A Sport of Luck....

This past week I have been in the Czech Republic participating in a five day, six stage race known as the Peace Race. This race is considered to be the hardest five day stage race for juniors. Many deem it to be the Tour de France of junior races. The next couple paragraphs are a testament to the truth of that statement.

The Journey to the Czech Republic….

I was unaware that the drive from Izegem to Litomerice would take eleven hours, but it did. We traveled by van, following a Flemish speaking GPS, constantly fighting for the window and front seats. USA Cycling tricked out the van to hold plenty of bikes, wheels, a refrigerator, and washer, but they definitely skimped on the seat cushions. We drove from Belgium through the Netherlands, down through Germany and finally to the Czech Republic. The Netherlands looked just like Belgium, but Germany and the Czech Republic are big enough countries that you are not constantly going through little towns. Both of these countries still have their thick woods and rolling green hills, reminding me a lot of Northern California. Winding through the small streets of the Czech with a big Belgian masseuse (Alex) behind the wheel quickly became an exciting experience with numerous “close calls.” The border crossing into the Czech was also an interesting experience. Once the border police saw our American passports we were immediately pulled over and they began going over our van. We were told to stay in the van, until Alex came to the window and asked me to get out. I walked to the back of the van and I faced four Czech policemen each holding a different bottle of my vitamins. I did my best to explain what each one was, but they still took the pills into their office and “examined” them. I am pretty sure they just wanted to bust us for having illegal drugs so that they could make the evening news (Anyone remember Festina?) An hour later and with a few slight detours and a couple of “missing roads” we finally arrived at our destination of Litomerice.

The Food of the Czech Republic (if that is what you want to call it)…

Don’t view this as me complaining, because I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that has been put in front of me. This is just the view of an American kid who grew up in a house where his parents took very good care of him and rarely, if ever, went without. Call it being spoiled or whatever you like but going from an environment where food is plentiful and actually good to eat, to an environment that is the complete opposite is a rough move…

So, as you can guess, the food was absolutely horrible. The Czech Republic had beautiful women, but the food was pretty much as bad as it gets. But as Arnie Baker says “Smile and act happy.” So that’s what I did. The first night we were at our hotel we got there too late and everything was closed- according to the receptionist. So we ate beef jerky that I had brought from home and some power bars for dinner. This only foreshadowed the rest of the trip. The rest of the trip we ate in a cafeteria of the local elementary school with the rest of the teams of the race. This was the most stereotypical cafeteria I have ever seen. Huge, weird lunch ladies spooned out our food from huge pots and pans. Who needs hair nets or gloves, the Czechs have decided to limit their waste and just use their hands. Drinks came from huge vats that oddly became more and more watered down with each day. Morning consisted of bread, lunch meat, and cereal. Lunch consisted of bread, some type of meat, and powdered potatoes (not mashed potatoes, but the powdered kind that you mix with water or milk, the Czechs chose water). Dinner consisted of bread, leftover meat from lunch, and left over mashed potatoes. Another odd thing was that the bread (definitely the staple food of the meal) became harder and staler with each day (any guesses as to why?). The first meal in the cafeteria was not bad (after eating power bars and beef jerky the night before) and they consistently got worse with each day. Portions were minimal, and even if there was more I am not sure if anyone would have gotten up to get seconds. This was the hardest part of being in the Czech: racing as hard as you possible can and not being able to fill your stomach at each meal- you can’t replenish the energy you have lost- your performance goes out the window- now it becomes even harder to get motivated to race and do your best. By the time Saturday came around, I could take it anymore, digging hairs and flys out of the food was beginning to get to me. Throughout the week I noticed that the Belgians did not eat with everyone else. So I asked one of them where they were eating- they had been eating pasta and pizza at a local restaurant every night, and they were the ones that were killing everyone else in the race. So our last dinner meal in the Czech we ordered ten boxes of pizzas and had a feast- I believe that this was the only thing that got me through the last day of racing.

Racing in the Czech….

The races started on Wednesday and went through Sunday.

