I'm back. Feed me, please.

Nick and Karl (and Karl's giant truck). Brothers.


Just got back from a nice little home visit up in Davis, WV. Touched base with the crew that pretty much makes what I do happen...or at least enjoyable. Hung out with Matt, Jason and Roger @ Blackwater bikes and witnessed one of the new WV 29'er team bikes get built and weigh in under 21 pounds! BWB seems to be cranking up nicely for '07 with bikes and other retail stuff starting to disappear at the quicker Spring rate. Ran into most of the locals including Gary Berti who always seems to be sawing or building something in his backyard that he shares with the bike shop. The Cyrs cheffed up an amazing SUPER-steak dinner for Matt and I - the second welcome back dinner since we returned from our trips ( the first being from Saundra Goss at Sirianni's on Friday night). The roll continued with an awesome Turkey dinner at my parent's house in Aurora on Sunday night with both the Cyrs and Matt. Matt told a bunch of really cool stories of his epic bike adventure in South America and the harsh reality of having to once again shop at the local Shop N' Save... You get the idea if you've ever been to Europe or S. America. The freshness and variety of produce and baked-goods just doesn't compare. At least we have lots of colorful packages with nice pictures on them that in no way portray what's actually inside. Anyway, thanks to all those that fed me while I was home! Matt and Roger contemplating their big order.

The New Team WV 29'er bike. Jason Cyr:"Hey, check this out". No way! CRAZY!!

And finally the big ride of the weekend to complete a tired and jet-lagged week. In the rain and nothing short of a WV style mountain throw down. A 90 mile, five hour and ten minute tour of the gritty mountain roads that built me! A flat tire from a roofing nail in hour five had me arriving home just before dinner.

On Monday morning I miraculously was able to make it to BWB before 10am and met Jason and Matt for Breakfast at the "new" Bright Morning cafe. I give it four out of five stars. I'm going to say the fifth star is for "originality" and one look at the menu will explain why they didn't get it...

Rolled into town last night. Got a visit from the Bishops on their way back from the airport. JB had a solid weekend @ NORBA # 1 in AZ. Congrats.

Today was a rest day.

Headin' to the mountains.

Pre-Stage 4 last Sunday in CA.

Man, I was wondering when my recent blog update-string was going to end... That was pretty intense. I needed a break for sure. The last few days have been completely packed with solo jet-lagged training. Basically, I didn't manage to make it out of bed before before eleven a.m. everyday and training took up the rest of the daylight hours. I finished each of the last three days after seven p.m. Finally a mellow day today with an easy couple hours with Andy Mac and his buddy Grant.

Anyway, I'm heading up to the Valley for the weekend. If anyone's looking for me it's almost a sure bet I'll be at Blackwater Bikes most of the day Saturday. Seeya soon, Roger!

My plan for Sunday is to spend 5 hours riding all over Tucker/Preston County before rolling back down to Harrisonburg to prepare for the US Open of Cycling on the 7th (Williamsburg-Richmond, 220k and live TV coverage on NBC Sports!).

Big trip #1 in the books.

Two relatively sleepless nights, thousands of miles and a gigantic cinnamon roll later, I have arrived back in the 'Burg. An hour or so after I walked through my front door Matt Marcus called to inform me that he had just flown into Dulles this morning from his huge cycling adventure through South America. Damn, that would've been the perfect ride home. I made it. Not a problem.

And how you ask? Well...

Jeff, sensing my concern for being "stuck" in the tower of doom (a.k.a Jeff's high rise DC apartment building), kindly offered me the use of his truck. He is leaving tomorrow for the early-season MTB trifecta of NORBA #1,2 and Sea Otter and I'll pick him up when he flies home on the 17th.

Dude, I made it through the chaos of Rhode Island, M St. and Georgetown fine. I only made one turn too early missing 66 on the first try. Made it on the second, though! I was on the highway rolling along listening to Ted Leo with the window down and feeling free when all the sudden... Ahhh, not so dramatic really. It's interesting to note that while traveling the forces seem to be generally against you.


A perfect travel day.



Ouuuch. Karl??



Wait, I can do this. I believe.

No damage, brother, other than the flat tire... Glad to see all the tools were where they were supposed to be. It's a good thing you had a pump in the back, too. The spare had about 5psi!

Enjoy the trip and watch out for the cacti in AZ.




Made it back to town in time to ride for a couple hours. I finished at seven this evening and the temp was still 77 degrees.

Almost there...

