Project: Relocation

I have found a new place to live which I think will be a much better experience than waking up eaten by bugs and having a furnace in front of your face when you use the shower. The new house is in Oselem which on the border of East and West Flanders just south of Gent. This is the premier racing area with racing 7 days a week and multiple races to choose from. My current area has 3-4 races a week and most require a significant ride to get too. The new place is owned by an american pro here on a Belgian team. It should be nice.

Yesterday, I attempted to ride to Liege but turned around about 1/2 way. I didn't really calculate the distance as well as I thought. Legs weren't ready for 200k so it was only a 140k day. The wind was cranking as it seems to always be doing and was right on the nose all the way. At the turnaround in Hasselt, which is a nice large town. Good shopping center with lots of people out. I got a nice large broodje, which is Flemish for a sandwich and a coke, 4,10 euro. Pretty tasty. It was a nice day after a frustrating kermesse on Tuesday night at Mol Rauw. The course had some really tight turns and I was feeling good and following wheels really well but on the last turn into the straightaway, I always seemed to lose the wheel. Bad positioning going into the turn on my part. There was a crosswind at that point but I still managed to get to my 53x11 and hammer down the road at 55+kph. I continued to fall back in the field but managed to hold on longer than i thought as I really worked hard to get back into the peloton. On the way home, feeling frustrated and needing to prove to myself I could push the big speeds, I rode the front all the way home (36km) and average over 38k/h in the dark and including slowing at the roundabouts. Good LT effort. Racing here is completely different. Every race I am learning more about the technique it takes to do well, so eventually things will start turning my way.

Perhaps, I should get all greased up with muscle warming gels and other balms that every belgian seems to be putting on before the race. Racing here is a huge part of the culture as I have mentioned earlier. It seems that everything is taken care of by moms, dads, girlfriends, or managers for the belgian riders. I guess you could equate it too the youth sports parents who get overly involved and buy their kids everything they need. Seems to be pretty apparent here. Ohh well, I prefer my go it alone style right now. It makes me work harder.

So today was a nice day on the bike. I went for the tri-weekly group ride that rolls by the house at 1:20pm. The ride typically sees 100+ riders and I think we saw close to that number today. It was a mix of continental pros, a few pro tour riders, lots of old dudes and some young pups like myself. The group splits into a two and its double paceline for the entire 70k with average speed around 35k/h. No attacking, just steady and jumps out of the corners and stops. I casually rode on the road waiting for the group to catch up. When the first group arrived, I heard about 5 people say, "group 2!" and finger the number two in the air. Grabbed onto the last wheel in the 2nd group. Cyclocross phenom, Sven Njis was in the first group in his Rabobank kit and some Quickstep rider was in my group along with some other continental pros. Just another group ride I guess...Pretty cool stuff that you could get a 100 people out for a group ride at 1pm on a weekday. Belgians really know what its all about. There was a guy in our group who sat on the front for a long time. He had to have been 70+yrs old. Unbelievable! I am sure there were a few ex-pros in the groups that raced long ago, but I have not idea who they are.

Until next time...
Tot Ziens,
Matthew

Clams and Benjamins

As promised here is a brief understanding of the monetary and economic situation here in Belgium. Now if there is anyone who is looking to go to graduate school and study economics, what you are about to read will provide an excellent topic for your thesis. Being an estudante of economics myself, I can't help but appreciate the economy of Belgium and question the practices of the government here.

Okay so here we go...In Belgium, medicine is socialized unlike the US so everyone is entitled to healthcare. Since arriving here, I have yet to see a homeless person, so some of the socialization must be working. In order to pay for the social services the government levies a huge tax on its citizens, atleast 50% of your income. Property taxes are very high too with additional tariffs on goods. So when you here these politicians talk about universal health care, you have to understand that there are steep costs that must be covered. Will the government just subsidize? Sure, but as anyone who has studied economics or who works, there is no such thing as a free lunch as so eloquently put by Adam Smith. Government levies huge taxes and all citizens get health care. This ends the background on economics, now down to how it goes down in Belgium.

