Monday, July 28, 2008

Vive Le Tour!




Howdy sports fans. Welcome to Paris, site of the finish of the Tour de France. On Saturday morning, I took a TGV (tres grande vitesse = very great speed) train from Bordeaux to Paris to meet Jane, Renee, and Abby at the airport in France. I got there around 12:15 and the girls arrived just at 1pm. They were a bit tired, as none of them had slept very well on the way. We got their luggage and then took various trains to downtown Paris, and then walked a few blocks to our hotel. The hotel rooms in Europe are usually small, and the Hotel Astor was no different. We all showered and then went to dinner with Taylor's friend Gabe Kennedy, who had also just arrived. Initially, we had planned on having Taylor come up to Paris, but our plans had changed along the way and he had an important workout to do on Saturday at the velodrom in Bordeaux, so he and Connie stayed there.


Sunday was the finish of the Tour on the Champs Elysees, and we had some breakfast and then relaxed a little before heading toward the finish area. We were lucky to have some media passes that gave us great access. I had to meet up with a couple of folks while we were there, and got all of the work done while enjoying the finish. We stood at the place de la Concorde for the first 3 laps (of 8), and then walked down to 100 meters before the finish - and just in front of the Versus TV truck. Yes, we saw Frankie Andreu, Bob Roll, Phil Ligget, and Paul Sherwin there. The finish was fast, and Geert Steegemans of the Quick Step team won. We watched as the riders returned toward the team trucks. Some looked happy, some thrashed, and others in between. It was overall a pretty amazing day. I had carried a GPS (a sweet Garmin 705, no less) throughout the day...and by nightfall after dinner we had walked just over 20-miles in total! Attached is a picture of Abby "driving" the Garmin-Chipotle team bus...she was pretty jazzed!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Out of Africa...and into France!


Ancient Medieval Ruins from 9th Century


Awesome Church


Another old church


Our home for the next week!

Greetings from a fantastic old castle outside of Bordeaux, France! We arrived late on Sunday night and have been enjoying the beautiful surroundings and great weather for the past 2 days. Taylor took the day off on Monday while Connie and I explored a bit. We rode to the medieval town of St. Emillion, clocking in about 85 kilometers on small, winding roads. It was a great change from the urban, and sometimes scary, surroundings in Cape Town. We also went to the Bordeaux velodrome today just for a look around...it is beautiful, and looks quite fast. The New Zealand team was there doing some Olympic preparation rides. Taylor already did his specific Olympic simulation in LA, so now we can just focus on appropriate and specific workouts to focus on Beijing. I'm excited to see my family this weekend, as the girls get in on Saturday. We'll stay in Paris a couple of days, and will be seeing the Tour de France finish on Sunday...should be awesome! Here are some shots from the place where we're staying and also from the ride. Many of the older buildings in these shots are from the 9th-12th century. Bon soir!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Time Trial Podium!
















Yesterday Taylor completed likely his final junior cycling race in his relatively short junior racing career. He was the defending champion in the time trial, which he won last August in Mexico, but he wasn't necessarily the hands down favorite. First, he has been focussing on the individual pursuit as the Olympics are now less than 4 weeks away. Second, there is a very good Polish rider who has won every Junior nation's cup event that he has entered this year. The pressure was definitely on, but Taylor was focussed on riding his best. Last year, Taylor had some advantages in that the worlds TT race was held at altitude and didn't have extreme travel required. This year, he was racing at sea level and most of the European riders were in their own time zone.
Taylor was the last rider to start, with the number one on his back. We knew that the Polish rider who started just ahead of Taylor was the one to watch. Taylor rode extremely well, and in the early stages the two of them looked to be on even time...maybe a second or two separating them in the early miles. At the end of lap 1, Taylor was about 5 seconds behind. He was on a good pace, though, and if he could keep the pace on the second lap then he might be in the medals. The course was relentless with ups and downs and fairly strong winds to contend with. Taylor was able to use his "super-tuck" position only 3 times during the race. The super-tuck is used when he can no longer pedal any faster...which is more common in junior races, as they are all gear restricted to a 52 X 14 gear at the largest. On those downhill sections where the super-tuck was in use, Taylor was peaking out at 75km per hour - nearly 50 miles per hour!