Yesterday was wicked, however, I finished and I'm now on my way toward actual form! 150 riders began yesterdays stage four sunset loop and 60-something finished. Painful, yet satisfying.

Spent the day in-transit from LAX to Dulles. Direct flight back to the homeland. Perfect.

Jeff Schalk picked me up a few hours ago and now I'm stuck in the Tower of Doom in DC.

Next step:

Find ride to Harrisonburg.

Hello? Anyone....??

Stage 4: Sunset road race

1:30 pm – Men - 12 laps, 146.5 km - Lots of steep, punchy climbing.
Start/Finish: Citrus Avenue, Downtown Redlands

This one's gonna hurt.


Yesterday's Crit was one of my best - ever. I say this because my three previous attempts to even finish in the group during this stage have all been futile. Yesterday wasn't a problem and for this I give many thanks to my teammate Reid Mumford for all the key tips he's offered over the last week.

My body hurts but it should stay together for today's grand finale.

OakGlen and Ted Leo

Tough day in the saddle and only a 60th place to show for it. I'll get ya the details but I'm tired at the moment so in the meantime check out this video of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. These guys really wail!

(click the play button on the bottom left to stay on "the blog")

116th out of 180.

Oddly enough, I'm not feeling like quiting after my result in today's stage 1 5k Time Trial. After all, this is time trialling. I plan to get better, honestly.

The course was fast and rolling with a climbing finish on rough roads. My lungs, as always here in the "clean" air of Redlands, were torched at the finish and I had that awful metallic blood taste in my mouth.

Tomorrow is the much more fitting stage 2 of Redlands to Oak Glen. 156K with a mountain top finish. Not sure exactly what my role will be but it will probably be riding in support of Reid who was 39th today.

I'll try to post some photo's of the amazing palace later tonight.

Getting ready for massage and dinner.

-Nick

The road to Redlands.

I'm pleased to announce that myself and four of my teammates have landed in the mother of all host-houses here in Redlands, CA. Our place sits up on a giant hill above the City. I'll post some pictures tomorrow that will explain the grandness of the place KBS will call home for the next four days during the Redlands Bicycle Classic.

I had a great nights sleep last night and woke up to one of the sunnier days in a while. The house was buzzing first thing this a.m. with riders doing laundry,going for morning rides and getting equipment ready for the mechanic to pack into the team trailer. Larry, our soigneur, spent the morning putting his care-kit together with radios, musette bags, race food and of course everything for massage. He also handed out more of our gear that is still slowly trickling in. We finally have skin suits and gloves!

My morning was consumed by cleaning up the disaster zone that has been my room for the last three weeks. I had the best room in our three story beach house as I was on the second floor with the kitchen, living room and ocean view. It was supposed to be for the mechanic but he bolted shortly after team camp. Yeah, he basically just disappeared one day and we later found the team car at the train station. It's a tough job but... Anyway, we've a new guy, Brian, who has been awesome. He's from Ventura so it's worked out well but he won't be with us all year. Just through Redlands where he'll train the new full time guy. Speaking up team staff stuff, KBS is looking for another soigneur-like helper during the Tour of Virginia. Someone to do massage, fill/clean bottles and work the feed zones. Get in touch if ya know of anyone.

On the bike:

Your Workouts for Wednesday 3/21/2007:
Workout # 1: Bike, Planned duration: 1:30, Planned distance: 0

1.5hours with 3 x 1 minutes hard, with at least 5 minutes of easy riding between each. Also do 3 x 30 seconds hard sprints, with 5 minutes between. Rest is just easy and cruising.

SuperFood Green Shake for Lunch.

Drove with Larry and Reid Mumford in the Saab wagon to Redlands along a bunch of wicked mountain ranges. Ahhh, and of course a stop @ a shady little burrito shack in Pasadena. Muy rico!

Sleep intervals

It finally rained today. Oxnard has been consumed by overcast skies and fog for the last week and a half but no rain. Everywhere to the east has been sunny with temperatures in 70's and 80's the whole time. I start my rides every day with a jacket and leg warmers only to take them off fifteen minutes later after reaching the "real" So-Cal weather.

I took Johnny Sundt to the airport this morning at four A.M. Besides the lack of sleep, it was awesome to be outside during the pre-dawn stillness with the only sound coming from the crashing waves across the beach. The smell of the ocean is pretty sharp that early in the morning. The Oxnard airport is only about seven minutes away so I was back in the sack by 4:30.

My morning, witch began around 9:30, was a little rough as some of the fog from outside seemed to be sitting on my brain.

