg, France and the Belgium champion (without contract, i.e. ONLY the amateur champ…). Enough said.

Add the former three points together and mix in a ton of climbing and what do you get? PAIN. Fortunately, it didn’t last too long. I got pulled after 45 min with 2 laps to go when the leaders caught up with me and lapped me (Figure that: they ran away from me…).

All in all it was a fun (but cold) experience with lots of spectators and a cool atmosphere. I don’t know where I came in but I’m afraid it wasn’t enough to earn some UCI points (not that I expected to get any). Oh, and the fact that cross races are free here in Luxembourg made at least the financial consequences bearable. Still, I think I’ll stay away from cross for a while (at least racing) until I start training at a little higher intensity. Just being pack-fodder isn’t too much to my liking.

Some pics of the fun should follow shortly.

Riding my Bike

I just realized that nearly a month has gone by since I last posted something... How time flies. And the weird thing is that nothing exciting happened during this month that would explain how it went by so fast.

Basically, I spent most of my waking time/ daylight time on the bike with rides ranging between 3 and 5 hours daily over the last three weeks. For most of that time I was in Freiburg, Germany with Christine but I also spend a week or so at home in Luxembourg with my parents. Actually, most of the time in Luxembourg I spent at the house of my parents but without them as they had flown to Cuba for two weeks… but so I had some time to enjoy my childhood home and return to the roads I first started riding on and I must say it is still beautiful.

On one of my last rides here in Freiburg a small group of riders caught up with me and I recognized one of them as an old friend of mine. I used to race mtb with him back in the days here in Germany and we chatted a while. I was so caught up in our discussion that it took me a while to realize that I also knew one of the other riders in the group: Heinrich Haussler, ex Gerolsteiner pro, now Cervelo Test Team, was riding at the front of the group and was setting tempo. What a small world. I didn’t get the chance to chat with him as the group was turning “the wrong way” and I had to split off. But with the amount of riding I’m sure I’ll meet some more celebrities out there soon.

This week is an off week, fortunately. So I’m looking forward to a week of easy riding, a lot of rest and another wedding. Christine’s brother is getting married this Saturday, so we will head to Konstanz near the Swiss border towards the end of the week. There’s nothing better than a party to get ready to get back on the bike on Monday!

Back on the Bike

After enjoying some three weeks of laziness, complete with tons of home-made food, sitting around in coffee shops and just plain what-ever-you-do-don’t-touch-your-bike time, I’m ready to get back to work and hop on the bike again. Today was a beautiful day here in Heidelberg, Germany (low 50s but sunny) so I joined one of the local group rides with some friends to rediscover how it feels to ride your bike. Now, for those of you who have never done a group ride outside the USA, this ride was a real no-drop ride, i.e. easy pace and multiple regrouping points which we didn’t even need as the whole group stayed together (yes, even on the 1000+ foot climbs). It was a great ride, giving me a chance to chat a lot with friends and catch up with what is happening on this side of the ocean. Despite the easy pace I was ready to call it quits after 2.5 hours (and cold feet) but decided to switch bikes and go for another easy mtb ride with my girlfriend Christine. Turns out that even an easy ride isn’t quite as easy if you have ridden a couple of hours with a group before it but the views at to top of the climb and the following downhill were well worth it.

Right now we are packing up and I’m getting ready to drive Christine back to School in Freiburg (about a 2h drive). If the weather holds, we’ll go for another ride in the morning. Freiburg is one of the coolest places in Germany for cycling with a lot of pros living there; riding there is pretty good and the weather usually the best in all of Germany. So, I’m looking forward to another day of fine riding.

Home Sweet Home

I know, it has been a while but I’ve been busy getting everything sorted out before leaving the States for Europe for the winter. I’ve been on a packed schedule but, after sleeping off my jet-lag, things finally seem to quiet down a bit. But first things first.

We didn’t stop racing with Metro after HHH (something you might have thought as that was my last post…). We raced three events since then, the TX Tough GP, Cotton Patch Classic and the USA Crit series finals in Vegas. We had planned on doing the San Francisco Twilight instead of Cotton Patch but unfortunately half the team, including Andrew, went down hard at TX Tough and we decided on staying in Texas instead. That being said, TX Tough didn’t go too well for us.

