Blogs by Professional Cyclists - Professional Cycling Unplugged™

I meant to update again a few days after my last post. That didn’t happen, so here I am….

In the previous chapter of my crazy life I thinking I was talking about Cascade. I don’t want to talk about that anymore. There are plenty of race reports to read and tell you all about Rock Racing and Operation Puerto kicking me and my team in the head….

Something much entertaining is the story about me trying to get to Grand Rapids for a sponsor race. So, it all begins at 3:30am on Thursday morning. My flight leaves at 6am and it’s a hour drive to the airport. The airport is a flurry of activity at 4:45am as I am standing in line to check in. I have a bike as well as my duffel because after this weekend in swampy GR, I go straight to a Utah training camp. I think the Albanian national Basketball team was there in front of me, aka massive skinny white guys, taking up lots of time. My airline of no choice is United. The person at the counter takes a look at me and my bags and sees nothing but dollar signs. As Rick James said to Charlie Murphy, “what did the five fingers say to the face?? SLAP!!!!”….. $195 later, I am off to stand in another line….

I make it to the gate. Finally I can sit down. Seating area 3 is called eventually. I have a middle seat, glorious…. We proceed to sit for a while. Then we roll out to the runway. Now we sit for a while longer. Then the more time we spend sitting, the more my spider sense thinks something is “going pear shaped” as my director would say…. Ok, the cabin gets the ding dong. The captain says the radar doesn’t work. He also makes sure to tell us that this is important. So, after over a hour of sitting. We are going back to the gate….

Back at the gate a team of highly trained individuals are ready to fix the problem. 5min later, another ding dong tells us that the radar is broken. But it can be replaced!!! But there isn’t a unit in Portland to replace it with, damn!!!! But, there is a unit in Los Angeles, hooray!!! But, it will be 5hrs before it is here, damn!!!!

So now everyone is grumbling about getting where ever they are supposed to go. Me especially because of GR being a sponsor race and all. Then as we start to file off the plane we are given a number which is the order that we shall be called to discuss the next step. I am number 154….

I am of course a very savvy traveler, so instead of waiting in line, I walk out of the gate and find another united kiosk. The very nice women says that I can go stand by on the next flight which leaves in a hour. Yes!!!! One hour later, I am bumped. Don’t worry they say. There is another flight soon. What happens again?? Bumped!!!! Damn it. What the hell!??? I was bumped from 4 flights in a row. Then, I hear the call. My original flight is fixed and now boarding. I make my way over to the gate. I have to get a new ticket or something. I walk up to the counter. Remember, I have been awake since 3:30am…. “sorry sir. You chose to go stand by. There is a premier member who has taken your seat on this flight”. What…..?? Now, envision me LOSING IT…. “sir!!!! If you don’t calm down, I will call security”…. I didn’t calm down. Security was called. They told me some things very quietly. I then calmed down. I also decided at that point I wasn’t going to Grand Rapids….

I learned something from all this…. United oversells every flight to probably still not break even financially. Don’t lose it at the airport. Waking up at 3:30am sucks. If you do lose it at the airport, you will probably not get anything from the airline in terms of compensation for how much time they wasted. Flying sucks…..

Oh, I should mention that after leaving the airport that evening. I went back the next morning. I got bumped off 3 more flights and then decided I wasn’t going to GR. United got me a flight to Salt Lake for the next Monday. I had to go to San Fran on route. Makes sense….??

So there is a day in the life of a pro cyclist. While sitting at home, not GR the next day. My manager sent me my flight to Nationals in Greenville. Guess who gets to go another round with that 6am flight to Chicago??? Gotta love it….

Omer Kem

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Posted under NON-BIKE, ROAD BIKE

Sorry for the absense. I have to say that the mid season-itis hit me hard. Every year at some point you crack. It could be a big crack, ie lose your bike for a week or little crack, ice cream/beer/ no blog bender….. I hit the latter. Life wasnt really giving me any inspiration and talking about it wasnt going to help. But, I’m back….

I cant even remember the last thing I blogged about…. Maybe Mt. Hood?? So, I will take everyone back to the middle of June. I went home after Hood happy with the way things went. We won, I got some form, things should be good…. The next race was Tour de Reno/Nez. Man, what was I thinking. Lets go do some altitude crits. Thats a great idea!! To make it even better, lets stay in a casino OFF THE STRIP of course, in Reno for 5 DAYS!!!! That will make it so much better. And you know what would really ice my cake?? Every race should start after 8pm. Because crits are way better in the dark…. Then, to top it all off, to make things really, really, really awesome…. Lets go to the hardest crit in the USA and race with Lance, Levi and of course, Horner. What a great week. My teammate Gramo did pretty well. Mach 5 crashed on the last day of tour de Reno. The crash was bad and hilarious at the same time. Where did all this leave me?? CRACKED…..

Moving back to Oregon was next on my list of things to do. Family and a dislike for Boulder sent me packing after tour de Reno. 3 weeks in Salem and then I went to Bend for a little training camp before Cascade. I am pretty lucky to live so close to such a great race. My team had big aspirations and I wanted to make sure I was ready. After some serious training hours the race finally came. Who knew leading up to the event that it would be the best/deepest/baddest field in the races history?? I felt like I was ready for battle, but littile did I know what was coming…..

Stay tuned for the next installment of how Omer got kicked in the head for a week in eastern Oregon. Thanks for reading….

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE, SEA OTTER CLASSIC

This pic pretty much sums up what last week was for me. The team rode great and we won the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. Being from Oregon I am very pleased with this results. We also won the team GC which is always nice….

