One week before Tour de Namur

It's sunday and it's time to relax. One week ago I was cracked(which in cycling vernacular means dead tired) after doing a race and then riding back home. I got a bit of a head cold the next day and spent this entire week taking it easy, going on 2-4 hour rides but nothing too intense. Matias was racing a stage race so I basically had the entire house to myself all week. On Friday, I went and watched the TT and again, the set up was impressive. The team buses, cars, trailers occupied an entire town. It kind of reminded me of an NRC race back in the states except this was a bit more polished and nice. Also, every rider has a follow car and lead motorcycle for the TT. Every single rider!

Anyways, after the TT, I went with Matias and Freddy to the team's masseuse and got a massage. Ahhh, so nice.

I raced Saturday at a kermesse really close to the house. My teammate Laurent and his girlfriend picked me up and we all drove over to the race, about 15 minutes away. We were running late and got registered 20 minutes before the race started. Riders number 148 and 149. Great warmup. I was  bit worried due to the lack of a warmup but the group decided to take it easy on the first lap, which was nice. The course had one hill in it yet we still went up it fast-20mph. Hills...climbs....where are they in this country!? I managed to go off the front once with a small group but the everything stuck together. On the last lap, two crashes happened within inches of my front tire. The riders around me went down but somehow I managed to keep the bike upright. The second crash happened in the last 5K, which really hurt the legs putting in the extra effort to unite with the front group. I lost some significant positioning due to that crash but still managed to pull a teammate near the front. I finished in the front group, and after last weeks very subpar performance, I'm happy.

One thing that I will definitely have to work on, however, is the pronounciation of the OOOO and UUUEEE. I rode up to my teammate Laurent during the race and said, "Laurent, OOOO(water-l'eau in French".

"What?" , he yelled.
 "OOOO", I said again
"What?"
"Water, do you have water"
"Ahh, water. No I don't have any water"

I ended up finishing the race with no bottles; one was empty and one was lost during my near collision with the crash. Sometimes, English works best.

 I wasn't too sure about my conditioning going into the race given my easy week of riding and no racing, but this race confirms that I still have good fitness and the legs are good.

Some of our friends at the Tour de Wallonie last week

I'm not sure how many races, if any, I'm doing this week, as next Saturday is the Tour de Namur. I'm pretty excited for it. It will probably be very challenging, but I'm looking forward to racing against other Americans. What?! My manager told me the U.S. under-23 national team will be there. How ironic-I'm going to be racing as one of the only Americans in this race but for a Belgium team nonetheless. And I'm pretty stoked.

Rain rain rain 7/20

I drove with Freddy to my third Kermesse in Kersken. It was sunny and warm when we arrived and I decided to put on some sunscreen. By the start of the race, it was dark, cold and drizzly. In the first 50 meters, the drizzle turned into a downpour. This was going to be a race.

I felt ok during the race but it was kind of hard to tell what was going on because the number of the riders and the low visibility and the technicality of the course. It started out in a village, went along wide city streets and then cut into narrow, one lane farm roads; it was actually pretty cool. I got a pretty good sense of what was going on in the race every time we road by the announcer's booth when he would announce the gaps. For the most part, I understood what he was saying, probably due to the dutch dialect. 

Back home I'm thankful to be able to carpool to the race. Here, everyone has a pre race massage!

Anyways, by the last four laps, my group was down to about 20 riders, plus the riders up the road. I kept looking behind me and only saw the official vehicle and ambulance, which meant that we were the main group on the road. I ended up getting 19th out of about 60 riders, which was good enough for the money again. YAY!  Anyways, it was a pretty hard race and only about 25 riders finished the entire 120K. It was pretty cool-at the end I heard the announcer say my name and something like  "....martinez....a'mérica...."

Also, later on Matias, my housemate from Spain, arrived. He is a pretty nice guy and it's nice to have someone to talk to my age. He also speaks English, as well as French and Spanish. He is also the one who helped convince me to start a blog. He also likes to go out, which we both agree on, is a necessary break from the stress and intensity that goes along with bike racing.  Is there anything Matias can't do? Break his post-ride meal habit of pasta and chicken. Every. Single. Day. Yes, I speak only the truth. 

Ah, Belgium Beer. 

I'm sure we'll have some more of that when the season is done. :)

A couple more races 7/15-7/20

My second Kermesse took place a little bit south of Brussels. I went with Ludovic, another rider from the team; I don't speak french but we were able to talk a little bit about music, europeans, girls by using sounds, hand signals, and pointing at the radio.

 Like the interclub,  this race was fast and flat. 170 riders moving 48km/hr. More obstacles in the road, including huge cracks running right down the middle. I was a little more comfortable riding in the pack but it was still tough staying at the front, and then, getting off the front. On the last lap, I was moving up along the left side of the road when suddenly, WHAM, the entire group swung left. I almost got run into the gutter at 30 mph. I managed to keep the bike upright, along with the riders around me, but subsequently had to slam on the brakes and lose about 50 places. I finished in the main group and felt good; I just need a little more experience moving up and around in a field of 150 riders.

SUN!