Cotton Patch was pretty good, Peter got some upgrade points and Andrew got his long-awaited first win of the season. After that, it was off to Vegas. Las Vegas itself was pretty cool, we saw some interesting new things at Interbike and the crit, the main reason we went there, sucked big time. Apparently it was my turn to take extensive ground-samples and break some wheels. It was a rather sketchy course but the main issue was the sketchy riders. I didn’t even make it past the first turn in the first lap without hitting the pavement (even though I was sitting top 15 or so). Got up, changed bikes and jumped back into the fun, only to have the same thing happen to me a couple of laps later: turn one, some highly-skilled-rider swings wide and runs squarely into my rear wheel (take notice: we were already THROUGH the turn, I was already standing up to accelerate out of the corner…). Well, the bike stopped again underneath me and I went flying again. Fortunately, I only ended up tearing my skin suit to shreds and loosing some skin but no major injuries. I even managed to finish the race (after Nathan “persuaded” to get back in and sitting out another lap or two). So, the crit was not so hot. We had a lot of fun after that though…

After Vegas I flew back to Dallas, packed the rest of my stuff and hopped back on the plain again. Right now, I’m back in Heidelberg, Germany. How I have missed the European fall (NOT!!!): 45 F and rain, perfect.

Well, for now I don’t need to ride my bike, so I get to enjoy some off time. Not that I would get bored though: it’s been over a year since I’ve been home, so I’ve got a lot of catching up with friends and stuff like that to do. Besides that, it has been a long season anyways and a little time off the bike feels pretty good right now anyways… but, then again, I’m already itching to get back on the bike and get ready for next spring.

Change of Plans

After racing the last two weekends at Hotter N’ Hell and 100k, we had planned to fly out to Philli this upcoming weekend to start in the Univest Grand Prix. It is an invitation only race and the team got the invite but we couldn’t gather enough people to get the required 8 starters… so no racing this upcoming weekend :-(

This might not be that bad though, as we’ve been busy racing the last two weeks. Hotter ‘N Hell was a great race for the whole team, even though I’m not a big fan of the course. Nevertheless, the team did an awesome job and we pulled out a win and four top ten finishes. For a complete race report use this link to go to the FCS homepage.

Last weekend we drove up to Atlanta, GA for the 100k Classic. It was a weird race with a (too) early start and bad roads. The fact that we were 180 guys at the line didn’t help safety either. So there were a lot of crashes but all of us managed to stay upright. Andrew had to drop out though due to mechanicals (his crank arm came loose) and that messed up our tactics quite a bit. We adjusted on the fly though but got caught out at the sprint because we were following the wrong wheels. Well, that happens. I wasn’t too happy with the whole weekend, spending some 26 hours in the van and racing for only 4 hours with nothing to show for it. At least I know what to expect next time.

Now we’re back in Dallas for a while, getting ready for the Texas Tough Grand Prix at Victory Park on 9/11. This is going to be an awesome race! If you can, come out and watch (or even better: come out and cheer us on ;-) )

A week without the bike (kind of)

It felt good to finally have a race-free weekend and some time off the bike. I only rode a couple of hours last week and I feel ready to rock now again. I also did a threshold test, as I always do after my off-week and the results were encouraging. So I’m really looking forward to this upcoming racing block, starting with Hotter Than Hell this coming weekend and continuing with 100k and a lot of other fun races still further away. It will keep us on the road pretty much all through the end of September but it should be fun.

Unfortunately, they are patching up the course for the “Tuesday Night Worlds”, so no racing tonight. Bummer! I was really looking forward to that. But oh well, at least that gives me some time to update my blog. Hopefully the weather will hold tomorrow, though, so that we can go out and play at the crit in Ft. Worth.

Tornados and Air Travel don’t Mix.

My stay in LA was shorter than anticipated as Leo called my up after just a couple of days there and asked me to meet him up in Chicago for the Tour of Elk Grove, a two-day event with a separate cat 1/2 race and a lot of money. It didn’t take a lot of convincing on his part and so I found myself at the airport Friday morning at 6 (thanks Corey for getting up so early and driving me there). Problem was I was flying standby (can’t afford anything else) and so I spend pretty much the whole day at the terminal until I finally made it onto a flight in the afternoon. That put me in at Chicago at around 10 pm. It was then that I found out that we didn’t have a hotel for the weekend… So, after a couple of phone calls and a 30 min cab-ride I finally arrived at the race venue, where Carlos (Vargas) and John let me share their hotel room (thanks again). I think it was around 1 am when I finally lay down; not the perfect preparation for a race.

Racing this weekend was ok, I finished 10th and 11th, which put me in 9th overall. I wasn’t too happy with the results as I had hoped for a little higher placing but it made me enough money to at least pay for the trip.

On Monday it was back to the airport to get back home to Dallas (finally). The problem: Monday morning a pretty decent thunderstorm came through the area and a lot of flights were cancelled. So what happens to you if you are on the standby list? You are pretty much f*?%ed. With all the extra people trying to get on flights, I ended up somewhere in 160^th place on the standby list… no way to make it onto any flight soon. So I settled in for a long day at the airport (PSP is the best invention EVER!) but it got even better. At around 10 pm storms picked up again and the weather got so bad that the authorities even issued a tornado warning… So we had to move away from windows into the food court (which had a glass ceiling…). Needless to say that ended all my hopes of getting out that day and so I settled in for a good nights sleep in one of the corners of terminal 3. I finally made it out the next morning after rebooking my flight to go through Newark and than to Dallas (otherwise, I would probably be still in Chicago as we speak).