Stage One: Mlada Boleslav- a 90k race that consisted of one big loop and finishing with eight 9k loops throughout Mlada Boleslav. There are two cobbled sections within the smaller loops- one section right before the finish and the next section after a twisty decent. The weather is overcast with rain coming off and on, keeping the cobbles ultra slick and the corners dangerous.

The race started with few problems, and it actually didn’t start too fast. The big loop seemed to be used as a warm up. Once we hit the city circuits however, the attacks came and the field (135 riders started, 23 teams) quickly strung out. There was a nice pile up the first time we hit the cobbles and another on a chicane through a roundabout. I had to bridge to the group after the second crash. The next couple laps went pretty smoothly. On the end of the third lap, the rain was coming down pretty hard and we entered the cobbled section way too fast. Turning on wet cobbles is not an option. You basically lean the bike and hope that you don’t drift too far. Using your brakes is also a bad idea, as I would soon find out. A crash happened on the following corner, and a chain reaction occurred. I gabbed too much front brake and instantly hit the deck. I got up quickly, but my rear wheel wouldn’t turn, so I fumbled with the rear brake until I could get it to turn and then hopped on, but didn’t go anywhere because my chain was off. So I got off and put the chain on and then was finally off. I attempted to draft the team cars, but soon realized that team cars were not there to help the competition. Either the cars would fly past me so that I could not draft them, or they would slow way down so that I would have to go around them. By the time I completed a lap the entire caravan had gone by me and I was left to do a TT to the finish. The only thing I could think of was go as fast as I could to minimize the damage and come in within the cut off time. The one cool thing was that the crowds still cheered for the riders off the back and that was motivation enough to push the next gear. I finished the remaining laps and conceded eight minutes to the leaders, which wasn’t bad considering I rode solo for over 40k.

We started the race with six riders, one rider had to pull off on this stage because of a mechanical. Three of us crashed and finished off the back, and the remaining two finished with the peloton.

Stage Two: Litomerice- a 96k road race in the shape of a lollipop. There was a starting and finshing straight and three loops in the hills above Litomerice. The weather was overcast, but it was warm with no threat of rain. One main climb on the loop was 300m long with rollers back to the climb again.

The race started off nice and fast with the Belgians going to the front and causing havoic. Small crashes plagued the group until we reached the climb. I felt pretty good and made my way through the peloton to the lead group. We peaked and made the decent to the rollers, we caught a small breakaway that had gotten away on the climb and the pack instantly slowed down. This enabled most of the American squad to catch back up, which was good because having no team mates in the peloton is no fun. We came back around to the climb again, and this time I was confident enough to try and go for some KOM points. I began to make my way through the group, but I was held up on the outside when the pack suddenly moved to my side of the road. I was balancing on the edge of the pavement and the dirt when I began to hit bars with a big Belgian kid. Obviously there was not enough room for the two of us. We looked at each other and when I looked back the pavement had eroded away around a hole, my front wheel entered the hole and instantly stopped. I pivoted up on my front wheel and then flipped over the bars and landed on my head with the bike landing on top of me. I got up really quick, wanting to catch the Belgian who had been next to me. My bike seemed to be in working order even though the bars were pretty messed up along with my seat, so I sprinted back up to the group just as they crested the climb, I shifted to the bigger gears, and began noticing a problem with the shifting. With each shift the chain would seize in the drive chain and the cranks would not move…. a bent chain. It got to the point where the chain would not move at all, so I signaled to the commissar and told him I needed a new bike. The team manager quickly drove up to me and I pulled over to the side of the road. The switch took a lot longer than it should have because we had to switch pedals. After a never ending minute I was off and once again began a very long TT. Again my main motivation was to finish within the time limit, and minimize the damage. I caught an Estonian rider in the final k’s and we finished just as big group of dropped riders caught us. This day proved to be the most devastating day upon looking back, not because it was the hardest or fastest (because it wasn’t) but because the spare bike I was given had a seat height that was too tall for me. I believe my legs were trashed from this extremely different riding position- something that my body would not be able to recover from. Another thing I discovered from looking back on this day and the first day was that going as hard as I could to the line probably was not the best idea. I should have accepted a horrible GC position and focused on conserving energy for a stage victory or at least a top ten finish in a stage. But when you are chasing you don’t think about the future, only about the present and cutting your losses.

