Position, Positioning and Power

After having a few position related lower back issues. thursday this week I was Taken by Peter Horn, to visit Frans Vanmarcke, an expert in the art of building a riders bike to fit their body. Having fitted many of the top pro's during his career including Eddy and son Axel Merckx, as well as Jan Ulrich, I was expecting wonderful things, despite one team mate returning with a position resembling that of a cylosportif rider. Considerable time was spent measuring body part ratios and then crunching the numbers resulting in a chart with the perfect bike dimensions/geometry for my body.
The challenge then became replacing/swapping parts on my team bike so that it conformed to my ideal position which took quite some time. once everything was in order, except for the stem length which needed to be swapped for a 130mm when i got back to the team house, I was on my way, riding home from the bike fit. Immediately I noticed the difference in pedal stroke, which felt more fluid and efficient, and once the stem was swapped to be the same as what the calculations had stipulated i noticed the difference in the pressure of my hands on the hoods.

The following day i head out for a ride with Addison, one of the yanks, to recon the course of a small kermese we were both put down to race. After susing out the course and doing a few hard laps both of us felt confident that the next day would be a good race, until i returned to the apartment to find out that i would not be racing the small Kermese but another Large UCI race near Liege in the east of belgium. With daylight saving ending, meaning the clocks would be wound foreward an hour, and an early race start and subsequent early departure from the teams base there was little time to prepare.

AALST - TROFEE v HASPENGOUW was a 150km race consisting of one large, 100km lap, followed by 5 local laps. The temperature was COLD, due to the strong icy wind and despite the shunshine early the forcast was for rain. It was essential to be near or at the front with our teams 3 protected rider Peter Horn, Paavo, and Roderic Muscat, to help them maintaing good position and be best prepared fro the inevitable carnage of the crosswinds at the 20km mark and 50km mark. Finaly starting to feel comfortable in the bunch i was able to do my job until the second crosswind section blew the race to pieces, when i took Roderick who had fallen earlier in the race toward the front before the legs went KABOOM! and i slipped back to the next echelon. Job Done.
It turned out to be a disaterous day for the team with roderick succuming to the injuries from his early tumble and witdrawing as well as both Peter and Paavo falling in seperate incidents, meanwhile carnage involving several other team mates occured at the kermese i was originally scheduled to do.

The following day, Monday was scheduled to be a rest day, but after the team manager decided i would be in the pre selection for some more larger races i would be required to go visit the Radioshack Team Doctor, to do some lactate/Power testing so that he and my team manager could decide on a training program that would best prepare me for upcoming races.
for those of you who dont know about lactate/power testing or havent done one before they are not fun. Basically you ride on a stationary bike with your power output controlled by a computer which increases the required power output by 50 watts every 3 minute until you Blow Up meanwhile drops of blood are taken and analyzed to determine how much lactic acid your muscles are producing at the various power outputs.

"Whoopdee doo basil what does it all mean?" you say. Lactic acid is produced by muscle when you are excercising and limits the extent to which you can exercise/operate. any level up to 2 milli mole of Lactate is the point where the body can break it down as quickly as it is being produced. anything over this and it begins to build up, and at 4mMol starts to hurt. I made it up to 10.7 mMol but Blew Up just short of the 450watt mark, registering a 2mMol lactate level at 322 watts and a 4mMol lactate level at 375 watts, which i am told is fairly good and should enable me to be competative in the racing here, meaning my skill/ability to race efficiently is what is holding me back (ie positioning in the bunch being infront of splits and out of the wind etc).
So for now my trainin will be focussed on increasing the power outputs of both my 2 mMol and 4mMol points so that my body is producing less lactate at higher power.
So basically the goal of training is to increase the power output for both points.

Tempting Fate: "upside down number 13 myth tested"

Today we nearly all of the "Fuji Test Team" u23 riders, some were stuck at school (suckers), lined up to race GP Waregem, 130km with 234 amateur riders all under the age of 23 it seemed like the perfect chance to test the old upsidedown number 13 myth.

