Update: 7 months post - Euro trip

I still have very vivid memories of all the cool things I saw and did, and I still want to return and see and do even more.

The 2009 road bike season has begun. I am on the Swami's FPPI Development Team

So far I've raced against most of the teams in Tour of California coming up ( Fly V - Successful Living, Team type 1, Jelly Belly, Ouch, along with a few riders from Rock Racing, Liquigas, Cervelo test team, Colavita-Sutter Home, BMC, and Bissel. Racing is at another level from previous seasons, but I feel I'm stronger as well and look forward to getting some notible results at the elite level.





Racing in the snow in San Diego

my little flyer before I pulled out (to avoid frost bite / hypothermia)

Swami's teammate Corey on Flandis' wheel (they did all 90 miles !?!)


- Oh ya, I also got in one last race with SDSU cycling team before I graduated, I tried Cyclo-cross, which is a blast!

Now I'm still involved with the team and serve as the teams coach. It's going well.

Remembering Belgium

Belgium truly felt like a second home. Westrozebeke and West Flanders in general is an awesome area. It's a slow and relaxed lifestyle out in the countryside with a web of great cycling paths to explore.

The racing is tough and always available to bring the pain with a racing calender that seems to average about 5-6 races a week all summer.

The people are nice with a good percentage speaking english.

The beer, my god it was so good, way better than I imagined, the 'regular' belgium beers are quality beverages, but the trappist beers are truly a heavenly indulgence that even the monks that make it approve of. Westvletern trappist truly is the best beer in the world.

The love for Tom Boonen and all things cycling is cool.

Here are a few more photos to better share the experience of Belgium


kermesse racing



tackeling the kemelberg



joy riding with kyle and bryan



They love Tom and cycling in Belgium



Adventures of Tommeke



No, I didn't drink ALL of them

Le Alp D'Huez

Rob and I have conqured the Alp on our first day, it is really tough and is going to be so intense on the day the tour rolls through. It is already crazy packed with people, our place is so amazing, hopefully some photos from our balconey and rides can follow!

more soon, merci

Pics from Belgium

Sweet bike path


Brugge


Kortjrik


Ice cream in Brussels, ummm

Belgium and Paris (ahhh-mazing)

Sorry for the 'no post'. Internet has not been available. I've been too busy being Euro I guess.

The Races: Kermese coursa - In my first race a true kermese with like a 6km circuit, I got dropped early on and finished on lap 4 of like 12 laps. The race was hard from the gun and my hands and wounds from the crash made my bike handeling even weaker than usual, so I wasn't right on the wheels and where I needed to be in the draft, so I was near the back then gapped off, and race over quick.
The second race was more of a criterium than kermese, there was some wind and at times I had to drill it as hard as I could when we turned into the headwind sections (to stay in the draft) and even on the wheels it was super hard and fast into the wind. I was in the action which was really fun and exciting (and hard) and finished top 30 in the money! (winning like 20 euro is a lot of usd).

Enough about the bike racing, we made a trip to Paris. The sights where amazing and the fun and nightlife was so sweet. The first night found us buying some drinks and making are way to a club/concert that was getting out, next thing we know we're on a bus to the after-party. The place was a total underground scene that during the day is a museum or aquierium at night a club. There was a huge fish tank that took up the entire wall to ceiling behind the DJ with huge tuna swiming around. I met myself a beautiful british girl (honestly I think she was a model) and we hit it off quite nicely (we'll always have paris) and later when the club closed at like 4am the fellas and I found ourselves walking back to the hotel!! after not to much sleep the next morning I got up and found my way around the beautiful city with Kyle (from missouri) and Gavin (Stanford) and stopped at cafes on the champs, saw the eiffel tower, and various touristy stuff.

I plan to post a couple cool pics taken so far.

hope to post again soon

Belgium Baby!

Made the long flight safe and sound. Landing in Brussels, Belgium, its cool here.

Riding here is cool, bike paths and beautiful countryside everywhere.

The grocery store was quite interesting! The house is super nice.

More details and updates to come when available.

:-)

Pesky RR / Goal Achieved

So Saturday was the "Coastal Classic" Pesky RR. Cat 3 was 75 hilly miles with hill-top finish. I know this race pretty well and tried to stay relaxed for most of the ride, but also without a team go with any big or promising breaks.
The second time up the climb I followed wheels and was in a break of maybe 10 riders but we didn't try to open the gap and I sat up as we got caught and just waited till the final climb. A break escaped on last lap and at the bottom of the climb had built a lead of about 50 seconds I was third wheel behind 2 webcore's they set a solid pace for a bit at the bottom. However there was too many people able to stay with that pace and there was the break up the road that needed to be caught! I took the speed up a notch, planning on being on the front only a bit, but I looked back and we're strung out, I kept the pace going and then wanted the webcore guy (Billy) to pull through he stayed back. It was tough cause this guy was a good climber with me, not really pulling through, but willing to attack, AND a break was up the road that we needed to catch. We caught the last guy of the break with about 1 k to go and soon Billy put in an attack that I couldn't go with so he won by less than 10 seconds, I turned around and couldn't see the 3rd place rider, earning a solid 2nd place.


I had a goal that before I went to Belgium that I make Cat 2, this 2nd place gave me 8 points and with a few collegiate results and 4th GC at San Dimas Stage Race I have the points to upgrade. So even though I didn't win which would have been nice, I did what I needed to, to achieve a bigger goal of Cat 2.

I'm nervous to race with pro 1/2's but look forward to the challenge and growth it presents myself.

Now I need to switch gears and think about flats, sprint intervals, and Kermesse's in Belgium.