Archive for July, 2010

I’ve been making a few changes to the site lately – there’s a new Twitter feed on the right for quick updates, and a new image gallery with a few photos from 2010.  Going to try to get some more pics up in the future!  Let me know what you think of the layout.

The Tour of Ireland has come to an end, but it certainly went out with a show for the crowd and an interesting race for us.  Going into the final stage, we were sitting comfortably in yellow with me holding a 1:50 second advantage over the next placed rider from another team.  So, although it wasn’t over, it would take quite the epic downfall for me to lose the jersey.  Other competitions were much tighter however, with Robin in the points jersey, but with no lead whatsoever, as 2^nd place was tied with 51 points.  He was also in 2^nd, but only by about 20 seconds.  To make things even closer, Anders was only 20 seconds out of 3^rd place, and defending the KOM jersey by a mere 8 points.  Basically what it all boiled down to is us versus two guys, Joe Kelly from the Isle of Man (sitting in 3^rd and tied for points with Robin), and Felix English, the prologue winner and 2^nd in the KOM classification.  Robin needed to beat Kelly to stay in points, Anders needed to keep English within sight over the one climb on the day, which happened to be the finish, and if he could put 20 seconds into Kelly then that was perfect.

So that’s how it looked on paper, but of course things never play out nicely in the real world.  The day started with some fierce attacks from the lads from the Isle of Man, two of whom were in the top 10 overall.  I worked on covering these guys, and anyone else within 3 minutes of the yellow jersey, and what I didn’t have an instant answer for, Yannick would haul back for me.  I must admit, I was not feeling nearly as strong as the previous days, and it seemed the others had recharged their batteries far better over night, but with the help of a very strong team, we kept the threats for yellow in check.  We did let a group go up the road though, containing nobody on my radar, and Austin slipped in just to be represented.  This was great, it would help neutralize the attacks and would let our guys rest, unless the gap got huge.  That was when Anders told me that Felix English was in it though, and that changed things.  He wasn’t a threat on GC, but if he won the day, he would take big points for the finishing climb, and the rest would be taken up by the rest of the break, meaning Anders would lose the jersey.  That meant the whole team went to the front and got the blue (okay, it was actually yellow, blue, green and polka dot) train rolling.  We managed to bring the gap down, but it was not coming down quickly.  We also got a fright when we heard that we had to stop for a train.  My original thought was that the break had gone through, and in Europe the ruling is that a break is allowed to continue if it makes it through, even if the pack doesn’t.  This could have easily cost us the win, but thankfully the break was stopped as well.  After basically a peleton wide nature break when we were forced to stop, they let the break go back to its original gap, and set us out to chase again.  At this point though, time was running out, and we were all losing horse power.  Basically we decided to forget about the climber’s jersey, so Robin and I could save our legs to defend the two other jerseys we had over the final, 2kms of hellish climbing.  Coming into the final 10km, it was like the calm before the storm, with a very quiet, nervous feel rushing through the pack.  Although I had a big lead, I was nervous something would go wrong, and hoping that Robin had the legs to stay with our friend from the Isle of Man.  As the climb started, Joe Kelly’s teammate went to the front and drove it, quickly whittling the pack down to little more than 5 or 6 riders.  Then it was Kelly himself who jumped, and I think I was the only one who could follow him.  He hammered for all he was worth, and was going a bit too deep for me.  I knew if I cracked things wouldn’t end well, so I let him slip away with about a kilometre to go, knowing if I ride just a bit easier, the risk of cracking goes away, and I could afford to give him a bit of time.  In the end, a small group caught up to me, but Kelly only managed to take 12 seconds.  I had won the Tour!  Unfortunately, Robin wasn’t in the group that finished with me, and he lost the points jersey, but did manage to stay in 2^nd overall.

We finished the stage in exhaustion, absolutely spent from our week long effort.  It was not the way we had hoped the day would go, but maybe we got a little greedy trying to win everything, and it cost us in the end.  It’s easy to be disappointed in losing two competitions, but after a while we realized what a great race we had as a team, all week.  We won 4 of 6 stages, team GC, 1^st and 2^nd on individual GC, and were in the running for the points and KOM competition.  After thinking about it that way, everyone was much happier!  Personally, I have learned so much about racing as a race leader this week, and am trying to learn from the many mistakes I made daily.  Thankfully I had the team that I needed to bail me out when I did make these mistakes, and now I can take those lessons into the future.

