Cervélo

Nuts and Bolts

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

People often ask how I train-what sorts of loads do I carry, and what kind of training I do after stage races. I try to explain, but it gets fairly confusing fairly fast, so I thought the best way to explain is to just show my training and racing schedule for the month of August. This is what it looks like to be a workaday pro. Although the schedule is detailed, it sometimes changes due to fatigue. For example, if I have a hard time doing certain intervals I'll stop the intensity part of that day's training and might even take a rest day the following day. As you can see, my numbers aren't extraordinary-but then neither is my motor. My weight right now is around 66Kg. For a rider my height, at this level of racing the number should be between 63-64Kg. But, hey, I live in Chianti and as much as I love to ride my bike I also like a decent glass of wine every once in a while. Or bottle.

Week 1:
August 1-7: Tour of Poland
August 8 - Travel day and no training

Week 2:
August 9: 2:00-2:30 hours-2X20' on flats @ 280-290W w/ 5' recovery @ 210-220 Watts + 1X15' on a climb @300-310W
August 10: 3:30 Hours-1X20' on flats @280-290 (95-100RPM), + 20' on flats @ 290-300W and 65-70RPM. 8X5' SFR (Slow Power Work on a Hill) @ 280-290W (35RPM) w/ 2' @ 210-220W. 1X20' on a climb @ 300-310W w/ last 5' @330-340W
August 11 (a.m.): 2:30 Hours 20' on flats @ 280-290W (80-85RPM). 5X2' on flats @ 450W w/ at least 5' recovery. 2X12-15' on a climb w/ the first 2' @ 410-420W + 5' @ 280-290W + the last 5' alternating 15 seconds at 475-500 W and 15' at 210-220W. 15 minutes between each climb.
August 11 (p.m): 1:30 Hours on the TT bike 3X15' @ 280-290W w/ last 3' @320-330W and 5' recovery @210-220
August 12: 5:30-6:00 Hours-2X20" on flats @280-290 and 5' recovery @ 210-220 + 20' on flats @ 300-310W (65-70 RPM). 4X15' on a a climb @300W with the last 3-5' @330-340W. 1:00 Hour motor pacing at 180W in the end.
August 13: 1:00-1:30 Hours easy- 6X1' @ 120 RPM below 300W w/ 5' recovery @ less than 180 Watts
August 14 (a.m.): 3:00 Hours-20' on flats @ 280-290W (80-85RPM). 5X2' on flats @ 450W w/ at least 5' recovery. 3X12-15' on a climb w/ the first 2' @ 410-420W + 5' @ 280-290W + the last 5' alternating 15 seconds at 475-500 W and 15' at 210-220W. 15 minutes between each climb.
August 14 (p.m.): 1:30 Hours on the TT bike 4X15' @ 280-290W w/ last 3' @330-340W and 5' recovery @210-220
August 15: 6:00 Hours- 2X20' on flats @ 280-290W w/ 5' recovery @ 210-220W. 2X20' on flats 300-310W (65-70 RPM) with 5' recovery @210-220W. 4X15' on a climb: 1st hill alternate 3' on the saddle @310-320W (80-85 RPM) + 2' out of the saddle (55-50 RPM). 2nd hill @ 280-290W with last 3-5' @ 330-340W. 3rd hill after 5 hours. 2' @ 380-400W + 10' @280-290W + 3' @330-340W. 4th hill same as the 2nd hill

Week 3:
August 16 - 1:30 hours easy
August 17th - 3:30 Hours-2X20' on flats @280-290 (95-100RPM), + 20' on flats @ 290-300W and 65-70RPM. 8X5' SFR (Slow Power Work on a Hill) @ 280-290W (35RPM) w/ 2' @ 210-220W. 1X20' on a climb @ 300-310W w/ last 5' @330-340W
August 18 (a.m.): 2:30-3:00 Hours-20' on flats @ 280-290W (80-85RPM). 5X2' on flats @ 450W w/ at least 5' recovery. 3X12-15' on a climb w/ the first 2' @ 410-420W + 5' @ 280-290W + the last 5' alternating 15 seconds at 475-500 W and 15' at 210-220W. 15 minutes between each climb.
August 18 (p.m.): 1:30 Hours on the TT bike-3X15' @ 280-290W w/ last 3' @320-330W and 5' recovery @210-220
August 19: 5:30-6:00 hours-2X20' on flats @ 280-290W w/ 5' recovery @210-220W. 2X20' on flats @ 300-310W (65-70 RPM) w/ 5' recovery @210-220W. 4X15' on a climb @ 300W w/ the last 3-5' @ 330-340W. 1:00 Hour motor pacing at 180W
August 20: 3:30 Hours - 2X20' on flats @280-290W w/ 5' recovery @ 210-220W. 1X 15' climb @ 280-290W
August 21: 1:00-1:30 Hours easy-6X1' @ 120 RPM under 300 Watts w/ 5' recover below 180W
August 22: 1:30 Hours-1X20' on flats @ 280-290W