The rest of the week was rather eventful, being stuck at a friends place without a car (the van is still out in LA with the boys at Nationals). I did race at Rockwall this past Saturday though, which was a rally but with money for the first three. As was to be expected, a lot of people showed up and it was a good race. I felt pretty good that day and ended up in a break, soloing in for a win with 2 km to go. Thanks to Gary at Mad Duck for pointing this rally out to me, I had a blast. Oh, and the best thing besides winning on Saturday was that they had free ice cream at the finish! I’ll be back next year, you bet!

LA is Shaking...

What a way to start our stay in LA! We only got here Sunday night and pretty much next thing you know, we are in an earthquake. Interesting. I must say, we were a little dumbstruck at first, just looking at each other as no one of us had been in one before. It took us a couple of seconds to realize what was actually happening but by that time it was almost over. Fortunately, it didn’t do any damage to our host house. So we survived an earthquake.

Besides that, nothing much has happened here in LA so far but we raced in San Marcos last weekend. It was a 1.6 mile circuit with a decent climb in it…and a really stellar field. Healthnet, Jittery Joe’s, Successful Living, Toyota United… yep, they all send at least a rider out there. It was a really hard race and none of us made it into the final move that stuck. I finished 10^th, second of the first chase group and Corey came in with the second chase. Unfortunately, Will and Phillip both got dropped. Peter is still healing up. He’s getting better and is out riding but last weekend was too early to get back in a race. Hopefully he’ll be good to go for nationals.

For me it is already nearly time to say good buy to California as I will be flying out to Chicago this Friday for Elk Grove. Leo is coming too, so we should have some fun. I’ll keep you posted.

California

We finally made it: We are in California. After leaving our great host family in Bend, we drove down to Sacramento where we stayed with yet another fantastic host family for a couple of days before we moved on to San Luis Obispo. We got here last Friday in the afternoon and jumped on our bikes to shake out our legs a little bit. Turns out "a little" ended up being nearly two hours but at least we finally got a glimpse of the Pacific. Yep, apparently the ocean is further away than we thought... Unfortunately, we didn't have that much daylight-time left, so we couldn't stay long but maybe we'll have some time today on out off day to hit the beach.

The reason we decided on San Luis Obispo for our next stop was that there were two races this weekend: a circuit race on Saturday and a crit on Sunday. The circuit race turned out to be pretty hard with on short but very steep climb and one more sustained climb. The fact that quite a few pros showed up didn't make it easier. Also, we had to observe the yellow-line-rule. What was that again? I've been racing on closed roads for the last couple of months (pretty much ever since Mississippi in May) so that was interesting again (by the way, I still don't like it). The plan was to ride for Corey and get him some points but one of the Successful Living guys took off and was never seen again... so we raced for second. Still enough points, so I got to the front on the last climb and set a steady tempo which I had to keep up pretty much all the way from the climb to the finish too, as no one else would do it. So I ended up pulling the last 5 miles of the race and then leading Corey out. We were sitting pretty good in the run in to the finish but unfortunately got boxed in a little at the end. Ultimately, I couldn't start my sprint early enough to really launch Corey and actually came in in front of him... bummer. Still, 5th for me and 7th for Corey wasn't too bad.

What was really bad though was the fact that Peter crashed hard and separated his shoulder. That's even worse as we are getting close to nationals... At this point we don't know if his ligaments are just stretched or torn... Let's hope for the best! So I spend most of my Saturday afternoon in the Emergency room with Peter... at least, nothing broken (including his head; looking at his helmet, that was NOT a given).

So Sunday, we were one short for the crit. We still did ok, Phillip did pretty well during the race and I managed to come in 8th against some pretty tough competition. You would think that all those pros got something better to do than show up at all those local races but apparently not. Still, it was a good race (no crashes for us). Corey couldn't quite perform at his best though because his shifter cable started fraying and he couldn't get into his lower gears... not so good in a fast crit. I had some technical trouble myself as my chain skipped in my 11. Also, not so helpful in the sprint. Oh well, better luck next week.

We will probably stay the rest of the week here in San Luis Obispo and then make our way down to LA. The road trip continues!

Cascade Cycling Classics

This past weekend I got to play with the big guns at the Cascade Cycling Classics in Bend, Or. We drove in on Monday last week from the east and got our first surprise when we crossed the border into Oregon from Idaho: everyone was expecting lush green forests and mountains but instead we got high desert and flats. No trees whatsoever… Next surprise was when we stopped for gas: in Oregon you are not allowed to pump your own gas, so there is someone there to do it for you. Very weird. Anyways, we made it to Bend and, fortunately, 10 miles before we hit the city the forests started and Bend turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. We stayed at a great host family that took exceptional care of all our needs and made sure we didn’t lack anything.

