Tour de Gironde International
Bordeaux, FRA to Girona, ESP- Post stage 4 Tour de Gironde International
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Yesterday I was relegated 1 minute for going left in a round-a-bout and fined 150 Swiss Franks. Despite the fact that on every round-a-bout half the field went left, they penalized only five guys, two being TIAA-CREF (Craig & I)… In this race 1 minute is pretty much the same as disqualifying someone because the separation between 1st and 20th is 15 seconds. Because of this set back, I did all I could to help out the guys still contending for GC; Frank, Mike and Brad. Over the first couple of GPMs I chased and attacked, but then fate set in and I crashed. I think my destiny may be to crash on the last stage of every other stage race. I busted my front shifter so I got a spare and chased back on over the next set of GPMs. When I got back to the field there was a group of ten up the road, and the leaders chased it down for the next 40 KM. Then some attacks went and I jumped on a couple guys as they were attacking. Mike and I ended up getting away with a group of ~8 guys, of the eight only two others would work. I wanted Mike to sit on too if no one else was going to work so he could cover the moves. I had nothing to lose so I ended up doing almost all the work, it was totally nuts. I’ve no idea what these guys expect to accomplish by sitting on! They get in a move & everyone sits up and starts yelling at each other in French. They’re absolutely ridiculous, I wanted to reach back and slap ‘em. Eventually the field, with the leaders team chasing began to catch us (surprise since only me and another guy were working), so Mike attacked and some of the guys who were sitting on followed. After the race he informed me that they didn’t work with him either. So in the next minute or so, the remnants of the break got caught and then Mike got caught. We had some 16 kilometers to go in an 8 km circuit. It came down to another field sprint; we couldn’t set up Brad, so again he was on his own. He ended up getting 4th.
The crash, of course, was my fault. I was in the top 6 or 7 guys and we came around this corner on a super narrow road and it looked like the road went straight, but in fact it turned down to the left. By the time I realized this it was too late and I broad-sided a Belgian National team guy. I took him out pretty good, but ended up doing a lot worse damage to myself and my bike. The road was not paved well, more like a meat grinder than a road, so when I touched it, it ground me up pretty well. We weren’t going too fast so it wasn’t that bad, but I’m pretty pissed ‘cause it’s like my 6th crash of the year. Not to mention the one 5 days ago during training… I think the Belgian guy landed in the grass, he just needed help untangling my handle bar from his wheel… I didn’t get there so fast because I was walking around looking for my bike, when I spotted it I realized that the shifter was busted and had to get a spare. The spare had the seat a bit too low, but nothing that I couldn’t ride with. Other than the last stage and the penalty the race went much better than I thought it would. So, yeah, good times…
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Today was a day of absolute flatness with an average of some 45 kph. For the first 50 km or so it was attack after attack until a break got away. Then, for the first time in the race things slowed down and the leader’s team took up the task of setting tempo ‘til the last 15 km or so. At 15 km to go they caught everyone in the break except for one remaining Dutch guy, who ended up winning it by some 20 seconds. We’re not sure if he’s able to go up hills or not, so that’ll kinda dictate whether he’s capable of holding it for the rest of the race. We had anticipated a field sprint prior to the race, so we planned to set pace for Brad coming into the circuit- and we did, until we started gapping each other off like a bunch of crazy Jap Kamikazes with no purpose in life. I’ve never heard of a team that can’t set tempo until now, maybe we can get an invitation to the Shimano Youth Series? Despite our incompetence Brad managed a couple Jedi weaves and finished second in the sprint, third on the day due to the Dutchman off the front. If we’d managed to ride it together we’d of caught the Dutchman, probably open gaps in the field due to the technical circuit, and deliver Brad for the easy win. Lucky thing there’s no team time trial in the race ‘cause we’d of all crashed out… But tomorrow’s another day and the chances are that the whole team’ll get in the break- we’re still the strongest team (even if we can’t do a lead out… yet) & the race isn’t over until after tomorrow. Give us time and we’ll be able to set Boonen up for the win…
Bordeaux, FRA- The time between
Friday, May 26, 2006
So I’ll bet you wonder what I do when I’m not riding during the races?.. Well, here’s the inside scoop on what it’s like off the bike- it’s not about the bike anyway, right? Basically there are four things that’ve gotta be done between the race and going to bed: laundry, massage, eating and then stretching. For laundry I unpin my numbers and put all the dirty cloth in a little fish net bag, I take it and throw it outside my door for Alyssa to grab. Then I come back in my room, take a shower and then sit on my bed and watch (through my window) as the mechanics clean my bike for about ten minutes. After that I listen to music and type a blog or two, since I don’t usually have internet I don’t post it yet. After that I watch the 8 channels of dudes on TV who speak French and crack stupid French jokes. Usually somewhere along the way I go to Alyssa and get a protein bar or two and then come back and watch the mechanics clean the team cars. Ten minutes or so later, Sandra or Alyssa will come in and tell me it’s time for my massage (which is 30 minutes of excruciating pain and suffering). Then I hobble over to dinner and play with my poorly cooked French food for about an hour. After that I come back in my room and watch some more French TV, or read a bit more of Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane investing in an insane world. Then I’ll go to bed (between 9 & 10:30) after eating some cereal from the team’s cereal reserves. Action packed eh?
