Update 3-29-00 from 3 Days of Panne

3/29 In Belgium Now,

I have just finished the second stage of the 3 Jours de Panne.. a 4 stage race that preludes the Tour of Flanders which is this weekend.

Yesterdays stage was 178kms.. When we started is was a frigid 7 degrees Celsius... in the last hour it started to rain and the temperature fell to 4 degrees. The racing is fast and dangerous, there are many crashes..... Belgium roads have many undulations. They are made of concrete, a nasty gap divides the road. Experienced riders know how to cross the center of the road tweaking the bars at the right moment so the front wheel hits the gap at a slight angle.... otherwise the gap is the correct size to grab the tire and send the rider to the floor. It does not stop there.... on the sides of the road there are bike paths which riders use occasionally but before those there is a gutter and a 4 inch rise.... In the wind these become obstacles that often cause crashes. At times it is advantageous to hop the rise and ride on the bike path to better your position.

My race ended on one of the "bergs" (traditionally famous Belgium climbs) my chain fell off as I shifted to the small chainring, it wrapped around the bottom bracket and took me 1+ minutes to get going again. As I returned I noticed the peloton was in a single file line..... the shit had hit the fan.. 190 riders! that puts the leaders a long way away. I fought hard, and moved up when I could, riders were getting dropped and closing the gaps takes much needed force. When we hit the Pattersberg ( only a slight incline , but made of medieval cobbles covered with wet slime approximately 1.5 kms long) there were still 80+ riders ahead of me, the group split in many sections, there was some regrouping as we did the Pattersberg 4 times ( 11kms circuit) in the end I finished in the second group..

2nd stage 244kms !!

At the start it is very cold,, 4 degrees Celsius... I decide that this is really training for Flanders and then choose to wear full leg warmers thick vest etc...it proved to be a good choice for me.

There were 8 "bergs" today and the hardest came at 132kms .(the Kemmelberg) after a few attempts to take George to the front, between Benoit , Cedric Vasseur and myself, we started to set tempo ....a fast tempo. We calculated 6-7kms to the berg but it turned into 10 which made the Kemmelberg difficult to pass. This climb is covered in nasty cobbles and is over 20% in the final 100 meters or so. After the climb there was a crosswind section and I was in the 3rd group, maybe 60 riders ahead, we did regroup and soon after there was a selection that would make it to the final (15-20 riders) We had Eki in this front group. Rabobank and others chased hard. I was back too far to see exactly how this was being played out. I was suffering in the gutter... Rabo at the front and many of us in a single line in the gutter.... not for long... riders blew and the gaps were unrecoverable.... the grouppetto was formed.... my group of 10+- rode hard for a while and then pulled the plug and waited for the 80+- riders behind us..... that was my race..... after warm California I am finding the Euro rhythm again.... trying to increase my volume where I start performing better.

There is another Utah rider in the race.... it has been nice to see and talk with Jeff Louder, now riding for a Belgium team Tonnesteiner... I have known Jeff for 2-3 years and had the opportunity, to train with him some this past winter.

We have a part time therapist with us, Etiene, who is also a police officer in Antweerpen.... I love this about Europe, and this story is not so unfamiliar...... crazy stories here...... always

Basically he and his coworkers are more or less computer illiterate. This is what Etienne tells me. Anyway they must use the computer for data entry and information retrieval. Apparently it has been frustrating for them... they have asked for more training, have had only 4hrs officially bla bla bla.

Well Etienne somehow deleted over 500 altercations/incidents.
Yea! gone..... no backup..... nothing , nada, gone.... His boss was not happy , can you imagine.... and ALL those happy people

Maybe some investment in training would have paid off.

M