Coffee....Coffee? Coffee!! And into the rain for a ride...

I've been feeling a bit flat the last couples weeks so I had a chat with Coach Hunter yesterday and we got the plan all dialed in. Tour of Virginia at the end of April is the center piece but for now it's all about Redlands.

My Day:

Your Workouts for Tuesday 3/20/2007:
Workout # 1: Bike, Planned duration: 2:30, Planned distance: 0

WU: 20 minutes warm-up MS: Then do (6) x 2 minutes striving for 135% with 1 minute rest between each, Then 5 minutes easy, Then 6 x 1 minute, striving for 150% with 1 minute rest, Then 5 minutes easy and finish with 6 x 30 seconds ALL out with 1 minute rest... CD: Cool down for 15 minutes of easy spinning. Try for at least 200% of your threshold watts on each sprint as an average. SHOOT for 350% of threshold watts as your max in the last 6 sprints.

Nap.

Money, stitches...

Murphy's Law conspired against KBS/Medifast yesterday as our money-man, sprinter Dave McCook, hit the pavement warming up for the Visalia Criterium. He won a sweet tendon-exposing flesh wound and a broken hand. Dave was riding a lap of the course and somehow ran into a Japanese rider who was riding the opposite direction. I came around the last turn to the finishing straight seconds after the crash and saw the bike on the ground and could tell immediately by the light color of the frame that it belonged to one of my teammates. When I got there Dave was sitting quietly on the curb sweating, looking pale as a ghost and holding his crippled right hand. It's crazy how much damage low-speed wrecks can cause as apposed to high speed wrecks where the load tends to be spread over more of the body. I don't think the Japanese guy even hit the ground. As I was talking to the paramedics and Dave trying to make sure they didn't try to snare him with a $500 ambulance ride to the hospital 3 blocks a way, and they tried along with accusing us of being too concerned with the bill, the Japanese dude says "I don't think he ride today". Needless to say, Dave is out for a while. This is a huge loss for the team and an even bigger bummer for McCook.

On a lighter note, I managed to miss the call up that Dave Towle so kindly hooked me up with. Instead of rolling easily up to the front row I was out sprinting between stop lights warming up. Tumble weeds rolled by and crickets chirped as Dave announced " The future is now! Nick Waite riding for KBS/Medifast ladies and gentlemen!". Actually the future is hangin' out at the back of the field...dang it! Sorry about that, Dave. Thanks for the love, man. I'm still working on my start line punctuality. Johnny Sundt rolled up in my place as the team's front line representative. The team road with more intent yesterday and we managed to show our selves quite a bit at the front of the race. I'm still working on being comfortable in these circuit speed festivals. From the gun it is all out efforts followed by sitting in and going again. It'll come...eventually. In the last few laps we had four guys up there with Sundt, Gilbert (the guy we're all working for), Mumford and myself. The goal was to bring Gilbert up with 4 to go and get him on the Juggernaut train of Toyota/United. We lacked a bit of horsepower with only four guys and I'm not a big help at that speed but Gilbert and Sundt stayed close landing in the money at 17th and 19th. Toyota/United's Ivan Domingez won. I finished on the tail end of that group, however, not in the money. My helper's cut was $40.00. Groceries!

I've got lot's to take care of today getting ready for a race that suits me a little better, the 4 day Redlands Cycling Classic.

The list:

Race and spare bike set-up.
insoles and shims for my cycling shoes.
easy ride
blog
nap
Chiropractor visit
foam roller/stretch

Jeremiah Bishop left me a message this morning. Sounds like he'll be pumped for some training when I get home on the 26th. When ya gonna put my link on your site, JB?

Today: Visalia Criterium (NRC)

I just found this picture of me riding in stage 2 of the Rhond L'izard in Southern France during June '05. The picture was taken with 1k to go on a mountain top finish. I was 10th over the line.

Up this foggy morning getting ready to head north for the Visalia Crit later this afternoon.

Winter again in WV. White Grass is pumped!

Chris Phillips just called me over the net. Better talk to him.

Hey Roger! Get in touch. Anyone heard from Mackie (Matt Marcus)?

Matt, get in touch unless you're being held captive @ some shady South American border.

I can't work under these conditions...

My computer is up and running finally! The last few motivated posts were due, in part, to computer-charity/pity. An hour here a charger there... In the end solving the dilemma was a simple trip to the local discount electronics store to buy a flipping charger.




