Fatness

Couple of odd things this week

• Found out why I ended up 2nd Sat and not 1st-I ate too much and had extra weight in my belly for the sprint. Had I eaten less I would have won apparently
  
• I am fat. My cheekbones do not jut out like the other French racers and I enjoy eating
• Apparently I do not train enough because I do not train upwards of 30 hours in a week like everyone else
• There is no benefit to intervals-long, slow miles are how you get faster
• I was chastised for eating on a 3 hour ride today, this contributes to my fatness
• My stem is way too short, I need at least a 130 to make my back more flat on the bike, Americans have incorrect bike setups
• Drinking milk is going to make me fat and slow. If I drink milk it will make legs cramp with lactic acid too
• Again drinking Orange Juice is going to give me lactic acid
• If I eat eggs for breakfast I must train minimum 5 hours to burn them off or else it contributes to my fatness
• 1 coffee is ok every now and then, but 2 coffees in a day will make me slow
• It is ok to put the American in the gutter on team training rides
• Also ok, to leave the American in the wind for extra time in training, half wheel and ride offset to put him in the wind a little bit more
• lastly, in racing everyone on the team is looking for good results to keep moving up the chain, so its acceptable to chase the break with the American in it.

These are just a few things I learned this week, but if anyone really knows me, trust me I am neither fat nor do I believe I have a bad diet, just cultural differences. Had a awesome argument over nutrition the other day. Stay tuned for the "optimal" french diet leading up to a grand race, the race and post race. It is going to blow your mind. The riding has been quite interesting as of late, spent today in a constant rain/hail storm for 3 hours and godawful wind. Certainly looking forward to some nice weather where I am not washing bike after every ride and trying to dry everything out everynight.

recap of weekend

Well, on Friday evening watching the news, it was explained that a huge front had just moved in and was going to be around for a couple 4-5 days. Already, it was dumping cats and dogs and about 5 degrees. I was most certainly not jazzed at all about racing in this.

Jump to Sat. morning and lining up with the other 140 folks and we are all sitting in vehicles or vans until the last possible moment to depart because we want to spend as little time in the cold wet weather. I was told that a breakaway was key today and I needed to be a part of it. It was insane, I could not see more than 10 meters ahead of me, the road is about wide enough for 3-4 cyclists and we are racing full gas from town to town and countryside in between. Well, I worked my ass off to get in the break, but one went without me, bummer. I eventually bridged with one other guy to the break after 15 minutes of wanting to puke, I have never gone that hard in my life, but god dammit I was going to be in the break today! With the 2 of us that made ten altogether. yada yada yada, race and at the finish I ended up second in the sprint and lost to a guy who comes from a sprint background on that track-go figure. As a side note, I also got second place on the day for the daily KOM comp.

Sunday was more of the same. A 10 Km loop, half in town and half on the narrow winding country lanes in the countryside. I awoke to even harder rain today and knew it was going to be hard. Once again the break was going to be pivotal today and I worked so hard to make it, but it was not to be. With two major climbs on the circuit, that made two major descents and I cannot tell you how many wrecks I saw. Wheels would just slide out from underneath and the latest that I had heard was 6 or 7 collarbones broken yesterday. I can honestly say that yesterday was one of the most miserable, cold and wet days that I have ever had in my life. The cold rain seeped into your legs making them feel like chunks of leads, you would will your hands to shift but they would not work and good luck feeling your feet, they were gone after 10 minutes. I finished the day, something 2/3 of the field can't say, but I just rolled it in with a group, not willing to risk ending my season early for tenth place.

I am quite happy with the weekend, hey, a podium is great and feel like I am learning more and more after each race. Got a few days to recover to get ready for the next bit of racing.

second place

got a minute here. finished second place today and second in the kom comp. daylight savings is happening tonight, so off to bed. details to come, but feeling good for tomorrows espoir cup one day race.

Chillin

Had a fairly easy week this week. I have 2 bigger one day races coming up this weekend so I have just been noodling on the bike, hoping to save the legs. I am certainly not getting any more comfortable with riding in the rain yet. I love my amazing Specialized Armadillos for their flat protection-if you don't have a pair for your training wheels I would get some-last year I had absolutely zero training ride flats on them folks, well worth their money. On that note, I have also had zero flats here this year, but these tires folks are not the best on the cobbled streets in the rain. I almost feel like cornering moto style with my inside leg clipped out :). There is nothing like sliding through roundabouts rather than carving.