The game in Belgium is avoiding taxes. In the US we make donations, use IRAs, 401ks, etc. Belgians pay for everything in euro bills much to the dismay of "for everything else there is Mastercard" and Visa. When you pay with cash there is nothing to trace and the path of tracebility goes all the way to the raw product. Example...You go to the store to buy a new wooden desk. Here is how the desk is brought to the store. Wood mills buy wood from timber land for 10 euro bills. The wood mill sells the cleaned wood to the carpenter for 20 euro bills. The carpenter sells the desk to the store for 50 euro bills and the store sells the desk to you for 100 euro bills which you earned from the factory you work in which pays you in euro bills. So throughout the entire process there are no receipts of cash exchanges and no records on the books b/c its all cash. So in the end there are no taxes and "nothing" really took place except you now own a desk which "never existed" and you are 100 euro less which "never existed" either. In the US you might call this "money laundering." In Belgium, you call this "business 101." If you ever had the dream of being a white collar mafia crime boss, then why risk going to jail in the US? Just move to Belgium and you could do it without fear of going to San Quinten =)

The problem with this shirking society is that the wealth and economic output are incredibly understated. Belgians are quite wealthy but on the books it wouldn't appear so. When the World Bank or the UN measure economic output, belgium is vastly understated b/c everything is done in cash and there are no paper records. Its crazy to think b/c everything you buy is done with cash, bikes(1000s of euros), cars, groceries, etc. Even when you have your house built, "you" build the house yourself so that the tax man can't levy property taxes on your house. By "you" building your house, you are exempt from property taxes so whenever you see a house being built you always see just a few people building it. But the majority of the work is done by professionals you pay . But you get away with this by saying that "you built the house."

Well, I will end on that note. Hope you enjoyed your Belgian money lesson for the day.

Chow Chow
Matthew

So you want to sponsor a cycling team?

Mid afternoon ramblings...I am leaving with my housemate, Dan(a brit from manchester) for the kermessee in Rauw. Rauw is in Mol which is home of Mr. Tom Boonen. Its about 35k ride from here. Race starts at 1830 and is 115k.

So i had a discussion with the house owners last night about moving into another house. Didn't go too well. I am going to talk to people after the race tonight and try to find something new. Still waiting to hear back from the Irish cycling house which is near Ghent. Ghent is in west belgium and has a ton more races. My updates to this blog are a little sporadic in posting b/c I have to sit outside a church on the stoop and log into some wireless network that isn't password protected. Not ideal b/c its been cold the last few days here. Its also a bit sketchy. So I just keep my head down and don't look up at people when they go by but its not a long term solution. We already had one free wifi owner crack down on us and locked his network up.

Bike racing here is a different level both on and off the bike. There a lot of professional teams here b/c of the tax benefits. I say tax benefits loosely b/c its more of a tax scam. Here is how it works. You are Company XYZ, you have 200k euros in revenue for your business but don't want to pay taxes on it. You contact a local cycling manager and offer to sponsor the team for 200k euro. This gives company XYZ a tax deduction of 200k euro. Bike team gives a receipt for 200k euro to the company and the company sends it to the tax man. After this, the bike team returns 100k euro to the company. Do you see what happened? yeah, its white collar crime in a blue collar sport(or used to be blue). If tax man questions bike team, then manager claims they bought bikes etc. Since everything here in Belgium is CASH ONLY there is no way to argue against(more on this later). So you, Company XYZ, sponsor a cycling team and have 100k euro of untaxable money. Pure genius ehhh?

chow chow
matthew

kaffe and lots of km

Dank U..thats Flemish for thank you. Thats pretty much the extent of my Flemish so far, much to my discouragement. Ohh one other, Kaffe, which is coffee. I have ordered a lot of kaffe since arriving. The taste is incredibly good over here but their sizes are also incredibly small compared to the uber large american lifestyle. At home, I can easily drink a pot of coffee by myself without flinching and when I go to Angelina's on California/22nd I always go for the 2nd cup. Belgian size is equivalent to an espresso at home. I guess I have to get use to it. The kaffe tastes great though, very dark and rich. Surprisingly, Virgin Atlantic has very good kaffe, I think I had 4 in the last 2 hours of my flight. But I have digressed.