First Kermesse 7/12

The day started out with me not really knowing what race I was going to do. Yes, multiple races on a Tuesday. In the middle of the week. Luc, one of the team managers, who's house I'm staying at, informed me that a thunderstorm was rolling into the region later in the day so the 6PM race I was tentatively planning on doing would be decided on around 12PM. It was determined a couple of hours later that it wouldn't be such a great idea to do that race in the pouring rain so we decided to do a race that started at 3PM instead. Ahhh, no 5AM wake up calls. At 12PM, Ingrid's(Luc's wife), dad arrived at the house to pick me up and drive me to the race. Keep in mind this is my fifth day in Belgium and my french is, well, c'est mauvaix, but getting better. The dad doesn't speak english, and I speak relatively no french, so it was going to be very a animated car ride, using lots of hand signals and movements, as well as interpretive noises to convey nouns such as rain, wind, hills etc.

He is a very nice guy and helped load the car; we set off at around 12:30. I had no idea where the race was, where I was going, or how long it would take to get there. After driving a little over an hour, we arrived in Roselare, in the Flanders(flemish) region of Belgium. Just to give you an idea of how small this country is, Roselare is just south of Bruges, which is just south of the coast. We drove from the middle to the coast in a little over an hour. WOO!

The first thing I noticed when we arrived were the bars. And lots of old people. The registration area was not a plastic folding table under a tent in the middle of a parking lot. It was inside a bar/pub. NICE! I walked into the bar and was instantly consumed in the aroma of smoke, beer, pretzels and the loud but amicable conversations occurring between the locals who turned out to watch the race. "Turning out" to watch a race in Flanders does not mean standing on the side or in the feed zone. This means placing bets on each rider, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and having a good ol' time commenting on(or criticizing, of mocking, or praising)  each rider as he would ride by. I made my way past all of the patrons, mostly old guys with big smiles on their faces, and approached the registration table. I handed the official my license; he took it, scanned it into the computer(yes, it was that fast), and I was given my abnormally(for us in the U.S.) large jersey number and frame number for 8Euros. At the end of the race, according to the protocol, you give back your numbers and in return, you receive 5 Euros. In all, registration was 3 Euros. And that's for every race, regardless of the prize money.

Are they using a helicopter to record the finish?

I got kitted up, numbers on and rode around a little bit. I made my way back toward the main bar and noticed all of the people on the side of the road, sitting under the awnings, with big white boards. These, as I found out, were the betting tables. It was almost like a casino, but outside and at a bike race. Everywhere I looked, locals were talking with the bookies, placing bets, observing riders pass by. One man came up to me and uttered something in Flemish. I shrugged my shoulders with a confused look on my face. He then said, "What is your number?". I told him, " 48". He said, "ahh ok", and scribbled something on his board and strutted off to his friends.

I had no idea of what to expect going into the race. From everyone I've talked to, Kermesses are hard. My goal was to stay at the front and finish. I didn't know any of the riders or any of the teams in the race so it was crap shoot.  The race started out and instantly, an attack. A lot of yelling ensued, in dialects I could not comprehend, and the race was off! The race was 120K with 13 laps. It was fast, but I was feeling comfortable and stayed toward the front. One thing I noticed right away was that a lot of riders would simply stop pedaling, sit up, and open a gap. For no reason! And then suddenly, a group of 6-8 guys are off the front. Sometimes riders will chase and counter attack; other times, the group will wait, a lot of yelling occurs, and then it gets fast and the group splinters down to half the size and eventually catches up to the breakaway. But sometimes not.

Did I already mention that people yell a lot during the race? Or it seemed like it. Whenever someone was on the front and not pulling, or gaps would open up, a barrage of flemish, french, dutch(same as Flemish I think), and I caught a few lads chatting it up from GBR, would ensue. I got yelled at a couple of times, or at least I think it was yelling. Not understanding a word they would say, I simply continued to ride. It actually didn't bother me at all; it was merely a bunch of noise.

Today, a group got off simply because riders refused to put in 2-3 hard pedal strokes to close a gap. People sit up, no one wants to close the gap, and bamb! Off the front.

I had one "teammate" in this race. I say "Teammate" because

1) Kermesses are considered individual races. Although many riders from one team may be in the same race, they don't necessarily work together

2) I hadn't met this rider before(I'm still getting to know everyone) and he spoke french, and I spoke english. We used hand signals when we first saw each other

His chain snapped in half about 30 minutes into the race so I was by myself for the rest of the time.

I was almost taken out of the race twice. First time- it had begun to rain and the rider  in front of me fell, forcing me to go off the road and get dropped from one of the lead groups. I eventually got back into it after the group behind me caught the lead group

Second-In the last couple of laps, I was pulling on the front when I came into a turn too fast and went plowing into the field. I managed to keep the bike upright but lost contact.

Anyways, it was sort of a race of attrition, and being smart. There wasn't one big peloton. Instead, there was a group of 10, then a group of 5, and then a group of maybe 5-6. I also noticed that when riders are tired, they simply sit up and stop pedaling. What!? Oh yeah, and a gap opens up in crosswind/rain/thunderstorm elements going 45km/hr.

