Category Archives: Cycling

On paper, Stage 4 wasn’t supposed to be all that hard. A mere 152km, with only one ‘mountain’ sprint, and 5 laps of a flat circuit at the end featuring a short cobbled section.

We had time to gain back today for Greg, and fortunately, the first sprints came at 19.5km and 25km into the race which meant that if we could keep it together, we could set Greg up to take some bonus seconds and get the yellow jersey back.

When the flag dropped after the neutral, Martin Kohler and I were immediately at the front riding a very fast steady tempo. One or two guys tried to attack to get into a breakaway but we quickly reeled them in. After about the third attack I think the peloton got the memo, that no one was going to get away just yet, and that was the last of the attacks that we saw. The rest of the team worked their way up to the front, with Ballan, Frank and Murphy all getting their time at the front. Kristoff was on my wheel, with Greg behind him. The pack was very nervous behind us, I could feel it. Teams would creep up beside the back of our BMC train, trying to slot themselves into the best seat in the house, which was right behind Greg. As we neared the 1st sprint, Skil Shimano started to show themselves a bit more, and were almost riding neck and neck with us. No matter. At 1km to the sprint, Kohler ramped up the pace again and the road dipped slightly downhill. Perfect, I thought. On a flat road, no one can pass me, on a downhill, don’t even try. With Kristoff set to launch Greg after my pull, it was soon my turn at the front. My body bent over the bike, legs firing up and down like pistons I went like a mad man. I love going fast, and I love going fast at the front of a bike race, so these kind of things I look forward to. Kristoff came off my wheel at 300m to go, with Greg behind him and then some Skil-Shimano riders attempting to pass on the right. From my view, I couldn’t quite see the sprint but I knew Greg was up there, and the yellow jersey was not. We got 1 second back.

Vacansoleil (the team with the yellow jersey) worked their way to the front to try and capture the next sprint. I was feeling my effort but had been expecting to have to fight back to the front and get ready for sprint number 2. This time Vacansoleil was leading it out and I lined up right next to them, half in the wind, half in the draft with my boys sitting in behind me. As we wound up I maintained position, just keeping my guys out of trouble. With 700m to go there was a sharp left turn and the pack began to swarm leading up to it. I gave my final push to keep the guys in position and locked both Greg and Kristoff into the wheel of Vacansoleil’s train and pulled off. Greg made the jump off of Kristoff’s wheel and got another second over the yellow jersey. Boom. We were in yellow.

The race was on now. With no team controlling anymore, guys were eager to get in breakaways. Our team was quite worked after holding everything together for the two sprints and I sat at the back just trying to catch my breath as we trucked along the belgian countryside. The third sprint was at 56km or so and I was just praying a break would go before that so we wouldn’t have to sprint again. Vacansoleil had other things in mind however and managed to keep everything together. Again, we forced our way to the front, but the team was just a little bit too gassed. Greg was in a good position, he just couldn’t come by the yellow jersey. Down one second.

Now Greg was tied, again, for the jersey. It took 10-20 more km for the breakaway to form and it finally did much to my happiness as I couldn’t wait to take a ‘nature break’ and refuel. The rest of the stage went by pretty quickly, Vacansoleil kept the break in check since they held the jersey (technically Greg was the virtual yellow jersey, but we didn’t need to remind them of that). As a unit, we lined up behind the Vacansoleil train. The last half of the race was to be contested on 4 laps of a 17km circuit which featured a nice 1.5km cobbled section. As per usual, before the cobble section on each lap the pack was quite nervous with everyone wanting to be at the front. We all stayed out of trouble however, and soon enough the finish was coming up. The last 5km was very technical and my job was to take care of Kristoff and give him a lead out in the sprint. I hung back a bit until around 2km to go when I made a big effort to get up to Kristoff and take him up to about 8th wheel. The last 500m were slightly uphill making for a hard sprint. As Leopard Trek ran out of guys early on the front I saw my chance and gunned it with 300m to go. I could only hope Kristoff was on my wheel (it is hard to hear or see anything at 65km/h), and was relieved when he came whipping by me. A couple wheels ahead Robbie McEwen was giving a good kick but Kristoff was approaching fast. The finish line came quicker however and we had to settle for second, with McEwen taking top honors. Greg was 8th and back in yellow.

Another day on the front awaited us.

