Grey

Well, just got back from my race today, want to know what happened. I did not win, nor did I even make the podium. Bummer right, well yeah, it really is a bummer but I have no one to blame. My bike performed awesome, didn't miss a bottle nor did I wreck, I just plain missed the breakaway, simple as that. Oftentimes life and racing is seen as black and white, did you win or lose. But there is much more to that, the wonderful land of grey. Am I able to step back from today and see mistakes that I made, you bet I can, the biggest one is that I was just too timid in the race and not grabbing it by the horns and expecting some others to do some work. But, I did try and once I realized that the win was unattainable, the day became a workout. Something else to take away from the day that I can be happy with is that I did not give up. There were all the usual big teams racing today, teams of anywhere from 8-13 guys on the squad and then me and my teammate. These larger teams are able to control the races much easier and often get most of the results.Today the largest team around here, VC Rouen ended up winning the race and as today was the finish of the U23 series cup also won the overall of that. While I certainly tried today and came out without a result on paper, I did get a result in my eyes. After the race, 2 of their riders came up to me and congratulated me on my hard work on the day and for trying, something many other racers were not willing to do. So today, learned a few things, got in a hard workout and will try again this Sunday.

College and girls

As I write this, I am sitting comfortably inside sipping some Earl Grey tea and watching another massive rainstorm batter Normandy. I will make it out for some training this afternoon, hopefully it warms up above the current 5 degrees. It really is quite calming to see the grey skies, raindrops pelting the river with all the foliage reflecting right back at you. But, what was the title again, oh yeah, college and girls. Well, May marks the time of the year that college ends for the year and for my high school class of 2006 this is quite an important year. It is pretty darn crazy to talk to friends that have either already graduated college in the past week or are preparing for it in the next week or so. While I am not participating in these festivities, it feels like it was yesterday that I was just a young freshman off to college 4 years ago, how time does fly. Am I bummed, not at all, I am absolutely in love with the life that I have and am living my dream every day.
And girls, well have made a few friends over here, some on the bike, and some off the bike. One of my buddies over here has recently gotten himself a girlfriend and I am astonished at how previous to this, he had quite a bit of free time to kill but now, 5 minutes of free time is a lot of time for him. It is just downright amazing at how that can change, maybe I should look into trying that out sometime?

Well, off to go make another cup of tea, thinking 4 cups of tea should get me out the door today, but certainly open for a few more if need be. Off to race on Thursday and Saturday this week too. I will leave you with a cool shot of one of the climbs around here from last weeks sunny day. Trust me, as pretty as it looks.

Happy mothers day mom and 50th pops

Most important, want to wish my mom a big Happy Mothers day. Sorry that I cannot make you breakfast this morning and want to wish a happy birthday to dad, the big 50. Sorry couldn't be at the party but I am sure it was a great time. Unfortunately, had plans of being able to deliver another win yesterday for ya guys but I ended up coming short. How did the day go you ask?, well it was a pancake flat road race with a decent amount of wind. The thinking on the day was that getting into a move would be a smart idea, however that was not going to work. If you can think back to last weekends racing, there was a rider that I ended up with off the front that did not want to work, well he and his whole team were again racing and wherever I went, he and at least one other teammate went. Bummer. At one point yesterday after ending up in a breakaway a teammate looked at me and asked me what I was doing because any move I was in was going to get brought back. Upon further inspection looking back to the field, this other team was massed at the front pulling us back. Double bummer. So, what do I do, well I just begin to shadow this other rider while letting other teams and teammates have some fun. But, alas, with 20 km to the finish I saw a slowing down and hit out hoping to catch some folks off guard and I did, for a bit. But, once again I looked back and 3 folks are bridging, a teammate, the rider already mentioned and his teammate. My teammate got a free ride up to me and with 15 km to the finish 4 guys up the road should be awesome right, no! Deja Vu, this same rider/team will not work, they just decide to sit on and even with constant attacking I cannot shake this rider. With poor cooperation we were swallowed up by field with 5 km to the finish and I tried my best to recover for the eventual sprint finish. Sprint finishes can be crazy and had an awesome place but got boxed in with 300 meters to go and was only able to salvage a 4th place finish, bummer; however, my team took the top team honors on the day and the other rider that won't work, well for all of his antics he did not get the win so there is something there to be happy about.