Week 4:
August 23: Travel Day, 1:30 Hours easy
August 24-28: Tour du Poitou-Charentes, France
August 29: 2:00 Hours Easy
August 30th - GP Chateauroux - France
August 31: Travel Day, No Riding

Finishing Up With New Friends

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

It's hard to believe that the season just ended. It feels like it was yesterday when I was lining up for France's Etoile de Besseges, my first race of the season, but in reality that was early February. Somehow since then winter ended, spring began and turned into summer and now we're on the tail of autumn. I'm about to pack up my apartment and head back home to Brooklyn and my family. Since early December I've spent around 25 days at home, so I'm looking forward to a longer stretch of time there.

But before heading home, I'd planned a trip around Chianti for a week-to be able for the first time this year to savor the food, drink the wine and ride the roads I love without guilt. I decided to turn it into a tour and see if anybody was willing to come. To my surprise I signed up four guests, who came from South Africa and Canada. We rented out a bed-and-breakfast called Borgo Lecchi (in Chianti near where I live) and started a week of eating at my favorite restaurants, drinking my favorite Chianti wines and riding my favorite roads.

We had Gary and Kevin from Canada and Robin and Jason from South Africa. On our first day we went out and did the Badia a Coltibuono loop that goes up to the Badia, where my wife Tiiu and I were married six years ago. It's a 7km climb that I do at the start of each day and often multiple times per day. For me it was kind of like my first cup of coffee in the morning: Gotta do it every day. One of the challenges of running a tour like this is that you aren't sure where everybody stands in terms of fitness. I had said that people should be riders who ride several times per week but that this wasn't going to be a hammerfest. Luckily for me we ended up with four people who, although at different levels, were close enough to let us have a little fun being competitive while still putting together a two- to three-hour ride.

I kept telling everyone the eating and drinking part of the trip was the most important, and that the riding was really just to enjoy the bikes a little bit and give us excuses to be able to eat and drink more. But a cyclist is always a cyclist, and I suppose most of the time there is no such thing as eating and drinking guilt-free.

Lunch every day was at Paolo's. Paolo runs a café/wine bar/osteria in Lecchi next to his mom's grocery store. Technically the place has no name but it's one of four businesses in this very, very small town-similar to what most people's idea of a small town in Tuscany should be. Paolo's was always the place I started my day before training. I live in the village of Galenda, about 3km up the hill from Paolo's, so everyday on my way out I stopped there for a quick coffee, read the headlines in the Gazetta Dello Sport, Italy's pink sports newspaper and busted some chops. It's a nice way to start the day. After our morning rides on the tour, we'd go there for lunch and feast on plates of pasta, bruschetta, cold cuts and incredible salads. The wines were my local favorites, including Castello di Ama, Isole e Olena, Monsanto and Cacchiano.

I had planned a trip to a winery, Castello di Ama. It's not only known to produce some of Chianti's best wine and olive oil, but the family has a passion for modern art and often host artists on their property. As we started looking around, Gary and Robin turned to me in shock and said that this place had a Kendall Geers exhibit, "Revolution," and that it was the only place they'd ever seen a permanent exhibit of the South African's work. I kind of nodded my head and took credit for the great find, even though I had no idea who the guy was. As it turns out Ama has eight permanent exhibits from internationally renowned artists.

Dinners were mostly at restaurants, but on some days we ate in. The first night Paolo came over with his wife, Vanda, and daughter, Francesca, and made us a splendid Bistecca Fiorentina dinner with meat from the local butcher in Gaiole in Chianti. On our last night we ate at my friend Alessandro's house in Galenda, and in between we had some incredible meals at some of my favorite restaurants around Chianti. By day three Kevin was saying how he had already re-notched his belt one hole-the wrong way. We needed to ride more if we were going to eat like this!

