Songs I have downloaded recently.

Blam. I am back…  After three days of riding very, very, very easily, I am back among the living. While it was difficult to pry my tired old ass off the couch…….to get my computer, here I am, typing away with vigor. Typing things that make absolutely no sense. At all.

What am I doing?

Bike riding makes you quite quick mentally. In case you haven’t noticed.

Right, this is a music post. OK, I’m starting to remember why I am here.

I love this song with a fiery, fiery passion:

I mean how good is it??? Yeah, I know. Really good. I would recommend supporting the band and purchasing the album. You actually get to name your price, so yeah. Do it. DO it: HERE

More. MORE. I know you would like more.

Here is Frank Ocean goodness:

Love Odd Future…google them.

Another song I just downloaded today is this bad boy:

Have been an M83 fan for a while now, but this track is just the hawtness! Yes, I just used that word. Deal with it.

And Beirut always knows how to make my proverbial party pinata explode:

Pre-Order their album on iTunes HERE

K THX BAI

-tp

Tour de Wallonie Stage 5

So it all comes down to today. After four days of hotly contested bike racing, there is one last stage to decide it all. My teammate Greg Van Avermaet was in the yellow jersey but still tied with Joost Van Leijen from Vacansoleil, only leading by default because of his high placings in each stage. The last stage was another one of medium length, only 155km, but on paper appeared very hilly. I had learned over the past few days that when the race profile indicates that a race is flat it is most likely hilly, and when the profile actually hints that the stage might be up and down, it is never going to be flat, and it is going to be very difficult. That was the case with Stage 5. From the gun we were either going up or down, not for very long (this is Belgium after all), but enough to sting my tired ole legs. I’m not going to lie, I felt like crap for the first half of the stage. I couldn’t follow attacks and I could barely stay at the front while guys were jumping left and right knowing that if they got away, today was a day that they could STAY away. The peloton was a mess, at different times there would be groups of 20-30 riders of the front, everybody feeling the hills, feeling the efforts of the days prior. After an hour and a half of riding flat out, a break was FINALLY established. About half of the pack stopped for a nature break, as you do, and I was one of them. When I got up and running again, however, I noticed a team lined up at the front stringing the pack out. This seriously annoyed me, as my teammate, in the yellow jersey had stopped, as well as a good 50+ riders. Whatever you do in a bike race, you do not under any circumstance attack the yellow jersey when he is stopped and you sure as hell don’t ride when half the peloton stops, AND when there are 90km left in the stage! You just don’t do it.

I won’t name any names, but when I chased back on and rushed to the front I gave the team in question quite the ear full. They just put there heads down and drove onwards. To be fair to them, they were only riding because their sport director told them too. Their team leader even came up to them to yell at them and ask them what they were up to. Oh racing with no radios… How helpless you make some teams! Anyways, after about 10km of pissing the pack off, the team in question gave it a rest, and we slowed again.

When the break reached the 3 minute mark it was up to us, BMC, to control the bike race. Murphy, Kohler, and Frank hit the front, keeping the break in check. I was still feeling quite terrible, the legs just feeling empty. Everyone who races bikes has a ‘hump day’ (I prefer to call it a ‘curve day’ because hump day sounds like something else entirely), and my curve or hump or whatever you wanna call it DAY is day 5. Day 5 in a tour is usually my worst, but after that, it would seem that my body comes around and gets better and better. I had it happen in California, and Austria. And it seemed that it was happening here at Tour de Wallonie. I was not so stoked, however, on the fact that I felt like crap because we had a race to win and I had an integral role to play at the end of this race.

You see, I am a classics man, a man of the short cobbled climbs, a man of long cobbled roads. Stage 5 featured an ascent of the Mur du Thuin, a 500m 9% cobbled climb that we would tackle three times, all in the last 25km of the bike race. So naturally, it would be up to guys like myself and Alessandro Ballan (a Tour of Flanders winner–the ultimate cobbled climb race) to take care of Greg in the finale.