On Wednesday the Race finally started for me and it definitely exciting riding next to Levi, Chris Horner, Botero or Tom Danielson who were all in the race. The first two stages were both road stages with a mountaintop finish. I’ll spare you the details but I felt good on the first day but, as always, I flatted just before the KOM halfway through the stage and found myself chasing like crazy for the next hour to get back on. At the end I managed to get back into the field and finished 33^rd. On Friday I didn’t feel too good and made a stupid mistake at the bottom of the final climb (I was sitting way to far in the back when the climb started) which resulted in me ending up behind the split. So I came in somewhere around 50^th place on that day. On Friday there was a time trail in the morning and a crit in the evening. The tt was very painful and I got a package by Levi, who put about 4 minutes on me. With a length of about 24 k, that comes down to me loosing 10 seconds every kilometer… autsch! The crit went pretty well, I avoided all the crashes and finished safely in the pack. There were tons of people out to watch, so the atmosphere was great.

On Saturday we had another road stage with a mountaintop finish. I was pretty tired by that time but wanted to make sure to hit the final climb in a better position than on Thursday. I did a decent job at that until the teams started to put their leaders into position. I was sitting top 20 all the way before that but once the trains started forming I got swarmed big time. So I ended up in the second group again… It was a hard day. On Sunday the race finished up with a hilly circuit race. A break went just at the start of the second lap. I only realized that something was up the road at the bottom of the first climb but managed to bridge up to it on that climb. We worked well together for the next three laps but it started to get unorganized with one lap to go and so we got caught with just 5 k to go, just at the foot of the last, steep climb. Bummer! I was pretty toasted at this point and couldn’t stay with the leaders but I guess that was all right. There are Articles on Velonews and Cyclingnews covering this stage if someone wants more detail on it ;-)

It was quite funny as I started out 33^rd in GC after the first stage, dropped down a bit during the race but managed to finish in 33^rd at the end of the five days. More results can be found on the Cascade Cycling Classics home page.

Today we are already down in Sacramento, on step closer to LA. I had originally planned to go to Boise, Id but that fell through at the last moment. Not too happy about that. It would have been nice to do another high caliber race (Boise is part of the US Crit series) and also try to get a good overall result in the Series but instead I’ll have to settle for some regional racing here in California… Anyways, I’ll get over it. Hopefully, I’ll get over my cold by the next race, too. Will has been coughing for the last two weeks and I guess he finally got to me. But enough rest and sleep should do the trick and I should be good to go by next weekend.

On the Road Again

Tonight: Salt Lake City, Utah; tomorrow: Bend, Oregon. We finally broke down camp in Colorado Springs this morning after 10 days of good riding there. Thanks again to Brad and David for letting us stay at their place.

So after a good breakfast at Einstein Bagels we got on the road at eight and pretty much drove all day to get to Salt Lake. We managed to get here in time to go for a little ride and shake out our legs after sitting in the van for over ten hours.

So tomorrow is going to be pretty much the same: pack up the van, grab some breakfast and drive, drive, drive… good thing I got my PSP before this trip!

"Mountains, Gandalf; I want to see mopuntains again..."

Wow, so I fell behind on my blogging again... Sorry. The excuse this time: trying to plan our eight week road trip to Nationals in California in August. It was pretty stressful but we are finally on the road. First stop: Colorado Springs. We piled into my old van this past Tuesday and drove through the night to get here on Wednesday morning. The van was pretty packed: four bikes on the back, two inside together with stuff for eight weeks. On top of it, Will, Phillip, Corey, Peter and myself had to fit too.

We got some solid riding in, about 30 hours last week. We've got another week before we'll move on to Bend, OR to race in the Cascade Classics. Should be a lot of fun: racing for five days with some of the best riders in the country (Levi, Danielson and Co decided to show up...). After that we'll head on to Idaho for another of the US Crit series races and after that we'll finally make our down the coast to LA for Nationals. I won't be able to start there but it should be fun watching the others and lending as much support as I can.

But there also was a life before the road trip: the weekend before we left we were down in Austin for the AMLI AT&T Crit, also part of the US Crit series. It was pretty hard because I tried to get in a break. I was up there but unfortunately non of them stuck. So it came down to a sprint. I got stuck on the back stretch but still managed to come in 18th. Considering all, I was pretty happy with that. Unfortunately, it didn't go that well for some of the others: Will went down with five to go after some guys in front of him decided to tangle up on the straight and go down; fortunately, he only lost a little skin. Rachel wasn't as fortunate: she went down hard in the women's race and broke her collar bone. Very unfortunate, so shortly before Nationals.

Get well soon Rachel!

Big Mistake!

Ok, so I got a PSP recently and it is great for traveling and killing time... but it can also keep you up way too long at night. Just wanted to through that out there in case you didn’t know ;-) Oh, and by the way, never start playing Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus at night if you are planning on getting a good nights sleep… you’ll be awake a while (im my case until about 3 in the morning).

The last couple of weeks...

Have been pretty packed, so I apologize for not keeping you updated. To my horror I just realized that my last post dates back to memorial weekend so I’ll give you a short rundown of what has happened since.

The weekend after the State Crit we drove up to Tulsa for the Tulsa Tough omnium. Leo and I did the Pro/ 1 race while the rest of the guys did the 1/ 2 races. In hindsight it might have been better to help the others get some upgrade points in the 1/ 2 races as Toyota United showed up and dominated the races. All we could do was to hang on and that was about it. I hope my top 40 finishes were enough to get me some points for the US Crit series overalls (of which Tulsa was a part of) to get invited to the finals in Vegas at the end of the year. Both Leo and I have our sights set on that race and that was also the reason we did the Pro/1 race in the first place although we might have had more fun in the 1/ 2. Well, this weekend we’ll head down to Austin for the AT&T crit, which is also part of the Crit series so hopefully it will go better there.

After Tulsa I flew back to Phoenix one last time. Christine is done with school there and so I helped her move out and all that good stuff. It took us the better part of the week to get that done and then we decided to spend her last couple of days here in the States at the Camelback Inn Resort in Scottsdale, AZ to relax after all the stress. Those were some nice two days, floating in the pool and relaxing (in the process of which I drowned my cell… but after drying it out in the dry Phoenix heat, it turned back on… Nokia rocks!) but unfortunately they only lasted that long and I had to drop her off at the airport to let her fly back home to Europe.

The rest of last week I then spend with loading and unloading my van and driving the 1000 miles from Phoenix to Dallas with what little belongings I had left. It was endless drive but at least the van held up and I made it back to Dallas.

This past weekend I finally got back on the bike to race in the Matrix crits here in Dallas. It was hot and humid as always and the races were hard. I could tell that I had been off the bike for the better part of two weeks but still managed to hang in there and finish 11^th each day; not what I had hoped for but not so bad considering everything else.

So, that’s it for now. This weekend we’ll be in Austin before some of us will head up to Colorado Springs for some good training for a couple of weeks. We are all looking forward to that so it should be a lot of fun.

More on the Texas State Championships in the Ft Worth Star

Link to the Article in the Fort Worth Star

Memorial Weekend

Ok, sorry for taking so long to get you updated on this but I had to take some time off after the past weekend and spend some „quality time” with my girlfriend, Christine, who had come to visit for a little bit. Now I’m sitting in Tulas, OK at the Tulsa Tough and waiting for the rain to pass and race time to come around. But back to last weekend.

The team did the Glickman Memorial on Saturday to practice rotations and the lead out a little bit. Unfortunately, it was very hot and Nathan pulled most of us out in order not to overtax ourselves. By that time the break had gone up the road and the race was pretty much over. The only to guys that stayed in were Leo and myself. We had planned to ride for the team so none of us was in the break; I went with a late attack and we managed to get close to the leaders. At the same time the five guys in the break started to attack each other. We couldn’t quite catch the leaders but managed to catch the remnants of the break to sprint for third. I felt good and went for it. It was a pretty long sprint, but it worked out just fine. So even though we missed the decisive move early on, we still managed to salvage a third place.

But my day wasn’t done just yet: I jumped off the bike and into the car, raced home, took a shower and got into my suit to go to a wedding of a friend of mine. It was a fun party but we couldn’t stay too long because we had a team dinner a little later at Lee’s. It was funny seeing the guys and girls’ looks when we walked in all dressed up (and not in team apparel). It was a fun day.

Sunday I finally got to ride my mountainbike for a change. I hadn’t been on Northshore since it was flooded last year and I had a blast just cruising along. Christine took her brand new Santa Cruz Heckler out for a first ride and loved it. Thanks to Clarence and Gary from Mad Duck for building her such a great bike. She loves it! So everything was good for Monday.