My favorite memories from the trip happened both on the bike and at the table. We managed to lose Robin twice on rides, but luckily found him both times. (He developed a nasty habit of flatting on downhills while he was at the back of the group.) On the next-to-last night I fractured my foot by stepping in a hole in the woods, and Gary kindly stayed up all night to help me. The next morning, I got a cast at the hospital in Siena. Jason found out that Chianti isn't flat, and we quickly dubbed him the big guy. Every meal we had was amazing, and the guys all thought they had ridden into heaven. I met some great people and was able to share with them the passion I have for this area. Next year I'm doing it again, but unfortunately the tour is already sold out because these four are coming back. Maybe I'll add one in the spring.

Final Approach

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

While professional cycling is most certainly an occupation for my colleagues and me, it is work in an entirely different capacity than the majority of jobs out there. Cycling is an all-engrossing profession that consumes so many aspects of our lives, from ... well, consuming and therefore what we eat to fuel five-hour training rides, to the amount of rest and downtime that directly influences our performance at work; there's the virtually non-stop aspect of travel and operating out of a suitcase, as well as the facet of work that results from moving one's entire life to seemingly the opposite end of the globe to pursue the sport - and job - that we love.

The progression of cycling in my life has been relatively straightforward. First were my days in elementary school riding a bike with friends simply in the pursuit of freedom, then years later I was reintroduced to cycling - this time as a sport - during my time in college. Amateur and then professional racing followed this chapter of my life all across North America, which has segued now into professional cycling at the pinnacle of the sport on a global scale. Throughout this progression, cycling has always brought me a great deal of enjoyment and simple joy.

At the end of the day, I still love my job. The feelings are very similar to the pleasure that was first elicited when I started riding decades ago and then when I began training regularly as a racing cyclist more recently. I still embrace that sense of freedom and love the adventures and world travels that cycling has allowed me. I recognize that my profession is a relatively unique one and it's something I really embrace and feel privileged to have.

Pardon the randomness of this next statement, but stay with me here. Removing all of the sporting aspects of my life, one of my absolute favorite moments in life are the two-to-three minutes just prior to landing an airplane as I return home from a race or event. All the headaches and banging my head against the wall in the airport are quickly forgotten in these brief seconds. Gazing out the window the ground below is near enough to recognize my favorite training roads, the punchy climbs that I've toiled over countless times, and the best coffee shops where I've downed my share of unctuous caffeinated goodness.

I can sometimes actually see my house or apartment, I recognize town centers, and see the landmarks that I've ridden by time and again. It's a surreal vantage point - look closely enough and I can see people walking and cars driving, but it's just far enough away that it somehow seems like a miniature toy village and somehow not real, like watching an episode of the Truman Show.

I've lived all over the globe, from New Hampshire to Vermont, North Carolina and Colorado, California, Spain, and Switzerland. I'm spoiled to have experienced this many amazing places, but every single time I'm in a plane in the final approach, I anxiously stare out the window and experience the same nostalgic (or maybe just plain crazy) feeling. I don't know if you will experience this same wistful sensation that's elicited when I do this, but I recommend you at least give it a try and request the window seat on your next flight home.

Crashing, Recovering and Crashing again

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

When you’re winning races and everything is going well, you have fans everywhere. But how many are still there when you really need them, when you have a bad year with injuries or illnesses?

Being a cyclist, all you want to do is being on your bike to train or race. But things don’t always go the way you want them to go and that’s the reason why I am not on my bike right now…After crashing in the giro, I was out for 2 weeks with a heavy concussion. After more than a month without racing, I went fully motivated to Bretagne for the start of Route de France! Stage 1 was a prologue without corners, so it would have been difficult to crash there again…Stage 2 went well, but 3 days in a row without any bad luck was too much asked, so on 3km of the finish, a French girl decided to go down and take me with her!

Consequences: broken collarbone…and out again!

I could be silly and depressed and complain about all my bad luck this year, but if I look at the bigger picture it’s not so dramatic. If you look at our team this season only, there’s plenty of riders who have had bad luck by crashing and breaking bones, hurting knees, shaking their brains, etc. “It’s part of cycling”, but unfortunately not the nicest part!

