Blogs by Professional Cyclists - Professional Cycling Unplugged™

Although the 2nd half of this cycling season is about to get under way, it’s really the start of mine. Unfortunately, for a nonsalaried professional mountain bike racer, I need to make money somewhere else. Even though I don’t make a salary, I must give a plug to Trek for sponsoring me. I’m fortunate to have a group of people like that supporting me.

Luckily, I’ve suffered, scraped, begged and banked on my naivety for the last 5 years and have created a business that has become a viable source of income – albeit with a flexible schedule. (Read as: can work any 16 out the 24 hours, 7 days a week) I feel very fortunate to do what I love for work, but sometimes it’s tough when both of your full-time passions meet each other head on, going 80 mph. Such was the case this year. Ironically, with our economic climate about as comfortable as Antarctica in July, I’ve been very busy. In addition, I stacked my race schedule pretty high earlier this year – but when pushing came to shoving came to punching, I had to find creative ways to stay fit, without racing – or riding. Did I succeed? Maybe, maybe not, but I gave it the ol’ college try and I’m relatively fit.

I’ve been traveling quite a bit for work this summer with trips to India, France and soon, Jamaica. It’s hard to get into a rhythm, but judging by my last race, I bet I can get into race shape by . . . mid August.

Photos to come shortly…

Thanks for reading.

km

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Posted under MTB: ENDURANCE, TOUR OF CALIFORNIA

Sorry troops the long anticipated report has finally arrived, I’ve been busy, lazy and busy some more

Prologue, Sacramento

Well not much to report on this lil excursion? The crowd was massive ( I guess seeing as how the big man was back that might equate into it) I was actually the first rider off to start the 09 Edition so I guess that was a good thing to be? At least I held the fastest time till the next guy come in Ha! It was also good to finally be lining up in the Rock kit and the Anarchy version we raced for ToC didn’t disappoint the fans.

Stage 1, Davis – Santa Rosa

Well as expected it was a tad wet today, a lot of riders just wanting to get this stage over and done with. About 6km into the stage Paco rode past me and said he was cold and attacked up the road to get warm. No one reacted so of he went on his merry little way. As he attack Carlos Sastre called him a junior for attacking so early! But as it turned out Carlos had to eat those words as Paco at one point lead the stage by well over 8minutes and then hung onto that lead by 1minute at the finish. We actually thought it was more? There were a couple of nasty lil climbs on route that split the field up into a few groups towards the finish, Oscar finished with a 20 or so man group behind Paco. An awesome day for us at Rock, first race of the season, new riders, new directors, a stage win in Americas biggest race and a Yellow, Sprint, KOM and Courage’s Jersey to top it all off!

Stage 2, Sausalito – Santa Cruz

Forecast for the day, Rain, Rain and if we didn’t know some more Rain! The heavens opened pretty much as soon as the flagged dropped. But first we had 10km neutral (in the rain) while we rode over the Gateway in San Fran. No view to be had though just mist and low clouds! The plan was to let something roll off the front with minimal threats to Paco and then roll the front to protect his lead. Well it was flat out from the gun everyone wanted to be up the road, but the early rolling terrain made it very hard to get a nice little group away so we could settle it down. Eventually a group rolled off, about 7 or 9 guys which was a little bit bigger than what we wanted but had to settle for that. We kept them at a safe distance for most of the day. As we rolled along the coast it was so damn cold and windy! I think we were doing about 30kph for a bit and that was going pretty solid? Eventually we turned inland for the final ascent of the day, job done for most of us and we waved adios to the pointy end of the peleton. Levi was on a mission and ended up holding off the rest of the field at the finish and taking the overall lead. Bit of a bugger but also a slight sigh of relief

Stage 3, San José – Modesto

Yes rain again and to make things more enjoyable a little detour up the infamous Sierra Road (normal raced up at the end of stages in previous tours) not sure why we needed to go up it 10km into the stage as no GC guys were gonna attack and try and ride out there all day. All it did was crash a few guys out down the other side due to icy cold wet conditions. My good buddy from TT1 (Ian “Mad Dog” MacGregor) decided to shoot off course and take on a pick up truck that was parked in some ones driveway. I think the truck actually came off second best?? After that detour we basically sat in the field the whole day trying to stay warm and make light hearted jokes to pass the time. Levi dumped himself at one point after clipping Lances rear wheel and now as I write this I here he did actually crack something apart from his pride. It stopped raining after we got out of the hills and warmed up a fraction. I kinda felt like I was back in Belgium with all the lefts and rights we were taking on our way to the finish in …….. I’m sure there was a more direct route but nothing like a scenic one hey. It didn’t rain any more but we must have had a good storm in front of us all day as the roads were covered in giant puddles and the finishing circuit was drenched making for some slippery conditions

