PassPrijs Hekelegem, UCI 1.12, 4/25/05

Race Report # 4:

UCI 1.12 – PassPrijs Hekelegem, 4/25/05

After my 14 day or so hiatus from racing, I got back into the swing of things again on Wednesday of last week with a nice little kermis. Things went alright, learned some more stuff, but nothing special with the results. For those of you who don’t know, I spent a little bit of time being sick with some Belgian bug or other. Which, I might add wasn’t a ton of fun. But hey, new country, new bacteria/viruses, so build up those antigens baby!

Now to the UCI race. Let’s see where to begin…well I’ll say I got my first “serious” does of cobbles. The course layout was technical, very technical. I think the longest section of straight road was the 3 km flat section of cobbles. Give me a big: OH, YEAH! The weather was pretty good. Things stayed dry for the race, but by the second half there was definitely a front moving in with some rain. The course consisted of a ~60 km loop that was done twice, and then 4 local laps, totaling something like 160 km. The main loop contained 5 cobbled sections. Three of them (sections 1,2, and 4) contained short steep climbs and were preceded by ½ to 1 km of “flatter” cobbles as well. The third cobbled section was totally flat but was about 3 km long, and the fifth was a shorter section through the town where the start/finish was. Usually if you were not on cobbles you were busy doing some fighter pilot simulation, diving through the millions of corners in one little town after the next.

The race hit the first cobbled climb at about 10 km in, so it went pretty good from the gun. I hit it with not good but not horrible position. I then proceeded to hit the 180 degree turn at the top and dive through the town below. As could have been, or to be more accurate, it was predicted that the break would go off at that first climb. And it did, it was THE break. I continued to race pretty much the same for the rest of the first lap and well into the second. Getting myself not in good, but not absolutely horrible positions before bad or technical sections of road…can you sense a little frustration coming on here?? Ummmm, yeah… Physically, I didn’t feel bad so I have no excuses, not that I would anyway! The only time I felt like I was in or getting near the red was on that second cobbled climb. Man, for some reason that one really hurt each time! As it worked out that second climb was the source of my biggest mistake of the day. I went into it the second time damn near on the back, ahhhh! OK, so obviously there was a split off the back when I came over that climb, so I got to work with a not so enthusiastic group to chase back on. I got back on at the beginning of the third flat cobbled section while simultaneously getting caught behind a pretty decent sized crash. I dug into some of the off road skills to go around and ended up with a group of 20-30 off the back (ahhh!!) of the ever shrinking peloton. That group got pulled on the first of the local laps, and so goes my race. Mental Frustration is the word/words for the day. I’m still milling over the details of my mistakes and trying to figure out why I was more nervous for this race than I should have been…I was riding not racing, defensively.

On the lighter side of things, can someone please explain to me how a pigeon got into the showers after the race?? I must say, it was pretty damn funny to see this pigeon just chillin’ in the showers. I also must put out an apology to the riders who were behind me while I was getting stung by the bee that flew into my jersey. It was a single file descent through one of those little towns and I was definitely not holding my line.

In respect to coffee:

In respect to coffee:

So, just when I start to wonder if anybody is reading these diary entries/ race reports or whatever you would choose to call them, Barney (Austin’s father) shows up fresh off the plane from the US and hands me 2 lbs. of Starbucks! Ann and Bernard seemed to find it rather funny. I’ll just say that it made my freakin’ week, many thanks Barney! So, it just goes to show some things are really a bit different hear, but that makes the unexpected just that much better… mmmm…Starbucks.

Some things are just different here continued

Some things are just different here continued...

Laundry -- so your underwear is dirty and your riding shorts are full of racing stripes...plan on an all day project to get those suckers clean. I doesn't make any sense at all, no matter how many times I think it through, why the washers would take longer than the dryers! But hey, they do. Oh yeah, and they are little pint sized things at best. Want to do a real load of laundry?? Plan on a least two while you spend time in Belgium.

Coffee -- I think that almost every person I talked to before I came over had said...don't worry all the coffe there is good. Well, I must say that I strongly disagree! I've tried a hanful of different store brands and haven't liked any of them. Not that I am some sort of coffee expert, but nothing even comes close to Starbucks. The brand that the guys who had been here before seemed to settle on is alright, much better than the first couple I tried, but I am thoroughly dissapointed. I guess I must be carefull in what I say because I have yet to venture out to any of the small coffee shops in/near Bruge. I have this feeling that my sentiments won't change much after visiting some of them.

Milk -- So you think you want a glass of milk...rrrright. So far most of what I have found at the grocery store has been milk of the form U.H.T. Meaning it has been essentially ultra pasturized...Ultra High Temperature. It doesn't need to be refridgerated till you open it. It doesn't taste like REAL milk. As far as I can tell it sort of tastes like powdered milk, sort of sweet, but not good enough to just drink a glass of. Actually, I would rather drink a glass of sour 'normal' milk. It is fine for cooking and alright on cereal.

So you got a nice car... well people hear seem to actually drive their 'nice cars.' Nice cars being Audi, BMW etc. etc. They don't leave it in the garage and polish it with baby diapers (cloth ones...duh) on the weekends. The freaking take them out for a drive. More than once now I have been passed on a little one lane farm road by a 'nice car' and he/she has been flying along at a pretty good clip. Most of the time while flying aling they have not hesitated to take it off the farm road to go around me or another car (yes, even through the mud). I just can't picture this happening in the U.S. Maybe its just me.
I mean no offence to any of you out there who have 'nice cars,' but I certainly hope you drive them!