Stage 1 was a prologue. I HATE prologues, but lucky for me my teammates dont. 3 guys in the top 10 was pretty good. Stage 2 was a circuit race that was basically 9 miles of climbing each lap with a twisty decent and a flat section complete with a super fast feed zone. The prologue winners team surprised me by trying to ride tempo early in the 5 times up the hill. I figured that with a Bissell guy in 2nd place they would have just looked at us to control things if we wanted to try and win. Lucky for me and my teammates, we didnt have to start riding till the last 2 laps. We took 4min out of the break by the last 3km and my mtn goats aka teammates smashed everybody to go 1-2 and take the GC lead. Stage 3 was a very hard 30km TT. IT was complete with block head wind which made everybody a lot slower than previous years. Being that it wasnt a double day I wanted to go hard. I probably made it 3/4’s of the TT before realizing that I was going to have to ride tempo all day the next day. I ended up correct in this assumption because my mtn goat teammate turned into a rocket for the day and only lost 3sec to a really, really good TT monster. Stage 4 was exactly as a I hoped and I rode tempo for 140km with one teammate. AWESOME!!!! Again we had the glorious block head wind for the last half of the race. Things got a little crazy on the first climb of the day with the 2nd GC guy attacking but all was good as 4 guys finally rolled away. I found out later that a large portion of the field got dropped early. It was probably wasnt a fun day if you were hurting from the gun. My mtn goats returned and ended up 3rd on the day and kept the GC lead. Stage 5 was a crit. I hate crits. I think I actually have a negative amount of fast twitch muscles and after doing everyday in the tour on the front, I was a little cooked. 3 of us rode tempo from the gun and a big break went up the road. Thank god no one was threatening in there although the 2nd place GC rider made it hard on us. The team came together and we all made it happen to win the tour. I was proud of the guys this week. Controlling the race with only 5 riders was way too much work but we got it done….

I also have to throw out a big shout out for my man Kirk O’bee for getting on the podium at Philly. BOO YAH….!!!!

(5 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE

Not much has been going in my bubble lately. The weather has been good and with not much racing going on it meant it was time for training!!! I wasnt really happy with the way I felt at the Gila. The problem was probably too much racing and not enough training after I sat around for a month being broken. So, lots of hours have been my goal since recovering properly from racing with Lance in New Mexico….

Yesterday there was a local race in Boulder. Lucky for me, it started 3 blocks from my house. Not so lucky for me, it was basically a who’s who of pro’s and ex-pro’s that live in and around Boulder. I decided that it would be a great idea to do 3.5 hours in the mountains before the race. I have been training a lot lately right?? Man, that was dumb. I pretty much got kicked around a 1km circuit for 70 minutes. I guess 2/3rds of the field DNF’d but thats probably because some of them were actually racing. For me, it was probably good training to sit 20th wheel and suffer and suffer and suffer. I won’t do more than a hour before the next “local” Boulder race….

Something else I thought we should discuss is this “anti-inflammatory” diet. Is it a new fad or the new hope for us all to be faster?? I wonder if beer is part of the diet? Or do I have to switch to Tequila because of all those hops? These are other questions such as if cake is bad, should we switch to ice cream cake? Or how about the age old question, rice vs pasta, the battle of dinner…..

(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE

The 2009 Tour of the Gila was a success for myself and Bissell Pro Cycling. Going into the race we knew it would be tough because some bike shop in Texas hired some “ringers” to win the race. 2/3rds of these “ringers” also showed up last summer at Cascade so I had a idea about the outcome of the race….

Stage 1 of the Gila changed last year with the TT moving to Friday and a road stage starting the race. This seemingly small shift drastically changed the race. In years past the TT on day 1 shaped the GC and if the winner had a strong enough team, they would defend throughout the road stages. This year the race began with 2hrs of attacking. My teammates and I covered and covered and covered till finally no one had any water left and then I went back. Of course the race hadnt stopped so the break went and we were lucky to have a guy in there. The ringers started to ride and got some help from a canadian team that didnt make the break. I was lucky enough to also ride the front for a while to the finish climb because we had 2 guys who were capable of being top 10 overall. The head ringer killed everyone and took the leaders jersey. All in all it was a decent day for the team and we had a couple of guys in the top 15….

Stage 2 is the so called sprinter stage since there is only 5000+ft of climbing. A couple of years ago this stage was really windy and Slipstream killed everyone on the opening 20km of climbing. This year the wind wasnt so bad, but those damn ringers threwdown a bit. I think 80+ guys were dropped less than half way into the stage. My day was spent getting bottles and making sure my guys were happy and out of the wind. A early break came back as it usually does, the canadian team missed the break again and helped chase again…. The sprint had little priority for us, but we snuck a guy into the top 10. The GC remained unchanged….

Stage 3 was the TT. My GC guys had excellent rides and moved into the top 10 with 2 more guys in the top 25. We were all happy and knew that if everyone survived the crit the next day. Stage 5 with it’s 10,000ft of climbing would be decisive…..

Stage 4 was the crit and also the windiest day of the week. We were told to relax, keep the GC guys safe and stay out of trouble. The race was battered by the wind and made it almost impossible for any type of break to stay away. Probably the most impressive thing was that there no crashes till 2 laps to go. Then all hell broke loose and there were probably 3 big ones in the last 2 laps. Crits are stupid…..

Stage 5 at Gila is probably one of the hardest days in the US. Maybe top 2 if you dont count any of the stages at Tour of CA. My director told us to carpet bomb those ringers from the start and it worked out when 2 guys got into the break of the day. The rest of us settled into taking care of the GC guys. I guess there were a couple of big crashes which I didnt even know happened. The biggest fight of the day came going into the first big climb of the day. Every team wants to be at the front and it takes some serious energy from the guys like me to make sure the GC guys are there. My guys rode awesome and ended up 6th on the stage and we had 3 guys in the top 15 overall. Good enough to win the team GC which is a great thing….

(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE