Euro Spring Trip Part 1

I have been in Europe for about a week and a half at this point, and it finally feels like the season is starting to get underway. So far this trip has been pretty amazing, and unique when compared with the rest of my trips across the pond. It all started out a little differently than usual. I was waiting in the Brussels airport with the rest of my Bontrager-Livestrong teammates for Axel Merckx, our directors flight to arrive, when none other than Eddy Merckx walked over to us and said that he was taking us to his home to wait for Axel. Teammate Josh Atkins and I piled into the back of his van with the rest all the teams bikes for the short trip to the Merckx' residence. At first I thought we might get pulled overfor having people stuffed in the back of a van but then I remembered who was driving us...

Since we have been in Belgium we have only done one race, Deinze-Ieper. It was not the best race for the team but, the first race after a trans-atlantic flight hardly ever is. We had some bad luck with mechanicals and crashes. "Stone-Cold Stuyven From Leuven" was the teams only finisher in the lead peleton. Besides the race Belgium has been much nicer than usual. We have found great rides thanks to Axel and Jasper de Buyst, and have been treated to especially nice Belgian weather. We all owe a huge thanks to the Merckx family, especially Mrs. Merckx for taking such good care of us and keeping us well fed after our training rides.

I am writing this post from St. Lo in France as we prepare to start the Tour of Normandy tomorrow. We have previewed the prologue course and it's definitely a good one, it's going to be a strong rider with some big cajones who takes the win tomorrow. The next 7 days are bound to be some of the toughest racing we do all year. Hopefully I'll have some good stories and results to write about when it is all said and done!

Thanks for reading,

Gavin

Kicking Off 2012

A lot has happened since my last entry. The last time I wrote I was in full-on base training mode, getting in some long miles in Austin. The upcoming racing season was a distant goal in the back of my mind. Since then I've done a few great local Texas races, and had two pre-season Bontrager-Livestrong training camps. This has been by far my most productive Winter ever,andI can't wait to get into the important races of the season. My teammates Lawson and Nate as well as myself have taken full advantage of Austin's mild winter this year. Each of us has training more than ever before and have some good early season form. The local P1-2 scene in Texas has some of the strongest fields anywhere at this time of year, allowing us to test our fitness and get in some good race efforts.

Our first training camp of the year was held in Austin, so naturally Lawson, Nate, and myself had to do our best to represent. It was a great camp that got all of the American's on the team together a couple weeks before the main camp in Solvang, CA. It was great to see all the staff for the first time since last season. Team Owner (and pretty decent rider) Lance Armstrong joined us on a few training rides and threw down some cash prizes at the top of some of Austin's hardest climbs to make things interesting. The Austin based Bontrager-Livestronger's claimed most of the prize money but, the whole team fought strong even after 6 hours of riding in the Texas Hill Country. Overall Austin team camp was a huge success, everyone got to visit the LIVESTRONG headquarter's as well as see who keeps our team running at the CSE offices, all while getting in some good rides and getting to know each other.

Our next team event was a short trip to Waterloo, Wisconsin to visit the Trek factory and get to meet the people at Bontrager who make the products that support our team. Seeing the quality control and effort that goes into all Trek and Bontrager products was incredible. We also took part in the Hullabaloo in Waterloo, 500m trainer races against the Bontrager staff. It was an all Bontrager-Livestrong final with our powerful director Axel Merckx taking the honors.

Up next was our final team camp in Solvang,CA to get the big miles in our legs before we get the season underway. Once again Lance joined us during the first few days and put some money on the line for the fastest guys up Figueroa, no one could take down the 7-time tour champ but it made for a good showdown. We had a very unlucky training crash during one of our longer rides that took down almost half the team and seriously injured Connor O'Leary(seperated shoulder) and Charlie Avis(broken scaphoid). Other than the few injuries camp was smoother and harder than any other year. It is definitely the best team I've ever been on as far as having fun goes. I think we spent more time laughing and joking around than on our bikes at camp, not an easy thing to do when we rode almost 30 hours.

It has been a great build up to the season and I can only hope the season goes as well as the Winter has. I would like to take this chance to thank everyone who has helped me out during these crucial months of training including, Dave Wenger and Durata Training for the coaching, and all the staff at Bontrager-Livestrong, especially Axel Merckx, Reed McCalvin, Glenn Kasin, and Bill McPherson for running such fun and productive team camps.

Check back shortly for some stories from Europe.

Thanks for reading,

Gavin

Time Flies!