The start was MANIC, riders pushing their way to the front of the grid brakes screeching everywhere, wheels locking up, but despite the chaos i found myself sitting about 40-50th position in the bunch, not free from all the hustle and bussle but far enough forward to avaid all the early spiils, which claimed 2 team mates early on. I was sticking as close as possible to our teams rider who had a good shot at taking out the race after showing his good form with a 3rd place at sundays UCI 1.12, and i have to say, i was quite amazed at how easy he made hurtling down the road within centermeters of hundereds of other riders all bumping and bouncing off eachother, slamming the breaks on whenever a whistle is heard ( meaning there is an obstickle on the road) look.
one section of the course had an epic series of traffic islands which formed almost a maze which the bunch had to negotiate and having had enough of the squeezing on previous tight spots opted to buny hop over the two that were in my way, which meant i could gain a few posi's leading into the section of roadworks. one lane of the road had been dug up and with a small group of 4 dangling just off the front i decided a group of 5 would be better than a group of 200 and bridged across.
It was short lived (and Hurt) which meant soon i would be fighting for position in the bunch again. slipping back the bunch hit the first real crosswind section for the day and about 20 riders infront of me, trent and onother team mate Teemu (nat u23 tt champ of finland) found myself stck behind a pile of twisted bodies and bikes. The chase begun, and it wasnt long before we hit the first of the days climbs almost on the tail of the bunch, and at a false flat during the climb the small group rejoined the main field. Soon after i found myself in difficulty sliding off the back, and with no team cars being allowed to follow was on my own.
I managed to catch a small group containing teemu, and then opted to chase a bit harder to cotch some riders further up the road over the cobbled climbs before joing trent an another belgian, who seemed pretty keen to take a shortcut, and dissappeared shortly after mentioning his alternate route. It was clear our race was over so trent and I rolled back to the team bus.
So judge for yourself, upside down number 13 myth, Busted or Confirmed

UCI 1.12 CHALLENGE DE HESBAYE - TROGNEE Race Report

In my last post i said that come the following day we would set sail for Trognee, and it turned out not to be far from the truth, it was the first real day of "belgian Weather", wind and rain, and lots of it. It was also fairly cold at about 7 degrees C with wind that made it feel like it was zero.
Unlike Ghent Ieper which started from a soccer stadium with heated change rooms Trognee was a small farm town with a tent a tiny heater at one end and a large drum on a gas burner with buckets instead of showers for after the race. Despite the horrid weather conditions our DS Dieter Lefevre, son of Patrick Lefevre (the owner of Quickstep Protour team) was feeling that we had a good shot at winning the race.
Peter Horn, the teams veteran at 24 in his 6th year at the team and i pushed our way into the front of the grid at the startline and found ourselves on the back of the lead car through the neutral, but as soon as the flag dropped it was on for young and old, and with water and mud covering the road it became impossible to se much in front and Nat Thompson one of the first year Yanks, fell in an early fall, breaking his shift lever requiring a spare bike, unfortunately having the same pedals as me and much shorter legs it meant he struggled to ride my spare bike which was given to him by mistake, but after another quick bike change he was back in the bunch on his spare bike. Unfortunately he didnt last long and was involved in another fall breaking his jaw and being taken to hospital.
struggling in the conditions and having a few issues with my position on the bike i found myself too far back when it came to the crunch, with the bunch splitting into several echelons with mine being the 4th, and the one that would not get back on. race over.
Fortunately Paavo (the Fin Nat u23 RR champ) Peter Horn (US), and Roderick Muscat (Malta) managed to make a break of about 15 riders with 30km to go to the finish, and being the best represented team in the break went on to take 3rd and 10th for the day, bringing home a nice trophy and some prize money.
ok Finances chechk Belgium trip cost $?,??? (not telling) minus 30 euro prisemoney = still $?,??? but hey there is still pleanty of time to change that ;)
Tomorrow im off to Waragem for an amateur u23 race, with 150km 4 steep KOM's 2 of which, the kwyermont, and the platerberg (spelling?) being cobbled. the pro race Dwars door Vlaanderen is on tomorrow as well on a similar course to my race so hopefully i wil be able to catch up with some of the pro's for a pic or two after my race to make up for the lack of pics in my last few posts.

UCI 1.12 CHALLENGE DE HESBAYE - TROGNEE

time for round 2, lets hope i come out better than i did after round one!
Firstly I have to apollogise for my lack of posts this week, i had a few quiet days after my tumble, where i spent a bit of time getting used too (pissed off with) my spare bike, as mine was and still is out of action. She is a bit of an old clunker with super wide bars brakes that are backwards, cables that are so sticky the brakes dont release and a seat thats not so good for the circulation.
but after a few frustrating rides and some TLC she is now almost seaworthy.
Tomorrow we will be setting sail for Trognee over in the east of belgium near Liege, where im told there are hills (im yet to see anything that we would call hils). After my teamwork efforts last week I have been given another chance to prove my ability/worth in yet another big UCI 1.12 which is about 150km in length.
Followed by a rest day where im planning on heading to Brugge on my own to wander around, and then do a more thorough blog post.
So until next time..

UCI 1.12 Ghent Ieper "Belgian racing off with a Bang"

I'll start this post with a quote which my team manager puts on the bottom of every email, "Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom" according to this my race yesterday wasnt very succesfull as i found out (the hard way) that i dont bounce very high at all, its more of a Thud, Slide, then Rollover for a bit.
Within the first 10km of the race I found myselfl lying on the road after one of the locals decided that the footpath was a better option than the road swerving to the left, taking my front wheel with it.

