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...