Got out for what I thought would be an easy day, but I can honestly say that I have never ridding in rain like that, nor seen a movement come in so quickly. Honest to god, life was peachy, just a bit dry and within 3 minutes the sky went black, temp dropped 20 degrees and the rain just got harder and harder. The best way to explain it is the coming of the Death Eaters in the first scene of the newest Harry Potter film. Oh yeah, by the way, the Potter series rocks!!!

This photo does not do justice to the weather, but just 300 meters ahead of me should be a big old ridge thats 250 meters high, yet I can't see beyond the yard. Thats how crazy it can be here, nice one minute and crazy the next.

nice day in the neighborhood

Actually had a nice springtime day over here in france. The weather finally hit over 10 degrees and I was able to introduce my nice white legs to the sun again. This winter, I had about 5 weeks of total time down in California to train and in that time I built up a nice little tan. Well after a month over here in cold, wet northern Europe all of that hard work was for naught and I get to start all over again, oh well.

I have got a nice quick week this week. After finishing up my race on monday, I have 2 more 1 day races later this week, so for the most part it has been recovery this week.

On another note, I got to experience a first this week. At lunch on Sunday, day before race, I am doing my best to stay hydrated and because of this, feel the need to go to the restroom. So away from the table I go to find the toillete. Unfortunately, I only find one door and not two so I wait, assuming there is one toilet and when someone walks out, I go in. Well, I see multiple stalls and urinals which was great. As I am standing at a urinal a gal walks out of one of the stalls and begins to wash her hands in the sink right next to me. Before this moment I really had to use the restroom, but somehow miraculously I now have stage fright and stop immediately. There is something quite odd about shared restrooms like that. She was treating it like any other day, but I could not even go until she left. Lets just say that it will take some time to get used to sharing a restroom with a gal.

so there you go, one of the many odd moments out of a normal day for me here.

Fun day at work

Yesterday got to race Mortange Au Perche. Its an awesome race during a carnival in the heart of the town of Mortagne. The race is essentially go uphill for 3 minutes as hard as you can, descend and repeat. I knew day was going to be fun when we showed up to the race to find that we had tailwind on the climb for the day. For those who have raced Walla Walla before, think of the finish climb for the big road race, 30 times. I was told the early move never makes it, its too hard of a race so wait a bit before hitting it-well guess what, the early move did stick it. With about 2 hours to go and 85 folks or so left in the group and the break up the road what did I do, I worked. With about 2 hours left in race I went to the front and did as much work as I could do I whittled the group of 85 down to 6 in my group and eventually was the first non breakaway finisher. Thats something nice to have, but it only continues to make me hungry for better results. We only ended up having 26 finishers total thanks to an extremely hard race, we essentially did elevation of a double bogus yesterday with hill repeats on a climb of a half mile long. Yes, the racing is getting easier by the week as I start to learn who to watch and what the rhythm is like, but it will not happen overnight.

So thats the racing part of the day, I thought I would also share some photos of what the training has been like recently. Needless to say, I am still trying to figure out how people enjoy wet, cold weather riding. Notice how the roads are nice and shiny, the other word for that would be slick.

USA Cycling

Thought that I would like to make a few fair comparisons as to why I am exceedingly disappointed in USA Cycling and quite impressed with the race structure over here:

1.Registration over here is not a huge ordeal-show up and give your John Hancock next to your name, finit
2-I do not have to fill out god knows how many number of forms that we have to back home, guess how many I fill out here? 1 at the beginning of year and its good for the whole season-what a concept?
3-Races cost like 4 euro-top that
4-Officials here are not yelling at everyone for stupid shit i.e.-no helmet when rolling around, folded numbers because guess what numbers here actually fit, especially a relief to not have a yellow line for racing, and frankly no one here cares where you go piss. For those who do not know at Tour of Utah we were able to skip the first 8 km of a stage of the race to go to bathroom so that we would not go midrace-major lame
5-The FFC is meant to turn out good racers, not make money for a few folks
6-Officials here have somehow figured out to do all of the placings by eye and no of this new electronic stuff and they get it right, even with a field of 175!
7-Guess what USA cycling, bidons are going to get tossed mid race-waste of energy to go back and give them to a car. Here they just get picked up post race and its not a big deal. No need to fine everyone for every bottle tossed, races are charging enough, just pay someone to pick them up.

