That was quite the first experience for my first stage as a cyclist. I've never ridden that far before in one ride in my life, and good lord it hurt at the end there. I was feeling great, but with around 50 km to go I just hit a wall. I couldn't close the gap to the leaders, and 15 km later I just started falling back. Those last 35 km felt like the last 10 km of the running in ironmans. I would always just lose it the end. Good news it is a pretty cool summer this year, thankfully it's not 100 here everyday like it gets down south. The next should be a good day for me. I feel like a 200-250 km route will suit me best, so we shall see how it goes.
Another thing that will be interesting for me will be how my body will recover from stage to stage. I've got a great support team for after the stages thanks to my sponsors, but usually I do a race and then take a long time off. I think this race might be too long for me in terms of days, but I expect to take one of the next couple stages. Hopefully all goes according to plan.
There is no manner to describe the level of sore legs I have got now, it is just impossible to compare riding a 130-170 km amateur race on a team where 5-7 rider help each other, to 390 km where the only help you can get is form the more or less trustworthy alliances you form along the route.
Besides the fact that is was painful, even more so than I had expected, I am very satisfied with the result, no points but did fairly well considering it was not my best terrain.
Luckily they have got a Japan House at the University of Illinois in Champaign, so I am there now, getting a little inspiration form back home, doing a bit of Buddhist meditation, re-charging the batteries.
*Sorry about the lack of banner, if will be updated when I get back from holiday
Article by Aime de Rouen:
Many of the new journalists coming to report on recent advancements of this sport don't appreciate one key aspect for the journalists of this sport for many years - interviewing Rudy Vecker, often used as a punishment for whoever was most out of favour with the producer that day, his stage wins are a source of journalistic dread. Today, I was the unlucky soul sent to interrogate the Luxemburger, the goal? Enough of a reply to write an article about his conquest in a two-man sprint against Pierre Vermeulen today.
I started the interview with a solid congratulations, "That was a real show of force, Rudy!" as he nodded his thanks I continued. "Did you come into today planning to win the stage?" A simple affirmative once again, I realised he wasn't planning to tell me anything solid about today's stage, so I changed tact, "Will you aim for the overall now that you lead the race? Or will you focus on stage glory?" He looked at me slyly as if I had asked some childish trick question. Finally he replied, speaking deliberately. "Rudy...a great champion, Rudy races for all the glory." Genuinely confused, I parried gamely, "So you won't be focussing on winning individual stages?", He looked at me strait in the eye for the first time this interview, "Reporters should be attentive, should watch stages. Rudy is champion of today, great champion."
Worried that this interview was unsalvageable I went back to my final preprepared question, "So tell us about your strategy tomorrow." Rudy smiled "Of course." And he stood up, taking a gulp of Coca-Cola and walked away, leaving me to piece together just what Rudy had against me.
As I stood at the start line in Milwaukee, I was uncertain, a feeling I had never truly felt before in a cycling race, we were delving into the unknown. The uncertainty had me in raptures, something that I had enjoyed all my life, the challenge of reaching uncharted domains.
As the race kicked off, all the nerves left me as it usually does and we commenced proceedings. To tell the brutal truth, I wasn't scared of the parcours at all, even though it was 390km's long. The first 15km's or so were friendly and I talked to some of the riders I had known before from the road. Everyone seemed quite excited and tense at the same time with 380km's or so still left in their wake. The first attacks came at around the 375km mark, but were not marked by many of the key favourites so we maintained our steady, but slowly increasing tempo. But, soon enough the first incident happened in the race, and sure enough it was myself. I had a flat tyre which wasn't awful with the remaining 300km to go, but still created a small dent in my legs, which potentially proved to be crucial in the future kilometres. As the race moved on, we (the peloton) heard attacks from the breakaway which subsequently caused a reaction from the pack as the first riders of the day started struggling at the back, I myself still had good legs and was feeling quite well around the front of the main group. With even more riders behind, I felt confident and threw myself on the front to keep them behind and was ably assisted by Pierre Vermaelen. As we both kept up our pace, the first rider abandoned the stage in, Miarian Dupont and my group caught up to some of the earlier escapees with my legs still in good shape. Finally, the initial break was to be caught and everything came back together. The ensuing 25km's saw riders slow down and re-group with myself attending my "lunch" halfway through the race. As soon as I finished with my lunch, the re-grouping stopped and a bunch of attackers went away still with 190km's to go, so I decided to not follow. As the attackers kept going, I enjoyed my "rest" period as the gap only increased to the front. The co-operation soon stopped in my group and I was ready to pace, but it seemed no-one else was so I sat up. The group continued to capitulate with riders conserving energy and the break had 8 minutes still with 160km's left. And then the race left us, the group had 15 minutes ahead and I found myself regretting my tactics and decisions. They surely had the race wrapped up, with my legs still strong and I heavily believe I could have followed them in hindsight, oh hindsight truly is brutal sometimes. Alan Caldwell soon attacked, but I decided against to follow as other riders soon bridged up to us in the hope of them co-operating. Caldwell continued to make excellent progress and I started contributing to maintain the gap behind. As the attackers up ahead had a formidable gap and were duking it out for the victory, I finally launched my attack. Others followed and we all worked well and were catching up to Caldwell quickly. I still had a bit of energy left in the tank and attacked once before, but this time was only followed by Johansson who also seemed fairly strong. I continued my pace and soon dropped the Icelander and soloed to an average 7th place.
Was it the puncture? Tactics? Strength? Who knows, but I certainly didn't ride my best possible race. Did score points however which made it somewhat respectable and nearly made it to Caldwell. I am determined to change the outcome next time and after all, the first race in this new event was a thrill ride. I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish although I am quite tired as of now.