So the plan for today was to get up early, 8am and roll out to Antwerpen before my race in Boorsbeek and do a little touristing. Well, I didn't end up hearing the alarm until 9:15 then I ate some food and went with my housemate and his dad to find a supermarket that was open on this bank holiday, funny how it was holiday in the US also...bizarro. I didn't end up rolling out of the house till 1130 which still gave me plenty of time to get to my race which was about 38k away. I mapped it out the night before and thought it was pretty straightforward but that was until I hit Lier. Each of the major towns have what they call, "The Ring." The Ring is the Belgian equivalent to the US beltway around a major city, for instance the 280 in Atlanta for all my lovely southeast readers. When I arrived at the ring, there was no sign for the next town which I had mapped too, so I ended up riding into the town. Lier was a nice town. Good large, Centre(middle of town) with a large square and what appeared to be a university. Lots of cobbled streets too. I ended up getting lost but found a nice Belgian wearing a Seattle Mariners cap help me. He spoke perfect English but his directions weren't ideal. I did find my way out of town in the right direction only to discover that I had forgotten my wallet, ie racing license and money. And no chance to get money from the little house of money(Cathy and Randy will laugh). So moral dilemma, do I cruise back and go and get my wallet and license then try to race back to the race. It was doable, but I chose not too and forged on with 4,70 euros to my name. This was km 28 approximately.

I had previously wanted to use this day anyways to just chill out and go on a nice easy ride so I wasn't super disappointed more bothered that I only had 4,70 euros. I decided to continue to Antwerpen and check out the historic stuff. Riding into Antwerpen was really sketchy...definitely rolled through the ghetto. Tires held up though and I didn't have to break out my street surviven' skilz. I had the impression from all the touristy books that historical buildings would just jump right out at you. It actually took me about 30min of tooling around to find the city center. With today a holiday, nothing was open except cafes and restaurants. It would definitely be a shoppers paradise with lots of boutique stores. The center plaza was very beautiful with a large fountain in the middle and large gothic buildings. I took a few fotos. Will try to post later. I hunkered down at a cafe in the middle of it all and ordered a kaffe. One more note about kaffe. You always get a chocolate or a cookie with your kaffe along with cream and sugar. I will certainly miss the little treat when I leave. The chocolate probably raises the cost of the kaffe which explains why it was 1,90 euro. I haven't found kaffe for less than 1,50 euro. But its good kaffe and I am living the euro pro lifestyle so its just water under the bridge for me. I sat at the nice kaffe taking it all in.

Trying to get out of Antwerpen was harder than getting in. Its like a medieval fortress. I ended up asking 4 different people for directions before I ran into some belgian guy and he and I talked cycling for a little bit in the crosswalk. His directions weren't totally right on but I managed to use my map skills and found out where I was going. I decided to take a different route home so i can cover as much new ground as possible and see more towns. When I was going from Brouchout to Nijiln, i took the "bicycle route." The bicycle route was a 1/3 km of cobbles. I tried to push a hard gear and power over them and that worked in the beginning then my speed began to decline. Not good b/c the bouncing gets worse. Made it through and my bike held up great. I rolled into Heit-al-berg(sp?). Stopped at tapas bar and had an espresso. It was pretty good. I found this cool snack machine that was basically everything a Walgreen's has but was a snack machine the size of entire storefront. I will have to go back and take a picture. Finally rolled into the campground(lack of better term for my housing) 150k later. Good long day. With everything so flat here you never have to push sick wattage but you are constantly spinning, very different from CA. Legs feel pretty fresh still. Ate a lot of pasta and some muesilli and some bread with kaffe and a coke. Balanced dinner.