It seems like the past season just ended but, it has been over two months since I last raced a bike. Most cyclists live by a different calendar than the rest of the world and consider the end of the year at the time of their last race. October and November have been pretty relaxing months, as they follow up the end of a long racing season. I ended my past season (or last year in cyclist terms) with a bang at the U23 World Championships in Copenhagen and, then the Mayor's Cup Criterium in Boston about 18hrs after arriving home. Needless to say after the Mayor's Cup I was ready for a well deserved break.

After recharging my batteries for a couple weeks at home with my family in Boston I packed up my things and began my journey towards Austin, TX, my home for winter training. I broke up the 2100 mile journey visiting current and past teammates Charlie Avis and Ben Gabardi along the way. I arrived in Austin just in time for the Ride for the Roses- the biggest LIVESTRONG ride of the year. This was my second time doing the ride and it was just as good as the first. It's always inspiring to hear some of the amazing stories from cancer survivors out there on the ride.

The "off-season" has come and gone and, it seems like I am back in full-time bike racer mode. Training distances and intensities have begun to slowly pick up, under the guidance of my new coach David Wenger of Durata Training. I have been having more fun than ever riding with teammates Lawson Craddock and Nate Brown. As much as I love New England, Austin's fall and winter weather make training far more enjoyable! I have already begun thinking about next season and, can't wait to get back into the peleton. If the months keep passing as they have been I'll be back racing before I know it!

Thanks for reading.

-Gavin

Croatia!!

This is my blog for the past two days. Didn't have internet yesterday to post it up.

For the past few days I’ve been experiencing a part of the world that I’ve never been to, Croatia. So far, it has had its ups and downs. The weather has been horrid, but the food more than makes up for it. It’s hard to swallow that I gave up Austin weather (75 and sunny) for Belgian weather (50 and sunny) for Italian weather (50 and raining) for Croatian weather (50, pouring rain, and windy). We went out to ride the prologue course and within 10 minutes of riding we were absolutely soaked to the bone. The TT course is 5.8 km starting with about a two kilometer descent. After bottoming out in the valley we do a two kilometer ascent, and then it starts to flatten out, but still gaining elevation, to the finish. The major decision to make was whether to use a time trial bike or not. I decided to use the TT bike. We finished out the day back at the hotel before another great dinner. The food here is probably the best I’ve ever had at a race hotel. It’s a massive buffet with an insane variety of foods. This might be one of those stage races that you gain weight throughout the weekend.

Today was the official start of the season for me. My first race in Europe and first pro race. The name is the Istrian Spring Trophy and is a UCI ranked 2.2, not the highest ranked race but there are a few big names here. For the prologue I was stuck in between Tadej Valjavec (top 10 in the Giro last year, but later was suspended due to blood levels) and Michael Rasmussen. Kind of intimidating… I started the TT pretty tough on the downhill, but didn’t take too many risks. By the time I hit the climb I was ready to hammer. I put in a decent effort on the early parts of the climb, and progressively went harder and harder. I was hurting pretty bad by the top, but I slipped it back into the big ring and hammered the rest of the way to the finish. I crossed the finish line with the new best time of 8:53. I was extremely happy with that time, and stayed at the finish to watch rider after rider fall short of my time. Finally, last year’s winner crossed the line with a stunning 8:27. A blazing fast time for that short of a course. I was still ecstatic with second place in my first pro race. I stepped up on to the podium and received a blue jersey for God knows what. The rest of the team did awesome. We don’t have any results yet, but off of Marcello’s times I feel like no one was below the top 30. Tomorrow is our first road race with about a 150 km stage. The profile looks pretty hilly, but we have a strong team here and a lot of options. I’ll check back in later!

Worlds and Vlaamse Gewesten

If you haven't already seen the result Worlds didn't go as well planned. The air pollution made it hard for me to breathe and I could never get a full breath. I was at my limit from the first kilometer and only lasted 7 of 10 laps. The rest of the team rode great Nate was driving a big break for most of the race and Rathe had a good finish in the end for 17th. Thats pretty much it about Worlds it was one of my worst days on a bike and there is not much to say about it. I have put it behind me by now and moved on to the next races. During the week Rathe and I did a Kermesse to make some money and get some training. I wasn't exactly looking for a hard race but, it is Belgium and there are no other types of races. It was a tough 7km lap with a lot of wind and a nice climb. I must have been in 50 attacks and breaks there was no hiding on this course. Rathe got away with two others on the second to last lap and stayed away to win the race in a great sprint. I attacked my group with 1km to go and almost held it but got passed by 2 riders at the line to get 6th. It was definitely more fun than training and after riding to and from the race we had a solid day and made some good money. Yesterday was a UCI 1.1 in Belgium called Vlaamse Gewesten. It was 134km of flat roads and wind. Nate made a break of 12 about halfway through. I tried to bridge with Eastman and a few others with 40km to go but the group was not working well and we didn't make it. Then on the last lap I bridged to a chase group containing Boswell and Rathe. We drove the chase group hard for the last 12km and got within 5 seconds of catching the break which was down to 7 at this point but never made it. Boswell lead out the sprint from the last Km and Rathe hit the front with 500m to go after that leadout my only option was to win that sprint for 8th, Rathe held on for 10th and, Nate was 3rd. Second on team GC not a bad day! Also, Edwig Van Hooydonck was at the race and said that Nate was the best rider of the race and name to remember for the future! Pretty cool coming from a 2 time Ronde Van Vlaanderen winner.