We started the stage with five riders, two of us crashed and were chasing, two other were dropped on the climbs and were chasing, and the final guy stayed lucky and finished in the pack. Overall the US squad was not looking good, it had only one rider left in the main group on the GC and four others filling the lower spots of the GC.

Stage Three A: Trebenice- a 12k TT that looped around the outskirts of Trebenice. There was one solid climb and then rolling hills on the rest of the course. The weather was partly cloudy and the course was smooth with good corners.

Since I was pretty low on the GC I had one of the first start times. We got there a little later than I would like, but I managed to pre-ride the course and get a good solid warm up. I felt pretty good on the beginning of the TT and rode strongly through the first ¾ of the course. And then I hit the false flat that took you back to the finish, and my legs began to crack, and I could feel my shoulders rocking and rolling with my body. I lost a lot of time through this section, but managed to finish around 30th over all. Not too bad considering that was technique my third TT of the race.

The kid that managed to stay out of trouble and with the pack on the first two days (Carter) pulled off a great performance and finished 8th. As a team we were sitting in the 21st position from the road races, but we finished a strong 7th in the TT competition, proving that we have the power and the strength to compete with the Euros, we just need to fine tune our skill of pack riding and get lady luck on our side.

Stage Three B: Roudnice n. Labem- a 97k road race that consisted of five loops through farm land and cities. A small climb and a fast decent separated the flatter sections of the course. The weather was extremely windy (we went through several dust storms trying to find the start of the race) and cloudy, and the course had a cobbled climb to the finish.

A crash 5ks after the start enveloped the main part of the field, I was able to slow down enough that my “crash” was more of a fall onto some other guy that had already crashed. None the less, I was back to chasing the part of the field that had evaded the crash. I teamed up with a Belgian rider and we quickly made our way through the caravan (which was actually kind of nice because the cars provided a lot more protection from the wind than the strung out field did). I attached myself to the back of the field, and managed to have no problem until the third lap. We were on a flatter section of the course with a nasty cross wind causing the field to string out and forcing the riders to balance their bikes in the gutter while barely holding the wheel in front of them. The Belgian national team was charging at the head of the field during this section- I cannot describe to you in words the way your body feels while you are riding at the very edge of the road, mustering all you strength to stay in contact with the wheel in front of you. Few positive thoughts enter you mind during this time, you can only grit your teeth, put your head down and wonder “who is doing this and why?” It was only a matter of time before someone lost contact with the wheel in front of them, and I was on the wrong end of the split. I formed a chase group with a couple of other riders, which grew to a substantial size, but only a couple of us were actually pulling through. So half way through the fourth lap, two guys and I attacked and began a picture perfect three man rotation. We made contact with the caravan, and leaped frog through the cars until we were with the main group again. I held on through the fifth lap and finished with this group. The efforts from that day and the previous days were definitely beginning to settle in, and the hardest days were yet to come.

Two of us finished in the main group, and the other three were in chase groups off the back.

Stage Four: Decin- Pirna- a 115k road race that began with a 20k climb and then a 5k climb after that, rolling hills, and small uncategorized climbs take you into Germany where we finished in Pirna. The 20k climb begins gradually and gets steeper and steeper until you are in your smallest gears. It was pouring rain at the start along with being very windy. Wet descents on small windy roads presented dangerous obstacles.

