Enjoying the sunshine at the Tour of Qatar
Photo: © Ken Ilegems

The Ken Ilegems Diary 2004

Welcome to the Ken Ilegems Diary. After wrenching for one of the world's most powerful teams at Telekom, looking after the likes of Zabel, Vinokourov and Evans, destiny has landed Ken back on a bicycle seat. Follow him as he attempts to rejoin the world as a racer in the Classics heartland of Belgium.

A new life

Belgium, February 25, 2004

It's been a while since I posted a diary here, but there are some good reasons for that. Sometime in August last year I got a letter from Telekom saying that my contract wouldn't be renewed for the next year.

I can't say I was really shocked because I was already doubting to stay another year and talked with another team just weeks before, but it came as a surprise anyway. The first thing I did was think about what I would do next. The logical solution was to find a new team. I got some help from manager Jens Veggerby and Telekom's assistant sports director Brian Holm, who both talked with some team managers. Things were looking good to join the Fakta team, the only problem was that they were still waiting for a new sponsor to sign the contract.

After some time, it became clear that the new sponsor was not going to sign, and that Fakta was going disappear from the peloton. The next option was the T-Mobile USA team, who showed interest in me when I was in San Francisco for the T-Mobile International in September. (By the way, I had a really good time there and I know I promised some people I would write about it in my diary, but due unforeseen circumstances I haven't written anything so far.) After I returned to Europe there were still some contacts, and they promised me to contact me after the World's. Which never happened...

Since it was already the end of October, my situation became dangerous. I had some other possibilities, but wasn't sure if this was what I really wanted. After thinking it over, I decided I wasn't going after a new contract as a mechanic in a pro-team.

The next thing I did was start looking for an... amateur team. Not to work there as a mechanic, but to start racing again. My search didn't last long, I got in touch with the president of my former team where I was riding as a junior and first year amateur, and he agreed to give me a chance. When I found out that Jos Haex, former professional, was going be the sports director of the team, I was delighted. Jos was my sports director when I was racing for the Giant team, and I had a good relationship with him during my time there. It's good to make a comeback in a stable environment, surrounded by people you trust and have confidence in you.

I must say my winter period was quite good. I trained hard and had almost no setbacks due to colds or illness. My condition became better every week and during the five to six hour training rides with my teammates, I felt good, except that once in a while I had some minor back pain. I was really looking forward to the first racing weekend here in Belgium.

Because I have to earn some money too, I started working freelance for the Belgian national track team (as a mechanic). It's something I like very much. The atmosphere is much more familiar than in a road team and most of the riders in the team I have already known for a long time. One of my first trips with them was to Moscow for the first round of the Track World Cup. This meant I had to stay off the bike a couple of days, but I thought it would do me no harm, since the condition was good and I could use some "rest".

On our arrival in Russia we were greeted with lots of snow and (for me) ice-cold temperatures, down to -18°C. Our hotel was much better than I expected and the food was also better than I was told before. The only problem was the traffic... our hotel was about 20 kilometres away from the track, but sometimes it took us between two to two-and-a-half hours to get there with the shuttle busses. Difficult to plan around, so the only thing I could do was take the first bus at around 7am to go to the track and return about 12 hours later.

Unfortunately the races didn't go all well for the Belgian team. There were serious crashes from Tom Steels (twice), Matthew Gilmore and Ine Wannijn, causing lots of damage to our material. This meant extra work for me to get everything working again for the next race (I even had to borrow a handlebar from the Bulgarian team to get Matt's bike back in his preferred setup). But the most important thing was that the riders were OK. So after a semi-successful end to the World Cup, we returned home.

The day after our arrival I wanted to go train a few hours, but back pain prevented it. Since then, I haven't able to train. After a visit to my doctor, I was prescribed some rest. Tomorrow I have to let some X-rays done to rule out any serious damage to my spine. This back pain is really poor timing, just before the start of my season. I hope I will be able to train and race soon, otherwise my whole winter campaign was for nothing and will I have to start back from zero.

I really expected a lot this spring and it's turning into a disaster. But compared to other things as the death of my former teammate Stijn De Peuter, the death of Pantani and the terrible news of Brian Holm's cancer, my injury is nothing. To Brian I wanna say, "Don't give up man, you're strong, you will come through this and I hope we will meet again soon at a race!"

And to the rest of you, 'til next time,
Ken