I left off last week with the stage 2 Time Trial in the CVC race in Fresno. Uneventful and slow on my part. That's why I listened to fast music the whole time. Stage 3 was a criterium in downtown Fresno. The course was animated with a 180 degree "U" Turn at the end of the 500 meter start/finish drag strip. The other five corners where pretty mellow comparatively and the group was able to carry a lot of speed through them. The U Turn on the other hand had people so freaked out that there were wrecks basically every lap. Lap two was neutralized because of some random pile-up. The pack would go from 35mph down the straight to 3mph right before the death turn. The smell of burning rubber and skin completely over powered the BBQ clouds coming from the vendors lining the course.
With this being my first NRC Crit of the season and second in two years, it was an immediate struggle to sit in let alone make it to the front in order to contribute in anyway. I was pinned at the back for the first six laps at least. Once I warmed up, learned the corners and smoothed out my pack-surfing I was a little more comfortable at the highly uncomfortable speeds. The death-turn ended up being my favorite part of the course because it reminded me of the first turn the usually greets the field in the NORBA XC and Short Tracks. I just stayed off the brakes, shifted before the turn and rode the outside to avoided the carnage. This technique would be good for ten or so spots per lap. As far as how the team rode, we were all a little off the back relative to the other big teams with big representation at the front of the race. We missed all the moves but almost managed to get our main sprinter, Marten "Bam Bam" Gilbert, to the front for the sprint.
I actually used my last kick to get him up about thirty spots with three laps to go. In the last lap, however, Marten lived up to his nickname and managed to insert his rear dérailleur into someone's front wheel (sound familiar?) and destroyed his frame and carbon rear wheel. This marks Bam Bam's second complete destruction of a $7000.00 bicycle in as many weeks. All in all, Johnny Sundt still managed an 18th place on the day and $40.00 or about 8 burritos for the team. Ah, yeah.


My week has been a bit foggy for some reason. I've been sleeping a lot since the house is empty of all but three of us. Monday and Tuesday were both super mellow and I managed two decent training rides on Wed/Thurs. A bit of early season energy-lull, perhaps.

A few of the guys on the team are doing a Time Trial today up in Visalia. Only the tall guys on the team since we are still waiting for the midget TT bikes. So, that means I'm still here in OXnard wasting time on the beach, watching a lot of E! and getting educated on all my celebrity neighbors down in Malibu. According to E!, Christina Agulara lost all her "baby fat" running on the beach in Malibu with Pam Anderson. I need to talk to the team about moving camp down the PCH about 30miles next year.

Looks like the Team USA MTB'ers rocked it for the most part down in Argentina during the Pan-America championships last weekend. A medal or two in each event. Kickin'.

Ryan Trebon, '06 US XC National Champion and '07 National Cyclo-Cross Champion, stopped by the KBS/Medifast house the other night for some desert.



Hey, chocolate pudding is delicious!

Rock and Roll Time Trial

Just got back from stage 2, a 16 mile Individual Time Trial, and now I'm blogging it up in the hotel room with a California burrito in my stomach. No pressure in today's TT for me since I finished a ways back yesterday and was not riding a TT bike. The TT bikes are apparently in-transit so the team should be all set for next weekend in Vasalia. Without the pressure of crushing myself on today's flat course for a top 50 result I instead used the day for a training effort and even manage to smuggle my ipod past the officials at the start. Nice to see my good announcer friend Dave Towle at the start which meant I got a little attention amongst all the accomplished road racer guys. The course went straight through an orange grove and was completely flat with a head-wind for the most part. It was pretty funny to see guys in full TT gear going by 5mph faster than me while I'm riding the hoods, cranking out a nice Lt-tempo effort and rockin' out to Green Day's live "Foot in Mouth" album on my ipod.

Talked to my old LSV/KBS teammate Matt Cooke at the finish. He's looking lean and all Euro-styled out in his new Navigators kit. Apparently most of the climbers are getting the same treatment by their teams in the Time Trial with Cooke's road bike set up with crooked TT bars that he installed himself and me with my lone piece of "Aero" equipment being a set of KBS Shoe covers.

Tomorrow: 100k 5 corner Critierium with a a crazy "U" turn in it.

Groupetto!