So like I mentioned before, I felt crappy, and was not looking forward to my duties. I wasn’t even sure I would make it to the Mur du Thuin. Even when we were just cruising along there were times I desperately wanted to quit, I felt that bad. To top it all off, Katusha had taken control of the front and were driving the pace up as the kms counted down. The gap to the break was coming down quicker than we wanted so we stopped pulling, letting Katusha do all the work. The roads heading in to Thuin were terrible, those concrete slab roads they love so much in Belg, with the giant crack down the middle…potholes everywhere. This was not helping my current state, let me tell you. The pack began to buzz, the nervousness rose as riders began to move to the front, taking risks, swerving left and right over the center crack as to not get stuck. Every corner we plowed into smelled powerfully of brakes. We must be getting close to the Mur, I thought.

With 10 or so km until the first time up the Mur du Thuin, the pack was strung out. I was tired, somewhere in the middle, not keen on making a big effort to get to the front. We whizzed by, going from a big road to a tiny road, then back to a big road. From bad pavement, back to good. Hopping train tracks and fighting to hold the wheel in front.

The lead up to the Mur is a bit blurry, but I was not in great position as we descended down into a valley. I saw a 25km to go sign and knew it was only a matter of 500m or so to the bottom of the climb. Something clicked in my head and suddenly I was surging up the left side of the road. I saw in front of me as the road tipped upwards and a large crowd and what appeared to be a u-turn on…what is that…cobbles! Then I was there, I was second wheel as we made the turn. I was on cobbles and I was climbing at the front of the pack. I though to myself: This is what I do! Finally!

Ben Hermans laid in an attack and I followed, along with a couple others. As we crested the top of the climb and passed through the finish I was all the sudden off the front with a select group of riders including Stijn Devolder and my teammate Alessandro Ballan, TWO former Tour of Flanders winners. Huh, I thought, maybe I feel good! Greg was not far behind and I followed attacks, never pulling through as not to distance ourselves from the man I was to be protecting.

The pack had exploded. Riders were everywhere and I was at the front! What!? AND I suddenly felt good! It was as if the cobbles awoke this new set of legs I wasn’t aware that I had. It feels good, to feel good, that is for sure. As riders would jump off the front, Ballan and I would follow. The front group slowly formed into about 40 riders and I quickly understood what I needed to do. If a team didn’t take control of this bike race a group could go, maybe without Greg, and we could lose it all. Ballan had already gotten the hint, and was keeping the pace high. I joined him, told him he needed to save his legs for the finale and took up the pace making. On the front, again, and it felt good.

At this point in the bike race we had about 15km to go, with two more passings over the Mur, one coming up at 12km to go, and the last one with 1km to go. Kristoff came up to the front to work with me and we rolled up to the base of the climb for the second time. As we hit the cobbles a Vacansoleil rider put in a big attack. We let him get a bit of a gap, and as we crested the top I took over again, now with a rider in my sights. Passing through the finish with one lap remaining I settled into a nice rhythm. I still felt good and was confident I could hold a solid pace for these last 10km. We caught the lone rider out front on a small downhill and Kristoff and I just put our heads down, each taking big pulls, making sure no one could pass us. A few riders would attack but we still had the legs to shut them down. The kms ticked down, my legs burning, but still producing the power I needed to keep the pace where I wanted. I was happy knowing Greg and Ballan were safely tucked in behind me. Before the little downhill into the valley prior to the final ascent of the Mur du Thuin, both Kristoff and I were at max. The pace we had been setting was very high, and at the end of a thoroughly difficult race. After reeling in one last attack from a Europcar rider, we were toast. 2km to go, we pulled off and Ballan took over with Greg on his wheel. Out the back of the group that we had whittled down to 25 or so we went, legs on fire. I gave Kristoff a big pat on the back and could tell he was equally as relieved as I was that our big effort was now over and that we had done a very good days work.