As I saw a lot of you out at the race on Monday, I’ll be brief. The original plan was to keep it steady and all together and set up Nathan for the sprint. Unfortunately, Nathan’s hand wasn’t as good as we had hoped and the tempo was to sporadic, so we had to change our strategy towards the end of the race. I started covering moves within the last 30 minutes of the race, basically just following wheels. With about 20 minutes to go I found myself in a break with Tyler, Ian Dille and Andrew Dahlheim. That was the break. Leo did a great job at shutting down Stephan and we opened up a good gap. We worked together pretty well and it started to look really good. I didn’t have to work at all throughout the first hour of the race thanks to the great work by the rest of the team so I felt pretty good towards the end. With five to go, we flew though the second to last corner; I was sitting third wheel but carried way more speed through the turn than the two in front of me. I hadn’t planed on going that early but the opportunity was too good to pass so I accelerated hard out of the turn and had a gap immediately. From there on it was all about going as hard as possible. The way the course is set up, I knew that I if I made it into the last lap with about five seconds I would be able to stay away, so I went really hard to establish a solid gap with two to go. I was actually able to increase my gap and I think that was when the elastic snapped and the others started to attack each other, which gave me some extra breathing room. The last lap felt weird, I knew that I had it but with all my mechanicals lately, I didn’t feel save until I was over the line. It was a great feeling. There were tons of people at the race, the atmosphere was great and winning put the icing on the cake.

Overall, the team had a great day, with Jenny riding away with the Women’s tile and Rachel winning the 3s.

Ok, so that wasn't that brief after all but I hope you enjoyed it anyways :-)

Let’s play

Memorial Weekend is finally here! Everyone on the team is ready and eager to show what we can do tomorrow at the State Crit. So hold on tight because it will be a blast! Come out and watch; it will be a great showdown. See you there!

Mount Magazine Podium

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We made it onto CyclingNews.com on stage 3 of the Tour of Arkansas. Check it out.

CyclingNews.com: Tour of Arkansas, Stage 3

No Internet, no News...

First of all, sorry for not keeping you all updated on what is happening but we were on the road the last two weeks straight and, can you believe it, had no internet connection throughout the trip... Well, now we’re back in Dallas, getting some rest and getting ready for Memorial Weekend; and we finally have internet again! So here’s what happened over the last two weeks.

Joe Martin Stage Race

Two weeks ago the team went out to Fayetteville, AK for the Joe Martin Stage Race, a four day stage race. We started off on Thursday with a short 3 mile uphill time trail. It went really well for me: I beat my time from last year by 30 seconds to finish third, tied for second, only 3 seconds back. So, off to a good start.

On Friday we got to spend a lot of time on the bike because we had to ride a 110-mile-stage. Everyone kept on talking about the big climb of the day, Mount Gaylor… turns out it was more like a bunch of rollers than a really sustained climb and most of the pack stayed together. Unfortunately, we had a break off the front and no one wanted to chase. The plan for the day had been to ride conservative and conserve the GC but after the guy up the road got a four minute lead and still no one was doing any work I had to help out and get some kind of chase organized. We ended up pulling it back down to 40 seconds but had to spend a lot of energy to do it. It cost me a spot in the GC but everything was still rather close together.

Stage three was a 23 mile loop which we had to do three times. There was a pretty steep climb in the first part of the loop but it wasn’t very long. As with the race on Friday it all stayed pretty much together over the climbs but Carlos Vargas took off with about 30 miles to go. I figured that it was way too far and we had some teams that seemed to be willing to pull it back, so I didn’t go with it… and that was a mistake. We chased hard but couldn’t pull him back. So there went another spot in the GC, down to fifth.

With all the positions lost over the last two days, it was up to us to ride an aggressive crit to make up for lost time on Sunday. Unfortunately they guys from Texas Tough had the same plan and really drilled it from the gun which killed most of our team. After the first couple of laps we were down to only about 20-30 guys. With about five laps in I attacked hard over the steep section of the course and managed to decimate the group further, down to about 10 guys. More importantly, we shelled the overall leader and fourth place, so now it was up to us in the break to open up enough of a gap to move up in GC. We worked together well until halfway through the last lap when the attacks started. We let two guys go because they were no threat in GC but sprinted it out for third. I came in fourth of the day which moved me back to third overall. So a hard day’s work paid off at the end.

It was a good race, the team worked well together and we managed to pull off a good result. With this in mind we packed our stuff and headed down the road to the next stop, the Tour of Arkansas in Russellville, AK.

Tour of Arkansas

The Tour of Arkansas was our first big Pro 1/2 Stage race. We got to race the likes of Jelly Belly, Health Net and Type Time 1 among others. It was a really hard race too, with 4 stages combining to 350 miles and 23,000 feet of climbing. The second stage finished on Mount Nebo, a brutal 3 mile climb with an average gradient of 18%; the third stage finished with a 10 mile climb up Mount Magazine, so we got to do some serious climbing for a change.

The first stage on Thursday was a 100 mile stage with a lot of “little” climbs; didn’t sound too bad but there were no real flat sections at all. The pro teams set a real hard tempo over the first 40 miles to get the pack as small as possible and it turned out that only about 25 guys made it in with the first group. The second group (about 60) came in about 10 minutes later… I managed to make it over with the first group, even though I had to dig really deep to stay in. It was probably one of hardest races to date but I still managed to come in top 10 in the sprint. I was really happy with the race but the others from the team just made the time cut, so that was close.

