Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Mt Hood Classic Photo ©: Swift |
 |
Papillon: The Joe Papp Diary 2004
Joe Papp is a UCI Elite rider with the UPMC cycling team. He was a double stage winner at the 2003 Vuelta a Cuba (UCI 2.5) and in 2002 won the GS Mengoni Grand Prix, the BMC NYC Cycling Classic for elite amateur men and a stage at Superweek, among other events. Joe's writing is good enough to make boring races intriguing and intriguing races captivating.
Clocking up the miles in Cuba
Vuelta a Cienfuegos, Cuba, January 29 - February 1, 2004
January 26, 2004
|
I arrived home from the ACT-UPMC training camp in Uruguay on Friday, and proceeded to enter hyper-drive in an effort to catch up on all the hellish real world stuff that I avoided during my time in South America. It's amazing what piles up in seven weeks and I was overwhelmed by everything from visits to my orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Freddie Fu for more work on my still f'd left knee, to a belated birthday celebration for my mom, to a Viking-like stop at Westwood Cycle in New Jersey where I pillaged Mark Albert's race food supply. Knowing what's waiting for us in Cuba, I am planning on bringing about 20kg of my own personal food-everything from Extran and protein bars to organic peanut butter (left over from my stay in hospital - thanks, Frances) and whole wheat pita bread. While the excess baggage charge from Miami to Havana is $2/lb., during past trips to Cuba I've been willing to pay $5.00 for a single Pop Tart after several weeks of rice and chicken, chicken and rice.
During the final days of our camp in Minas, I did some on-road testing with my SRM powermeter, followed by analysis using a new software tool called CyclingPeaks. While I've been following power-based training plans since 2001, the new analytical tools that are now being developed are a definite improvement over standard software or Excel spreadsheets, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the results of my efforts. While my knee is stiff and sore every day and on every ride, my power output is gradually rising. In fact, after some informal consultations via email with ex-Navigators pro Hunter Allen, who helped develop the CyclingPeaks software, it looks like my engine is in an ok state given the trauma my body has endured since June. However, what remains to been seen is how my left knee will hold-up during multi-day racing. For example, I'm still not recovered from the quadriceps atrophy that occurred after the accident, and the resulting muscular imbalance has proved quite bothersome during extended cycles of training. If anyone out there has any holistic/non-traditional therapy suggestions, please send them to me care of the kind folks at cyclingnews.com.
January 28, 2004
|
This morning I met my ACT-UPMC teammate Ward Solar at Miami Int'l Airport, along with Kyle Wamsley and Eneas Freyre. Kyle, a young gun track star with a mean field sprint will be a guest rider in the ACT-UPMC squad for the Vuelta a Cuba, though Eneas turned us down in favor of hooking-up with his old Spanish team, Cropusa-Burgos. I'm offended, but not too badly, since I like Eneas a lot and enjoy traveling with him. When we get to Cienfuegos, we'll be staying in the same house together, and since the competition is more for training than a serious go at beating on one another, there shouldn't be any friction. Actually, I'm glad Eneas is coming along, since his family is Cuban (though they all left the country post-rev.) and it's a big deal for them that he's going to ride the Tour of Cuba. Eneas was actually here with me once before, in 2002 during our first shot at the Vuelta, but he crashed and shattered his collarbone during the warm-up races in Cienfuegos and never got to start the Tour.
The special charter flight was almost deserted, and in less than 45 minutes we touched down in Havana. All of us cleared immigration with ease, though in customs we had the displeasure of seeing that all of our checked baggage had been rifled through, and a good quantity of items was missing. Since I'm writing this from Castro Country I haven't been able to contact the Transportation and Safety Administration in the USA to see if they're responsible, or whether it was the doings on the Cubans. My guess is that it was the TSA, since they'd placed "sorry we had to do this" cards in all of our bags, but I do know that the locking and closure mechanisms were pried out of my Delsey Merididan suitcase, rendering it completely useless, which is nice, because who needs a functioning, lockable hardside case during a month of moving from hotel to hotel in Cuba?
After stopping by the Velodrome to arrange for the president of the Cuban Cycling Federation to go to the airport to pick-up our race radios, which had been impounded (presumably because of the possibility that I'd distribute them to pro-democracy cyclists who might form secret anti-Castro cells), we beat feet for Cienfuegos. Unfortunately, what should have been a three hour jaunt took five hours, since the motor in our microbus was on the fritz. We arrived dazed at the Villa Perlazucar around 10pm, but still had to build our bikes and square the gear away for tomorrow's first stage of the Vuelta Ciclistica Internacional de Cienfuegos.
January 29, 2004
We'd been told that the first stage was 186km, which of course made the four of us groan collectively, but thankfully today we faced only 130km, with finishing circuits in Cumanayagua. Because the Cuban national team just recently returned from the Vuelta a Tachira (and are subsequently still recovering for the Tour of Cuba), and because this is a communist system in which individual outspokenness is lethal, 99% of the Cuban riders in the race followed the Federation's unwritten directive and rode the pace that team captain Pedro Pablo Perez (two-time winner of the Tour of Cuba) dictated. Thus, until the final 20km to the line, the stage was basically controlled and Eneas, Kyle, Ward and I were able to spin open our legs and work out some of the travel-related kinks.
By the time we hit the circuits, however, the guns started firing and it was all-out to the line. There were eight turns on the relatively technical course, and Kyle took advantage of this to test his early-season form with a 3km solo break. With one lap to go, however, it was all back together and Eneas and I raced to the front to organize a quick lead-out for his the foreign contingent. I pulled from the start-finish through turns one, two, three and four, and then swung off before the fifth turn after almost 1km at the head of a long, snaking line of riders. Eneas quickly took over, and pulled through turn seven, before giving over the reigns to the other Spaniards, Kyle and Ward. At the line, the commissars said it was Cuban speedster Joel Mariño by a whisker over ex-Kelme Jordi Riera, but the photos that were later sent over the wires proved otherwise. Nonetheless, the super-tranquilo Riera took it in stride and simply grabbed a fresh pair of water bottles for the 30km ride back to the Villa. I took a cab, however, since my knee was on fire and I didn't fancy two hours of riding at 15kph to get home.
January 30, 2004
Today's stage was 186km, and again was collectively controlled until 30km to the line, when Cuba A closed the echelon in the mean run-in to Cienfuegos. Along with all of the Spaniards, I was blown out the back and into the quickly-forming second echelon, though Eneas made a heroic effort to bridge to the leaders. Alas, they wouldn't open for him either, and he was quickly back with us. That left Pedro Pablo, Mariño, Luis Romero, Reldy Perez, Adonis Cardoso, Lizardo Benitez, Yunier Alonso, Wilmer Rodriguez, Yosvani Amigo (no friend of mine today) and Yulien Rodriguez to contest the win, with Cardoso taking the stage and the jersey.
January 31, 2004
|
We climbed La Ventana today, the wicked 7km mountain wall that looms over Cienfuegos from the north. The stage, though only 90km in length, finished with said ascent, and was a sharp reminder that training in the rolling hills is no substitute for scaling mountains.
After departing from the Parque Jose Marti in Cienfuegos, we rode 1.5 loops of a wicked and hilly circuit outside of town, before turning right towards the mountains. Eneas and I had a go for it with Vicente Zanabria of Matanzas and one other Cuban on the circuits, but Pedro Pablo and his henchmen were having none of it so our break was short-lived. It was fun to open up the legs with some high-intensity efforts, though I'm a long-way from my stage winning form of 2003.
The waters were muddled on La Ventana, however, where I was beaten down into 29th on the stage, losing a whopping 10:05.00 to winner Reldy Perez. Analyzing the day's efforts with CyclingPeaks proved that I'd actually ridden up the mountain with a lower heart rate and higher average power output than last year, a sure sign of increased fitness or at least more efficiency, greater economy and/or better mental focus. Hmmm. I moved into 19th on GC, though 37 riders abandoned the stage and one of the Spaniards went so hard that he blacked-out on the climb.
Ward had a good ride and finished 20th on the stage at 8:40, while Kyle suffered a bit and crossed the line almost 21 minutes down. Eneas had a great ride, however, and finished 8th, conceding only 4:48.
February 1, 2004
|
The last stage was a cigar-circuit "criterium" on the Prado in downtown Cienfuegos, which featured two 180-degree turns at either end of the city's main thoroughfare. Though there was more attacking today, Pedro Pablo and Lizardo Benitez did most of the work to control the field and protect new leader Reldy Perez. With 1.5 laps to go, I again went to the front and started an early lead-out for Kyle, who was lurking on Mariño's wheel. After just barely blowing up after an all-out kilometer effort, I fought my way back to the front by the bottom turn and banged my way into 5th for the run-in to the line. Kyle was on my wheel, and rather than risk gapping him when the pace went up that final notch, I gave him a Madison sling and then swung off.
Kyle, who was being followed by Ward, put his sprint to good use and launched up the right hand side while Ward prevented anyone from grabbing his wheel. From what I could see, Kyle had Mariño beaten dead to rights, until Adonis Cardoso finished his work at the front and swung off to the right, directly into Kyle's path. I don't think he intentionally tried to crash my teammate, but he did give him a Nothstein-worthy hook (actually making contact) that sent Kyle into the curb at 68kph. I was sure we'd have to start looking for a sixth teammate again for the Vuelta a Cuba, especially after seeing Kyle's battered bike resting 50m down the road from him, but in the end he stood up, brushed himself off, lamented breaking his frame and walked across the line Claude Criquelion style.