We coasted down the hill leading up to our final Mur du Thuin ascent, and soft pedaled the climb as much as we could (it was still a cobbled climb after all so ‘soft-pedaling’ equalled about 430 watts–not easy). As we got to the top, our team car rolled by with Rik Verbrugghe, our team director, yelling at us that Greg won the stage, meaning he won the overall by a solid margin. What a great feeling it is to work so hard for someone who is going to deliver. Already happy with our efforts, Kristoff and I rejoiced at the success we had had in this Tour de Wallonie. The finish line approached and passed. The race was over, we had won. The team had performed above and beyond anyone’s expectations.

I found Greg among the scrum, and gave him a huge hug. He thanked me profusely for the efforts over the week. I let him know that he is the man and that I am always going to help a guy who not only delivers more often than not, but who is a great guy to work with.

I made it back to the bus and finally had time to sit down an reflect on the week. I took a quick shower, got dressed and when Greg came back from the podium we popped some champagne and toasted to the week.

On to the next one…

Eneco Tour!

Tour de Wallonie Stage 4

On paper, Stage 4 wasn’t supposed to be all that hard. A mere 152km, with only one ‘mountain’ sprint, and 5 laps of a flat circuit at the end featuring a short cobbled section.

We had time to gain back today for Greg, and fortunately, the first sprints came at 19.5km and 25km into the race which meant that if we could keep it together, we could set Greg up to take some bonus seconds and get the yellow jersey back.

When the flag dropped after the neutral, Martin Kohler and I were immediately at the front riding a very fast steady tempo. One or two guys tried to attack to get into a breakaway but we quickly reeled them in. After about the third attack I think the peloton got the memo, that no one was going to get away just yet, and that was the last of the attacks that we saw. The rest of the team worked their way up to the front, with Ballan, Frank and Murphy all getting their time at the front. Kristoff was on my wheel, with Greg behind him. The pack was very nervous behind us, I could feel it. Teams would creep up beside the back of our BMC train, trying to slot themselves into the best seat in the house, which was right behind Greg. As we neared the 1st sprint, Skil Shimano started to show themselves a bit more, and were almost riding neck and neck with us. No matter. At 1km to the sprint, Kohler ramped up the pace again and the road dipped slightly downhill. Perfect, I thought. On a flat road, no one can pass me, on a downhill, don’t even try. With Kristoff set to launch Greg after my pull, it was soon my turn at the front. My body bent over the bike, legs firing up and down like pistons I went like a mad man. I love going fast, and I love going fast at the front of a bike race, so these kind of things I look forward to. Kristoff came off my wheel at 300m to go, with Greg behind him and then some Skil-Shimano riders attempting to pass on the right. From my view, I couldn’t quite see the sprint but I knew Greg was up there, and the yellow jersey was not. We got 1 second back.

Vacansoleil (the team with the yellow jersey) worked their way to the front to try and capture the next sprint. I was feeling my effort but had been expecting to have to fight back to the front and get ready for sprint number 2. This time Vacansoleil was leading it out and I lined up right next to them, half in the wind, half in the draft with my boys sitting in behind me. As we wound up I maintained position, just keeping my guys out of trouble. With 700m to go there was a sharp left turn and the pack began to swarm leading up to it. I gave my final push to keep the guys in position and locked both Greg and Kristoff into the wheel of Vacansoleil’s train and pulled off. Greg made the jump off of Kristoff’s wheel and got another second over the yellow jersey. Boom. We were in yellow.

The race was on now. With no team controlling anymore, guys were eager to get in breakaways. Our team was quite worked after holding everything together for the two sprints and I sat at the back just trying to catch my breath as we trucked along the belgian countryside. The third sprint was at 56km or so and I was just praying a break would go before that so we wouldn’t have to sprint again. Vacansoleil had other things in mind however and managed to keep everything together. Again, we forced our way to the front, but the team was just a little bit too gassed. Greg was in a good position, he just couldn’t come by the yellow jersey. Down one second.

