Team TIAA-CREF - 2005

Team Journal Entry - April 13, 2005, by Timmy Duggan

How to train - Euro style

Recently, my season began at the Tour of Normandy, a UCI 2.2 in Northern France. It was seven days of wind, rain, cold, hills, and lots of riding in the gutter. Fun! Acutally, I've raced in this region a lot in the past, and it's really cool racing.

I'll leave the details of the race out until next entry, but for now I'll let you in on a few training tips. Firstly, the difference in weather. Yep, most of February and March in Boulder it's been sunny days hovering around 60 degrees with no wind. You would think this kind of posh weather would soften me up for my adventure in France, but I've been sure to take some extra precautions in my training to re-adapt myself to Euro racing

First, I adopt the European race meal. I abandoned my chocolate chip pancakes or breakfast burrito and substitute flavourless corn flakes and French bread. How the Euros race 200km on this stuff without passing out I'll never know.
I figure most of the races in France will start in the pouring rain, so next I don all my cycling clothes and hop in a freezing cold shower to get myself sufficiently wet, and then roll out on my bike soaked to the bone. This way the nice 60 degree Colorado sun doesn't make me too warm!

I also have to tune back into the sounds of racing. So instead of countless hours of my favourite music on my dellPod while I'm riding, I've recorded five and a half hours of wind, rain, and storm noises with a bunch of angry French cuss words thrown in every once in a while. This really gets you into the right mindset for racing.
Also, I've been practicing my gutter riding skills.

When the field is all strung out at 40 mph in a ferocious cross wind, you have to be prepared for anything that may lie on the side of the road. I find the nastiest, most obstacle-strewn stretch of road and ride in its gutter, dodging storm drains, road kill, hubcaps, parked cars, and the occasional dog or small child. I hop up on sidewalks, dodging light posts, mailboxes, and old people with canes. All the while I'm pedaling in my biggest gear with my neck craned out to the side to see around the imaginary line of French guys in front of me.

See? There's a lot of stuff to train for besides endurance rides and intervals! Keep looking at my website, www.justgoharder.com, for updates on my races in France, including Normandy results, and hopefully my training ideas will pay off!

Thanks for reading!

Timmy