Getting injured always includes a certain time of rehabilitation and working on your comeback. If you’re healthy, you usually train with some other cyclists, but when you’re working on a comeback, most of the trainings you have to do alone. It’s you, your pain, your mind that’s going nuts sometimes ( do I feel pain? Yes? No? am I alright?) , and if you start to get better your bike. It’s very important in such times to know that someone is there, supporting you. And that’s when you realize how lucky you are to be on Cervelo Test Team.

After my crash in France, soigneur Luca took me to the hospital (again!) and got me a little present to cheer me up. Coming back to the hotel, my teammates took care of me like I was a little baby! (ok, sometimes I look like the little baby of the team too…)

The next day, our mechanic Matthieu brought Carla (with a concussion) and me to the CrossKlinik in Basel, where we got a nice double room so we could give eachother some company. The same day, they took X-rays again, to see that my collarbone was actually broken. Dr. Andy Goesele came to see us that same night, although it was already way too late for him to still be working! We discussed if I needed surgery and decided that it was a nice fracture, so I didn’t need any screws in my body. The next day, they arranged a physio and they put me on the rollers to give me some advice on training on rollers with a broken collarbone! Everyone in the entire Crossklinik gave me the feeling that I was the most important patient of the whole hospital and everyone supported me really well !

It made me realize that it doesn’t matter if you’re Thor Hushovd or Lieselot Decroix, they take care of all the riders equally and want to help everyone as good as possible!

And that’s when I realized that we are a real team…sports directors, riders, mechanics, soigneurs, managers, doctors, …everyone is there for you when you’re going good but when you have bad luck, everyone takes care of you and supports you even more! And that’s a real team! Thanks a lot!

Stage 6 Wrap Up with a Little Music in the Background

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

I’ve mentioned the mid-afternoon starts and late finishes here at the Tour of Poland. It’s now after 11pm, I am well fed, and I received a recuperating massage from one of our great masseurs, a Belgian named Mark. I’m now lying in bed pecking away at my computer, sorting through a few emails before calling it a night. I thought I would draw my day to a close by bringing you up to speed with another brief bit of Polish culture and a quick race report.

The cultural news update is primarily on account of me wondering how I’m going to fall sleep tonight with the Polish music pumping away out my hotel window. It’s somewhat surprising to me to hear this in the first place, since unlike our hotel on day one <http://bit.ly/9pPW0i> which housed the entire peloton and race organization, this hotel is a considerably smaller bed and breakfast style establishment way off the beaten path. In any event, listening to Polish music has been part of our daily routine as we’ll get the bus thumping away on the way to the race with the latest in Polish tunes. Think Polka with an electronic flair; it's catchy and induces the compulsion to clap one's hands or tap one's toes almost immediately. It’s also interesting to not be able to understand a single word being uttered when there are lyrics. At least in Italian, French, Spanish, and other languages belonging to the countries in which I race, I’ll understand certain words and phrases. Polish music, on the other hand, is utterly incomprehensible to me and all my teammates.

My apologizes for not updating after yesterday’s stage. As expected another late start and then an unexpectedly early morning left me without time to do this. Unfortunately as I mentioned previously, we lost Xavi Tondo to a broken collarbone on stage 5. It was especially unfortunate since yesterday’s stage would have suited him perfectly. It featured a considerable amount of climbing and finished on and fairly steep (and impressively well attended) 5km climb. In all likelihood, and I’m being completely objective here, he would have won the stage and earned himself a nice new yellow jersey.

Alas, that’s bike racing, that wasn’t the case, and we therefore entered today’s similarly difficult stage one man down and not with the yellow shirt being adorned by our fearless leader. Today was 228km, preceded by an emotional 12km neutral roll out that featured a stop at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Riders from every nation represented at the race placed a rose on the front gate, followed by a moment of silence.

Once the race got underway, after about 20km the skies opened up something horrific! We went from sunny skies all around us at the race start to terrifyingly dark, tremendously loud thunder cracks directly overhead, lightening virtually everywhere lighting up the sky all around us, and wind enough to knock riders clear off their bikes! Scary? Yes, you could say that. Thank goodness that died down after about thirty terrifying minutes and once we were fully saturated we were able to finish the stage. This was another great stage for Xavi, but we were riding for Gabriel Rasch, who put forth an impressive effort to improve upon his GC spot. Unfortunately that attempt came up short in the fierce fight for the yellow jersey and we will fight for a stage win tomorrow. Sometimes the race goes in your favor and other times not. All you can do is be ready to fight another day.

