A Week at the Worlds with Lance Wednesday, October 7

I woke up really early today, as usual but exacerbated by jet lag. Around 4.00 am. I usually work a bit then go riding early - generally about 3 hours to finish by 8.40 or so. I looked out the window of the Wieler Revue Hotel and said "no way" to myself. Not until 9.00. It was cold and misty and wet. Like really cold. A winter day around 17 celsius is cold for me! So I got about doing some things on my computer and slowly put on layers and layers and layers of clothing to hit the road in. Yesterday, I rode for 5 hours and looked like an eskimo. I didn't warm up once. Well not exactly true. I did feel a glimmer of warmth going up the Cauberg in 53 x 17. When you have jet lag it is better to hammer. No? No! Anyway back to today. My mobile phone rings this morning at 8.50. I am just about to go. It was Lance. I asked him had he got my message on his answering machine. No he said. French Telecom problems we decide. No matter. He rang me. We chatted a little about Kelly, the little girl who we have jointly got large numbers of cycling fans to flood her WWW site. It is working folks. Her parents emailed me overnight and said that more than 3000 people had signed her guestbook. The poor little kid will be stuck in front of her computer for a while. The message said she was very happy. Neat eh? So what are we doing today? Well I am riding the men's time trial parcours to have a look over it. Want to come? Yep, sure. Well we are starting in Maastricht at 10.00. 10.00? It being already nearly 9.00 and Maastricht via the route I take being about 35 kms away I started to think that my time trial was coming today. Within minutes. Sure I said. I'll be there. The plan was that if we failed to meet we would be able to ring each other up on our mobile phones. No worries. So I hit the road almost immediately and sure enough the time trial for me begins. I went over the back of the Gulpenerberg, up the Ingber hill, then down the road circuit after going through Sibbe. Down Bemelerberg, through the east part of Maastricht, under the train line bridge, through the main shopping centre, and hit the Vrijthof at 10.01. Not bad I thought - 34.3 in 59.43. Where was the short fat guy (lance), me being the tall skinny guy? I wait 2 minutes and ring him. They are struggling to get to the centre of town. 5 minutes. Okay. Jonathan Vaughters is with him - he is the other USA Time Triallist tomorrow. After some mechanical things are attended to - principally Jonathan putting on some new elbow supports for his bars we are ready to roll. Lance notes that Jonathan has the supports around the wrong way! Sergei Gontchar in his Cantina Tollo strip arrives and asks if he can join us. Nods all round. Lance said as he went "What did he say?" We laugh. Then we hit the road. I come to this town every year and know the roads well. But I have never ridden down Prins Bisschopsingel Straat and across the Kennedy Bridge along the road without cars. Neat. Lance stops to adjust a seat. We are moving along quite quickly really. I think that if cars were banned altogether we could just take over all the roads and have much more fun. It is definitely quicker getting out of town this way than along the bike paths. Lance notes that I am at a disadvantage because I have my road bike and the other 3 have full-on TT bikes. I said yeh, but that is not the only disadvantage... Mij benen! We muse about Lance's chances. Good form? Yes, getting better all the time. Is the time trial a serious endeavour. Yes. More so than the road on Sunday. Definitely not. But my TT efforts (2 in wind) in the Vuelta gave me confidence. It is actually a good course for you. Yes it is. We both know it is a very technical circuit with lots of short sharp hills, lots of corners (some very tough) and exposed to the wind. A very good course for Lance. He agrees. Boardman is not well suited here. We both agree. Behind the conversation is a seriousness about tomorrow's effort I think. So we head along to Bemelen and up the Bemelerberg. Lance wonders if we took a wrong way. I said no but why. He had an idea that the Bemelerberg is further on in the race. We are going up pretty steadily - 34 or so. Sergei's wheel is driving me nuts. Big disk. Over the top, we meet another US Postal rider Christian Van de Velde. Nice bloke. By now Lance and Jonathan are hammering along and I just survive tucking in behind with Christian. The weather is if anything getting colder. Down the main road into Maastricht from Margraten (past the American War Cemetry) we are riding pretty quickly and it is misty, wet, and freezing cold (for me at least). Everyone is rugged up. Soon after we come to a Kelme car in the centre of the road. Spanish style parking. In front is a number of Banesto, Kelme, ONCE, Vitalicio, Cofidis, Euskaltel riders. Around 15 of them. We all join up and for me it is safety in numbers. Going through St. Geetruid (well actually up the hills on the other side towards Banholt) Lance hammers off the front and Jonathan, Christian and Sergei all go over to him. I decide to sit in with the Spaniards - well decide is not really the word. I take the slower bunch. And then the Cauberg and the finish. I arrive a little after Lance and co. The Spaniards turned off just after the Cauberg. So then I had about 33 kms to ride home and Lance about 6 kms back to his hotel. I ask him how he is feeling now. Great. That bodes well for the Time Trial. The two of us ride down the Cauberg (slowly because it was very wet), and as we are going through Valkenburg we hear "Lance". It was Hennie Kuiper sitting in a cafe with a friend. We stopped and Hennie and Lance chatted about this and that. We all agreed that the course was very good for Lance. Hennie went into coach mode and gave some neat advice. Lance said he would probably modify his time trial bars overnight because he felt he would rarely be in the full tuck extended position. How right he is. He will be on his drops more than anything given the technical nature of the circuit. A bloke comes up and says can he get an autograph, looking at Lance. Lance says Hennie would be pleased to sign. A modesty in fact. It was a nice moment. We say goodbye and head off. Soon after that we hear another "Lance" and this time it is the current soigneur for Alex Zulle in his Festina jacket. Some Spanish was spoken and it was clear that this bloke had a lot of time for Lance. Up comes Spain's leading TV cycling commentator and he also wishes Lance good luck. After leaving them, I asked if the soigneur had got tied up in the Tour mayhem. Probably. The conversation extended to the drugs issue in general and that remains unreported. Lance asks me if I think it is getting colder. Sure. Freezing. But that is my stock response. It is actually between 5 and 7. The wind was not as strong today as yesterday. We talked about lots of small personal items on the way back. Just of interest to us I think. Lance shows me where he is staying for our next meeting. I see Jonathan is back washing his bike. Yeh, and when I get back mine has to be done too! And then I head off for the last 25 kms or so alone. Bit tired from yesterday, the travel, lack of sleep, and two time trials in one day! My impressions of Lance's form - watch out tomorrow!

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