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Friday, May 26, 2006
I noticed yesterday that the super hard attacks were starting to fade half way through the race. It seemed that the guys kept getting weaker as the race continued. Today it was even more so, we were by far the strongest team from the gun. It seemed in the beginning that there was a good chance that the entire team would get in a break together… But in the end only half the team made it. The break turned out to be of 16 guys, Frank and I made it initially, then Mike bridged up on a hilly section. No one wanted to work so we ended up attacking each other quite a bit, but it always came back together. Finally the gap came down to ~45 seconds with 20 km to go, and the motivation to stay away finally descended on the rest of the guys and all ~16 of the dudes started pulling like mad. A bunch of the guys in the break got dropped with the new pace. Then we came into the circuit with 7 km to go and the attacks kept the pace high enough to avoid being caught. Frank got 4th on the day and we finished some 20 seconds up on the field.
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Welcome to Bordeaux! Today’s stage was that of large rolling hills and wind. I guess the wind wasn’t so bad, but for someone who doesn’t react to a windy course very well; this was enough to make it a fairly wicked day. I think this is just about the best training I could be doing though… it’s everything I’m not good at: full-throttle, in the gutter, super hard attacks & steep but short kicking climbs. Of course I’m not doing this for the training, I didn’t come to say “yeah, this is just for training, I don’t care how I do-” I’d like to get in a break and win a stage or whatever it takes to win one. If that doesn’t work we come to the field sprint and give everything for Brad. Today, we were supposed to get up there and help him out in the sprint, but I just couldn’t move up to lay it down for him for 300 of the last 500 meters. And I’m always hesitant to get in there with a bunch of big guys that I don’t have much faith in. I’ve gotta get over that though so we can win a couple of these. We are undoubtedly the strongest team here.
On another note, we drove around a bit in France and I noticed that the dudes who live here are pretty into cycling. There are always a handful of legitimate cyclists out riding, quite impressive. France has made it easy for ‘em to ride, almost every major road has a bike lane that actually continues for the duration of the road. Different than the U.S where they put a bike lane on the road and you find that it’s disappeared 2 miles later…
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Today’s the day of travel from Girona to Bordeaux. So I woke up at 7 (the earliest I’ve woke up in some time do to this thing called jet lag) and rode for a couple hours. We left at 11:00 and drove for some 5 hours before arriving in Bordeaux. My initial impression of Bordeaux is an urban sprawl, but I haven’t seen enough to know for sure. I’ll let you know when the race is over… At the moment, for all you “home-gamers,” I’d compare it to Renton with an overabundance of bike lanes, small roads, round-a-bouts, & smokers. I guess this is an amateur race, so no T-mobile or Discovery. An overall win is going to be determined by who makes the breaks. No doubt about it.