Now Greg was tied, again, for the jersey. It took 10-20 more km for the breakaway to form and it finally did much to my happiness as I couldn’t wait to take a ‘nature break’ and refuel. The rest of the stage went by pretty quickly, Vacansoleil kept the break in check since they held the jersey (technically Greg was the virtual yellow jersey, but we didn’t need to remind them of that). As a unit, we lined up behind the Vacansoleil train. The last half of the race was to be contested on 4 laps of a 17km circuit which featured a nice 1.5km cobbled section. As per usual, before the cobble section on each lap the pack was quite nervous with everyone wanting to be at the front. We all stayed out of trouble however, and soon enough the finish was coming up. The last 5km was very technical and my job was to take care of Kristoff and give him a lead out in the sprint. I hung back a bit until around 2km to go when I made a big effort to get up to Kristoff and take him up to about 8th wheel. The last 500m were slightly uphill making for a hard sprint. As Leopard Trek ran out of guys early on the front I saw my chance and gunned it with 300m to go. I could only hope Kristoff was on my wheel (it is hard to hear or see anything at 65km/h), and was relieved when he came whipping by me. A couple wheels ahead Robbie McEwen was giving a good kick but Kristoff was approaching fast. The finish line came quicker however and we had to settle for second, with McEwen taking top honors. Greg was 8th and back in yellow.

Another day on the front awaited us.

Love the rain:

So I am kind of stealing someones idea here. Original credit goes to whoever created this: http://t.co/zAzc2CQ

After thoroughly enjoying The National’s ‘Exile Vilify’ playing alongside the rain background, I thought it would be cool to keep the rain running, and try some other songs. And then I figured I’d share them!

So turn on the rain here, but turn down its volume so it is at about a THIRD of max.

With the rain track on Play, try some of these, keeping their volume at max (and obviously only playing one at a time):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not trying to reinvent the wheel here or anything…but…hope someone enjoys 🙂

 

Tour de Wallonie Stage 3

As I am writing this post, I am listening to this song…so maybe hit Play while you read:

 

The third day here in Wallonie was the longest stage of the Tour, covering a total of 224 kilometers. With only one or two ‘mountains’ (we are after all, in Belgium), and a handful of sprints, on paper it was pretty much flat. For 224km. With Greg Van Avermaet in the leader’s jersey, it was up to us to defend and ride the front. The plan was simple, let a small breakaway go, hold them at 5 minutes and try to reel them back in by the last bonus sprint at 208km where we would try to launch Greg and get him some bonus seconds. In each stage, there are sprints which count for both time (3, 2, 1 seconds respectively) and points (5, 3, 1). We could care less about the points, but since Greg going into this stage 3 was TIED on time with second place, the plan was to try and take some extra seconds by leading him out to that final bonus sprint.

That may or may not have confused you. You might ask, why not just go for all the sprints if there are a handful of them along the way? Why just go for the last one? Or you might ask, why go for the sprints at all if you are leading anyways?

Well, if we chose to go for ALL of them, we, as a team, would have to control the race the entire day which would mean riding much harder to make sure no breakaway would get away. The sprint at the end was close enough to the finish (16km to go) that it made sense to let a break take all the time bonuses, then reel them in on the last one and play our cards there. We were also confident in Greg’s ability to out-sprint second place and gain some more time.

Back to the race report. The break got away easily, and was made up of only 3 guys which made for a perfect scenario for us. The less guys in the break, the easier it is to control. It was decided that Ballan, Frank, Kohler and Murphy would ride the front with Kristoff and obviously Greg, saving the legs for the final. My job was to get bottles and be there for Kristoff in the finale, or help on the front if the boys were unable to bring the break back in time.