That was tough. I Felt pretty good during today's 102 mile stage and was assigned to mark moves (riders trying to escape) and try get into the main breakaway. I succeeded in doing both and then floating right out of the back of the main field on the last climb in the last lap. This is not a bad thing since I absolutely sacrificed myself for the team. Today felt like one of Hunter's "Monster Gear" interval workouts. The first lap was smooth but on the a cross-wind section in the second lap someone hooked my derailleur with their front wheel. Neither of us went down but I ended up with a severely wrenched rear derailleur relegating me to a few high gears hence the "Monster Gear". I was so destroyed when Jonas (team director) came by in the Saab that I could barely pace my way up through the race caravan to make it back up to the main field. Actually, I didn't make it up at all.

I'm not sure what my result was but I know my group finished a ways back from the main field.

Tomorrow: 35K Time Trial

First race...

OK, based on the lack of comments being left on my website, I'm assuming most people have given up on my sporadic blogging. I understand. In any case, if there is any lingering interest out there whatsoever, I'm doing my first race with the KBS/Medifast team tomorrow in Fresno, Ca. It's a three day stage race called the Central Valley Classic. Tomorrow is a 102 mile road race with two good climbs each of the three laps. Saturday is a Time Trial (the mechanic is outside building the TT bikes right now in the parking lot!). Sunday is a Criterium.

www.Cyclingnews.com and www.velonews.com should have pretty good coverage. For those that still care and haven't lost all faith in my blogging frequency can also check here for a different view.

We're leaving the hotel @ 6:45 in the morning and the race start is 9:00am.

The weather is supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow and in the 80's this weekend. You guy's (WV, VA) are getting snow, right? Float the powder for me.

The Speed Clinic

Alright, I suppose it's time to explain the Speed Clinic ad you see to the right. Over the years I have dealt with a number of cycling-induced muscle-imbalances and frustrations resulting from poor bike fit. I've also been to many performance centers and biomechanical experts looking for the a more comfortable and powerful position on my bike. Well, it turns out the place I was looking for was a lot closer to home than I expected. I had the chance to visit The Speed Clinic located at the UVA hospital in Charlottesville, VA a few weeks ago just before heading out to California to start my season.




Jay Dicharry (a White Grass regular) is the fit guru. He was a little bummed that I didn't cancel when I told him I had to escape an epic snow storm in Canaan the night before in order to make the Monday morning appointment. Of course we'd both rather be shreadin' fresh pow pow at White Grass but I'm a professional and I've got a tight schedule... Luckily for everyone I made the red-dress Ski-hash Sunday. Back to the fit:




The first part of the process was a biomechanical evaluation to address problems I had already been dealing with to give him an idea of where to start. We found a host of things including core stabilization problems and lower back issues that were causing a lot of stress in my left leg.

The 3D Bike-Fit was the final step. The lab reminded me of a NASA control center with computers and high tech cameras focusing on me while I spun on a Compu-trainer in the center of the room. The cameras shoot at 250 frames per second and only pick up strategically place reflective nodes on my ankle, knee and hip joints. The cameras don't actually see me but instead create a 3d diagram of my lower body in a computer program. The whole recording process is real-time so while I pedal Jay's assistant can measure the degrees and in which planes my legs and hips are moving. From here Jay takes measurements and adjusts the bike so I end up in a more neutral and powerful position. I was also shown how to address the bike properly to keep my spine straight to keep my hips and breathing "open" rather than a curved spine that tends to shut down a lot of power and restrict breathing.




Several weeks and hundreds of miles later I'm still seeing improvement and am more comfortable on the bike than I have been in at least five years. Wish I would've found these guys sooner.

Check out their link on my site or contact me for more info.

Sunset

The last couple days have been pretty mellow. I went on a nice solo ride on Sunday and explored the area a bit. There are a lot of really good climbs in the Santa Monica mountains. Getting out there from the beach in Oxnard (where the house is) is super flat and a little smelly from the sulfur fertilizer used on all the big Lemon and Avocado farms, though.

The communities at the base on the Santa Monica range are all your typical upscale west-coast urban communities but still give the feeling of urban sprawl with no real centralized public areas like you would find in more established communities like Santa Barbara or Ventura. It's kind of a bummer to have to jump on a super busy highway to go to the grocery store or a coffee shop and still be surrounded by identical homes and people you don't know at home. Wait, you have to get in a car to go places in WV, right? Sure, but the difference is that when you're at home you are drenched in peaceful solitude with mountains and rivers sheltering your privacy. Home should be a sanctuary not a locked-door chamber.

Everyone is back from this weekend's race so the house is full again. One of my teammates, Martin Gilbert, came back wrapped in bandages from a nasty fall that left his fork snapped in half and his carbon wheels crushed and missing about half the spokes. He rode into a buddy of mine from the National Road Team when the guy crashed right in front of him at about 25miles an hour!