Friday’s stage ended on Mount Nebo after 97 miles, with two smaller climbs along the way. The plan was to sit in until the end and then just survive. Unfortunately, I got a flat only about 20 miles in just 5 miles before the first climb. Peter gave me his wheel and with the help of Corey, Peter and Will I made it back into the pack safely before we hit the foot of the climb. We all made it over the first climb but Peter got more mechanical problems and had to stop to fix it, which cost him dearly. He couldn’t catch on to the group after that and had to ride the rest of the stage pretty much by himself. The other two guys made it safely thought the stage with me and led me into the final climb. It was a hard fight for position and I didn’t get in as far to the front as I would have liked but still within the top 15 to 20. It was a little too far back to hang with the lead guys but I settled into a good rhythm and thanks to Philips awesome costume and support managed to drag myself over the line in seventh. So, suddenly, I was sitting in seventh overall…

On Saturday we started and finished on top of Mount Magazine. Again, the plan was to sit and be conservative. It was a rather boring stage until, guess what, I got another flat… So, poor Peter had to sacrifice his wheel again and drag me back into the pack. The team did an outstanding job at pulling me back in. After that we just sat and waited for the final climb. Towards the end of the stage we started to fight for position a bit too early and wasted some energy doing so. I tried to get the guys to take it easy but my radio decided to quit on me. I didn’t notice it at first and just sat there and wondered why no one was reacting to what I said… In the end, I could still hear them and Nathan but they couldn’t hear me. Anyways, all this fighting for position prevented us from riding to the foot of Magazine in the position we wanted. This wasn’t too big of a problem, though, as the pack didn’t go too hard in the first part of the climb. The tempo picked up a little later though and a couple of attacks got our lead group down to about 10 guys. Nathan was constantly giving me updates on gaps but I couldn’t answer him though the radio so we had to rely on hand signals; that must have looked pretty funny for the guys around me, me starting to wave my hand for apparently no reason…

Anyways, the attacks started flying within the last km and when Pipp went, I knew I had to follow but I was boxed in. So I had to wait a little and followed the next best wheel. He didn’t get away far but managed to stay off by a few seconds. I still managed to come in third of the day in the sprint. It was really nice to be on the podium after a stage like this, especially beating guys like Lang and Chadwick. Also, it was a great birthday present!

Needless to say, moral in the team was great after stage three, with a podium and seventh in GC. So for Sunday we only had to sit in and finish with the pack in the crit. At least that was the plan. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out too well. It was pretty fast from the gun after a break went off the front. The four guys nearly lapped the pack and that would have cost us out GC position. We fought hard just to make it to the front of the pack but lost Corey in the process. Will had to abandon a little later due to mechanicals and Peter got taken out and went down hard. I managed to fight my way to the front only to get told by the Team Type 1 guys that they didn’t want any help and wouldn’t let me work with them. So all the work for nothing?! Well, Team Type 1 managed to keep the break in check and they didn’t lap the field. After expanding so much energy to make my way to the front, Nathan told me just to sit and recover. That was hard enough because we were more or less single file and people tried to move up regardless so I had to fight a lot for wheels. I was really looking forward for the race to end but as I should find out the hard way the day wasn’t over yet. The pit closed with seven laps to go (i.e. no more free laps) and things weren’t looking too bad with four to go: The break was only 20 seconds off the front, they were riding an acceptable tempo and I was sitting safely in the middle of the pack. And then it happened: FLAT! Can you believe that? Third flat in as many days and of cause it had to happen when the pit was already closed! Well, I stopped regardless and got a new wheel (but no free lap) and got back out there to chase like mad to not completely loose my position in GC. The fact that the officials tried to pull me didn’t help at all but Nathan got to them before they could pull me off the bike. I ended up chasing like mad for the reminder of the race and pulling myself inside out to not let all the hard work from the last couple of days go to waste. It wasn’t enough to keep my spot in GC but I somehow managed to salvage tenth.

All in all, it was a great experience even though the weekend ended on a somewhat bitter note. Regardless, it was interesting racing with all those pros and getting to do some real climbs for a change. Also, Corey, Will and Peter did an awesome job throughout the week to look after me. Nathan and Lee made sure we didn’t have to worry about anything except; big thanks to all of them at this point.

Now, hopefully, we will come out of those two weeks of racing with good legs for Memorial Weekend; but everyone is very motivated and ready to go. So it should fun finally racing back in Texas!

A Third Place Did The Trick!

I just got the approval from USA Cycling for my upgrade request to a Cat 1. Thanks to Speedweek I finally got enough points (even though I needed to put the training races in there to get the required 30 points) for the upgrade. So now I’m officially a Cat 1. What that basically means is that Nathan doesn’t need to pull any more strings to get me into the bigger races (like Speedweek). Apart form that I’m afraid not much will change: races are still going to be fast and it will just hurt as much as with a Cat 2 license. But then again, maybe not…

Speedweek is over...

and I finally got to sleep in after we got back to Dallas today morning at around 9 am. I had a great time out there on the east coast but I’m happy that I do not have to race tonight for a change. All the traveling and racing gets really taxing after a while and I think everyone is happy that they get a little break now.

