Turbulent start down in Southland

The Tour started at Queens Park in Invercargill with a short 8k Team TT on a 4-corner course in the morning. Our Motel is only 5minutes away from most starts here in town so we got plenty of time in the mornings usually. The TT was a good warm-up and we did a 11:01 which put us in 15^th place of the day out of 25 teams. An okay result considering we (Seth, Kevin, Greg, Mike + I) never really raced together, especially not a TTT. Actually, Mike and I did a Team TT together just over a month ago at Univest GP. But, who would have thought, the conditions are way better here down in Southland than back at Univest where we had rain and 50mph gusts.

After a quick lunch we headed back to the Park for Stage 2. Yes, double-days are quite common down here. The toughest climb of the day was thrown into the first day and we got to race up Bluff Hill, a 20% steep climb on the very end of the “South Island” and at the end of Highway 1. That was not the toughest part, though as we all figured out about 45K into the 80K stage. After a crosswind section (one of too many that day) a Subway rider lost it right in front of me once we were at full-speed with a nice tailwind, going around 50-55kph. He slid across the whole road and took out a bunch of guys including me. I haven’t wrecked like that for a long time. I went straight over the bars upon impact with his (now trashed) Avanti bike and found myself on the ground with probably 40 other guys. I checked myself and the bike and besides some cuts+bruises on the knee and a nice road rash on my cheek everything seemed fine. After some quick adjustments to a twisted saddle + bars we got rolling again until they stopped the entire race for 25minutes because of the large number of riders involved and the severity of the injuries of some guys. I actually fell on my head a bit and had to ask my teammates + Robert, our DS, for some basic stuff, like “Where are we”, “How did we all got here to NZ”, and such things. I never had crashed so hard on my helmet/head before and was “out of it” for a bit for sure. It was tough getting rolling again but I started to get back into the flow. It was weird for sure. I ended up talking to Landis for a while as he broke his bike in the wreck, too and somehow we even talked about the two hip replacements of my grandma. I barely remember that now, though :-) Well, the field ended up splitting into pieces towards the hill climb thanks to some – now in full force – winds and gusts coming off the Ocean. I dug deep in my 39x28 and made it to the top without having to get off my bike like I saw some folks do! My average cadence was around 48 for the last 600m I believe. That crash definitively took more out of my body than I had thought.

Mike finished the day in 20^th and is our GC guy now. I think he can get close to Top10 over the next 5 days. Seth is out unfortunately, as he ended up breaking his nose in that nasty pile-up. Better than a collarbone or leg, though as some apparently did.

Tomorrow should be a bit more “relaxed” with a 165K stage and a bit more mellow elevation profile and a sprint finish.

Invercargill Velodrome, brand new, 250m indoor track. Nice!

Hi from Invercargill

Well, I made it to New Zealand...after a long trip from AUS, to LAX, AUK, Christchurch, and finally to Invercargill here in Southland, NZ. Only problem we have now: all our bikes are M.I.A. - hopefully they'll be here by tonight.

We got some great food from our hosts, the Irvines, settled in our sweet little Motel and now are waiting to go and meet our sponsor, Jackson Plumbing, at the local pub. Yes, pub. NZ has a lot of British flavor to it.

The Tour starts Monday with a 8K TTT in the a.m. and a 50mile circuit race in the afternoon.

@Auckland airport....maybe in the USA one day ?

Cross!

Cross Season is here! Well, the weather is not really "cyclocross-like" here in Texas but nevertheless there's some good, hard racing available here down South thanks to some promoters like Rob Kane who put on a weekend of CX in San Antonio.

I took out the Addict CX RC for it's first real ride. Fast course with only a few obstacles for us "roadies". 15minutes in I realized the legs were going well and I took off, putting some pressure on the boys and just rode consistent laps to win the 1st CX race of the season. Thanks to Pam+Rob Kane for hosting us at the Police Academy Center. And of course Robert Biard for letting me use his wheels, Austin Bikes/Doug Looney for some 'quipment, and KC Crosby for some sweet shades!

Happenings

It's been a while. Quite "interesting" two weeks in Texas bike racing. Did two in Crits in Denton and spent a good weekend at "home" in Ft. Worth. Results-wise it was pretty average as being "solo" and having field-sprint-esque courses/races did not suit me so well. Saturday's race was very cool and I tried hard to force a serious split but it came down to a - almost -field sprint. Sunday's race was much easier by looking at the numbers, even though 10 of us lapped the field. My old teammate Mat Stephens showed that he's still got the sprinter legs and won while I got 6th. Some great riding north of Denton, Horse County & surrounding area

A week later, a training ride to Johnson City was long overdue so I rode out West with a few THSJ guys and it was a pretty good ride. 5 1/2hrs, half of that in the rain, and just sub 120miles. The cool temperatures made the time/distance feel very manageable comparing to doing rides in the 100 F heat a few month back.

A few days later some news broke which were quite upsetting, disappointing. I felt cheated on. At the same time it's a 'positive' thing as it shows that guys get penalized who cheat; very knowingly cheat to be exact. Knowing I (and a handful of others) can ride faster than someone who is "juiced up" to the top makes the whole thing quite funny, actually. Why would you take stuff if you can't even beat the "clean" guys? Oh well.