And now, back to the music…

Beauty and Cruel Reality

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Yesterday's stage four of the Tour of Poland brought us into the mountains. Alps? No. Pyrennes? Not quite. The Sierra Nevadas? Nay, friend. The Rockies?! Nope, wrong continent. Instead we entered into the lesser known Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians, a beautiful arcing mountain range from the Czech Republic to Romania.

The race profile as seen in the photo here indicates razor sharp climbs. Now having raced the ferociously steep mountains of the Giro d'Italia in the not too distant past and the Tour of Austria just a few weeks ago, my relative sense of what constitutes "mountains" may be slightly skewed. Now twelve hours later, having completed the stage, it would be more accurate describe the roads through the Carpathians as similar to those of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which is to say, they are steep hills or extended hills of say three to seven kilometers, but no combination of steep and long. At least not in the mountains we've traversed.

It was clear that virtually every team in the peloton had orders yesterday to be in the breakaway as we averaged 53kph in the first hour and we had settled down to just 49.5kph in ninety minutes when the breakaway finally set off alone. Dominique, in pursuit of mountain points, made the breakaway, which is great. While he then went on to collect top points on the first categorized climb, unfortunately he spent so much energy getting into the day's break that he was eventually dropped and lost the jersey. Knowing Dom, though, the race for that jersey is far from over and he will continue to fight tooth and nail to be back in pink (...the color of the climber's jersey).

The sport of cycling is a beautiful as it can be cruel. I could see that Xavi Tondo, our GC rider this week, was riding effortlessly while many others in the peloton were being dropped. Especially in the final finishing circuits, which featured one of the aforementioned short steep climbs, Xavi was at the front of the pack just following moves. I thought to relay to him that a punishing attack on this finish could result in a win if he was able to then TT to the line. Sadly, the extremely rough roads caught Xavi off guard at the base of the descent and he hit the pavement hard enough to break his collarbone. I slowed to a stop, waited for Xavi, and eventually escorted him to the finish; the agony on his face as he winced the final 10km was heartbreaking.

The best news is that after a visit to the hospital he has discovered that the fracture is relatively very minimal. He is on his way home now to mend his body from this tumble. Furthermore, Xavi's is perpetually easy-going and nearly always has an ear-to-ear smile on his face, so we can already see that he'll be back to his normal self in no time.

From Poland: Stage 3 and answering Readers Questions

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Let's start with a quick stage three analysis before getting down to the serious business.

As I mentioned yesterday, Poland's stage three didn't get underway until four PM, thereby allowing for a very relaxing morning - heck, we even enjoyed a relaxing early afternoon before it was time to race. I went for a brief spin in the bright and muggy Polish air after breakfast to loosen up the legs, followed by a carbohydrate rich lunch, and then immediately upon my departure from the dining room there was a crack of thunder loud enough so as to nearly elicit a heart attack. All five patrons of the hotel lobby at that moment impressively jumped in startled unison. Seconds later, the sky opened up and there was a deluge with rivers running through the streets. Uugh.

This was an ominous sign since the downtown city stage featured a criterium-like course with hundreds of corners throughout the 122km parcours. In the hours before the race, the rain continued to stop and start a half dozen times, until finally the race was underway and we successfully made it from start to finish without a drop of rain - even though we raced beneath some of the most dramatic and menacing skies I've ever seen.

Stellar teamwork first reeled in a breakaway and then delivered Dominique first across the line for the best climber, which was hotly contested. A random collection of items were awarded to Dom for our collective hard work: obviously podium kisses and the KOM jersey, plus a human-sized stuffed animal, and a computer. We'll be looking to keep Dom in the jersey with some aggressive riding and hopefully his attendance in today's breakaway to snatch up more points.

And now down to the nitty gritty: Polish food. Upon my proverbial desk was scrawled the following question from a reader. Hey Ted, how is the food in Poland? European mainstream or is there something typical Polish?

This is actually a tough question to answer for two reasons; one, I've only been here a matter of days so I haven't seen the full range of food offered in this country. Two, I'm quite certain that the race organizers tell the hotel and restaurant staff the general layout of food to be served - namely, don't ever run out of rice and pasta! However, now and again we see something that we just have to assume is characteristic of the country in which we're racing.

