Danish Update

Bo Hamburger will not ride the Flanders. It's really nothing for me, he said to me on the phone from his home in Toscany, Italy. He's instead - like Jalabert and others - focusing on the Vuelta al Pais Vasco starting on Monday.

Brian Holm was back on his bike in Brabantse Pijl and Driedaagse, but has been out of most competition for nearly a month due to a virus. So he told me that since he's not able to be at 100% at Flanders, he will instead ride for his (team)mate Jesper Skibby, who's in very great shape at the moment.

Torben Kolbaek, the manager of the Team home Jack and Jones, told me that they are naturally looking forward to their first World Cup race ever. He said that the biggest "problem" (meant positive) is the great expectations that the Danish cycling fans had for the team. Kolbaek and sports director Alex Pedersen would be pleased with a rider among the top 30.

VKS stops with sponsoring Cycle Cross

Hans van Kasteren of VKS is very disappointed about Nijs's decision. He expected that Nijs would come to his team during this season. "I thought we had a kind of agreement. I think this is very bad for cyclingcross. The competition disappears. I will take care for my riders (for example, Wim Vos) until the end of their contracts. But I have decided that I will then stop sponsoring."

Ronnie Schmeer, Nutra-Fig professional writes....

"Greetings from Seattle! I've spent the last two days doing easy recovery rides, stretching, and taking long naps. I had planned on just doing one easy day and riding hard again today (Tuesday) but I just didn't have the energy. Perhaps the last two weekends of racing and the week of training in between were deceptively hard. I also think it might have something to do with the weather. The last two weeks in California were pretty darn nice, sunny and warm for the most part. But back home it's a different story; 45 degrees F and rain showers. I think it takes the body a few days to adjust to the change. Most of the guys on the team have all headed back home for two weeks of training and doing local races. We will regroup at the Northwest's hill climbers gem, the Tour of Willamette, April 15-19. Since my last column the team has continued its upward progression in both fitness and cohesiveness.

On March 20-21 we raced the Sea Otter Classic Road Stage Race at the Laguna Seca race track near Monterey, California. Since both Road and Mt. Bike races were taking place, as well as an industry expo, it was a pretty big event attendance wise. Parking and registration went smoothly and I was ready to start my prologue at 9:05:30 Friday morning. Well actually I thought I was ready for one all-out lap of the twisty hilly 8k motor course but after gasping and wheezing my way to a very sub par time it became obvious I wasn't warmed up nearly enough. Most of the rest of Team Nutra-Fig rode pretty well and were in good position for the circuit later that day and next days road race. The circuit race didn't start until 4pm so I spent most of the day walking around the exhibit looking at the new products and thanking sponsors for their support. My favorite exhibit didn't have much to do with cycling though. It was the Skip Barber Racing School's blue Dodge Viper. The Laguna Seca corkscrew S-turn was exciting at 50mph on a bike. I wonder how fast I would be able to take it in the Viper? I asked the guy from the racing school what the toggle switch on the passenger side dash was for. He replied it was an engine "kill" switch the used if on of the "students" got a little "pedal happy."

That evening's circuit, despite having 400ft of climbing per lap, turned into a pack affair. The pack could travel so fast into the hill that you really had to push hard on the pedals to get away. The following corkscrew descent was fast and relatively wide open allowing the pack to travel very fast on its own momentum. It was one of those races where it's actually pretty easy to sit in but just murder to stay off the front for more than a lap. I will say that the race was pretty safe and I don't remember any crashes, even on the tightest left hand corner. Everyone must have heard the stories of a few riders who got "pedal happy" and were wishing they had a "kill" switch when they crashed in the morning prologue held on the exact same course.