The week finally turned back into a good one as the State RR was on the schedule. I had lots of fun and Kolt and I did our best. He was in the winning break for 94 miles, just the last few rollers got onto a few guys and the field caught Kolt, Lalla + Adam G. Six guys stayed away for the win (JT Cody!). I still scratch my head about some teams' tactics...If you're not in the break why not chase? Oh well, none of my business. Sunday's race was held on the same course, with similar temperatures, but with a bit rain and only 66miles. The turn-out was not as great as the day before but that made the race actually quite a bit harder in my opinion. After being in a 7-man break for most of the race I gave it one "shot" at the last climb and Helmig + Vargas came along. It was a mix of tactics, discussions, and strength which followed for the next 10miles to the finish. In the end, Helmig got me pretty good in the sprint for the win but 2nd was okay at that point. Even though we're both foreigners by passport, I got another blue-red-white jersey since I'm more of a permanent Texan...:-)

The next few month will actually be quite exciting rather than just another "boring" off-season: There's some Driveway left, a few punchy Cyclocross races, a trip Down Under, the local MTB race p/b Mellow Johnny's, and finally some "real" winter time back home in Germany.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month October

If you know a family member, friend, co-worker, or teammate who's affected - find out how you can help and/or donate by visiting the National Breast Cancer Foundation !

Or, come and ride your bike with me October 25th at the Livestrong Challenge in Austin, TX.

1 + 1 + 13 = 1

Fun weekend in Greenville, TX! Kolt Bates and I lined up for a 7:30am, 85mile road race and I made the right split with the right guys (incl. "Big Daddy") and we were able to hold off a charging field. Kris French, C. Trant, Dille and I rode away the last few miles and I was able to win the 40mph false-flat downhill sprint to the line.

The TT at 6:30pm was short and painful but just like the the South Mopac TT in Austin a all-out effort and a 10/10 on the "pain-scale". The lone Austin Flyer, Brant Speed, finished in a respectable 2nd place, only 13 seconds down on me.

Since the whole thing was based on points rather time, I just needed to watch a few guys in the crit and it was very unrealistic that someone would come around me for the Omnium win. A rear flat with 6 to go and a on-form Russ Walker made things a bit hectic in the end but I just had enough points to win the Omnium.

Thanks to teammate Kolt for working his a$% off and securing us another Mercy win in a Texas!

Greenville's newspaper, The Herald Banner, as a good story about the road races here.

road race win
(photo courtesy of Mike Brooks, commiebiker.smugmug.com)

Univest GP

Just got back from three interesting days in Eastern Pennsylvania. Great event, great host house (Thanks to the Balzer's!), and some very fanatic fans everywhere made those 3 races pretty epic - along with 58F and drizzling rain :-) More later.

ToA

Racing 4 races in 5 days here in Austin was a rare highlight. Maybe we can have a 5day stage race in 2010? I guess only Willis knows :-)

My race legs are coming slowly back under me after a little time off and vacation pre-HHH. Thursday's Driveway was (yet again) - the hardest race of the 4 race days - at least by the numbers. Thanks to the THSJ boys and Mark Purnell a.k.a. "The Announcer" we had a very exciting and interesting race where I ended up 4th.

Friends Lalla, Francis, and JPurcell came into town on Friday and we had a little MSU cycling team reunion at the house for the whole weekend. Manda RR was a total miss and I barely finished in the Top 30. Sunday's Pickle Crit went already better and I was able to squeeze into the right break w/ 2xTHSJ, Colt T, and PMc. For the 3rd time this year I was only able to see Heath' rear wheel and had to be content with a 2nd place. Riding w/ out a team here (the 'A' squad was at Gateway-Cup) definitively makes it a bit more tricky to get into the right moves.

Labor Day's eRacing Stigma Crit ended up in a bunch-sprint this year and it definitively felt harder then the inaugural edition last year. Besides some extra $$ in primes and a 12th place I couldn't achieve anything noteworthy comparing to last year when I was able to score a win out of a 4-man move.

Thanks to Andrew & Co. for giving us such a great event here in Austin. Daniel Norton took some cool pictures over the last 3days. Check them out here. I also hope "The Announcer's" voice is back by the time he's reading this :-)

Hotter'n Hell 60

Well, I/we did the 100miles but it was actually quite chilly - 60.8˚F to be exact at 6:50am on Saturday morning.

Friday Night

I was part of a two/three-man team for most of the 3days and it was rough. After 5 days in the sun (see post below) - and having no bici with me - I definitively lacked "the legs" to be competitive. Still was good enough to help out Chad in the Friday Crit (he got 3rd) and finish 4th myself in Day 3's Crit. Due to an unfortunate mechanical mishap (always tighten your saddle bolts!) we lost 2nd place in the Omnium on the last day and Chad slipped to 7th.

random shot somewhere Northeast of WF (check out the TALL Team Type 1 dude)

DR

After a busy month of July and lots of racing in early August we headed for 5 days of R&R to the Dominican Republic - a country of contrasts to be honest. Host to the (then) biggest city in the "New World" (Santo Domingo) you can discover lots of colonial history and follow C. Columbus' footsteps around the island.

...just back-up to the water beach and enjoy a "Presidente"