In this instance, I've noticed that rich foods are popular here, such as anything in tubular casing: hotdogs, sausages, brats, and the like. Rich and creamy cheeses such as gouda and brie often accompany the aforementioned meats and the scrambled eggs are most certainly cooked with heavy cream. Right alongside the greens and chopped tomatoes at the salad buffet, there is always a mayonnaise salad, with both egg and mushrooms being the key ingredients on days one and two, and potato taking front stage last night. Actually, mayonnaise is the key ingredient and the others are just along for the ride and perhaps a little texture. It's not that these foods are rare to life in general, it's just that they're atypical to bike races. You can hopefully guess correctly that we riders are steering clear of these heavily caloric foods and aiming more towards rice, pasta, fruits, and veggies.

Perhaps that's less culturally enriching, but better for overall race performance.

Six Eddy’s

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

1,5 Week ago, halfway the Thüringen Rundfahrt I was telling you about the podium spots we got in the last weeks, but the victories we missed. And now, only a few race days later I have only victories to tell you about! I don't think it was because of this blog, but you never know, but right away the next day after I wrote it (the second last stage of Thüringen) Sarah won the stage! And one day later, I was the one who could enjoy the feeling of passing the finish line as first. My first victory of the season, and my first for the Cervélo TestTeam, so it was a special one. It was also special because it was the last and one of the hardest stages of the tour. With 20 k's to go I attacked from a breakaway group of 8 riders and reached the finish solo with a lead of 1.5 minute. I was of course very happy, but Egon (the sportsdirector) was maybe even happier! When he was riding behind me for the last 10 k's, he got so enthusiastic in his cheering he really thought he was riding behind the (female) reincarnation of Eddy Merckx (which he told me at least 8 times in the radio).

So with three podium spots and two victories we went with a lot of confidence to Sweden, for the next races: The WC TeamTimeTrial and the Vargarda WC. Especially the first race, the TTT was important, it was one of the biggest goals of the team this year. And knowing the team won this TTT for the past three years made me feel a little nervous... With my last team I finished third last year in this TTT and then I was thinking about how cool it would be to be a part of this superfast Cervélo TestTeam. And now I was part of it, I got a little scared by the idea that maybe with me in the team, we wouldn't win this race! But the nerves were for nothing. We had a great team (Emma, Kirsten, Sarah, Charlotte, Regina and me) and we did a great race. Already halfway we had a 50 second advantage to the next teams and we even managed to make the gap bigger in the second half. Despite the bad weather, we did not only a super fast race, but also a technically perfect race (even better than some men's team Egon said later, and from his mouth, this is the biggest compliment us girls can get!). Even the slippery corners weren't a problem for us. Now you can see that your concurrents can be such strong individual (timetrial)riders, a teamtimetrial is something different. It's so important that you ride smooth and decent, don't kill each other and use everybody's strength. And when you have a perfect race, like we had last week, it feels like you're part of a TGV and it's a enormous thrill. All our trainings for this on the trainingcamps last winter paid off. After the race, I asked Egon if he felt today like riding behind 6x Eddy Merckx, because for me it felt like this!

Not a lot time for celebrating though, because next race was coming up in only two days. And again we wanted to win of course. In the pissing rain, Emma (Pooley) attacked straight away in the first lap and stayed in front half the race. In the meantime the sun broke through and it stopped raining. Swedish hill's are maybe not so impressing, but when they let you climb them for a lot of times, for sure they also become hard. So reaching the final we had a lot of attacks but nothing held long and it looked like we would reach the finish with a small bunch. One rider, Marianne Vos, knew to surprise us though with a very hard attack on the last climb. And with six kilometers to go, she got a gap of 15 seconds. Sarah, Charlotte, Regina and me put ourselves in the front and we rode our second TTT of the week! With only 600 meters to go we cached Vos and Kirsten finished our perfect teamwork by winning the sprint. Oefff, what a thrilling final! But what a great feeling to have a second WC victory in less than 48 hours!

Now I'm riding with my teammates to Copenhagen Airport, all tired but satisfied. It is quiet in the van, some are sleeping, some are just staring and maybe day dreaming about last week... I stop typing now, and close my eyes for a little nap. In a few hours I will be back in Holland, and then we start all over again, preparing for the next races. But this great memories of the last two weeks can nobody take away anymore!

From Poland: Stage 2

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Falling into a routine is fairly easy at a stage race. It certainly helps that we cyclists are surrounded by a staff of directors, mechanics, and soigneurs whose job it is to make our lives focus as closely to just the bike as possible. The have a selfless job, so it goes a long way to say thank you now and again... and then again in case they didn't hear us the first time.