Should I be happy with another top 5 over here, you bet. Am I? No. I am a competitor and want to be the best that I can. Am I content with how I raced yesterday? You bet, I tried to race and get a result but forces larger than me, like large teams had other items on their agendas. What can I do to fix it, keep on training hard and keep on racing hard because you can't win always sitting back waiting for things to come to you, sometimes you have to go out and grab them.

bike fit

Have had a nice couple of days fairly easy leading into another race tomorrow. As I have written about in previous posts lots of things seem to be backwards over here in France logic wise, Nutrition and training for the most part. I now have a new item to add to the list. Apparently, my bike fit or "position" is wrong and unfrench. What is wrong you ask, my saddle is too high, and my seat angle is all wrong and I am not stretched out enough on my bike. While these things seem like they would be pretty individual, apparently to my director there is an ideal template that racers need to be able to fit in. I do not fit that template and I am constantly reminded of it. While that is a bummer to always be nagged about something, nagging is just words, not actions. Well, compound that to heading out in the garage and finding the director with your bike and a level and hex keys and that becomes action. He says I Need to move my setup to be better and no amount of me saying, "I like this setup, has worked for me for years and I have no pain with it," will change his opinion. I am essentially speaking to a brick wall. Hopefully, this is just an empty threat and nothing more. Even worse yet, the team that my team feeds into is even worse, if you look at the teams' bikes, all the riders have the same setup-no spacers underneath headset, bars down as low as can be and saddles all level and as far back as can be. To the French, a very stubborn bunch I might add, what the pros do is the ideal. Even worse, reading the french version of Velonews is adding to all of this nonsense with nutrition and training advice that makes no sense from so called "experts in the field."

So lesson to learn is that I cannot leave my bike out of my control and keep all measurements taped so that if something does get moved it might be a bit easier to notice. Just one more thing to have to deal with. Hoping for a good ride tomorrow to continue to show folks that I know what I am doing.

Wednesday Market

Getting into a pretty awesome routine nowadays. Every Wednesday morning in the town center of Vernon, 6 km away from my house, is a big old open air market. They have everything from fresh fruit and veggies, folks from turkish background selling rugs, stalls that are 50 feet long of just cheeses and even various butchers. I am telling ya folks, this is pretty darn cool. The first image is of a pretty darn big operation. This stall has got everything from Oranges from Spain to vegetables that I have never heard of and I lost track of how many types of mushrooms. The second image is of a charcuterie, which specializes in the meats of ham and pork. For beef, and other meats there is a boucherie, or butcher shop to purchase other meats. The last image is of the market in the background. Wednesday mornings' market is smaller than Saturday mornings' market but still takes up a big area.

Personally, the most rewarding thing for me about shopping at the market has been the relationships that I have built in all of 10 weeks. I go to the same stall week after week to buy my bananas and another stall next door for carrots. I buy my apples from a local farmer and he knows what variety I really enjoy and how much I normally need for the week. He will ask me when I plan on eating them and adjust accordingly as some might be more crisp in a few days and he actually sorts them out to make sure that I get what I want. To be honest, these apples are hands down some of the best I have ever eaten too. And its pretty darn neat to not buy meat wrapped in plastic in a freezer, but to specify what I want and watch my cut of meat actually get cut off the animal. The best part is that, while I still frequent a supermarket for cereal, oatmeal and things of that nature, it is actually cheaper to buy produce direct from the source. A better product for a cheaper price, cannot beat that. And even more, I really enjoy going to the market because I get the opportunity to see the love and hard work that people put into their products.