Off to sleep, its 1244am here....
chow chow
Matthew

Bread machines and racing

Belgium greetings...Today I raced in my 2nd kermesse, the Ramsal-Hersalt, 115k over a windy course with one tiny climb. 78 starters. Racing went off fast and I was able to find my legs in lap 3 and was up on the front group. I was feeling good and tried to follow the break. It crossed my mind briefly, "why do this?" Well, it proved to be the end for me. I caught the break, then a small gap started into the crosswind and I fell back. I tried really hard to keep up and made up some but the entire peloton was happy to sit on my wheel. The next turn led to a straightaway that was sickly fast all day, this lap no different. Fortunately it bunched up as we rode over a cobbled section. Super glad I got a new pair of Mavic Elites from Collin at Bike-RX. The roads here are wicked rough and you are riding through dirt, gravel, pave, and then asphalt. The next lap on a long straightaway I was spent trying to cover a gap, and had some belgians yelling stuff at me. Imagine going through an entire race at 50kph+ and not knowing what the hell is going on around you. I say, welcome to belgian racing. When I tried to pull off to let the group pull through I tried to pull behind the next few riders, well the next few riders ended up being the next 20 or so riders. When in Belgium you don't get the free spot in the paceline. Good lesson. My race ended on the next lap when a gap opened and I didn't have the legs to keep it going. Disappointing, but I know my legs are getting better and have to be patient and not go for the break so early on. Tomorrow is an "open" race which is a little shorter, 90k and outside Antwerp. "Open" races are open to everyone and are atypical to the usual UCI 1.12B races for elites and u23 riders that I will normally do. It should be a long day in the saddle with about 50k to the start. I was planning on riding a easy tomorrow so I will see how I feel tomorrow afternoon. Tuesday there is another 120k 1.12b race. What i don't want to do is race myself into the ground, but having only completed 9 laps in total, I feel i'm not too exhausted yet. From what I have heard it takes a few races to understand the racing here and finish. So I am taking each race one at a time and will be challenging for the finish very soon I expect.

On a funny note. I stayed around to watch the rest of the race. You are required to stay in case doping control shows up. Yes doping control for a non-pro race. If they show up and you are called and don't show up then you could get a 2yr ban from Flanders cycling, ouch! Like i said in my race report yesterday, its pretty serious here. Like Kip says, 'yeah its getting pretty serious, we chat for 3-4 hours a day online.'

My hollywood moment...For each race there is a list of starters printed on a program guide. The guide is used for betting purposes, etc. When I was rolling near the finish line the old crusty Belgian mumbled something to me. I said, "inglis" He asked if i was american b/c he was reading the start list. I said, "yes, I am from america, san francisco." Then he wavers his finger at me, turns his hat around and reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a camera. Me motions me, and I take a pose on my bike. So I guess you could say that I am kind of a big American deal in Ramsal, BE. =)

Cool belgian moment today for me was purchasing a loaf of bread out of the bread machine at the bakery. Think soda machine, only that it contains fresh bread, 5 styles. 1,80 euro and you have fresh bread 24/7 =) Man we need some of these at home...

tot ziens!
Matthew

first Kermi part deux

I found shelter next the bakery. Yes, my house which I was promised doesn't have wifi or anything to speak of. I am working on changes places right now, so wish me luck. Although this is suppose to be an entirely racing trip, i think I will go crazy if I don't have some access to the outside world during all the downtime. Not even a cafe near my house!

Part 2: Race started out pretty fast as standard for Belgians. 91 riders. So to enter, you make your way into a smokey bar and you hand them your license and pick up your two numbers, jersey and bike numbers. Then you pay your 8euro. You get 5euro back if you return you bike number. So now I have a belgium license and some 2nd hand smoke before my first race. I made it up to the top 10 on the first lap and was feeling good then I got boxed in on the flat section. Race was fast, like p/1 fast and never letting up. The whole course was strung out in a line. no bs'ng as per US style. My heartrate was pegged the last two laps.

As far as the scenery goes for racing its pretty 1st class. The bar is the center of all the racing. The whole town comes out and is drinking and cheering on the riders as they go buy. They even have programs that list all the riders and their numbers. When I was warming up I saw all the old women checking me out. Apparently there is some betting going on. Hope I didn't make anyone lose a lot =) They have a video moto driver and 3 lead cars, then the riders followed by an ambulance and a sweeper van. Its pretty crazy.

Two Unibet riders went 1-2 after making a huge break on the last lap. About 40 riders finished. I didn't feel so bad b/c there were a lot of locals that got dropped. Tomorrow is another race.

Tot Ziens!
Matthew

My first Kermessee

So when I log into google or blogger it goes right into flemish for me. How fortunate? so I guess it will be a good education of language.

