Czech Republic - Part 2

At the Finish of one of the race
A castle on the drive to a stage start
Hmmm... I don't know what he was doing either...

The rest of our stay in the Czech Republic was pretty good. I had some decent results but nothing spectacular. My time trial was actually my worst result, which is funny because going into the race I was expecting to dominate that. So I was 35th in the TT, which dropped me down a bit on GC, and then 18th in the next stage. The 4th stage on Saturday started with a huge climb where the field separated although later it came back together. I finished around 31st. The fifth and final stage was my best result where I finished 9th, and that was after my group took a wrong turn - but that's another story. I ended up 23rd overall, a decent result. All I need now is a stage win, we will see about that.

I have been back in Izegem for the past few days, with a little rest and relaxation. We tried to go to Brugge yesterday, but had a few mishaps along the way. We left a little late, around four, and it was supposed to take a half an hour to get there. Well there was some kind of threat, so after going two towns over we had to get off, and on some buses to another town and after arriving there we had to get back on the train to Brugge. So we ended up arriving at six, and all of the stores were closed. It was too bad, but what can ya do? So we went to dinner, took some pictures, and then went home. It still ended up being a fun day.

So this weekend is my final race on this trip, Ronde Van Axel in the Netherlands. It's a three day four stage race, with lots of cobbles and wind. Should be interesting. I'll keep you updated.

Larry

The pictures weren't working again... sorry

The Czech Republic - Part 1

On our ride near Litomerice
Again on our ride
A sweet building in downtown Litomerice

We have been in the Czech Republic since Monday evening and so far it has been a great trip. It was about an 11 hour drive from Izegem, across Germany and into the Czech. The scenery was awesome and we definitely saw some interesting things. No one in Europe drives without a GPS. When we pucked up our sognieur near Brussels he told us that they did not work in the Czech Republic but our team director, Barney assured him that we had special software for the Czech. Well, we later found out that Michel our sognieur was right. As we approached the Czech border it took us onto some rural eastern German roads. They were very pretty, but we were taken about an hour off course, and we had to revert to--heaven forbid--ancient technology... Something called a map. After a number of wrong turns and small roads we arrived at our destination--Litomerice, Czech Republic.

Unfortunately that was only half of the battle. The GPS was programmed with our hotel's address, but it definitely did not take us there, and our Map was of the whole Czech Republic so it didn't show the small city streets. We ended up just pulling over and asking every person we saw where the Hotel Dejmalik was... and NO ONE knew. Eventually we found some lady who knew the street name and since not a single person we encountered spoke english, and communicating what railroad tracks, roundabouts, and other things were with your hands is extremely difficult, she had the brilliant idea of drawing us a map. So eventually we found our hotel, yet as soon as we got there the people told us we were actually staying at a different hotel. "Here we go again," we all thought, but to our surprise, our hotel--The Roosevelt--was only two blocks away. So we got here at night and put our stuff in our room before heading to dinner. On Tuesday we just rode around and saw some of the city during the day which was cool, as it was our last day before the start of the race.

Wednesday afternoon was showtime for all of us boys, and we were a little nervous, but ready to go. The race started in the middle of the town square, and after some team presentations, sign in, and roll out, we were off. The race started pretty hard and had a 600 foot climb on each of the three loops. The first time was tough, but I kept pretty good position for most of the day, so I huffed and I puffed, but I made it over the top safely near the front of the group. It was on the second time up the climb that all hell broke loose. I was kind of day dreaming and not paying a whole lot of attention and found myself drifting back through the back at the start of the climb. I realized that I was pretty far back about halfway up, but it was kinda a little late. So I tried and tried to move up, and was making good progress, but unfortunately there were a few splits in the group. I was in about the third group with one more little kicker to go, so I bridged to the next one, but by then I was going so hard I couldn't make it to the front group. There were about 15 guys up the road in front of our group of 40. As soon as we got to the top the Belgians went to the front and drilled it as hard as they could. I really don't think I have witnessed humans spin their legs so fast. They were spinning their legs like an engine spins its pistons... at 2500 rpms. So we drilled it, and the next time up the climb was much easier. I tried to sit near the front for the rest of the day and was pretty successful at that. We kept drilling it but never caught that front group. By the finish line it had whittled down to 11, and I sat on the Belgian's leadout train for the finish taking 7th in the field sprint, and 18th on the stage. Not too shabby. We are just about to leave for the second stage in a town about an hour away called Kolin. Should be good, I'll update more later.