The Dammage?
a few broken spokes where his rear skewer went through my front wheel, broken rear deraileur, bent deraleur hanger, cracked and scratched shift/brake levers, and broken biddon cage.
As a result I was forced to use one of the old team fuji's the mechanic had built to the same dimensions of my Apollo. despite being on a bike I had never ridden and which had the brakes to opposite way around I managed to work my way back through the convoy, and was amazed by how good/professional the other team car drivers are with helping riders back into the race after misfortune, until I rejoined the bunch. Once back in the bunch I took the chance to asses my injuries which were not serious, a graze to the hip knee and elbow, bruzed ego and shaken confidence. but after settling into the bunch it was clear that my km's were numbered with my hip getting progressively worse during the race. Once I realized there was no longer any point of racing for myself I set about doing what I could to help out my other team mates, taking Paavo's (the national u23 road race champion of finland)jacket back to the team car and picking up some biddons and food for other riders. I even tried fixing Paavo's rear brake calipers while riding next to him (not as easy as it sounds) as they had been nocked to the side causing them to rub.

And after about 100km we hit the first of the two hilly circuits which would take the race over the Monteberg and the Kemmelberg twice. As soo as the road tilted upward my hip decided that enough was enough and I sat up and headed to the feed zone where the team bus was parked.

I suppose all in all it wasnt a bad day in the office, apart from my tumble and not getting to race over the Kemmelberg, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the pace was no where near as fast as what I was expecting, and I was able to help out the team and win a few brownie points for the day.
"Paavo taking on a biddon at the feed zone"

Now on a less cycling related note, the race was held in the provence of West Flanders, and the sides of the course was littered with signs leading to war graves/cemetaries for Canadian ANZAC and commonwealth soldiers of WW2. and as some of you may know, the city of Ieper, was formerly known as Ypres, which is where one of the many legendary military engagements of WW2 occured.

Despite this the city square of Ieper (which we raced through) is one of the most beautiful cityscapes I have ever seen

We also raced underneath a magnificent archway/memorial to the soldiers who fought in the region which was a great experience and well worth seeing if you are in the area.

Diving into the Deep End : The Kemmelberg

For those of you who dont know the Kemmelberg, it is a cobbled climb regularly featured in the cobbled Spring Classics, particularly Ghent-Wavelgem. If that means nothing to you here are some pics of the Kemmelberg which might paint a better picture(mum look away now).



Yesterday several riders up for selection to race for the Fuji "A" team on Sunday in the UCI 1.12 Ghent-Ieper U27 Top Comp race, which features 2 laps of the Kemmelberg set out to recon the loops to give the riders unfamiliar with the climb some insight into what to expect, and to let the team manager decide who should be selected for the race.
First impressions; it is TOUGH, but surprisingly short (although after sunday I might give a different answer). As soon as you hit the cobbles you are forced to go full gas othgerwise you virtually stop, loosing all your momentum (which is impossible to regain) and as a result of the incling and roughness of the cobbles you find yourself instantly nackerd. YAY :(
Fortunately on our recon ride I mannaged to go well enough to make the cut for sundays race, meaning my first race for the team, and first race in Belgium will be a BIG one. 200 riders and 180km to decide the winner, and the Kemmelberg is not going to be the only factor to decide the race with twists and turns through cobbled towns as well as narrow farm roads exposed to crosswinds, so i am realistic about my chances and arent expecting too much. But then again im not here for a holiday!

Brugge, Bingles, and Broken Bikes

Over the last few days, things have been settling down a bit. Everyone is getting to know eachother better and find their way around town and the countryside and get into a somewhat normal routine.
Yesterday was spent with a team meeting early in the morning to set out our plans for the week, particularly with our upcomming races this weekend, with a small Kermese on Saturday, with a few team members competing, and two larger UCI ranked races on sunday. The UCI 1.2 Ohmloop Van Het Waasland, a 190km flat race with riders from amateur team up to Pro Continental teams, and the UCI 1.12 Gent Ieper a 180km race featuring 2 laps up the Legendary/Infamous Kemmelberg. With a few riders out injured or sick it meant their was a need for more riders for the two UCI races on the Sunday with Trent, Jannes, and I getting the call up to race the bigger races with the team.
The Team meeting was followed by a bunch ride where Peter Horn, the teams Veteran/most experienced rider being in his 6th year with the team taking the first year riders for a bunch ride south of Oostkamp towards the hills. The ride got off to a bad start when the youngest rider crossed wheels and hit the deck about 20 mins in. After a short detour dropping him back in Oostkamt the rest of us continued, and after a puncture and a short stop for food the snow started falling.
Today we were given the day off to rest/freshen up for our Recon ride of the Ghent Ieper course on wednesday, and decided to head into Brugge on the bus to check out the sights.

"The Tower in the cenert square of Brugge"


"Tea Room on the edge of the town square"


"fountain at bus stop"


"Town Square"


"One of the many Churches"


In other news this is what happens when bikes hit the cobbles



Thankfully the rider only sufferd a bump to his knee resulting in a bit of soreness and a few stitches