My first race was today. It was a kermessee in near Leavun, 120k or 8.3k per lap. Pretty rolling and one hill which is quite odd for racing here in the flat lands. It was a 35k ride to the race. I woke up at 11am and had to leave by noon. I haven't slept till 11am in so long, not my typical wakeup time of 6am. I ate a bowl full of Nettie Kelly's delicous granola, thanks nettie! Then i ate pasta. Turned out to be too much food. I thought it would digest alright b/c I had 3 hours, but no dice. I made it through 4.5 laps before they pulled me. The racing here is quite different. No one takes turns fast and they descend like crap. We had this gnarly descent, reminisce of descending Alpine from Bolinas/Fairfax road.

well must run its rainin on me now.

Heathrow Health Tips

Writing to you from stolen wifi in the village of Westmeerbeken...pretty small place. The house I am staying at is good. No wifi in the house. Have to ride 2km down the rode to get it. Ohh well. There are two other guys in the house with me, a brit and a scott. I am going to go riding to Leuven today. Its a larger town just east of Brussels. Probably about 30km from here. I saw lots of cafes and young people when I got off the train yesterday in the town.

So my Heathrow health tips...Apparently there are no public clocks in Heathrow so you are pretty much on your own for keeping track of time. Since losing my watch on a ride back in Feb I have been going with only the clock on my mobile. No mobile with me so no clock. I went to find a toilet while waiting for my flight from Heathrow to Brussels yesterday. When I walked into the bathroom I saw a sign for a shower. So I followed the path and ran into this indian woman who was cleaning the aiport. I inquired about the shower and she said, "need towel?" Well I thought I didnt need one and wasn't about to pay 3pounds for a towel. So i said no and asked how much was the shower...She hesitated and finally said very sketchy like, "1euro or 2dollar" I said well, I have 2dollar." Basically I paid for a black market shower b/c she totally pocketed the money. It was a super nice experience and highly recommend it when travelling through Heathrow.

Barely made it to my gate afterwards. Attendants were too pleased with me...oh well, all the clocks on the monitors read 11:38. But I made it and was even able to exchange my 50 deatche marks that I had since my trip to Berlin in 1999. Why did I have them in my wallet? Dont' know I guess an insanely amazing foresight in my part =)

Chow,
Matthew

Daily observations...

I leave for Belgium tomorrow! Super jazzed about everything. Bike recently tuned up and a new set of Mavic wheels from Bike-Rx. Everything is coming together really quickly but I have a feeling this trip is going to be beyond my imagination.

As I was eating my salad lunch, I noticed this great quote on the salad box. I opted out of the burrito. I guess I have to maintain my euro weight...
So on the side of to-go salad box from the SF State food court was this great line by Virginia Wolff. Here it is....seems like a great mantra to live by...

"One cannot think well, love well, or sleep well if one has not dined well"

Berkeley Road Race report

This report is a little late, but here goes. Berkeley Hills Road Race is always one of the biggest road races throughout the year. I rode it last year for the first time, which was coincidently my first road race ever. Pulled off of 6th place, so I was definitely gunning for a good result as the climbs suit me and having coming off of Gila with some great form, I felt it was my day.

Race started off pretty straightforward on the first 2 laps. Several breaks went but nothing materialized. I stayed near the front waiting and watching for the decisive move of the day. At the start of lap 3, I tried bridging up to a break as some strong riders went. It was brought back so i sat back in the pack and recovered. On the last lap, I went up the climb through the feed zone and was feeling really good...like no chain good. Told teammate Dan that I was going to going to attack on this lap and go for it. I originally had planned to attack at the top of the first of the 3 bears, which is a nice long climb with a minor descent before it goes up again. As we rolled through the curvy road section i saw a move go and it looked promising. It was earlier than I was planning on going but I had to go with it. I attacked from the left side and rode up to the break. Another group had tried to bridge but I rolled by them like they were standing still. My move was pretty decisive and there was no one that could latch which was good. I actually rode about 2 bike lengths past the lead break. We grouped up, me, a Essex County Velo rider, and Spine rider. It took us awhile to get the paceline working but we were able to move much quicker through the winding roads than the peloton. The winds were tricky which caused some problems in our paceline. On the first bear climb, we dropped the spine rider. Better off b/c he wasn't working very hard. I set a pretty hard tempo up the climb just above LT. We crested with the peloton not in site at the bottom which was a good sign. About 2.5-3 miles to go at that point. The ECV rider and I worked well till the bottom of the final climb to the finish. We were side by side, and i ended up getting out of the saddle a little bit which caused me to fall back a little bit. It was enough to get some separation. We ended up finishing 1-2(or so I thought). I was so stoked, not having been in such a move in so long. I knew when we crested the final climb before the climb to the finish we had it. After finishing I found out that a group of 3 had gotten away previously. I never saw it go and neither did my counterpart or a lot of others. I guess thats how it goes in bicycle racing. Still super stoked with my finish. Happy to see all the hard work paying off.