To round this out pretty darn impressed with how fluid everything seems here and looking back on it, there is a lot that racing back home leaves me wondering why it doesn't get changed? Got a fun race coming up on Monday, 30 tours of a 3 km circuit. Day is going to be 1 km uphill 1 k flat and 1 k downhill. Wish me luck.

dinner last night

Well, as you can see in this shot, my meat sure is looking pretty red. Apparently, to go fast on the bike, as they say here this specific meat will help me out. If you are trying to guess what it is-its a raw steak. Yes, i said RAW. lets just say that it does not go down awesome nor does it feel awesome in the morning.


I have been suffering quite a bit today and I think that I now know why they eat it-it helps you get down to race weight on this tool. Lets just say my stomach has not been a huge fan of the raw meat that has been consumed-ham, pork, and beef.

Also wanted to show you guys one of my new favorite drinks over here. Not sure why I can't find this anywhere in the states?

Old Men

had a great day today. Missed the move of the day of 6 riders with 15 km to finish of the race but, was still the first chase group on the road and finished around 20th out of 175 today. I am starting to get the hang of things. I don't want to do a play by play of racing on here, but spent lots of first half of day trying to get away in the circuit race. the race was a 3 hour race on a 6 km circuit with lots of hills and descents. Had lots of fun racing, but something more odd sticks out on the day. At the start and finish of race, there is lots of euro pop and techno music getting blared and I cannot help but laugh at old men tapping their toes to artist like Lady Gaga and others of this genre. There is something quite amusing at seeing old men that seem set in their ways having a genuine good time semi dancing in the cold to crazy American women artists. On that note, seeing as this is the music I now get to listen to this year, I believe I know the words to all of Lady Gaga's songs seeing as it is a nice English break when I hear it. I know that this is pretty scattered, but I think that this is a great indication of where my life is at-scattered and spending lots of my day confused and in a state of constant translation.

pave

Yesterday had a race over some pretty crazy little roads. The race went much better than last weeks and I was actually learning how to surf the group a bit better over here. I made it into a few different moves on the day and even got my chance at the pave or cobblestone racing. Needless to say, my back arms and shoulders feel like they got hit by a semi yesterday from racing on them. I misssed the key split in the group with 15 km to go but was extremely happy with how the day went. Was at the front for all the splits on the climbs and had a few important folk take notice of it. The race into the pave every time is like a race to the finish then keep it rolling through. Feeling good for todays race, little bit tired though. I had a fair amount of yesterday in the red, but happy with my progress in just 1 week. Cheers to a great day today.

photos from the area

Just a quick compilation of some photos around here. The pic with me in it is after 4.5 hours of crosswind racing. The energy to even move is hours away and at least 3 plates of food down the road. notice my teammates shoulder to my left, yeah everyone here is big. The chateau at the bottom is all of 15 minutes away from my house too.

french eating

Had a great ride today with some teammates. They were able to show me some awesome new roads. We have had some very spirited discussions lately on nutrition and lifestyles. My teammates and director were aghast that I would eat potatoes and eggs for breakfast and drink milk for dinner. Some of the other things that made them crazy were the fact that i enjoy some candy every now and then and maybe some ice cream. however, the biggest no no to them was that I love to eat red meat-they told me it will untrain you. All of these things will make you fat and slow as a cyclist according to them. However, for these guys, bucket loads of amazing fatty cheeses after lunch and dinner are ok and they see nothing wrong with a casual smoke for an opening of the lungs. I know, some differences here. One of the guys on team is crazy tiny, his dinner takes about 2 bites to eat-a spoonful of yogurt and a forkful of pasta. He says all the food he needs he takes on the bike and all other food will make him fat. Needless to say I cannot do the french food lifestyle of some of these guys and will continue to eat french toast, omelettes, and meat.

On a side note since seeing a gal on horseback the other day in town-all I have had in my head is Big and Rich's song-"save a horse, ride a cowboy" maybe some country music can set these guys straight?

first full week

today marks the first full week that I have had here in France. After a few days to decompress from my first race on Sunday I have been able to take away a few things. The biggest thing to take away is just to be much more attentive and expect the unexpected to happen. On another note, with Paris Nice happening it has been amazing being able to watch the race Live on National t.v.-we can't even get that on cable in the states.
It has been quite fun to watch the town that I live in come to life this week. I am living in Giverny, France which is the hometown of Claude Monet. The whole town is built around the Impressionist movement and full of museums and Monets' gardens. On the 1st of April everything will be opening and it appears that with each day new life arrives in the town.
Training is going well and stay tuned this week for photos of the area

give a cm, they take a meter

Well where do I start. today was my first euro race and oh my god. I spent 4 hours staring at the wheel in front of me in god knows how many echelons. I knew it was going to be interesting-last night the news had bad weather coming in. Today it never got above 1 degree and the wind was a steady 75 km an hour. I can honestly say that I have never been this scared racing my bike before, but it made it go by quite quickly. I did spend many moments thinking today what the hell am i doing, but I am absolutely convinced that this is the best way to learn how to race in hellish conditions. I expected my first experience to be better, but from the bottom the only way out is up. Heres hoping to figuring out how to race in echelons better.