So, I had no idea where I was in the race other than I knew there was a lead group of 10 up the road, and then a few more in front of me, and people behind me. After I got back on my bike after going into dirt, I looked back and only saw the official's vehicle, wheel car, etc. I saw one rider in front of me who stayed about 50 meters ahead of me for about 10km and wouldn't wait! I rolled through the start/finish line when I was waived at by the official. I guess that means "pull over?". I watched the last 2 laps and saw only about 10-12 guys so I didn't feel that bad.

I ended up placing 24th out of 60-70 riders so I'm pretty happy about my first kermesse in Flanders. According to the people in Wallonne, the racing in Flanders is some of the toughest in Belgium. Not only did I place, but I finished in the top 30, which meant $!

My driver Freddy

All in all, I'm pretty stoked on this performance, given that flat fast races are not really my specialty(yet :)) The team seems pretty pleased as well so it's all gravy. I have yet to find any sustained climbs but I am hoping to actually make it to my pre-determined destinations on my rides in the next couple of days. Yesterday, I tried to ride to Waterloo, which is about 10km away from my house, to check out a monument dedicated to Napoleon.  I rode for 1.5 Hours and still did not find it. So many roads, traffic circles and villages!

First Race in Europe 7/10

Again, please stay with me as I attempt to catch up on the past couple of weeks.

My first race in Europe took place 3 days after I arrived. An Interclub nonetheless. In Belgium, Interclubs as they are called, are races made up of entirely teams; no individual riders are allowed. Subsequently, the support(team cars, wheel cars, trailers and buses in some cases) is ramped up quite a bit. I didn't really know what to expect going into this race; I had only ridden twice since I arrived and honestly, my legs didn't feel that great the first two days. No pressure however-the team made it clear to me that the goal was to finish with the main group.

  It was pretty cool at the start. European to the max! Team cars, tents, soigneurs, dialects occurring in French, Dutch, German. However, what really caught my eye were the number of people, old people in particular, hanging out at the local bars and cafes, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, waiting for the race to start. All the races here start and end in villages/towns where the start/finish is usually located right outside of a bar or cafe. Also, I was surprised to see the number of people, especially in the cycling community, smoking. The officials, some of the team managers, parents of the riders-all smoking! Talk about ironic.

Anyways, we signed in on a pretty cool stage where the race announcer-speaking Flemish, was commenting on all the riders approaching the stage. Shortly after, the race started and off we went!
The race was fast but not too physically hard due to the lack of wind and relatively flat course. What made the race difficult were the 1000+ obstacles in the road such as traffic circles, signs, road islands etc. I would be going down a hill at 45mph in a field of 200 riders where all I can see are the 3 riders in front of me when suddenly, WOOP, dodge right. Luckily, you can usually hear a whistle signaling an obstacle a couple of seconds before you see it. And, riders are pretty good at pointing stuff out. In the beginning.

After the race. Notice the soap, buckets and water. So we smell good afterwards!

A break got away of about 6 or 7 riders. I finished in the field so I was pretty happy given this was my first race in Europe and after only arriving 3 days before. Did I say it was fast? We  covered 160km in 3.5 Hrs.  The team is pretty nice and although only a couple of people speak English, I can understand for the most part what they are trying to say. 90% of the time.

Oh Canada

July 5, 2011-Disclaimer-I started this blog almost a month after arriving in Belgium. The next couple of posts are a couple of weeks old. Enjoy!

And I'm off. Well, sort of. I left SFO at 8AM for Toronto to catch my connecting flight to Brussels via Montreal. For some reason, even though I was scheduled to fly to Belgium, I had to enter customs in Canada, check my passport, claim my baggage, including my bike box, recheck my luggage and bike box and catch my next flight, all within one hour. The customs official looked a little puzzled when I told him my expected duration in Canada after he asked "How long do you plan to spend in Canada?". Less than one hour.

It was not to be. I waited and waited and waited. Still no luggage or bike box. It seemed like multiple flights and passengers were encountering the similar problems. I heard on one of the CB radios at the Air Canada desk, "Alright, everyone calm down and take a deep breath. Let's work the problem. Use the correct radio call signs and we can figure it out". They didn't have enough radios or people to figure out where the majority of the luggage was. With about 15 minutes before my scheduled flight departure(not boarding time, but departure), I saw my bike box and bag.  I hustled through the security checkpoint and found myself at the back of a very long line-the same line for all the other people who missed their flight.

Long story short- no more flights going to Europe were available that day. So, Air Canada gave me a free hotel with $32 Canadian dollars to splurge on hotel food.

My room at the Delta Hotel

It was actually pretty nice, although the I still ended up spending $20 on food in addition to the $32 of free spending(the food was expensive!)

Oh Canada!

Nice swim in the pool, dinner at 10PM, a couple of emails and 11 hours of sleep. Oh yeah, and I ate about 3000 calories for my $22 brunch at the hotel. It was either that or the $10 Canadian KFC across the street, which with the international transaction fees, would probably be around the same price. 

I caught my flight with the absence of a new bottle of chamois cream Mark Marquez gave me after it was confiscated at security in San Francisco. So pissed! Later, as I would find out, chamois cream is really hard to find in Belgium. Yes believe it.