Time passed slowly, the kms just counting down all day. The boys did a great job controlling the front and I made my journeys back to the car for bottles whenever they needed more to drink. It is odd how my legs seem to feel more pain when we are all just cruising along at a medium, boring pace. Many people don’t realize on TV how long it actually takes us to get to the finish line some days. The dull pain of just steadily riding along is, for me, much more exhausting than if we were constantly attacking each other all day. So there I sat, behind the guys doing the work, in front of the guys I needed to protect, just waiting. Mind wandering. ‘100km done. Ok, 120km to go…that’s what like 3 hours? Hmm. Think of it more like 2 and a half since you’ll be doing something of interest the last 30 minutes. 120km done. If this were the first day we would only have 30km left. Don’t think about that, you still have 100km. 100km. Blehh. I wouldn’t mind having my phone right now, I could be the first person to tweet from the front of a bike race. Dude, that is ridiculous, focus on the road.’ And on and on like this. Then a song would pop into my head and I would sing the chorus to myself over, and over. And over. For the next hours.

Then, just like that we had 30km left. I went back for my final load of bottles, and got ready to do some real work. After a Coke, and the past 190km of nothingness, my legs were itching to get to the front and do some big ole watts. As we got closer to the front, it appeared more and more that we might not get the break back in time for the sprint so with 10km left until the sprint I went up and gave the boys a hand. Finally, I thought to myself, something to do! SPEED! With 1:30 to make up on the break in 10km we had to ride pretty hard and fast. Jason McCartney from Radioshack joined Ballan, Kohler and I as we rode upwards of 65km/h, making great headway into the slowing pace of the 3 out front who had been off the front all day. As we neared the intermediate sprint, the clock was ticking down. Would we catch them? It was going to come down to the wire that is for sure. With 1km to the sprint we could see what was left of the breakaway. One man had already been dropped and the other two were just in sight. With Kristoff and Greg on my wheel I told Kohler to gun it, and gun it he did. We were blitzing along now, the blow-up banner above the sprint just coming into view. Kohler pulled off at 500m to go, and it was my turn to lay the smack down. I ramped up the speed until 300m to go when Kristoff came flying by with Greg on the wheel. Just behind him though was second overall. This was going to be a close one. Not to mention the two out front were still there but barely. From my view it looked like Greg just caught them on the line, but in the end, one man from the breakaway managed to collect first, with Greg just getting edged out for second by the guy we were trying to get a leg up on.

Shit.

I had sufficiently gassed myself chasing the break back and leading Greg out so I spent the final kilometers of the race bringing Kristoff and Greg to the front. With 5km to go I was done and hung at the back, just barely hanging on. Kristoff, with no help, managed to get 3rd in the finale, a respectable result.

We returned to the bus defeated, down but not out. Our plan backfired, but we are motivated to get that second back.

Still two stages left.

 

-tp

Tour de Wallonie update

Yo yo MA PEOPLE.

Sorry I’ve been lay-Z on the updates… This race is a whirlwind. A W-Hirlwind.

I’m on the bus, on our way to the start of stage 3 but I finally have some time to write so hurr goesss.

Stage 1 was a hard one, albeit short at 152km. With 5 categorized climbs on the profile, the last one finishing 3km from the finish we knew it would be a battle all day. I attempted to make the breakaway but just missed it, Greg made the jump just after I got caught and snuck away with 3 other guys. Once the break established it started to rain pretty hard, making the ups and downs quite dicey but alas, we all stayed safe. At least all of us BMC-ers. Greg wasn’t exactly supposed to be in the breakaway so he stopped rotating which caused some problems up front. Finally, Greg returned to the peloton with another rider, leaving only 2 out front, making it pretty manageable to control in the pack. After about 100km, all of it up and down, the pace started to heat up as everyone wanted to be at the front for the last two climbs–one at 20km to go, and the final, like previously mentioned, topping out at 3km to go. Keep in mind that we are in Belgium so these climbs are all around 2-3km. No mountain passes or nuffin. Still freaking hard though!!