After doing my second, 30 minute ride, when I arrived in Bordeaux, I can’t help but compliment one certain attribute of France. They’ve got the bike thing down- for the most part. Every road, so far, is either small and lightly traveled enough to make it perfect for cycling, or it has a bike lane in it. Even in Bordeaux’s urban sprawl there are little roads in the middle of the town. It’s like the place just grew up around a little country town, which I presume it did… But France didn’t get the drift like Spain did on round-a-bouts… There are next to no stop lights in Spain, but in France there are enough to make it dangerous to run all of ‘em. & when you can’t run ‘em all, there’s too many. You see the round-a-bout is the perfect alternative to a stop light because you only have to look for traffic from one side, and the cars can’t go fast enough to make it so you have to wait. This is opportunistic for the cyclist because it means there’s always space for you to come shooting in no matter how many cars are in it. Quite unique really, forward Spanglish thinking once again…
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Yesterday I was relegated 1 minute for going left in a round-a-bout and fined 150 Swiss Franks. Despite the fact that on every round-a-bout half the field went left, they penalized only five guys, two being TIAA-CREF (Craig & I)… In this race 1 minute is pretty much the same as disqualifying someone because the separation between 1st and 20th is 15 seconds. Because of this set back, I did all I could to help out the guys still contending for GC; Frank, Mike and Brad. Over the first couple of GPMs I chased and attacked, but then fate set in and I crashed. I think my destiny may be to crash on the last stage of every other stage race. I busted my front shifter so I got a spare and chased back on over the next set of GPMs. When I got back to the field there was a group of ten up the road, and the leaders chased it down for the next 40 KM. Then some attacks went and I jumped on a couple guys as they were attacking. Mike and I ended up getting away with a group of ~8 guys, of the eight only two others would work. I wanted Mike to sit on too if no one else was going to work so he could cover the moves. I had nothing to lose so I ended up doing almost all the work, it was totally nuts. I’ve no idea what these guys expect to accomplish by sitting on! They get in a move & everyone sits up and starts yelling at each other in French. They’re absolutely ridiculous, I wanted to reach back and slap ‘em. Eventually the field, with the leaders team chasing began to catch us (surprise since only me and another guy were working), so Mike attacked and some of the guys who were sitting on followed. After the race he informed me that they didn’t work with him either. So in the next minute or so, the remnants of the break got caught and then Mike got caught. We had some 16 kilometers to go in an 8 km circuit. It came down to another field sprint; we couldn’t set up Brad, so again he was on his own. He ended up getting 4th.
The crash, of course, was my fault. I was in the top 6 or 7 guys and we came around this corner on a super narrow road and it looked like the road went straight, but in fact it turned down to the left. By the time I realized this it was too late and I broad-sided a Belgian National team guy. I took him out pretty good, but ended up doing a lot worse damage to myself and my bike. The road was not paved well, more like a meat grinder than a road, so when I touched it, it ground me up pretty well. We weren’t going too fast so it wasn’t that bad, but I’m pretty pissed ‘cause it’s like my 6th crash of the year. Not to mention the one 5 days ago during training… I think the Belgian guy landed in the grass, he just needed help untangling my handle bar from his wheel… I didn’t get there so fast because I was walking around looking for my bike, when I spotted it I realized that the shifter was busted and had to get a spare. The spare had the seat a bit too low, but nothing that I couldn’t ride with. Other than the last stage and the penalty the race went much better than I thought it would. So, yeah, good times…
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Today was a day of absolute flatness with an average of some 45 kph. For the first 50 km or so it was attack after attack until a break got away. Then, for the first time in the race things slowed down and the leader’s team took up the task of setting tempo ‘til the last 15 km or so. At 15 km to go they caught everyone in the break except for one remaining Dutch guy, who ended up winning it by some 20 seconds. We’re not sure if he’s able to go up hills or not, so that’ll kinda dictate whether he’s capable of holding it for the rest of the race. We had anticipated a field sprint prior to the race, so we planned to set pace for Brad coming into the circuit- and we did, until we started gapping each other off like a bunch of crazy Jap Kamikazes with no purpose in life. I’ve never heard of a team that can’t set tempo until now, maybe we can get an invitation to the Shimano Youth Series? Despite our incompetence Brad managed a couple Jedi weaves and finished second in the sprint, third on the day due to the Dutchman off the front. If we’d managed to ride it together we’d of caught the Dutchman, probably open gaps in the field due to the technical circuit, and deliver Brad for the easy win. Lucky thing there’s no team time trial in the race ‘cause we’d of all crashed out… But tomorrow’s another day and the chances are that the whole team’ll get in the break- we’re still the strongest team (even if we can’t do a lead out… yet) & the race isn’t over until after tomorrow. Give us time and we’ll be able to set Boonen up for the win…
Bordeaux, FRA- The time between
Friday, May 26, 2006
So I’ll bet you wonder what I do when I’m not riding during the races?.. Well, here’s the inside scoop on what it’s like off the bike- it’s not about the bike anyway, right? Basically there are four things that’ve gotta be done between the race and going to bed: laundry, massage, eating and then stretching. For laundry I unpin my numbers and put all the dirty cloth in a little fish net bag, I take it and throw it outside my door for Alyssa to grab. Then I come back in my room, take a shower and then sit on my bed and watch (through my window) as the mechanics clean my bike for about ten minutes. After that I listen to music and type a blog or two, since I don’t usually have internet I don’t post it yet. After that I watch the 8 channels of dudes on TV who speak French and crack stupid French jokes. Usually somewhere along the way I go to Alyssa and get a protein bar or two and then come back and watch the mechanics clean the team cars. Ten minutes or so later, Sandra or Alyssa will come in and tell me it’s time for my massage (which is 30 minutes of excruciating pain and suffering). Then I hobble over to dinner and play with my poorly cooked French food for about an hour. After that I come back in my room and watch some more French TV, or read a bit more of Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane investing in an insane world. Then I’ll go to bed (between 9 & 10:30) after eating some cereal from the team’s cereal reserves. Action packed eh?