Stage 4, Merced – Clovis

First good climbing day was upon us and low and behold, not a cloud in the sky. Still a little cool but there no complaints from anyone for that. Paco and Tyler managed to get into the main move of the day over the first few climbs. Paco eventually sat up once he had gathered enough KOM points and let Tyler and the two other escapees roll off. Astana was never gonna let Paco stay away for too long so he came back to the bunch no probs and rested up for the next few days in the safety of the field Astana rolled a pretty good tempo all day and kept the break close enough to entice the sprinters teams to give chase towards the end of the day. There were some nasty spills witnessed by my eyes today. I was riding just off to the left of Kirchen when he got his vest caught in his front wheel, he was also riding no hands on the bars and that my friends is a long ways down! Next spill I witnessed whilst at the team car grabbing bottles, BMC had Scott Nydam in front of me grabbing some bottles to but he must of hit a bump right next to the team car and crashed along side them nearly running him over. His bike blew into pieces and making its way under his team car to a nice grinding sound. So here I was with a back full of bottles, one in my left hand (so only one hand on the bars) and a rider, a BMC exploded all over the road and a team car coming to a grinding holt! Moses would have been proud of me as I don’t think even he could of parted all that like I did! Back into the safety of the field and the lads all re-hydrated it was time to take a moment..

Tyler and Co were caught at about 2km to go and it was a huge bunch kick, definitely a strange finish with Lances yellow chalk all over the road in various writings for the last 500m, it made for a nasty yellow dust cloud that was great for breathing in and visibility.. Tyler and Paco made the podium that day for the KOM and Courage’s Jerseys

(4 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE, TOUR OF CALIFORNIA

I had every intention of updating the blog during the race, but that clearly did not happen!  Where do I even begin…?  

The Tour of California is always a fantastic race, and this year was no exception.  The weather was clearly a huge factor the first few days of the race.  I was wearing every piece of cycling clothing I had packed, but I was still cold.  We were shivering out there, but the amazing crowds kept me going.  I could not believe how many people were at each stage, especially when the weather was so foul.  Thanks to everyone who came out to support us on those tough days in the rain and cold!  

My favorite day of the race was definitely the last day.  My legs were finally coming around and I felt great on the bike.  It was a tough stage, but it was exciting for me because I live in Carlsbad and train in that particular area quite frequently.  I also had a lot of friends who came out to watch and that made it all the more important.  I will say that training on Palomar was a bit different than racing up Palomar!  We made it into Escondido and Floyd gave me a great lead out as we came through the last few corners.  I thought the finish was 200m from the last corner, so imagine my surprise when I saw the 300m to go sign!  My legs felt pretty decent, so I gave it my best shot and ended up fourth.  Not a bad day, but I look forward to improving my result next year.  

I was meant to race in the Tour of Mexico, but I have a bit of tendonitis in my knees, so I will be resting up this week.  San Dimas and Redlands are next on my race calendar.  These are always great events and I enjoy racing close to home.

(6 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE, TOUR OF CALIFORNIA

Crashes happen. Never at the right moment, but I have always figured that it is not a questions of if, but when. My Tour of CA ended on Tuesday. I was helping chase back on the bunch after a enormous climb and hit a road reflector in a bad way and ended up sliding off the road. What was initially thought to be a broken femur turned out to be a fractured Pelvis. It hurts really bad. I am fairly tough and have broken quite a few bones crashing and this is by far the worst thing I have gone through. But, it could have been worse…..

While I say that hurting yourself is part of cycling, there is some very psychological about affecting your ability to walk or pedal a bike. I ended up on crutches and can’t ride for a while and it scares me. Breaking a collarbone is so much better because I can sit on the trainer and deal with the pain and trauma through exercise. Now, I can’t walk, I can’t get out of bed, I can’t do anything, I can’t make myself lunch, I can’t ride. Riding is my life, my job, my hobby, my passion and I can’t do anything. Depression is not severe enough to describe how it feels. But, it could have been worse.

Me, being who I am is already thinking about coming back. My team wants me to be there, but of course don’t rush things. I am scared I won’t be as good as I was. This makes me think about whether I was any good to begin with. I wish that I had someone to talk too. I don’t like being the guy who complains, so I usually just say that I will alright. Hoping I can convince myself as well as who ever I am talking too. Reassurance is hard to come by when you actually need it. I just want to wake up and have my leg work. But….. it could have been worse…..

(12 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Posted under TOUR OF CALIFORNIA

I don’t even know where to begin. Hopefully the tv coverage has done the tour justice. The weather has been unreal. Rain and rain and wind and cold and rain and cold and cold…..

The race started with prologue which went great for Bissell. We had the top 2 domestic riders and were 4th on the team GC, also best domestic team. The weather was even pretty good. It started to rain just at the end of the day. God I wish I could say the same about stage 1….

Yesterday we raced from Sacramento to Santa Rosa. It was HORRIBLE. I don’t know if in 6 years as a pro I have done 180km in the rain. It was cold, so cold. Since Saxo Bank won the prologue with Cancellera they let a couple of guys go, the first being Mancebo. He stayed away due to one serious miscommunication issues between Astana and the officals after Fabian!!! pulled the pin in the feed zone. I also saw Lance and Sastre crash. Carlos slid on his butt for about 20 feet! Mancebo stayed away because he is not human and the rat of us survived….

Today we raced in the same god aweful conditions. Maybe if I am not brain dead tomorrow I will write something. I spent most of today either riding in the wind or in the caravan getting bottles and dropping and picking up rain jackets….

Omer Kem

(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Posted under TOUR OF CALIFORNIA