Jeremiah Bishop called me a few days ago. He's getting ready to leave for the Pan-American MTB Championships in Argentina. Good luck, JB.

Home alone.

While the rest of the team is racing in Merced this weekend, I'm taking this mellow weekend as a chance to explore the coast and put in some nice solo training miles. Yesterday I went into the mountains off the Pacific Coastal Highway. There are some amazing views of the Ocean after climbing about 1500' up the steep canyon roads. Once you've made it over the first steep climb from the PCH, you connect into an endless network of European-style, serpentine, single lane roads. The homes up there are incredible and are certainly owned by the rich and perhaps even famous local population.

The bummer about riding around here is that from the house in Oxnard it takes an hour of riding along the PCH in the wind to make it out to the really good, smaller roads. Yesterday I rode three hours and my average power was higher than any of the rides I did with the team earlier in the week.

All right, I suppose I should be heading in the directions on the bike. It is noon...

KBS/Medifast Pro Cycling: Team Camp

The burn-lines on my legs from the Southern California sun are beginning to settle into my first '07 tan-lines. This always "marks" the beginning of the racing countdown. As opposed to my pals in VA and WV, for the next month anyway, I'll be building my tan-lines layer-by-layer, ride-by-ride. Ahhhh.... No leg warmers, lots of Sun block. Bummer.

I've been out in Oxnard, CA just south of Ventura and north of L.A. riding with my new KBS/Medifast teammates. The travel here from Jeff Schalk's "Tower of Doom" to LAX's smog clouds was not without a hiccup or two. First, I ended up packing way too many clothes which made for insanely heavy bags that lead Jeff to remark "Ya goin' to the Oscars or something?". Just getting to my gate proved to be a challenge as I somehow managed to forget which airline I was flying on. Once again prompting commentary from Mr. Schalk: "Nick, you need to start acting less like a slack @$$ MTB'r and more like a prompt and organized road racer". So, a few call's to the command center (Chris Scott) later, I found my gate. Of course being so behind the ball always comes with consequences and my late arrival on the departing end translated into -2 bags on the arriving end. Fantastic. I feel ready, honestly.

This has by far been the most organized, intense and professionally run program I have ever been apart of. Starting with the fact that for the first time in my career I do not have to travel with bikes! I have a "training-bike" that stays at home fully equipped with Harrisonburg gravel road assaulting tires. In the loving care of our team mechanic Jonno, I have two other fully race-tuned Lemond road bikes. When I arrived at the team house on the corner of Las Palmas St. and Sunset drive I was greeted with more goodies like a Timberland travel duffel bag embroidered with my name and stuffed full of sponsor shwag all sporting the KBS/Medifast logo. Oh, yeah and like 4 pairs of timberland hiking, running, lounging and casual shoes. Nice. By the way, this is the first team I've been a part of that provided prodigious amounts of cool casual threads.

From day one the schedule cranked up to full throttle. The day's started at 7am for breakfast and riding by 9am. The riding here is pretty spectacular since our time on the bike starts and finishes each day with about 20 miles to and from the mountains along the Pacific coastal highway. The first ride the team did together, we rode a stage of the Tour of California backwards and watched the peloton roll by. The spectators along the course were all yelling, " Hey, you guys are going the wrong way!". Next year KBS will be in that race.

The riding was finished by 2pm each day and we had about an hour to chill out before the sponsor presentations and media training began. This went on for six days.

I caught a cold midway through the week so unfortunately I'm not racing with the team this weekend in Merced. On the upside I do have a three-story house on the beach all to myself for the weekend.

5th Annual Clemson, SC Training Camp

Here comes the sun?

Jeff and Nick on top of Redish Knob with Harrisonburg behind - Sunday>

I'm back in Harrisonburg, VA. In fact, I'm living here now. Going on week four and loving every spinning second of it. Turns out the city, particularly this one, is the neutral sweet-spot for winter, all-things-bike, activity. Plus, two of my training partners from the past 10 years live here. Fantastic.

The weather has been completely wild lately. Shorts and short sleeves have graced more than one ride the past three weeks. The weather has JB, Sue and I dodging the weight-room like scared ten-point Bucks on the first day of bow-hunting season in Tucker County. Ever seen An Inconvenient Truth? Yeah...

So, comeback blog #1 is up!

10:00a.m. - Day 1 - Gym. Yee bloody Ha!