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Friday, May 26, 2006
I noticed yesterday that the super hard attacks were starting to fade half way through the race. It seemed that the guys kept getting weaker as the race continued. Today it was even more so, we were by far the strongest team from the gun. It seemed in the beginning that there was a good chance that the entire team would get in a break together… But in the end only half the team made it. The break turned out to be of 16 guys, Frank and I made it initially, then Mike bridged up on a hilly section. No one wanted to work so we ended up attacking each other quite a bit, but it always came back together. Finally the gap came down to ~45 seconds with 20 km to go, and the motivation to stay away finally descended on the rest of the guys and all ~16 of the dudes started pulling like mad. A bunch of the guys in the break got dropped with the new pace. Then we came into the circuit with 7 km to go and the attacks kept the pace high enough to avoid being caught. Frank got 4th on the day and we finished some 20 seconds up on the field.
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Welcome to Bordeaux! Today’s stage was that of large rolling hills and wind. I guess the wind wasn’t so bad, but for someone who doesn’t react to a windy course very well; this was enough to make it a fairly wicked day. I think this is just about the best training I could be doing though… it’s everything I’m not good at: full-throttle, in the gutter, super hard attacks & steep but short kicking climbs. Of course I’m not doing this for the training, I didn’t come to say “yeah, this is just for training, I don’t care how I do-” I’d like to get in a break and win a stage or whatever it takes to win one. If that doesn’t work we come to the field sprint and give everything for Brad. Today, we were supposed to get up there and help him out in the sprint, but I just couldn’t move up to lay it down for him for 300 of the last 500 meters. And I’m always hesitant to get in there with a bunch of big guys that I don’t have much faith in. I’ve gotta get over that though so we can win a couple of these. We are undoubtedly the strongest team here.
On another note, we drove around a bit in France and I noticed that the dudes who live here are pretty into cycling. There are always a handful of legitimate cyclists out riding, quite impressive. France has made it easy for ‘em to ride, almost every major road has a bike lane that actually continues for the duration of the road. Different than the U.S where they put a bike lane on the road and you find that it’s disappeared 2 miles later…
Bordeaux, FRA- Tour de Gironde International
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Today’s the day of travel from Girona to Bordeaux. So I woke up at 7 (the earliest I’ve woke up in some time do to this thing called jet lag) and rode for a couple hours. We left at 11:00 and drove for some 5 hours before arriving in Bordeaux. My initial impression of Bordeaux is an urban sprawl, but I haven’t seen enough to know for sure. I’ll let you know when the race is over… At the moment, for all you “home-gamers,” I’d compare it to Renton with an overabundance of bike lanes, small roads, round-a-bouts, & smokers. I guess this is an amateur race, so no T-mobile or Discovery. An overall win is going to be determined by who makes the breaks. No doubt about it.
After doing my second, 30 minute ride, when I arrived in Bordeaux, I can’t help but compliment one certain attribute of France. They’ve got the bike thing down- for the most part. Every road, so far, is either small and lightly traveled enough to make it perfect for cycling, or it has a bike lane in it. Even in Bordeaux’s urban sprawl there are little roads in the middle of the town. It’s like the place just grew up around a little country town, which I presume it did… But France didn’t get the drift like Spain did on round-a-bouts… There are next to no stop lights in Spain, but in France there are enough to make it dangerous to run all of ‘em. & when you can’t run ‘em all, there’s too many. You see the round-a-bout is the perfect alternative to a stop light because you only have to look for traffic from one side, and the cars can’t go fast enough to make it so you have to wait. This is opportunistic for the cyclist because it means there’s always space for you to come shooting in no matter how many cars are in it. Quite unique really, forward Spanglish thinking once again…
posted by Tom Peterson @ 3:38 PM
<< Home