I am coming clean…

Upon reading akingslife.com and the recent confessions and sad revelations in cycling such as Zabel and Riis. I to need to step forward and admit something. Austin King admitted to eating a bag of jelly beans, but I have done something far worse 😦 Here it goes:
I ate a jar of nutella today, 4 belgian waffles, 3 choclate chip cookies, and drink a coke. It was sooo good.

I am truly sorry. I apologize.

Okay with that out of the way, I can now continue my blog, I did a ride with Summerhill, Van Horn, and Ben Sharp (our DS). 4hrs we battled the Belgian roads…we road to the Flemish hills and jumped onto the Tour of Flanders course. We went up the Paterberg and the famous Koppenberg. I made it up both! The Koppenberg was wet but you could take the left line which was the driest. I noticed that a cobble was missing from the middle of the road. May be a certain rider needs to come forward and admit that he took the cobble? *cough* Nate *cough*. So I got some photos up on another page. Please take a look! Thanks for reading and forgiving me!

David

Photos

Zombies Strike Izegem! But nothing phases the Belgians…

It was a routine day at the local Del Haize (Food Lion in Dutch). Kids were playing in the candy aisles, locals stocking up on the beer (Duval seemed to be the popular choice), the old ladys buying cigarrettes, until it walked through the door. It limped around the store. Everybody stopped and starred. One kid dropped the chocolate banana ice cream all over the floor. People started hurrying toward the opposite section of the store (the vegetable and fruit aisle). Kevin let out a big moan and started groaning. I chimmed in. “That’s 5” to Chris (the mechanic). He laughed and said, “6 and 7 are starring from the waffle aisle.”

We came out of the Del Haize with 39 people giving the full-blown stare-down of Kevin Soller. Whenever he saw that somebody was starring he would moan and groan and limp around (which he didnt have to act b/c of his broken collarbone, ribs, stiched up knees). But we never managed to get a laugh, frown, or a word out of the Belgians. But I am determined to make an impression on them one way or the other. I guess I will do it on the bike.

David

Belgians are not immortal

You know those little roads used at golf courses from getting from one green to another? Yeah well I raced on that for 105km. Crazy descents left, right up t0 polished concrete with those 1 inch gaps down the middle and across about every 10 ft. Then some city cobbles in the last 1km then a nice 200m leg breaker up to the finish. I found myself in the top 30 where I saw a nasty crash where this rider took an inside line a little too inside and he went right into a mud puddle, so his bike sunk and he went over the bars into the mud. Nice! I was riding well with 40km to go and I found myself in a break just formed off the front when. I felt something odd about my saddle. Apparently, my large body broke the bar that clamps the saddle to the seat post. That tells you how bumpy the race was. So I went from the front, through the peloton, swapped bikes, did some caravan tricks and found myself back in the field. However, thanks to the golf cart roads it was impossible trying to move up so I was locked into position and just finished at the back of the field.

Stage 3 (today)- 4 laps of 10km and a 1.5km climb of 5%, up to some cool belgian town, descent, sharp crazy turn with traffic furniture, then over some rollers than back to the base of the climb, after the  4 laps, we did 5 15km laps of a 2km climb, we went over some rollers, one lane twisting descent, nice wide turn at the bottom, one lane road of false flat, then the 2km climb, sketch turn then downhill, then a nice 120 degree turn then sprint to the finish. The shorter laps went smoothly (unusual for Belgium) on the second lap of the 15km loop. I found myself in the break with the Belgian champ, 4th on GC, KOM leader, with 7 others which included Grant Van Horn my teammate. He sat on b/c he was higher on the GC than I. But we were caught at the base of the climb. I put it at the 350-400 watt range and drilled the climb all the way up by myself. I could hear moaning and groaning. Finally those guys arent immortal. I managed to get a couple of guys with me over the top but they did not want to work so we were reabsorbed. I figured it was going to be a bunchsprint. So I helped Summerhill the best I can. But the last km was hectic. I finished in the group. So it was a good day. I was very active. I got the Belgian champ to say “slow down, Americano”. So success. I am finally starting to get my euro legs back.

David

1st Race

Let me give you a timeline how it went:

Km 0: Sprint to startline for positioning.

Km -0.3: After being told the staging for the start was 300 meters behind us we turn around and sprint.

Km 1: Finish the first of 7 trips up the Berendries. Luckily it was neutral at 350 watts.

Km 8: Descend 500m cobble section = David forgot his manliness

Km8.5: David is happy he survived

Km 10: David finds himself in a break. David is hurting.

Km 15: The break is caught.

Km 17: Berendries is fun

Km 24: Cobble section is not fun

Km 34: Berendries is not fun anymore

Km 41: David hates cobbles

Km 43: David finds himself bridging to a break.

Km 46: David doenst make it to the winning break. 10 seconds off.

Km 51: David regrets trying to bridge to the break.

Km 52: David feels rain and is scared about cobbles

Km  58: David sucks it up and passes some people in the cobble secton

Km 59: Euros suck at cornering and David drops them in the corners!

Km 60: But the Euros are faster on straighter roads and David is caught again.

Km 60-115: David doesnt remember much here but David recalls hurting a lot. David is dropped the last lap and rides in safely under the time cut.

Well that’s it for now. Ben ended up crashing out. Van Horn and Summerhill finished in the pack. Jens was dropped as well as I. My legs didnt feel to hot not to mention the 3hrs of sleep the night before didnt help either. Stupid jetlag.

David

Meet Kevin and gettin’ ready to race

Kevin Soller crashed out in a Belgian stage race 30km in. He suffered a concussion, broken ribes, collarbone, stiches in both knees, and 50 stiches in his face. After 6 days in a hospital, he is doing much better and is in good spirits. He will get his stiches removed next Friday and will head home shortly after. Let’s keep him in our thoughts and prayers and hope he returns soon.

But I am doing great. I had a nice massage from a rugged european fellow named Hermon. Tomorrow the real reports start!

Belgian road

Euro Vacation….and sunny in Belgium (!?)

I have arrived in one piece from Atlanta at the team house in Izegem. Currently there are 7 of us here but it will be become crowded in a couple days with the espoirs coming back from France. I managed to go on a 1.5hr ride with Summerhill. Everything seems to be going very well. The legs felt good despite the jet lag. I may have evidence that Global Warming exists as it is sunny and 80 degrees in Belgium. Hopefully, this weather will hold out for the weekend.

That’s all for now…

David