A few of us rode to the start on Saturday mornings road race. I hoped I would be good and warmed up for the early break. However, with sprint ace Gord Fraser (Mercury) leading overall in front of prologue winner Trent Klasna (Navigators), the Mercury team was content to set tempo and chase everything down. It looked like they had the power to do it as all the splits and little break attempts came back. The 90 mile race had almost 9,000 feet of climbing total. The fast pace and hard course made for much attrition and with one lap to go a break of 7 riders got away from the much diminished field. The group contained Klasna, and even with two Mercury riders sitting on the break as well as Mercury driving the pack, the break was gaining time. I kept looking up the road to see Burke Swindlehurst, my Nutra-Fig teammate, pulling hard and driving the break up the road. "Right on!" I thought, finally a guy in the winning break! Well, it wasn't to be. Burke got popped on the last hill before the finish. So close but not quite. I tried a counter attack but didn't have enough juice to stay away for long. The break stayed away with just enough time in hand for Klasna to take the lead from Fraser. I crossed the line in the first group behind the break for 15th in the stage. My crummy prologue put me in 23rd overall, just out of the money. Burke was 19th overall. We were not too bummed though. Our results weren't great but we were finally figuring in the races and finishing in the money.

Most of the team had been staying near Sacramento, CA for the week before the final event of the California Cup series, the Wine Country Classic in Santa Rosa. It was a week of both good training and good rest. We were confident that we could keep improving our placings given our recent training and the hilly course. The first lap of Saturday's Graton road race was much faster than I'd expected given the severity of the course. Perhaps it was because this years race had been shortened to 77 miles. Maybe guys just wanted to race hard and there is nothing wrong with that. A break went away the first time up the hill just 5 miles into the race. It didn't have any Nutra-Figs but many other teams weren't represented either so we weren't worried. On the long crosswind section leading into the second time up the climb team Saturn got all their guys to the front and did a hard chase. This time up the hill about a dozen riders bridged up to the break and again, no Nutra-Fig riders. We'd really missed out and now I was worried. There were only 4 of us left in the much reduced pack of 50 or so (down from more than 100). On the long run-in back to the start/finish we (Adham Sbeih, Tony Cruz, Burke and myself) managed to do a pretty good chase to bring back the break. Just as we were catching through the feed zone, 5 riders counter attacked the break and went up the road. We were cooked from our effort and unable to continue the chase and the pack sat up giving the break a big gap. With only 4 of us left in the group we decided it would take everything we had to a respectable chase and we'd all be really cooked once we caught and unable to go with the next move. Better to wait and try to bridge.

I continued to tempo on the climb to keep the break from getting too many minutes up the road. While I'm doing this 2 team Shaklee riders start bumping my elbows and chopping wheels to slow up my "chase." You rarely see such blocking tactics in US pro racing and with only one guy doing a half hearted chase on a break of 5 that's 3 minutes up the road I wonder why they even bother.

After a few really sedate laps Burke was able to get into a little group off the front so at least now we had something up the road. It wasn't until the last lap and a half that the pack started to get animated. With the break apparently gone for good, the teams represented in the break were willing to try to get other moves going now. The attacks were constant and Burke's group was swept up by the pack.

We did a good job of getting into most of the moves until the run-in to the final time up the climb. I finally made it to the front in the crosswind section to see a Mercury, Saturn, and Oil Me all up the road. I drove for about a mile and was able to catch but I had brought the whole pack with me. Tony and Adham were up front so I kept driving the next kilo or so to the base of the hill so they would have a good position and hopefully make it over the top of the climb in the first group.

As I pulled off at the base of the climb I heard the break was only up 50 seconds. "They might get caught after all" I thought. The break did indeed get caught except for Shaklee's Eric Wohlberg who crested the little hill 1k out from the line with a 100 meter gap. He must have had one hell of a kilo left in his legs after being in the break all day to hold off the hard charging field for the win. Our efforts paid off as well with two Nutra-Fig riders in the top ten; Adham Sbeih sprinting in for 6th and Tony Cruz in 10th.

We are happy with our continuing upward progression and that will definitely make all the hill climbing we'll be doing for as preparation for the Tour of Willamette easier.. Happy riding! -Ronnie."