Sunday/Monday recap

Sunday
After Saturday had a pretty sour taste in my mouth after what was yet another close call to getting a win. I knew that this day was going to have to be a hard race and that I would need to make the race happen rather than sit back and wait for others to take action. I spent much of the day trying to be aggressive and go off the front. I finally got up the road with 5 other riders with 50 km to finish. Myself, 2 others from same team and 2 other riders. Knowing these odds are not great trying to race against a teammates I was able to spit 2 of the riders out on a hill with 40 km to finish. Here I am thinking that this is alright, even though I have this little shit french racer with me who never decides to work, only attack. This is the 4th time I have ended up in this situation with this guy and he is an absolute ass hole racer, a typical french racer. With 30 km to the finish, once again this guy attacks me and he and I end up off the front of the race and instead of working together to build a gap over the field, he decides that he is going to attack me as much as he can and alas, people are able to bridge up to us. But, with 7 km to the finish, I attack and this guy and one other try to come with, but are at around 20 seconds behind me all the way to the finish. Yes, thats right, I WON SOLO! This was quite possibly one of the best tasting victories, not just because I won off the front but I was able to control the situation. After the race, that little shit french racer, well he had 2nd place locked up with me off the front, right, well he ended up 3rd and all I could do was laugh at him for that. I mentioned to him that had he worked with me instead of attacking me for the final hour he could have had a chance at the win. Funny part all he can come back with is that Americans are dopers and that is why we win. Once again an ass hole and will take every chance I have to stick it to them. Unfortunately, do not have a photo from finish just yet, trying to track those down, not sure which photographer was at the line.



Monday
I should have known that today was going to be difficult. The start of the race was about a mile away from the Atlantic coast and as we drove closer to the start, I began to see more and more wind turbine farms. We ended up having a smaller field yesterday at only 150 but with a day that had all the big french teams there, plus a few of the Belgian outfits, the day was going to be a hard one. The race starts at the bottom of a hill, awesome, legs love that and after the hill is 100 km/hr winds and tiny farm roads wide enough for 5 riders. Echelons were the name of the game and a breakaway went up the road fairly quickly. Not making the break, I decided that I would try to chill out in the field on this day and was working out until the caravan cars needed to go up to the break. As the cars were racing alongside the field a driver misjudged and ended up driving into the peloton and causing a crash, one of the gnarlier ones I have seen. The rule is that when you hear a wreck, hit it even harder and well that gap caused by wreck meant I never saw front of race again, bummer. For awhile I thought that I might be able to, but alas, the concept of just pacing our efforts in group and slowly pulling the front group back was out the door and all the little frenchies decide to attack as hard as they can, blow up, come back and try again. So, rolled in for something like 30th place, nothing to be excited about but had a good 4:30 hour workout.

Now just a bit of recovery for a few days before I do it all over again. Sorry for the length on that, been away for a bit. Leave early in the morning for races, and get home late.

breaking the snap

Well, finally broke that 2nd place streak that I have had going for the past 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I broke it going the wrong direction and finished in 3rd place today, bummer. But, on the bright side I have another race tomorrow to try and redeem myself and I get to race again on Monday for a 3rd chance on the weekend. I am feeling fairly good about how the racing seems to be going. Today, I once again was able to sneak into the early break which was great. But, I gotta say it is a bummer to once again be outnumbered in a move, we had 9 in the breakaway and guess what, somehow the really big teams always find a way to put 2 or 3 team riders into a move. When I first arrived I could not even imagine making it into the breakaways that seemed to go away at breakneck speed and now I am consistently making it into the move. I am even recognizing the situation in the race of being outnumbered and am trying to figure out how to race against bigger teams and being a small fish in a big pond. The best that I can do is keep on attacking and hope to catch someone on their heels. Heres to another good 2 days.