Europe Report #4
Michael Wolf
April 6, 2004

There's been a lot of racing going on in the past couple weeks. I last wrote just before starting Harelbeke on March 27th.
Harelbeke is a big race (UCI 1.5) that is held in conjunction with the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, a big pro race (UCI 1.1). We did pretty much the same course, only shorter. Right from the start the race was riddled with crashes. Only a couple km in both Tyler Farrar and Matt Crane crashed. The race was run over many of the same roads a GP Waregem just a couple days before, but it went a good bit faster. I made it over the first cobble climb and following cobbled section with no problems, but my luck changed fast. Leading up to every cobbled section there is always a big fight to get to the front, as the field often splits over cobbles. The run in to the next cobbled section was pretty narrow, with everyone trying to move up, but no space on the road to move up on. This led to everyone bunched up, very close to each other, surging then braking. With about a kilometer from the cobbles the field slowed suddenly, and a Rabobank rider in front of me locked up his breaks. This led to me on the ground with a big Belgian guy on top of me. He got up off me and started yanking furiously at his bike, which was tangled with mine. As we got the bikes loose I surveyed the damage. There were about eight riders who crashed, and a guy was climbing out of a ditch on the side of the road covered in mud. I had come out of it pretty well though, considering the size of the Belgian who had landed on top of me. Just a couple little cuts. I was back on my bike in little time chasing on to the field, which now was about twenty seconds up the road. I undid both my brakes as my wheels were a little wobbly and headed for the cobbles. I made it through the cobbles pretty well, then caught on to another huge Belgian who must have crashed and followed his wheel back to the pack. Anyway, the whole day was a crash fest, but I managed to not go down again. I came into the fourth cobbled climb a little too far back and ended up in a chase group, only five seconds off the back of the pack, but in a very hard section with intermittent cobbles running through a town. Just as we were catching onto the field we hit another cobbled climb about 110km into the race and the legs gave out. My first ride in the broom wagon. It was pretty nice actually. It was really big bus with some people in it to clean our wounds. Anyway it
was a super hard race, maybe with better luck I would have finished, but who knows. It was a whole level above Waregem (the espoir race a couple days before). Oliver Stiller Cote ended up the best finisher (18th) with Shawn Milne a couple spots back The next day Ollie, Crane and I headed to an espoir Kermesse. Ollie made the main break of about fifteen pretty early. It was clear
that it would stick, so I joined a chase group of ten. We were about 15 seconds off the break and I flatted. No spare wheels in
Kermesses, so I was out of the race. My chase group soon caught the break and they stayed away. No luck. After that we all had 4 days rest, then we were off to Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux(UCI 1.7.1), an espoir world cup stage race in Belgium. It was 3 days long, with 4 stages. The first stage was a 170km road race, with two hills. It started really slow, but soon sped
up to finish in a bunch sprint with 6 guys off the front. I finished safely in the bunch, just in front of a good size crash in the field
sprint. Jeremy Yates won the stage. 120 of the 150 rider finished in the bunch. The next day started with an 8.4 km time trial. I got
all aero, with the Pinarello TT bike, skinsuit, and shoe covers. The course was pretty much a square, with killer winds to start off, then super fast tail winds to finish up. Belgium is very windy. Rabobank dominated the day, sweeping the top 4 spots. I came in 51st, something like 45 seconds down. Later in the day was a 120km road race. It was a pretty hard course, and it was windy as usual. The race was fast from the gun, with the top guys trying to split the field. The field was reduced, but it didn’t split. With about 10km before the first cobbled section a break of almost 20 got off, with most the favorites in it. The field was chasing all the way to the cobbles, keeping the break close. I focused on moving up, being as close to the front as possible for the cobbles. On the road just before the right turn to the cobbles I was sitting about 30th position. The field was completely strung out, the wind blowing powerfully for the side. Only about 100 meters before the cobbles I heard the loud clutter of bikes crashing into each other from behind me. I kept my head down, not looking back, just focusing on holding the wheel in front of me, which had accelerated at the sound of the crash. Just before we turn on the cobbles I look back to see only two riders on my wheel, then a huge gap with only a couple riders in between. There had been a big crash. Sterling Magnell had gone down and was forced to abandon. Tyler crashed too, but got back on. There was a general regrouping of the field after the cobbles, but the break was gone. Rabobank went on to dominate the day, sweeping the podium, and I finished, which was all I wanted to do. The final day was 150 km, and by far the hardest day. In the past it often reduce the field to less than 50 finishers, and today would be no different. Right off the gun Rabobank was on the front, driving the peleton into the strong winds. Everyone was fighting to be at the front, and Noel was telling us that the field was going to split. Right out of town the field was strong out, with tired riders opening up gaps all over the place. I was about 60 riders back and knew I had to move up to make the split. Every chance I had I took to move up. After closing several gaps I realized I had been the second to last rider to make the split of about 50 riders. But Rabobank kept driving it, so I’d keep moving up. But every time I moved up a spot or two I would look back and I would be the last one. Rabobank was just not letting up and I was maxed out. Finally a rider in front of me open a 5 meter gap that turned out to be 5 meters to big. The legs gave up and I popped of the group. I tried chasing, but it was useless, and I just rode tempo, waiting for the second group to catch me, which they did about 5 minutes later. I hopped on to the group of thirty. Crane and Cozza were also in the group. Only Ollie had made the front group. The group went pretty hard for a while, then began to give up hope. Cozza then
jumped off solo with about 100km to go. The group soon began a small chase, than before we entered the final circuits Great Britain went to the front to chase. By now Cozza was long gone, and we were catching riders dropped from the front group. With just about 10km before hitting the final circuits, and with about 80km to go we hit the first cobble climb. I went to the front and pushed the pace up the climb and at the top was alone with a Norwegian rider. I continued to pull and soon Matt Crane bridged up, followed by a Belgian. We drove it really hard for about 10km then settled in, having built a good gap. Throughout the circuits we passed riders who had been dropped from the front. Well, we never saw the second group again and I think they all either dropped out or were pulled. We worked well together, just wanting to finish the race, and that we did, something like fifteen minutes down. But we finished, which not many did. Ollie was the best placed rider at 25th overall. I don't know where I was, but I don't think more than forty finished, so probably right back there.This Thursday (April 8th) the climber types are head to Circuit des Ardennes (UCI 2.6) in France to contest a 4 day stage race that is supposed to be a good bit harder than this past race. It's got a good bit of climbing though, and no cobbles.