As I am writing this post, I am listening to this song…so maybe hit Play while you read:

The third day here in Wallonie was the longest stage of the Tour, covering a total of 224 kilometers. With only one or two ‘mountains’ (we are after all, in Belgium), and a handful of sprints, on paper it was pretty much flat. For 224km. With Greg Van Avermaet in the leader’s jersey, it was up to us to defend and ride the front. The plan was simple, let a small breakaway go, hold them at 5 minutes and try to reel them back in by the last bonus sprint at 208km where we would try to launch Greg and get him some bonus seconds. In each stage, there are sprints which count for both time (3, 2, 1 seconds respectively) and points (5, 3, 1). We could care less about the points, but since Greg going into this stage 3 was TIED on time with second place, the plan was to try and take some extra seconds by leading him out to that final bonus sprint.

That may or may not have confused you. You might ask, why not just go for all the sprints if there are a handful of them along the way? Why just go for the last one? Or you might ask, why go for the sprints at all if you are leading anyways?

Well, if we chose to go for ALL of them, we, as a team, would have to control the race the entire day which would mean riding much harder to make sure no breakaway would get away. The sprint at the end was close enough to the finish (16km to go) that it made sense to let a break take all the time bonuses, then reel them in on the last one and play our cards there. We were also confident in Greg’s ability to out-sprint second place and gain some more time.

Back to the race report. The break got away easily, and was made up of only 3 guys which made for a perfect scenario for us. The less guys in the break, the easier it is to control. It was decided that Ballan, Frank, Kohler and Murphy would ride the front with Kristoff and obviously Greg, saving the legs for the final. My job was to get bottles and be there for Kristoff in the finale, or help on the front if the boys were unable to bring the break back in time.

Time passed slowly, the kms just counting down all day. The boys did a great job controlling the front and I made my journeys back to the car for bottles whenever they needed more to drink. It is odd how my legs seem to feel more pain when we are all just cruising along at a medium, boring pace. Many people don’t realize on TV how long it actually takes us to get to the finish line some days. The dull pain of just steadily riding along is, for me, much more exhausting than if we were constantly attacking each other all day. So there I sat, behind the guys doing the work, in front of the guys I needed to protect, just waiting. Mind wandering. ’100km done. Ok, 120km to go…that’s what like 3 hours? Hmm. Think of it more like 2 and a half since you’ll be doing something of interest the last 30 minutes. 120km done. If this were the first day we would only have 30km left. Don’t think about that, you still have 100km. 100km. Blehh. I wouldn’t mind having my phone right now, I could be the first person to tweet from the front of a bike race. Dude, that is ridiculous, focus on the road.’ And on and on like this. Then a song would pop into my head and I would sing the chorus to myself over, and over. And over. For the next hours.

Then, just like that we had 30km left. I went back for my final load of bottles, and got ready to do some real work. After a Coke, and the past 190km of nothingness, my legs were itching to get to the front and do some big ole watts. As we got closer to the front, it appeared more and more that we might not get the break back in time for the sprint so with 10km left until the sprint I went up and gave the boys a hand. Finally, I thought to myself, something to do! SPEED! With 1:30 to make up on the break in 10km we had to ride pretty hard and fast. Jason McCartney from Radioshack joined Ballan, Kohler and I as we rode upwards of 65km/h, making great headway into the slowing pace of the 3 out front who had been off the front all day. As we neared the intermediate sprint, the clock was ticking down. Would we catch them? It was going to come down to the wire that is for sure. With 1km to the sprint we could see what was left of the breakaway. One man had already been dropped and the other two were just in sight. With Kristoff and Greg on my wheel I told Kohler to gun it, and gun it he did. We were blitzing along now, the blow-up banner above the sprint just coming into view. Kohler pulled off at 500m to go, and it was my turn to lay the smack down. I ramped up the speed until 300m to go when Kristoff came flying by with Greg on the wheel. Just behind him though was second overall. This was going to be a close one. Not to mention the two out front were still there but barely. From my view it looked like Greg just caught them on the line, but in the end, one man from the breakaway managed to collect first, with Greg just getting edged out for second by the guy we were trying to get a leg up on.

Shit.

I had sufficiently gassed myself chasing the break back and leading Greg out so I spent the final kilometers of the race bringing Kristoff and Greg to the front. With 5km to go I was done and hung at the back, just barely hanging on. Kristoff, with no help, managed to get 3rd in the finale, a respectable result.

We returned to the bus defeated, down but not out. Our plan backfired, but we are motivated to get that second back.

Still two stages left.

-tp

Yo yo MA PEOPLE.

Sorry I’ve been lay-Z on the updates… This race is a whirlwind. A W-Hirlwind.