pre race

getting ready for the race in the morning. Just got done with my evening massage and lets just say they are a bit different here. To start, instead of undressing with the masseuse out of the room, they just stand there and wait for you. That was a bit weird, but the craziest was instead of having numerous sheets to stay covered-I have a hand towel for my southern regions. Things here are certainly a bit more relaxed when it comes to the body. Looking forward to finally testing the legs in a race and kicking some ass.

Stay Tuned for results.

1st solo ride

This morning had a chance to get out on a ride by myself. Needless to say, you learn fast. I ended up on a road for about 20 km's that was a paved doubletrack through some forest which was pretty awesome. I played a game of go out and ride for half the time that I want to and stop, turnaround, and try to get home. Well, the first half went really well but on my way home I was going through one of many little towns and took a right instead of a left somewhere. This resulted in an extra 30 km on my ride and getting nice and lost. This is going to prove to be the best way to learn the roads here, since America's nice grid system is nonexistent here. I am having a difficult time keeping my rides at a set time, because i want to keep on riding and exploring.

race reconaissance

This morning I got out to check out the parcours for my race on Sunday-Paris Evroux. The race is officaly 160 km long, but it does not seem it. I lost track after about town 40 of riding through, towns here are about 2 km in length and come it seems after about 5-6 km of farmland on a constant routine. The race is going to be crazy as the whole time there is traffic islands and roundabout and roads wide enough for one little peugeut. I can't wait. The whole time there was not a single road that was straight nor flat, always turning and up or down. And because of that, just when I thought I knew where I was at the end of my ride and coming in from the East, I was on the West side of my town. Its going to take awhile to figure out the roads here.

new life lessons

things I learned today: 1-trying to shower and shave legs in a shower that is 1 meter by 1 meter is easier to do when awake. 2-your first experience with teammates always involves some form of game of who has the biggest junk on the first uphill-by the way, i did. 3-shopping for food in a new country is quite fun, I get to learn all new brands. 4-We do not have a peanut butter aisle, we have a nutella aisle. 5-french farmer markets are awesome, i found all my fruits and veges easily and cheap. 6-old women at said market seem to love it and laugh when i horribly butcher their language but still give me food with a smile. 7-while butchering language still, being fully immersed and having this as my only english outlet, my french speaking skills are jumping leaps and bounds.

So there goes my day, starting to kind of get a feel for it here. food is good and the riding even better. every road is tiny, i even rode for 5 miles today on some road with 2 paved tracks for wheels and that was it. hopefully i get one less laugh at my language every day

France baby

Where did I leave off, yes that’s right the TSA bike box repacking. Well, when I started out in Boise, I had a mad scramble to get rid of some stuff because United jack off guy was skipping to his own beat which meant screw everyone else. But, I the got bike box in and TSA ended up letting me put some stuff back in down the line-Ha take that United-you probably got a 51.4 lb bike box. Anyhoo, well the repacking ended up not so right and when I opened the bike box, a driveside cone nut for my wheel was rolling around and my packing around the other side of cones was gone so that when something may have hit that side hard, well stuff comes loose. Bike shop will be open in the morning, but until then lots of praying that a new powertap is not broken since the whole freewheel now easily disengages from the driveshaft and hub. Otherwise known as damn. Why doesn’t shit happen when at home in familiar settings?

on the way

Looking back on my travel day from Boise to Giveryn, a few things stuck out. One, united airlines is willing to nickel and dime you everywhere.If a bike box is 50.5 lbs instead of 50 lbs, add another 150 dollars or have people stare at you funny in the airport as you pick and choose what to leave. Two-sleeping on an airplane blows, you either have a kid crying or some sick woman hacking a lung up. Three-avoid the Chicago O Hare shuttle women if at all possible, I have used it 4 times in my life, and all 4 times, the women always are yelling at someone. And lastly, remember that however much your butt hurts or your tired on travel day, the reward of arriving where you want to go will trump your bad feelings most of the time. That is until you get to your house and unload your bike box and see how TSA decided to “repack” it for you.