Final general classification 1 Reldy Perez (Cuba) 11.16.08 2 Adonis Cardoso (Cuba) 0.26 3 Lizardo Benitez (Cuba) 0.43 4 Luis A. Romero (Cuba) 2.51 5 Yulien Rodriguez (Cuba) 4.33 Others 8 Eneas Freyre (USA) 7.55 12 Ward Solar (USA) 11.47 16 Joe Papp (USA) 13.43 36 Kyle Wamsley (USA) 36.55
There were 49 finishers out of 116 starters. Talk about attrition.
February 2, 2004
Eneas, Kyle, Jordi, Ward and I rode out to Rancho Luna and the beach today to snap a few photos, before we break camp. Eneas is going with the Spaniards to another four day race, the GP Humboldt in Guantanamo, but Kyle, Ward and I are returning to Havana to await the arrival of our Uruguayan teammates Gerardo Castro, Mateo Sasso and Alvaro Tardaguila, and our director Mike Fraysse.
Having ridden Humboldt twice before, finishing 2nd in 2002 (with Todd Herriott in 3rd) to Damian Martinez of Cuba, I felt no great desire to return. Furthermore, I know the conditions to expect there, and don't want to start the Tour of Cuba with either malaria or dengue fever. Thus, it's off to the Playas del Este for the ACT-UPMC boys and a brief respite before the Vuelta commences on the 10th.
February 3, 2004
|
Being the bastards that we are, the three of us scribbled a few signs that say, in general, "Wish you were here, Eneas," and have been shooting photos of ourselves posing with them in various scenic and otherwise comfortable locations. Taking the banter factor up a notch, we've also posed some obliging Cubans with them as to really rub in the fact that poor Eneas is being eaten alive by mosquitoes while we enjoy omelets for breakfast and go for training rides along Santa Maria beach.
February 7, 2004
We leave tomorrow via plane for the Orient and the race start in Baracoa, which beats the hell out of the 16-hour non-air conditioned bus ride that Eneas and the Cropusa boys suffered earlier this week. While training yesterday we ran into the Italians, who are led once again by Vuelta stage winner Simone Biasci. He and his teammates were all astride carbon fiber Eddy Merckx's with full Campy Record 10, looking very, very fly. I'm sure their team car will be a Ferrari or some equally stylish ride, which will put our Peugeot 206 to shame.
Quick note on the job requirements for an elite cyclist in Cuba:
- Train 40,000km per year on a diet that consists mainly of bananas and sugar water.
- Ride bike donated via Pan American Solidarity program (if you're lucky) that is at least four years old and may or may not fit you properly.
- Beat Ivan Basso and win stages of elite European events.
- Win medals at World Championships and Pan Am Games.
- Be prohibited from traveling outside of the country except in exceptional circumstances and then only accompanied by special "team support person" (aka: defection prevention agent)
- Earn (US)$20.00 per month.
Sign me up…
Photography
Images by Joe Papp
- What the ACT-UPMC boys called home during their stay in Cuba.
- Jordi Riera and Ward Solar relax by the pool.
- Cyclingnews diarist Joe Papp looking trim.
- The boys - Kyle Wamsley, Eneas Freyre, Ward Solar and Joe Papp.
- Pizza is often a good alternative if the villa food sucks.
- Could this be the future Vuelta a Cienfuegos team hotel?
- One of the members of the Cuban national women's team, whom the ACT-UPMC boys trained with.
- One scenic training ride.
- Technology's an amazing thing, isn't it?
- Sprint training with Jordi Riera and Eneas Freyre.
- The only SRM in Cuba.
- Eneas Freyre had a great ride on the third stage to finish eighth.
- Enthusiastic locals are never far away.
- The Guatemalan team.
- Ward Solar and Joe Papp hangin' out in Cienfuegos.
- A beautiful morning for the final day of the Vuelta a Cienfuegos.
- The race leader, Reldy Perez.
- Joe Papp on his way to the final stage.
- Riders jostle for position in the closing laps.
- A break goes clear in the closing moments of the final stage.
- The final sprint on the Prado in downtown Cienfuegos.
- Being the bastards that they are, Joe and his team-mates scribbled a few signs saying, "Wish you were here, Eneas," in various scenic locations.
- More scenery, Cuban style.
- One muddy-looking beach.
- Too much partying for the Spaniards.
Email Joe at joe@cyclingnews.com