Larry

Stage #2 Update-I wasn't able to post this before I left, so we just finished the Second stage, I came in 15th place, but unfortunately lost 6 seconds to the leaders. Oh well, I'm planning on making that up in the TT tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes...

Life so far...

A tower near Gullegem, BE
The team right now from left to right: Robert Bush (Louisville, KY), Jacob Rathe (Portland, OR), Danny Finneran (Oak Park, CA), Me, Ryan Zupko (Pheonix, AZ)
Some cool castle looking bridge in Kortrijk, BE
Some Belgian guy feeding pigeons in Kortrijk
Should I be worried that my roommate wears Uggs???


So I have been here in Izegem about 6 days now, and life has been pretty good so far. We have done two races, and I now have two big stage races coming up. The first two races went fine, but nothing spectacular... yet that is. My riding skill such as navigating through the pack have improved so much since last year it is amazing. I have learned how to be pretty scrappy and hold my ground. Not only that but I didn't even get yelled at that much which is a huge feat when you are an American junior racing in Belgium. I guess the last time I really raced was when I was over here last fall, and I just feel so much more comfortable riding through the pack and pushing kids out of my way. That sounds kind of mean, but it's actually how you move around when you try to get anywhere, and everyone does it, so it isn't so bad. Last year the first time I really experienced racing in large junior fields with many aggressive riders was in Quebec at the Tour de L'abitibi. I remember how scared I was when people would kinda shove me over and now I just nudge them back.

Other than the racing we haven't been doing a whole lot, yet it seems we are always super busy. I don't even know where all of this time has gone, because it is not really like I have been doing anything... It's funny the days seem to go by slowly-ish, but once I look back it's crazy to think 6 days have already gone by. What I'm most excited for though is the race in the Czech Republic which we will be leaving for tomorrow. It is going to be awesome. A ton of national teams will be there because it is a really highly classified race. It's called the Peace Race, and is supposed to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest, junior stage races in the entire world. Some call it the Tour de France for juniors. There is a fair amount of climbing and a time trial, so the race should suit me extremely well. I can't wait to go not only just to race but it should be cool to see a new country, and drive through two others. I guess we will be driving on the Autobahn for a while which will be pretty sweet.

After the Czech Republic, three of the kids we are here with (actually four but there are currently only five of us, and another comes in late tonight to accompany us to the Czech) will return home to the US and my teammate Rob Bush and I get to stay a bit longer and do another tough stage race, this time in the Netherlands called the Ronde Van Axel. I am really excited to participate in these competitive races and just so pleased that I have this awesome opportunity to come over here and race. It is pretty sweet.

Sorry about the lack of updates so far, I will try to start updating more often, especially if we have internet in the Czech Republic. The time just seems to have disappeared I don't even know where it has gone... I really can't remember even doing a whole lot other than racing, training, eating, sleeping, grocery shopping, and wandering around Promo fashion (the shop for cheap clothes in Belgium, kind of like the equivalent of a payless shoes or Steve and Barry's or something in the US). We really like promo fashion, it is especially entertaining because they have these T-shirts with English writing on them. It is similar to how many of us in the US have some shirts that maybe have Japanese or some other language written on them but we have no clue what it actually says. Well obviously the people making the shirt don't have a clue what it means either, because these shirts say the funniest things, they say things that don't even make sense or are written with poor grammar, and some of the words are even spelled incorrectly. We get a pretty good kick out of it.

Well I guess that's enough for now, I will continue to update you all as much as I can. I hope all is well at home or wherever you are. Maybe next time I will have some great results to share as well.

Until then,

Larry