So next up for me is a bit of rest and preparation in Belgium prior to the World Championships in Italy.  Following that, I’m off to Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games, and then back to the US to finish up the season at the Green Mountain Stage Race.  Crazy how fast things are winding down, but still lots of excitement to come!

Well, one day to go in the Tour of Ireland and things are still going great!  I’ve been learning a lot about racing in yellow, and although there have been a few moments of stress for me, I think I’m getting the hang of it.

The first day defending yellow started with a group going up the road, containing nobody within 2 minutes of me but my teammate Robin.   So, the situation was perfect for us, as even if they gained lots of time, we would still be in yellow.  There were in fact a few problems with this though, as we were also trying to defend the KOM jersey, and if the gap got too much we would still be in the lead, but we would only have one rider at the top of the leader board, instead of Robin and I both in good position.  So, the plan was to keep the break close enough to be manageable, but maybe bring it back to get Anders some points, or at least keep it low enough to have the two of us filling up the top spots.  Anyway, this meant having the team on the front for a lot of the day, and we weren’t getting a lot of help from the others.  In the end the gap came down enough to have me and Robin in 1st and 2nd on GC, with Robin taking the stage win.  It was all good, but the fact that we had to have the team in the wind the whole time concerned me, and I knew I had to take a bit more control myself to save the other guys.

Anyway, the next day I knew I had to present myself in the moves, not so much to drive them unless they were good for us, but just so we wouldn’t have to chase so much.  Things started out really good though – it seemed like the other GC contenders were more concerned with attacking/marking each other than me, so that made it a relatively easy day for us.  As the day went on it was pretty clear that nobody was letting anything get out of sight, and a bunch sprint seemed to be what would decide the finish.  A crash about 3km from the finish caught Austin off guard, and he ended up with a bit of a bloody knee, but nothing serious.  After that, with a strong tail wind, Robin got the big gear rolling and won his first ever field sprint in dominant fashion, for his second stage win in two days.  This also put him in the points jersey, as well as the king of the mountains.  So, things were looking really good for us, with 1,2 and 10 or so on GC, KOM and points jerseys, and team GC by over 4 minutes, but the toughest day was yet to come, on the coasts of Achill island – a hilly, very exposed island which happens to also have some pretty incredible scenery.

Today was one of the more important days – and one of the last opportunities to gain or lose time, aside from tomorrow’s finishing climb up windy gap.  It was another windy, rainy day, but nothing too horrible for Irish standards.  The stage was flat for the first 50km, and then there were 3 good climbs back to back to back, with cross winds wreaking even more havoc on the riders.  With lots of days of racing in everyone’s legs, it made it all the more reason to be aggressive.  After all, the best defense is often a good offense.

About 30kms into the stage, Anders got things rolling for the team, going off on his own, gaining a minute within the first few kilometers.  This brought the other riders up to the front to defend their GC spots, and in the process using up their teammates and even their own legs.  Everyone was looking beat at breakfast this morning, but the head bobbing and choppy pedaling during the stage gave everyone’s fatigue away even more.  It was looking like they were bringing Anders back, but just as he came into sight Yannick jumped across the gap and helped him spin away yet again.

That’s when we hit the hills and cross wind, and I thought this would be a good time to put some more time into the others.  It took a few tries, but after a while I was away on my own, fighting into the wind.  3 others crossed to me, and I stopped working since we were chasing down two Hot Tubers.  They worked hard to bring Anders and Yannick back, but started to lose organization after a bit.  That’s when I hit them again on a small climb, and got a decent gap right away.  It’s funny how sometimes when you’re on your own, you can feel that you’ll be caught soon, but others you just no your gone and can see everyone else suffering in your mind.  Today was just like the second situation, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I saw Anders and Yannick.  I caught them at the base of a good KOM, but Yannick was beat and dropped back.  Now it was me and Anders, with 2 good climbs, then rolling hills for the 20kms to the finish.  We hammered away, managed to hold off a bridge attempt from one of the Irish guys, and held on to put 35 seconds on what remained of the field by the end.  Behind us, things were blowing to pieces and finishing with small groups, just the type of epic finish that you would expect from such a stage.

Once everything was tallied up, Anders took the climbers jersey, Robin kept the points jersey (but in a tie with one other guy), and I gained a bit of time for the overall.  So everything is coming down to tomorrow’s stage for the other jerseys.  It’s a flat day, with a good climb to finish up.  If Robin can beat the guy he’s tied with, then he’ll keep the points jersey, and Anders just has to place in the finish for some KOM points.  It’s certainly not over yet, but we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!