Liege La Gleize

The last week has flown by and Worlds are rapidly approaching. After arriving in Belgium last Tuesday most of the worlds team raced a hard 3 day stage race in Liege, called Liege La Gleize to prepare for Worlds. There was no pressure on the team other than to get some good training for Worlds and win the team time trial to show our team strength. Stage one was one of the hardest days for me on the bike. I had a small crash after about 15km. No big problem my chain was tangled but the mechanic fixed it quickly and I was back on the bike quickly. My brake was rubbing for a while but I eventually fixed it. I was almost made it back to the peleton after about 5km of chasing but could not close the final gap. I ended up back in the cars absolutely dying wondering if I would ever make it back. The field got slowed up around a roundabout and I finally was back after about a 25km chase, and I was dead. There was no way to move up in this 180 man peleton so I was at the back until Downtown dropped back with 10km to go to bring me up for the sprint. With 1km to go I was sitting about 7^th until a French kid took me off the road and into a gravel driveway causing a huge pile up. I lost about 10 places and ended up 11^th, not what I was hoping for. Next was the team trial. We started hard posting the fastest intermediate time, maybe too hard. We lost 2 riders out on course finishing with Lawson, Boz, and myself in 2^nd 24 seconds behind the French. The next stage was rolling with 3 categorized KOMs. Downtown made the early move and took each KOM. Boz bridged later and finished in the second group 1 minute behind a lead break. I was in the 3^rd group with Lawson and split the field with repeated attacks. Rathe dropped out, he was on antibiotics from a bee sting earlier. Boz was sitting in 4^th overall starting the last day, Nate in the KOM jersey, and Lawson 13 seconds out of white. There were 7 KOMs on this stage making it easily the hardest. I helped Nate secure his jersey for the first half. Then after a crash with the yellow jersey I chased back to help Boz. I spent the last 20km on the front hammering to reduce a gap to a break. The yellow jersey dropped out and Boz ended up 2^nd! Lawson took the white Jersey and Nate won the KOMs, not a bad weekend! No we are in Moscow trying to avoid being murdered or get food poisoning. Each meal has identical food some greasy meat, greasy potatoes, greasy fish, and some great desserts. I wonder what we are eating most of! The road course is super hard with many steep, steep climbs and twisty short descents with banked turns! Should be a great, tough race, I am looking forward to it!

KY and beyond

A lot has happened since the last post. Red River Gorge ended just as well as it started. On the hardest stage of the race we had a few mishaps, in about 5km the race turned upside down for me. After the first KOM our whole team was in the lead group, until the descent. First, Nate dropped his chain and about 5 seconds later Lawson flatted. I dropped back to pace Nate back to the group and Stueee gave Lawson his front wheel. That was fine we all made it back easily but, immediately as I joined the lead group I flatted my front tire. Got a great wheel change and again was back pretty shortly after using the caravan. This time about 2 minutes after catching back on there was a huge pile up on a hairpin corner. I crashed and slid about 25 feet and ended up off the road. When I finally got back on my bike to start chasing the caravan was in pieces making it difficult to chase back on. When I eventually made it back it was at the base of the second and hardest KOM. I ended up in the 3rd group on the road and knew we would never make it back. I enjoyed the rest of the stage in the grupetto while my teammate ahead were tearing the race apart taking 2,3,4, and 6th and keeping yellow and almost taking the KOMs as well. The last stage was a crit and time gaps were mostly too big for this to be a big GC decider. I wanted the stage win to make up from the previous day. When I saw Anders off the front with a couple others I knew it was time to bridge. We spent the last half hour off the front and I won the stage in a sprint of course. I picked my stage win carefully as this stage had by far the best podium girls, they were dancers for a semi-pro arena football team!

In case you haven't already heard I was nominated to the Junior World Championships Team! Worlds are in Moscow on August 9th if there is some sort of coverage I will post a link. I am in Belgium right now preparing for Worlds with the rest of the team. We are doing a 3 day race this weekend called Liege la Glieze.