Peace Race Tales of the Czech Republic

12 Hour drive then when we got to Litomerice in the Czech Republic everything was closed so wehad a granola bar each for dinner. 

Tuesday:
Spin for about 90min through Litomerice in the rain.

Stage 1:

It was a 17k loop followed by 8 10k loops within the town. The larger loop was nothing big and nothing really got away I was just chillin at the front
of the group the entire time. There were two cobbled sections on the smaller loop and the first time through the second section was when my seatpost
busted and the saddle's nose went almost completely down. The small loop had about 10 corners, two downhills, a complete 180 degree turn, one flat
cobbled section and another cobbled climb. With 20k to go in the race the peloton got way to bunched up in one of the corners and the guy next to me
took me out. I got immediately back on my bike and started chasing, but somehow my rear tire was flat and the neutral support vehicle was across the
street where the entire caravan was driving. It took them about 45seconds to get to me and another 40seconds to change the wheel which my gears did not
work with. I spent the last 20k chasing off the back alone and in the rain.  Grant and Joey both went down on the flat cobbled section after it rained a little bit.  

Stage 2:

1800 feet of climbing over three KOMs. The first hill I stayed with the main group and we caught the leaders on the downhill. The second hill I was
gapped a little off the back of the main group and the third mountain was when I was shelled out of the back of the main group and could not chase
back on. After the third climb it was 25km to the finish which I did mainly alone, but caught one guy who I worked with to the finish. Grant crashed and
had to get a his bike replaced, but he eventually worked his way up.  Everyone else stayed up that day. 

Stage 3a:

12km with one medium sized hill climb. My legs were starting to feel better that day and I felt like I could put down a good TT. They started us at 1min intervals and I was third to go. With about 4km to go in the TT I caught my
one minute man and by the finish I was about 400m away from my two minute
man. I got 67th and the best placed guy on the team got 8th.  

Stage 3b: 

My legs still felt really good from the morning TT and I was looking forward
to the RR. I was waiting around the roll out about 20min from the start
waiting for them to do roll out and with about 10min to go everyone made a
mad dash to the start line and there was no roll out. I got stuck in the
back of the pack at the start and starting moving up the pack immediately
when at about 2km into the race there was a big crash that I went down in. I
got back up immediately and yanked the bike free from the pile up and
started to chase back on. The crash happened because the police did not
completely pull a semi off the road and the road went from two lanes plus to
3/4 of a lane instantly. Needless to say there definitely was not enough
room for everyone on the road and the guy two ahead of me went down and I
just kind of rolled over the top of him and hit the ground with no damage. I
spent the rest of the race chasing back on and eventually caught a group of
about 30 guys that had two of my teammates in it. When I caught the group Grant had just attacked on one
of the smaller climbs and gotten away. Then with about 10km to the finish my
team mate Zach and I rolled away on one of the climbs and just went with it.
We took one other guy with us and we worked nicely together until about 1km
to go when Zach and I attacked the dude we were with. The group of thirty
finished a little ways behind us.  

Stage 4:

This was one the decisive day. It was one 20km climb followed immediately by
a 4km climb with the course crossing into Germany at about 50km in. I got
shelled with 2km to go in the big climb and couldn't really rail the
downhill since it was pouring rain. I caught a group of 8 guys who were
intent on just pedalling easily to the finish. I attacked this group on the
second climb and got really far away from them. When on a flat section they
all pulled up along side me drafting off one of the follow cars which
needless to say made me very angry. I hopped on the back of this group which
had one of my teammates in it. I was on the back of the line when the guy in
the middle of the line couldn't take the pace anymore and just popped
leaving Joey (my teammate) and I screwed over behind him. I jumped around
but couldn't close the gap down to the car. I was so pissed at the guy that
I attacked him and did a solo 60km TT to the finish. BTW the course profile
says flat but it was not even close to flat. Near the finish I keep getting offers to stop and drink some
beer with those watching the race which put me into a much lighter mood and
I  laughed about it after the finish. We ate lunch in Germany and it was
really gorgeous out. One guy Polish guy broke his leg on the downhill. 

Stage 5:

101km long with with four 300m climbs and four 200m climbs to make a total
of 6000feet of vertical. My legs were dead from the day before and I lost
contact with the group over the third climb. Before the race the Team
Director told us if we weren't with the main group at 50km to go then we
should find Alex (sogneiur) and pull out of the race to get ready for the 12
car ride home. I pulled out at the fourth climb where Alex was and got to
laugh at those who came up the climb. I rode with one of the guys on the
German track worlds team and just enjoyed the beautiful day. I also snapped
some photos of the concentration camp in Terenice. Overall, two guys
finished and the top place guy was in 24th. (The ride home is a story onto
itself.)