I walked away with some cool shwag too: tshirt, $10, 2 bottles of Olive Oil, 1/2lb of Peets Coffee, Gu shots, Gu drink mix and some luna bars. Not bad.

I am taking off of racing this weekend, just gearing up for the next chapter as my coach says. Wed, the 23rd, I leave for Belgium. Can't wait. Stay tuned as this exciting chapter unfolds in my life.

chow chow,
Matthew

Tour of the Gila Race Report

Tour of the Gila Stage Race
5 day stage race in megatropolis Silver City, NM or "Silver" if you are a local.
Cat 3, Field 75, place 25th GC
Teammates: Jesse Bastide

Quote for the week, "I don't know how I could live in such a closed up city if I didn't have the Internet and Walmart. Because Walmart is like a mall you know?"

Close runner up to quote of the week on a followup to Jesse's question can we cook in the kitchen, "well I don't cook. The oven and dishwasher are used for storage." Jesse's rebuttal, "we just need to boil some water." "well i guess that will be fine. But you can only use these plates." Sure enough they were used for storage, think ziplock containers and other junk. We all shared 3 bowls, 3 plates and 3 sets of utensils for the week. Nothing else available.

Our 3rd rated quote came on Friday after the tour's longest stage as we were eating and zoning out of reality, " So are you a creationist!?" Umm, "well I respect multiple views." "I'm not, as you can tell by my Darwin fish. How can the Univ of Western NM bio dept chair be a creationist? I just don't get it!"

There were many close calls to make the top 3 so it was really tough decisions by the jury.

This is a pretty spectacular race. Lots of climbing and great competition and the fun of 6000-7500 ft above sea level. The race this year was an NRC event with all the top domestic pros in place ala Tour de California. If you want to make a name for yourself, this is the place to do it. Also had Team Rawanda and a pro team from Mexico. The fields were mainly Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico riders. A few Californians in there to mix it up a little bit.

Jesse and I arrived in Silver at our host house on Tuesday afternoon. Our host house was a trip with plenty of laughs to keep us going for years to come. More on that later. Silver is a huge metropolis of 10k people and mexican and chinese restaurants and your cowboy steakhouse. We cruised on to downtown and got some local mexican food with Jesse's wife and ran into the Toyota United guys at the eatery. Pros and their entourage were everywhere around town the whole week. It was pretty cool.

Wednesday's stage was the tt, 16.15 mi out and back with some climbs and fast descents. The notice of race indicated that you should have at minimum a 55x11 for the tt. Stupidly forgetting the aero bars that Zach S had set aside for me(thanks Zach!) dawned on me when I awoke on Tuesday morning before my flight to Tucson. I have been running a compact 50/36 since January. Unfortunately, my FSA 53/39 rings didn't make it in time. I was 3rd to go and Jesse was right behind me. Caught my 30 man in the first 3 miles but he passed me back on the climb. So I set out on the TT with my road setup in a 50x11. It was pretty sick setup. I think I was the only one running such a manly setup. Definitely spun out pretty early, but I was ripping it up the climbs until the turnaround when I pulled a muscle in my right pectoral region(as I found out later). Basically, I made the turnaround and all my breaths were super short and sharp. Kinda of felt like an asthma attack(i guess). I worked as hard as possible burying myself further into pain. I knew before I would go into the TT losing time b/c of setup but I knew the race was long and the tt wasn't going to decide things.