Between all the traveling and racing and staying at funky hotels without internet access, I didn’t really get a chance to update my blog recently, so there’s a lot to be covered. For those of you who don’t have the time or nerves to read through all my ramblings, here’s the latter half of Speedweek in a nutshell:

After Beaufort we traveled to Walterboro, SC. The course was fun but pretty rough. Result: 30^th.

Next day: Uptown Greenwood, SC. Wide open and fast. The pack stayed together and a big field approached the line for the sprint: Result: 35^th.

Friday: Spartanburg, SC. Crash fest. Made it through all of them alive but got stuck in the last crash in the last turn of the last lap. Still managed to come in 13^th.

Saturday: Dilworth, NC. Nice course with a sharp turn onto start/finish and a decent rise to the line. Result: 7^th or 8^th.

Last one: Sandy Springs, GA. Really cool course, decent rise to the line and a swooping, fast downhill on the back stretch. I attacked early on and we established a six-man break that stayed away to the end. I was a bit too nervous in the break, working just a tad bit too much but still came in 3^rd. What a way to end the week! I pretty much accomplished everything I set out to do and more. I finished (nearly) all of the races, got a call-up at the start for the last two races, was in a break, made it onto the podium and finished in the top 10 overall. WOW.

Now I just need to recover and conserve my form for Joe Martin, Tour of Arkansas and Memorial Weekend.

So much for now. More detailed race recaps from Speedweek will follow soon.

Beaufort Memorial Cycling Classic

Not much to talk about. I had a shitty day, getting to ride for a whole of three (3) out of the 75 laps. In the second lap my saddle came loose so I had to stop at the pits to get it tightened down; unfortunately, a loose saddle doesn’t qualify as a mechanical problem that would get you a free lap, so they send me back out there to chase the field. Yeah, right! Coming through the next lap I got pulled. Thanks for even sending me back out there. So I rode back to the trailer, switched back to my training wheels and rode for some 40 minutes, trying to get at least a little workout today. As you can imagine, I wasn’t too happy. The fact that the others had a hard time didn’t help either. By the time I got back from my ride, they were already loading up the trailer while the race was still in full swing. So, not a good day for the team.

Hopefully, we’ll have more luck tomorrow.

Athens Twilight?

What light? It was pretty darn dark! Plus, for a good portion of the race I was going so hard I couldn’t see straight anyhow ;-) But let’s start at the beginning. On Thursday, we made our way from Blue Ridge down to Athens, Georgia. Friday got a bit stressful because we had the “Grid Qualifiers” in the afternoon and a PR/ promotion-thing at 1:30 pm. We went to an elementary school and talked to a bunch of first to third graders about bikes, bike racing and bike safety. It was really cool because the kids were really interested in what we said and asked a ton of questions. To top it all off, we let them walk through the trailer… fun, fun, fun.

After this we hastened over to the race venue to do our qualifiers. Athens Twilight is a pretty crazy race and because it is the first race of the US Crit series the hold the qualifiers to determine the staging position. This position is pretty important, as the race is so fast that it is hard to move up; also, it is easier to stay out of trouble. So, what they did was to put eight guys on compu-trainers and make them race six laps of the course as a time trail. It was pretty hard but I managed to come in second of my heat and 15^th overall. I didn’t make the finals but got a spot in the second row for the race! Sweet! Peter did really well too, finishing 18^th overall.

Saturday was race day. We started at 9 pm, in the dark. The atmosphere was awesome. The spectators were standing some 5 deep and it was just crazy. I love college towns ;-) Anyways, the race was fast (some 31 mph average) for 1 hour and 40 minutes. I managed to hold my ground and stayed out of trouble. I avoided a couple of crashes but got caught in the last and all important crash of the day. With three laps to go I was sitting somewhere in the top 25 and some guys about 5 spots in front of me decided to take a soil-sample in turn one: bikes flying left and right, the smell of burned rubber in the air and the college kids at the side going crazy. I managed to stay upright somehow but still had to get off my bike and jump over heaps of bikes and bodies to get back on my bike. I ended up chasing for the rest of the race because I just didn’t want to get lapped so close to the end. I haven’t seen any results yet but I should have come in somewhere in the top 50. That’s cool because that’ll mean some points for the overall and better staging position for next race, tomorrow in Beaufort, SC.

So that was my first Athens Twilight. It was hard but a great experience. Next up is Beaufort. Looking forward to that. Hopefully, we’ll have internet access for the rest of the week, so I’ll try to keep you updated.