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The Tim Reinhart Diary 2002
Tim Reinhart is a young American rider currently racing with the US national team in Europe. He is the younger brother of the late Nicole Reinhart.
Breaking away at La Côte Picarde
Côte Picarde, France, April 24, 2002
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This race was located on the northern coast of France. In fact our hotel was right on the beach, and it would have been a really nice time except for the fact that we were racing and not on vacation. When we arrived the day before we were all really impressed with the view, and how clear and nice it was out. That all changed over night. What was scheduled to be a nice sunny day with a high of ab
out 20, turned into a cloudy, foggy, mess with a temp creeping at about 10 degrees. The funny side of this is that we later found out that inland, about 20km away it, was about 10 degrees warmer, and sunny all day long.
The race was a 174km long and was relatively all flat except for the last 50km when we reached a finishing circuit. There were two climbs that we had to do there twice, and they were both about a kilometer long. It was a great race for our team because it included cross wind sections, and climbs, both areas in which we are strong. The race went pretty smoothly for us except for the very first crash of the day. It was in the first 5km of the race, and about 15 riders went down. At first I didn't even realize that any of us went down, but after a while of looking around in the race, and wondering where Jon Retseck was I realized that something had happened to him. We later found out that Jon had to go to the hospital because he had a nasty gash in his knee, and he needed to get some stitches in it. Luckily its not that bad and he is allowed to start riding again in a couple of days.
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During the race Mark Fitzgerald, Walker Ferguson, and I were in a break away for about 90km, but we were eventually brought back when we reached the circuits. The Domo team was so insanely fast at the front that it was so hard to sit in. When I came back to the pack I couldn't believe how hard I had to fight to just hang on. Those guys make it look so easy. The race eventually broke up with Patrick McCarty placing the highest in our team coming in at eighth. With this result, and the ninth placing Pat received in Liege he now sits in the top 15 in the world cup rankings for the U23s. Yeah he's good.
On another note... Sterling Magnell went for a training ride from our house the other day intending to do a six hour ride, but he ended up getting lost and riding for 10 1/2 hours. Luckily he was smart and bought a map, and he only ended up riding past Brussels, which is almost half way across Belgium. Oh well.
Timmy