On your mark, get set, go!

WVMBA Wrap up...

WVMBA: West Virginia Mountain Bike Association= Tough racing. Out of a 12 race series I managed to hit 8 events, 7 of which were points races. to qualify for the championship, I had to hit at least six + the championship race down in Barbersville, WV. Since I was only here for 7 events I had the challenge of winning all of them in order to take the overall win. I did it. Along the way I had the most satisfying WV season of my career. The mellow atmosphere of these local races were highly refreshing between the world run around that consumed most of my season. Got to travel to most of the WV throw-downs with my good friend Matt Marcus who also won the masters WVMBA overall with a perfect score of 140. Fun to cruise home every sunday with the tune of double domination victories. Not to say WV lacks in competition, in fact I felt 2006 represented the upward swing of the state series in competition and attendance as a whole from the past couple years. I know I was sweating more than usual in more than one heated battle with a Pittsburgh punk named TJ Platt. I plan to make to at least one WVMBA meeting to kick in some ideas for the future of this unique and historic series.


I finally took down my WVMBA series schedule from my fridge after a successful addition of the Tour de lilly last Saturday. Fun fun.... 10 minutes before the tour kicked off I dialed in a pair of Answer winter cycling shoes (more like combat boots) and they were frickin' amazing for the Wet and Chilly 6 hour tour. The water only made it in after the fifth hr and ninth creek crossing but still kept my tiny feet toasty for the remainder. BWB has'm at a great price so give roger a ring and get some! Well worth it for the wet/ frozen winter ahead.


With the season official over as of a week ago, I'm settling into the off-season duties of finding a team for '07 and setting up the winter training plans.

-Nick

Back Home WV

I endured another monstrous travel day back from Europe on thursday and it feels great to be back. Yesterday was a perfect home coming gift of a mellow day in Davis chillin' with the BWB boy's and getting in a good ride on the WV State Championship course across the Camp 70 bridge. Good stuff as the course is super dry and fast with a couple much improved sections from years past. Pretty much the most rideable it's been since the early Canaan Mt. Series days.

Looks like I've got a low key weekend at home until the final blast of racing begins. I'm super psyched for the up coming schedule that includes the SMT100 for the first time ever! Need to think about getting my ducks in a row for that monster...

Enjoy the weekend on some dirt.

Escape from Belgium!

After a chaotic and stress filled trip that had it's share of ups and downs, I'm spending tomorrow in-transit back to WV. I was up early today as the team and I had a nice high-speed, Belgian-driven travel day from Brittany, France where I just finished my last block of ride-till-you-crack Grand Prix races. We arrived back in Izegem a few hours ago and I've been scrambling to fit all my stuff back into giant team duffel bag. I'm pretty sure it'll be over the 50LBS limit since I'm coming home with another full season's worth of National team gear.

I'll throw up some more photos in the coming days.

See ya'll soon.

-Nick

Death to CROSSWINDS.

I love the warm buzz I get from a bike race. The mix of endorphins, fatigue and increased blood flow throughout the body is most definitely my favorite feel-good cocktail. Crosswinds on the other hand lay in a category of hatred all it's own.

The Ardennes region of Belgium is an amazing place to race a bike. Not quite the mountains I thrive in but hilly nonetheless. The last three stages have been pretty wild averaging around 40+kph each. I've been jumping with all sorts of breakaway attempts but they've all been ill-timed with the actual move of the day going from a counter attack that I couldn't respond to because I was too blown from my own escape-attempts. I've been relegated to the peleton pretty much everyday. Yesterday was a double day with a 110k road stage in the a.m. and a 18k Time Trial in the p.m. Both were short and fast. The road stage was killer since we started at 9a.m. (12:30 normally) with cool mist as we flew through the narrow farm roads. The TT was actually kind of Bizarre since we raced across an old airport runway. It was super wide open and kind of surreal because of how wide and exposed it was. No planes around so I'm guessing it was closed for the race??

Today sucked thoroughly. I could tell this morning that my mind was wandering and my motivation waning from the race. This happens when you're not a factor in the GC and your hopes for a stage win are long gone after suffering in the pack for 3 days straight. So, when the first Crosswind section came @ about 10k into the 150k stage, I got dropped. As the caravan passed I was able to jump in and surf it with a few other unfortunate feather-weights all the way back to the pack. Not an easy task when you consider it's super fast motor-pacing with twenty different cars. In order to make it back you ride about two inches away from the car's rear bumper and hop from car to car until making the final leap to the back of the field. Highly stressful but a great rush! Anyway, I made it back on then got crushed in another nasty side wind section. I chased with a group of 15 or so for about 30 miles with the pack in sight but we never made it on. The green-flag car and the van with a broom tied to the back came by and that's all she wrote. Race over. I grabbed a musette from our feeder and proceeded to get lost trying to find the finish alone. L'epic!