2007 Jr Road Nationals

Junior Road Nationals 2007

Ben Barsi-Rhyne 17-18

Time Trial: The equipment I was using was a 2006 Trek TT bike with a Zipp rear disc and Hed-3 tri-spoke front wheel. My time was 27.29. The time trial started with the usual hour long warm up which was pretty uneventful I talked with some of the guys I spent time with in Europe. I was excited for the time trial because it would be the first time I would be riding my new TT bike and a disc not to mention the front tri-spoke. I was chasing Danny Summerhill which was good for me and ended up in 34^th place. I think I could have gone much faster because my cranks locked up trying to accelerate out the first turn around. My pedals also locked up a few more times throughout the race causing a loss of about a minute (would have put me in the top 10). Overall it made me excited to do time trials and wanting to work on that in the off season.

Road Race: The equipment I was using was a 2007 Trek 5.5 Madone with Cane Creek Aros 58 carbon wheels. The race was a very hilly course and was either up or down. There was a large crash supposedly involving upwards of 70 people including Justin Williams (deep lacerations to leg), David Talbot (broken collar bone), Alex Wick (broken collar bone), as well Andy Goessling (lacerations to face and danger of losing an eye). I was dropped on the last climb of the final circuit before the group reached the final stretch. I finished 67^th place soft pedaling the last 12 or so miles to save my legs for the upcoming week long stage race in Quebec. Still feeling kind of burnt from my stint in Europe.

SoCal Elite Track Champs: Read It & Weep. Really.

Sometimes the margin between victory and ..... , well whatever 2nd place is, is so small. Yet it has such a profound effect on one's psyche. Roger is an outstanding pursuit rider, and certainly deserved his win. He was 4th at Elite Nats last year, and it is great just to be this close to him. However, both of us need to do a lot better at 2007 Elite Nats in 2 weeks!

Photo credits go to Rob Evans. And congrats to Shelley Olds!

Out Witted and Out Gunned in Benicia

For various reasons I showed up in Benicia to race in the 45+ race only. With only one race for the day I was ready to cause some damage. Or so I thought.

The first hiccup was that Don Langley of Morgan Stanley showed up. The problem is that he's strong enough to at least follow most all attacks and then he'll smoke you in the sprint. The second hiccup was that after only a few laps the group split and I found myself in the front group of about 12. You'd think that was good and it might have been except that I was outnumbered 4 to 1 by Morgan Stanley.

Next (and this is the outwitted part) Dan Smith took off with over half of our 45 minutes still to go. Solo. On a windy course. Everybody knows that isn't going to stick. Which is of course exactly what happened. With our small group everybody wanted to attack and bridge across (myself included), but there weren't enough of us to attack repeatedly which would bring Dan back. So, I'd go and get caught a half lap later. Then after a lap of going slow, somebody else would go and get caught. Then slow. Then attack. You get the idea. Morgan Stanley was in the catbird seat. They had a guy up the road and they were thinking. "Sure. Go ahead and chase him down, then Don will win the sprint." I made a number of attacks but none of them were strong enough to open up a gap. One or two guys would always get on and we'd get caught in a half of a lap. (The out gunned part.)

At around 5 to go Mac Thompson of Team Spine attacked. I decided to let him go. I'll show those MS riders by letting somebody else beat me! :-) Seriously, I had to gamble. Chasing Mac wasn't going to help my placing. I could only hope that somebody else would take charge. But that didn't happen. Finally, on the last lap Chris Black of Morgan Stanley attacked on the hill and once again we flinched as nobody wanted to kill themselves right before the sprint. So we sprinted for 4th and guess who won the field sprint. Don of course. I was able to salvage something by placing 5th behind Don.

All in all though it was a fun race. It was a good, new course and it's nice to do a race that is only 20 minutes from my house.

I miss Larry too!

More track

P.S. I miss Larry

Schooled!!

District Elite Track Championships this last weekend.

I thought I knew what fast was. Look like I will have to repeat kindergarten. In individual pursuit (4k) I rode a decent time of 4:57. Not spectacular, but solid. Then Roman Kilun rolled up a very nice 4:53. While Roman and I rolled around the infield, Ben Jacques-Maynes put down a blistering 4:41. This dude belongs in Beijing Velodrome, August 2008. No kidding, he's the real thing. If you see him, be sure to remind him of that.

In team pursuit, the "Dangerous Camels" (Brian Peterson, Tom Fahey, Michael Hutchinson and me) rolled up a nice 4:51, with a few bobbles here and there, and came second to Ben's team.

I love track. SoCal next weekend.

Masters Track Nats: Parting Comments

1. Watching Rich Meeker and Larry Nolan tactically pick apart the 45+ points race was incredible. Rich gets in a 5-man break with Shawn Wallace, plays it conservatively in the chase for early points. Larry bridges across to the break. Rich attacks the break, while Larry goes to the front to block. Rich rides between the break and the back of the field, rolling up sprint points. Then Rich closes down the gap with the field, getting 20 more points and securing his win. Amazing.
2. Larry, with a dislocated shoulder, mounting his bike for the Team Pursuit start with Rich and others and riding the mandatory 1/2 lap so that the team is not DQ'ed. Courage defined.
   
3. Rich and teammates riding to silver in Team Pursuit with only 3 riders. Tenacity and heart. Photo above is Rich et al.