Stage 2 was an epic 116km one with a cat 1 climb to the finish. A 10mi climb with 2100+ ft of vertical and some spots up to 19% finishing up around 7400 ft. Stage started out pretty fast with some attacking at the first feed, then settled down until a nice little crash on the flats. Jesse and I just managed our way around it. Goal was to stay rested as much as possible before the final climb as it would be decided there. Final climb started out hard, and I made my way to the front and worked hard staying in the lead group. The 2nd part of the climb was super steep and hurt really bad. The highlight for me was dropping the Colorado guys and the TIAA CREF rider on the climb. Finished 28th . I probably past redline with 3mi to go. The signage to the top was off by a lot so when it said 1 mi to go, you would go 3/4 mile then see a sign that said 1k. Climb was relentless. When I crossed the line, I collapsed on the ground for about 10min before I could get breathing normal again and partake in some fine water, powerade and watermelon. Jesse arrived about 1.5 min later. It was a point to point race so we had to make our way back down the long climb and hope for a ride back. Fortunately, we both found rides quickly. Rode back to the host house, ate, and slept.

Stage 3 was 127km loop around Pinos Altos with almost 6k ft of vert. The first major climbs were between mi 13 and 26, then some rollers and good long descent. I got dropped at the feed(top of last climb). Bombed the descent then drove and collaborated with 5 others until we caught the peloton around mile 45 or so. It was an incredible effort. Legs got better and I made the selection on the cat 3 climb from mile 60 to 70. Probably 20 of us. When we got to the rollers at the top I attacked twice for kicks. Legs felt good and thought I would try something. Then it got fast as we descended to the finish. A small breakaway for 4 riders got away earlier on in the day, ended up 9th in the sprint finish for our group, 14th overall. Pretty jazzed about it. particularly hanging with the CO boys and coming back after the drop.

Stage 4 was a downtown crit. Pretty good course, two short climbs. Kept in the 50x23 on the climbs. Lots of bitching from riders because of rubbing elbows. Rubbin' is racing I say. The crowds were good and the promoter was throwing out some sick primes, $50-100 ones. Jesse missed on one ufortunately. I was trying to stay rested before the final stage so I could improve my GC to top 20 and be in the money. On the last lap I got pinched on the inside by a TIAA Cref rider and settled for 26.

Stage 5 was stage 3 backwards with a cat 2 climb (3mi avg 7.5%) at mile 53-65. Then a long descent then rollers, then an uphill to the line. Felt good going into the day, and stayed near the front protected from the wind. As the road went up, I couldn't respond as I wanted. Continued to ride hard, Jesse fell back and helped me up as he was in the break earlier on and was up the road a bit. At the top of the climb I was alone and just bombed the descent and passed 5 guys who were probably upwards of 1.5 min ahead of me. I was averaging 330-400watts over the last 10mi to keep my place on GC.

It was a great race. Climbs were hard, but nothing more than what you can do here. The 6-7k ft of vert and the 8? crossings of the Continental Divide are what made it difficult.

Race stats care of SRM:
Total Mileage for the 5 days: 359
Total KJ: 12,191
Avg Watts: 196

So host housing can always be a trip....We had a real job in our case last week. Women was in her in late 50s/early 60s probably, two giant rotweilers and didn't cook. I don't know think she worked either. We definitely had the most secure home in in the gang infested Silver City. 2 locked gates, and 1 locked door to get into the house. Shag carpet and Tour of the Gila stuff everywhere in the house. We spent most of our time outside the house if we weren't sleeping b/c it was just toooo weird. Came away with a lot of great quotes. When we came home on Saturday, we got blasted with Camera shots as soon as we walked in the door. Then we were asked to sign her tour poster. I kind of felt pro. We got our printed pictures before we left along with Tour of the Gila cowbells. Pretty sweet dude.

All and all a great trip.

you can check out the race site at, www.tourofthegila.com Check out the race profiles and other stuff.

Cheers,
Matthew

First post...

Welcome all to my blog. I feel so super 21st century now. I guess you could say I'm pretty techy.
So I encourage you to check back often as I will be updating regularly about my training, racing, and everyday ruminations while in Belgium. I hope to provide a good laugh...