I have never seen a race start out so fast. From the gun the entire field was strung out and guys were popping off the back in ones and twos. I was unable to warm up so my legs were screaming, and I could not see myself continuing at this point. The road narrowed to one lane at a construction site, and of course there was a crash. And yes, once again I was on the wrong side of it. The impossibility of catching the main group when they were going so fast proved to be a daunting task. I teamed up with a rider from Croatia and we struggled to keep the leaders in sight. I quickly passed dropped riders upon reaching the steeper sections of the climb. I bombed the descent and raced up the second climb. I joined a Belgian rider that I remembered from my first race in Belgium, and we pulled ourselves back through the caravan to the main group. More than half the race was over by the time we reached the leaders. I ate and drank as much as I could and prepared myself for more flat windy sections that the Belgians would eat up. We began climbing a hill on a freeway in Germany when we encountered traffic cones that started to cut off the outside lane. These tall, flat, “cemented down” posts cut into the group and caused another big crash and split the group in two. You guessed it, I didn’t go down, but I had to stop and get some guy off my top tube. I stayed in the second group- and I am not going to lie it was nice going easy and taking a break for a while. The pace increased at the end and I finished with this group.

One more guy from our team had to drop out due to injuries he received from the previous day of racing. Carter finished with the lead group, I in the second, and the other two guys were off the back.

Stage Five: Terezin- a 101k road race that consisted of loops on the outskirts of Litomerci and had a finishing straight into Terezin. Each lap had two 5k+ climbs and tricky descents. The weather was finally nice with a little bit of wind and only a few clouds.

Terezin was a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. I had to warm up through the camp and the finish went straight through it. For me it put a somber feeling to the whole race. Mixed feelings and emotions were not easy to put out of my head….

Pretty much the worst possible thing you can do is make the Belgian riders mad, and that is exactly what the commissar did when he took away the leaders jersey from a Belgian rider and gave him and a few of his team mates 10 minute penalties. Apparently the Belgian (who was on the Belgian national road team) had a mechanical problem on the previous day, and the Belgian national track team dropped back to pace him back to the field. This is illegal because it makes it seem like the Belgians had a twelve man team unlike everyone else who only started with six. So the Belgian leader was stripped of his jersey, which of course made the Belgians very made. This made the last stage of this tough race the hardest race I have ever done. I was only able to hold on to the lead pack for two laps, I was dropped on the climbs, which I have to say I did not believe could happen so hard or so fast. Once I let a gap open I could not recover. The pace that the Belgians were driving was incredible, guys were just dropping out on the side of the road. Once I was dropped I went to survival mode and focused solely on getting up the remaining climbs and reaching the finishing line. I teamed up with two riders from the team Cube and we held a strong pace to the finish. They were the highest placed riders on the road from their team so their team car followed us for the remaining two laps. They attacked me like crazy by the beckoning of their manager on the climbs. But I had to save some of my pride and make sure I didn’t get dropped. I stayed with them and we finished together. Completely exhausted, I rode to the van, put some clothes on, drank a Pepsi and got in the car for the long drive home….

Carter finished in a chase group ahead of me, we were the only two riders from our team to finish the stage.

Reflection…

Well I imagined my first European stage race to go a lot different. I had imagined glory, but I only got a rude awakening, along with bruised knees, hips, shoulders, broken shoes, cracks on my helmet, and torn clothing. I have learned a lot though, and that was really the main purpose of this race- to learn and begin to understand European racing. It is tough and fast, there is little mercy shown by anyone, and you have to race flawless to be there at the end. In America you can make twenty mistakes and still win the race, over here you have to be perfect or you will be off the back.

A Better Appreciation for America (and California)…

The racing in Europe is pure, fast and aggressive, everything you could hope for. But it is different over here, especially in the Czech. The food, the boarding, the people and the weather (I swear there is a permanent cloud that hangs over that country) are all different. The countries are beautiful, but I am now beginning to realize how great California is. I would actually say that California has more natural beauty than the countries that I have seen so far. We take for granted the grandness of our home. The freedoms we have in America are not shared throughout the world and I am finally beginning to realize this. The Czech Republic was a shock to see how people live, and how they eat. I now have a slight understanding as to why people throughout the world are “hostile” or even jealous towards America. It comes down to the narrowness of an American citizen’s vision, few Americans can understand how different their life would be if they did not have the freedoms they hold. I am enjoying my trips throughout Europe to their fullest, and I am very grateful for all that has been given to me, but for those of you that are reading this back home remember that you are very lucky to live where you do.