Wake up, eat breakfast, relax back in the room, pack our suitcase, hop on the bus, drive to the race start, race meeting, race, bus, shower, hotel, dinner, massage, and then bed. Repeat.

The big asterisk differentiating the Tour of Poland from nearly every other race we do is that everything takes place here about four hours or more later. Whereas a normal race start is often in the late morning, say eleven AM or so, today's stage three of Poland for example gets rolling at four in the afternoon. Following simple logic, or perhaps just addition with hours, that means we're just starting the stage after most other stage races are finished!

This is merely an observation that I'm passing along to you the viewer, who presumably is somewhere besides lining the streets of Poland late into the day. This makes for much more casual mornings and considerably later nights than normal.

Yesterday's slog through Poland was nearly 260km all said and done with the lengthy neutral section tacked on before crossing the official start line. At over six hours, but never terribly stressful for the first five and a half, it made for some lengthy conversations in the pack. Gabriel Rasch flew the Cervélo TestTeam colors proudly in the breakaway, which unfortunately was assumed doomed from the beginning with so many strong sprinter teams here and a fast and flat finish. Dominique and I worked hard in the final fifteen kilometers of the finishing circuit to set up Martin in the sprint. Eleventh is not the podium or victory we're searching for, so you can rest assured that we'll be out fighting hard in today's stage three... even if that means we're hard at work late into the evening.

From Poland: stage 1

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Stage one of the Tour of Poland was straightforward. So much so in fact, that when 200 cyclists come barging down the straight-AND-forward and narrow final 3km finishing stretch, bad things were just bound to happen. One noteworthy ingredient in the crash-marred finish was the barriers who's feet jetted out into the course about 8" on each side. Everyone could see these traffic impediments lap after lap (we finished with eight circuits), but at 60kph an already narrow alley becomes even narrower with everyone operating with tunnel vision.

The aftermath of the crash included completely broken metal barriers - an impressive feat considering how durable and, well, how METAL they are! Despite Cervelo suffering two riders down in this tumble, we fared much better than initially thought as both Davide and Martin will intrepidly start today's stage two with just a few bumps and bruises.

Stage two gets underway after ten kilometers of casual neutral riding. It's seemingly no coincidence that it's such a long neutral parade since today is the longest stage at this year's Tour of Poland with 240km. For reasons unknown to us cyclists, the already long stages are prefaced with the longest neutral sections of the race.

Late starts, long neutral sections, and long long stages make for late nights for everyone here in Poland. Massage and dinner last night took place well past 9:30pm and most guys weren't asleep until after midnight. With any luck, though, the casual unfolding of the morning will alleviate the aches and pains of yesterday's crashed riders; moreover hopefully it will and allow a more serene and straightforward finale for today's stage, since it too should likely end with a fast sprint finish.

From Poland: pre-race / stage 1

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The parking lot at the Hotel Osso, an hour's drive from the Warsaw airport, resembles that of a circus coming to town seemingly just as much as a bike race. In a rare occurrence in the world of cycling - certainly the first I've witnessed - every one of the 22 (or is it 23?) teams at this year's Tour of Poland are staying in the same hotel. Usually teams are spaced throughout a general area, since accommodating a ProTour race is no small task. The water and electrical consumption just to clean bikes and power the staff members daily routine is a noteworthy consideration, and that's just one of the aspects of housing these teams.

The parking lot is teeming with staff members all busily taking care of their pre-race jobs amid a spectacularly colorful collection of cars, service trucks, buses, race official cars, and sponsor vehicles. This energy amid so much color concentrated into such a relatively small area can only lead one's mind to the circus.

Or in this case, a bike race.

It's also no surprise that our accommodations must therefore be quite sizeable and therefore resemble a modern day castle perhaps even more than a hotel. With a pond (which is sort of like a moat, right?!) out back and trees virtually everywhere surrounding our compound, I'm not the only one who has mentioned this obvious parallel.

However, even more surprising than the circus-like atmosphere or the castle-like features, is the obscure and seemingly desolate location where we're located. Presumably about 98% of the peloton descended upon the Tour of Poland by way of the Warsaw airport. From there, staff members from each team drive the hour each way to shuttle the riders back to the hotel. The trip obviously begins in a metropolitan city, Warsaw, then we set out on the country's highways which are anything but speedy. Traffic lights and intersections slow down highway traffic to downright pedestrian speed in no time. From there we travel on progressively smaller and smaller roads until we're in the middle of nowhere, except voila! Hotel Osso, the castle of a hotel housing a circus of a bike race.