I’m on the bus, on our way to the start of stage 3 but I finally have some time to write so hurr goesss.

Stage 1 was a hard one, albeit short at 152km. With 5 categorized climbs on the profile, the last one finishing 3km from the finish we knew it would be a battle all day. I attempted to make the breakaway but just missed it, Greg made the jump just after I got caught and snuck away with 3 other guys. Once the break established it started to rain pretty hard, making the ups and downs quite dicey but alas, we all stayed safe. At least all of us BMC-ers. Greg wasn’t exactly supposed to be in the breakaway so he stopped rotating which caused some problems up front. Finally, Greg returned to the peloton with another rider, leaving only 2 out front, making it pretty manageable to control in the pack. After about 100km, all of it up and down, the pace started to heat up as everyone wanted to be at the front for the last two climbs–one at 20km to go, and the final, like previously mentioned, topping out at 3km to go. Keep in mind that we are in Belgium so these climbs are all around 2-3km. No mountain passes or nuffin. Still freaking hard though!!

Anywho. Murphy started to rotate with a few teams up front as we were planning on setting Greg up for the final sprint. We cruised over the second to last climb, losing some riders off the back. I still felt very good and hung up at the front with Greg, just in case he needed anything. The run in to the final 3km category 1 climb was quite sketchy as the roads were a bit wet still, but we all got to the base safe and sound. As the road kicked up it quickly became a test of survival for everyone as riders were jumping left and right to try to get away. I settled into a rhythm just focusing on breathing and counting down the meters to the top. Once we reached 1km to the summit I knew I could hang on. I was hurting like a dog but dug in until the road began to flatten out. The most difficult part of the whole race was that last plateau. After going full out just to hang on to the group up the climb, the peloton naturally files out into one big line as the guys up front are traveling on flat ground while the guys behind are just cresting over the top of the climb. There isn’t much to do but put your head down, or cock it to the right as I tend to do (thanks track racing), and give everything just to hold the wheel. The last couple km were a bit of a blur, but I fought through the pain and made it back to the front just as things were starting to bottleneck, or slow down as all the teams weren’t entirely organized after such a big effort. I noticed my teammate Mattias Frank on the front and Greg in about 5th wheel. As Mattias began to tire I decided I’d crank up the pace and give what little I had left. I took the pack from 1km to go until 500m, absolutely burying myself. As I swung off, Trek Leopard whipped by with Greg in 4th wheel… He stayed there and managed 4th in the sprint which is not bad for him and I was happy with my efforts. I rolled through the finish with the pack, found the bus and got showered. A day’s work complete, it was time to refuel and relax.

Stage 2 had a forecast that predicted it would rain all day. Since the stage was 194km, this did not exactly excite anyone. Luckily though, for once, it did not rain in Belgium when it was supposed to! The profile of the stage wasn’t bad, however, I had learned from the day before not to trust these profiles. The roads here are not flat, just constantly undulating, making for hard racing and tired legs. The break went quickly and the first 100km passed quite slowly as we rolled along the Wallone countryside. With 80km to go, and Francais Des Jeux rolling on the front to protect their yellow jersey, the terrain went from undulating, to what I would call ‘pretty damn hilly’. The breakaway was at 5 minutes and we sent Murphy to help FDJ out. FDJ decided they wanted to bring the breakaway back quicker than anticipated and started to pull very hard. Hard enough that we caught the breakaway with 20km to go, resulting in a slew of attacks over the rollers leading into the finish. Stage 2 finished on a 1km 11% climb with a max gradient of 18%, perfect for our team leader Greg. My job was to bring him to the bottom of the climb in first position.

With about 10km to go there were still a couple guys up the road and no teams were working well enough together to bring them back. I acted on instinct and got to the front… Even though I was only supposed to wait until the last couple km I felt like it was necessary and I gave it gas for about 4km. After catching the two that were off the front I kept the speed up as we cruised down a valley towards the final climb. I got a bit of a breather as some other teams took over and then with 2.5km to go, 1.5km to the base of the climb, I got to the front again with Ballan and Greg on my wheel. I tore myself inside out for my final pull but it was all worth it to see Ballan and Greg hit the climb in 1st and 2nd position. Job well done again! I was very happy to hear, as I crossed the finish, that Greg had gotten second on the stage and was now in the yellow jersey.

After a shower and a fair share of potatoes I was back to my favorite part of bike racing–relaxxxxxing.

We have a hard and long day controlling this race ahead of us today. 224km! Will check in later:)

-tp