Some things are just different here

Some things are just different here:

You plan on traveling to another country and some of the first thoughts you have are what will be different and how will I deal with it? Well here are some of the things I have noticed. This list will probably continue to grow throughout my stay in Belgie.

Peanut butter – I don’t know how you can ruin peanut butter, but man they did a pretty good job of it! It comes in tiny little jars, for way too much $$. Especially considering one brand even caries the description of “American” peanut butter. For those of you that know me, you will understand why this is first on the list.

Chicken – Freakin’ expensive…It has been explained to me that a year or two back they had some troubles with diseased/unsanitary chicken and that the price went up because of the costs of operating under new standards that have been set. Oh, yeah and the cuts aren’t quite as clean as what you are used to back home. You get to trim the extra fat off.

Beef – While we are on the topic of food…the beef seems to come in one of three ways: beef steak, beef fillet, and ground (definitely not ground sirloin). What about New York strip, Rib eye, etc. Maybe I’m just missing something?? Don’t get me wrong, the butcher shop in town is awesome and beats the grocery store any day…but how do I ask for the part of the cow that I want??

Buzzed – Everyone here (for the most part) seems to be very good drivers, and appear to have a good feel for the dimensions of their vehicle. This translates into, we know you are there on a bike and we are going to pass you, but we will give you a minimal amount of space…not that there is much space for passing on some of these roads. I have no problem with this, it just takes a little getting used to because back home that type of driving translates into: I have this big ass SUV and have no clue as to how f@#%#! big it is…or I’m on my cell phone and didn’t notice the red light I just ran much less the cyclist in front of me. So it took a little time to turn off my instinctive reaction of waving fists and launching water bottles at these people.

Town hopping – something you learn to do quick…or all of your 2 hour rides will turn into 7 hour epics. Nothing here has any sort of grid pattern to it…just huge labyrinth of roads and more roads. If your lucky every once and awhile you’ll see a sign with the name of a town on it and hopefully you’ll recognize it.

Stores close – I am no longer in the land of 24 hour quick-e-marts. If I go on a long ride I need to plan ahead. Stores closes and most of them close at random times and days. Bakeries and not gas stations are more predominant and the most likely place that you would stop to refill bottles and get quick snack…if they are not closed.

Bike paths – If you are on a bike path and need to pass other riders, all you have to say is pardon or passop and they will instantaneously move to they right. That is if they are not already there. Even the 100 year old great grandma will do this. None of this…I’m in my little bubble and will get startled and almost fall off my bike if someone were to try to pass me, while I ignorantly veer from side to side on the bike path.

16 Boucles de L'Artois, UCI 1.2, 3/2/05

Race Report #3:

16 Boucles de L’Artois, UCI 1.2, 3/2/05

As it was explained to me this was one of the bigger UCI amateur races of the month. I seemed to be a bigger production than the one I did earlier. By the way, this one was in northern France. It started at the center of town and had the riders “village” set up inside of a festival like atmosphere, pretty cool!
The course layout was a point to point with three 12 km finishing loops. It contained roughly two dozen or so hills/power climbs with about a handful of them steep enough to make your legs cry out as you crested the top and proceeded into the barren wind swept flats on the top. The finishing loops contained one steep cobbled climb out of town and then one fairly gradual, but ever increasing in gradient, longer climb. The cobbled climb could be compared to snake alley if you straightened it out, made it actual cobbles, made them about three times bigger in diameter, and made their condition worse…hmmm maybe not so comparable.
The start of the race had a 4 km neutral roll out. Lesson 1 for the day: the French riders are rather sneaky, etc., etc. So, one minute I am rolling through the city streets (with no sidewalks, just buildings to bounce off of) fairly close behind the lead car, and then all these frenchies come out of the wood work. Literally, coming out of back allies etc. making it damn near a dog fight to be near the front as we are funneling down ever smaller streets.
10 km to the first significant climb and I’m a hagin’ out fine but a bit on the rivet when we are strung out in the open, hmmm better keep riding smart, maybe smarter. Alright about 15 km in, the blood is starting to flow through the muscles, and it is time for me to stop riding like a little school girl. I work my way into the top 20-30 and start trying to do my job…which was to basically take the pressure off of Austin and Jason by getting in any breaks that looked halfway decent…meaning breaks containing more than just a couple a screwballs, and if I got myself in one that stuck...well obviously make the most of it. Also, I was to get them to the local laps in good condition.
At about 70 km or so was the feed zone. OK spread out a bit and get over to the right. Ann is second from the end…dodging a few rolling bottles on the way in for the mussette bag I must have made a slight miscalculation (yes, I’m a dork) and part of the bag hit the shifter and proceeded to impact the front wheel…essentially knocking it out from under me and sending me half rolling, half superman like into the ground. That stung a bit, not only physically, but a bit on the pride too…man I felt stupid! It resulted in NO broken bones, which is a good thing, but it took a bit of a toll on the trusty steed. So that was my race.
Jason, Austin, and Steve finished with what could be called the third group. Once things hit the local laps what was left of the field shattered. Roughly 60 of 190 finished. The rest worked hard to make sure that those guys were there at the local laps.
In my last race report there was some commentary on cornering in a kermis, well that still doesn’t make complete sense to me. But, the cornering in the UCI races does…at least somewhat. It is based on wind direction for the most part. For example if you turn right into a section that will have a cross headwind from the right, things will slow way down and everyone will shy to the outside…meaning no diving through the inside of the corner and getting blasted by the wind, unless you aren’t riding so smart or feel you have some superhuman strength..
Kind of a short race report…but hey what do you want, a detailed description of my road rash!

Bret Glembocki