Tour of Poland, stage one, coming right up.

Cakes and Altitude

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

In Paris, the Monday after the Tour de France is an interesting scene at the airport. Lots of cyclists and fans trying to make their way home. It's cool-except that I didn't do the Tour, so everytime someone noticed my logos and gear and asked me how the race went, I had to mumble how sorry I was and explain that I was only there for a team event on the last day.

Cervelo put on a luncheon for Tata Consultancy Services, one of the sponsors, just steps away from the finish line on the Champs-Elysees. It was nice to meet some of our sponsors and their guests and give them some insight about what went on the last day. Cervelo led the race into the final kilometer, with an incredible leadout for Thor from Jeremy and Brett Lancaster. I was trying to explain to people that, although Thor did not take home the green jersey for points this year he did put up one hell of a fight for it, and win a stage, so to me his finish was more endearing than if he had won. I'm sure for him it was different.

I was happy to be there and Paris is Paris (and the Tour is the Tour), but I must admit that sitting in the stands just next to the finish line and watching the action was a little strange. I wanted to be on the other side of the barriers. Next year, I hope to improve enough to get my shot. Considering that my teammate Jeremy Hunt made his debut at the race at the age of 35, nothing is impossible.

It's back to racing for me now-the Tour of Poland. I'm looking forward to being back in the pack but just a little anxious about not having raced for six weeks after my crash. My fitness is good: I was with some other non-TdF teammates at an altitude camp in Switzerland for the past three weeks.

At altitude, you can't train the same way as you do at sea level. The most important thing is not to go too hard, so it's critical to keep an eye on the Powertap and heart rate to make sure both measurements are below threshold. To set those zones, I went to our team medical clinic in Basel to do some Vo2Max tests as well as check my blood profile to see how altitude affected my body. (I would also redo the blood profiles after the training camp.)

For me, this period was all about long hours and work below threshold. Marcelo Albasini, one of our sports directors, designed the training and a typical day was 3-6 hours of riding. Twice per week I'd work on power, which meant 8 intervals of five minutes each on a hill, at 35-40 RPM at about 270 Watts. That's not terribly difficult, but it was an important test of how my knee was holding up. I didn't have any problems. I also spent a lot of time doing 15-30 minute intervals on climbs at 260-280 watts and 280-320 watts. Once a week I would work these intervals a little toward the higher end-for example every five minutes getting out of the saddle for 10 seconds and accelerating slightly. Not exactly glamorous, but if you do it properly you feel a big difference after two weeks or so.

One of the things about camps that is fun is spending time with your teammates and staff outside of racing. People are generally more relaxed. We threw a barbecue in one of Switzerland's parks-one of our sports directors, Jens, is a good cook and made us all some nice steaks. And Ted King has a culinary career in front of him when he decides to leave the pedals behind. He's one of the only cyclists I know who is also a serious baker. I like the kid, but the combination of his skills and my sweet tooth makes him a danger for me.

Racing with Powertap, stage 13

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Hunter Allen, coach of Daniel Lloyd (GBR) will do daily analysis of Daniel Lloyd's Data during this year's Tour de France. More information about Hunter and is company The Peaks Coaching Group check www.PeaksCoachingGroup.com Hunter is the co-author of the book, "Training and Racing with a Power Meter".

Last easy day until next Friday for most of the peloton, but Daniel still had to be attentive and help Carlos as much as he could. The first 15 minutes of the stage were hard until the breakaway got away and then the pace eased up.

It was a pretty uneventful day otherwise and Daniel made sure Carlos was in the front group on the last climb and once he knew Carlos was there, he sat up and rode easy over the last climb into the finish.

235 Training Stress Score points in nearly 5 hours of racing don't quite make this the easiest stage for Daniel, but it's definitely not a hard stage.

"Not quite as hard as yesterday but still a solid day in the saddle" said Daniel Lloyd. "My task was to stay with Carlos the whole day and bring him into a good position before the final short but important climb. It was pretty fast on the run in and slight cross wind and I ended up taking him forward a couple of times. He started in a good position though and then my job was done, didn't have enough left to try and get over the climb myself."

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