Anywho. Murphy started to rotate with a few teams up front as we were planning on setting Greg up for the final sprint. We cruised over the second to last climb, losing some riders off the back. I still felt very good and hung up at the front with Greg, just in case he needed anything. The run in to the final 3km category 1 climb was quite sketchy as the roads were a bit wet still, but we all got to the base safe and sound. As the road kicked up it quickly became a test of survival for everyone as riders were jumping left and right to try to get away. I settled into a rhythm just focusing on breathing and counting down the meters to the top. Once we reached 1km to the summit I knew I could hang on. I was hurting like a dog but dug in until the road began to flatten out. The most difficult part of the whole race was that last plateau. After going full out just to hang on to the group up the climb, the peloton naturally files out into one big line as the guys up front are traveling on flat ground while the guys behind are just cresting over the top of the climb. There isn’t much to do but put your head down, or cock it to the right as I tend to do (thanks track racing), and give everything just to hold the wheel. The last couple km were a bit of a blur, but I fought through the pain and made it back to the front just as things were starting to bottleneck, or slow down as all the teams weren’t entirely organized after such a big effort. I noticed my teammate Mattias Frank on the front and Greg in about 5th wheel. As Mattias began to tire I decided I’d crank up the pace and give what little I had left. I took the pack from 1km to go until 500m, absolutely burying myself. As I swung off, Trek Leopard whipped by with Greg in 4th wheel… He stayed there and managed 4th in the sprint which is not bad for him and I was happy with my efforts. I rolled through the finish with the pack, found the bus and got showered. A day’s work complete, it was time to refuel and relax.

Stage 2 had a forecast that predicted it would rain all day. Since the stage was 194km, this did not exactly excite anyone. Luckily though, for once, it did not rain in Belgium when it was supposed to! The profile of the stage wasn’t bad, however, I had learned from the day before not to trust these profiles. The roads here are not flat, just constantly undulating, making for hard racing and tired legs. The break went quickly and the first 100km passed quite slowly as we rolled along the Wallone countryside. With 80km to go, and Francais Des Jeux rolling on the front to protect their yellow jersey, the terrain went from undulating, to what I would call ‘pretty damn hilly’. The breakaway was at 5 minutes and we sent Murphy to help FDJ out. FDJ decided they wanted to bring the breakaway back quicker than anticipated and started to pull very hard. Hard enough that we caught the breakaway with 20km to go, resulting in a slew of attacks over the rollers leading into the finish. Stage 2 finished on a 1km 11% climb with a max gradient of 18%, perfect for our team leader Greg. My job was to bring him to the bottom of the climb in first position.

With about 10km to go there were still a couple guys up the road and no teams were working well enough together to bring them back. I acted on instinct and got to the front… Even though I was only supposed to wait until the last couple km I felt like it was necessary and I gave it gas for about 4km. After catching the two that were off the front I kept the speed up as we cruised down a valley towards the final climb. I got a bit of a breather as some other teams took over and then with 2.5km to go, 1.5km to the base of the climb, I got to the front again with Ballan and Greg on my wheel. I tore myself inside out for my final pull but it was all worth it to see Ballan and Greg hit the climb in 1st and 2nd position. Job well done again! I was very happy to hear, as I crossed the finish, that Greg had gotten second on the stage and was now in the yellow jersey.

After a shower and a fair share of potatoes I was back to my favorite part of bike racing–relaxxxxxing.

We have a hard and long day controlling this race ahead of us today. 224km! Will check in later:)

-tp

Cadel is gonna win Le Tour.

Everybody is beyond stoked!!! I will write a Tour de Wallonie Stage 1 report tomorrow morning 🙂

Here are some celebratory new tunes:

Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata (Sound Remedy Remix):

The Glitch Mob – We Can Make The World Stop:

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Wings:

Oh Em Gee

This is just greatness. Love, love, love.

 

And the video:

Ahh to be young again.

This is an awesome retro video courtesy of my coach Neal Henderson of me racing when I was 16 (last year) in the Category 3 Parker Omnium in Parker, CO. I was a pretty big deal…(I wasn’t). The legend, Dave Towle is announcing.

Other cameos made by old friends Julian Kyer and Lydia Tanner. Good times!

This.

Is where I train… It does not get better!