Not quite sure what the travel plans are looking like at this moment but I may be heading back sometime next week since it doesn't look like the race schedule here in Europa is taking me to the mountains this trip. I'm psyched to experience WV in August. I plan on rockin' the Blackwater Bikes WV Championship race and then heading out to Wisconsin for Shequamegon in September.

-Nickska (that's what the Belgians call me)

Now to hang my computer out of the window to find a wi-fi signal to make this post...

To the Ardennen...

Up at a friendly 8A.M. this morn... Well, we're always at that because Els (Noel's wife) makes sure of it with a sharp GOOD MORNING threat to anyone still happily slumbering.

We take off at 9:20 for the Tour de Namur. The mechanics showed up early to load clean bikes and equipment into the Mercedes sprinter van and spare bikes onto the director's Saab. Els is sitting across from me wrapping up some race food (fresh rice cakes from the local baker).

Shite! Gotta run.. I'll try to post at the race if there is a connection


-NIck

No L' Avenir.

For Team USA anyway. A definite bummer especially after making the trip and effort for the specific reason of getting to do that race. Miscommunication with the organizers was the reason given to us. There is speculation that the Floyd-Factor may have something to do with it as well.

I haven't really talked to anyone but Noel about my potential plans for the remainder of the trip. At this point my schedule looks like this:

Aug. 5-9 / Tour de Namur, Belguim

Aug 12-15 / Head to Bretagne, France for a series of one day events.

12/ GP Leon
13/ Prix Des Bles D' Or
14/ Prix De Amorique
15/ Prix De la Mi Aout

The days here in Izegem have been cooler lately and more in line with Belgian stereotype weather of wind and rain. It's funny to be so eager for the mellow time at the house during a difficult stage race and when it finally arrives the novelty wheres off the first day and your eager to race again as an excuse to get out of the house.

The routines are pretty much the same here as they are in the states, though.

Breakfast followed by internet everything... Then riding. And Grazing...

The dinning area is a virtual Wi-fi Cafe at all hours of the day.




I rode the Time Trial Bike today for an hour in the rain. Super nice bike that actually fits me... Go figure, time trials aren't to be feared if you're actually prepared.

House time

Ronde Van Vlaams Brabant is over. With 5 solid days of speed and danger in the books, I'm now enjoying some down time @ the Belgian house. The last two stages of RVVB were tough 150k and 160k days. By stage 5 I was starting to lose some motivation for the event as everyday was similar with 4 or 5 "long loops" and 2 or 3 "short loops" in order to get the distance in. I get dizzy doing laps and prefer to end up somewhere different after spending 4 hours on my bike. The reason for this tight route everyday is that in order to stay in the Region we have to do a bunch of loops. If we rode point to point 160 kilometers we would ride out of the region. So, the last day on the 5th of 7 laps after it had been raining for the last hour I found myself at the back of a strung out pack struggling to hang on. Then after avoiding a nasty rain-induced crash -by avoiding I mean not going down. I still had to chase with about 30 other riders to make it back to the pack. When we made it back I was still at the back so the next time it got strung out I popped right off the back with 1 lap remaining. As I drifted back through the caravan being splashed by the team cars as they past I was over the day. The sweep vehicle rode about two feet from my rear wheel almost the entire way to the finish occasionally beeping impatiently for me to stop and get in the van. I ignored him and eventually he sped off to join the rest of the caravan.




Another wild story from earlier in the week was in stage 2 when I witnessed (and managed to avoid-barely) one of the scariest mass pile-ups I'd ever seen. The pack was all together flying down a wide street at about 35mph when a racer to my left hit a speed bump and his hands bounced off his bars and he did a flying superman summersault into the pavement. His bike was rolling along side me minus the rider as I heard the soft, metallic crunch of aluminum, titanium and flesh like a wave crashing into shore behind me. The crash was so bike (like 70 riders or more) that the officials stopped the race up the road in order the let the others catch up.

With the first stage race in the books, I have a few days to recover in Izegem...


We ran into the mechanic at the bar across the street from the house last night. Surprisingly he was in the shop early bright and early this morning.