In the second lap, one of the time splits showed a difference of about 11 seconds. Taylor said that when he passed the 4K to go sign he said "oh crap" to himself, as he knows how bad a 4K effort can feel...and he was going to go for it. Taylor rode well through the final hills and actually pulled back a couple of seconds to finish just 8 seconds behind the Polish rider at the finish. Unfortunately, there was a strong ride put up a German rider in an earlier wave and he ended up a little less than 3 seconds ahead of Taylor. The good news, though, was that Taylor had earned the Bronze medal....an excellent result that we're all very proud of! Today we have a day to relax and pack up, and then it's off to Bordeaux at 7am tomorrow! For now, au revoir to Cape Town, South Africa.



Thursday, July 17, 2008

Waiting Game






Well sports fans, tomorrow is the next big day - the 2008 UCI Junior Time Trial world championship race. Since I last checked in, Taylor competed in the points race on the track and then we hung out for a couple of days preparing for the time trial. In the points race, Taylor crushed his qualifying heat...taking a lap on the field and winning at least one of the sprints. In the final, though, the outcome was a little different. Taylor was definitely a marked rider, and didn't have any friends on the track. The points race is very tactical, and several other riders took advantage of every opportunity. Fortunately, though, it was a safe race and was good training for the time trial for Taylor.





The rain and wind came back on Tuesday and we spent the day relaxing and then watched the movie "Blood Diamond". It's a really intense flick, and had a couple of scenes that took place in Cape Town, South Africa. After the movie I caught up on some work and ended up staying up until about 3am. At 4am, I woke up to the sound of screetching car tires and gun shots. Unfortunately a police officer was shot and killed while trying to apprehend a robber about a block away from our hotel. We have been careful here, and haven't strayed out at night - and this provided a blast of reality that confirmed that we have been doing the right thing. It's amazing to me to see both the incredible wealth and the incredible poverty all mixed next to one another here. There are shanty towns with thousands living in terrible conditions right across from a shop that sells Lamboughini's and Ferrari's.





Now, it is the night before the TT and we are relaxing. Taylor is looking to defend the world title that he earned last year - he will be the final rider leaving and will know what's going on. It's a rolling course with some challenging uphills, steep downhills (perfect for his supertuck), and likely some wind. Here's hoping for a good day! Stay tuned for the results tomorrow....

Monday, July 14, 2008

Ups and Downs


There are good days, like Saturday, and then there are other ones. As I'm checking through my emails getting ready for bed I got one that was hard to read. I began coaching Jamie Whitmore in November of 2006 and helped her through last season. She won the US Professsional XTERRA circuit, won the USA Championships and set a course record in early October, and then took 3rd at the XTERRA World Championships in late October last year. During the race she was suffering from some hamstring cramping on the bike. Unfortunately, the cramping was related to a tumor that was discovered several months later. Jamie is one of the strongest and most tenacious athletes that I've had the pleasure to work with, and my thoughts go out to her. You can read more at her website at: http://www.jamiewhitmore.com/ Please send your good thoughts to Jamie. All of this makes me realize how important it is to live every day to it's fullest - enjoy everything that you do, and take nothing for granted.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Golden Boy!



Yesterday Taylor earned the gold medal in the junior men's 3K individual pursuit at the 2008 UCI Jr. World Champs in Cape Town, South Africa. It had been a little tense, with everyone expecting Taylor to do what he did...but he dealt with the pressure well and came through in the clutch. He's a stud! On a cold track, he did a 3:20.2 in qualifying - putting up the best time by 2.5 seconds to an Australian rider. In the final, he rode his race...and in the end it put him nearly 4 seconds up at the finish...an excellent way to kick things off!


Another US rider, Colleen Hayduk of Pennsylvania, won bronze in the women's scratch race...the simplest track race to understand - a group of riders begin together and the first one across the line at the end of a predetermined number of laps wins. The US junior team is definitely off to a good start.


The downside of winning of an event means that you automatically need to go to doping control. So the first order of business is to start drinking lots of water after you finish. Then you get to do the awards presentation, and then go with the doping chaperone to the waiting room. There is an intricate series of steps that occur during the doping tests, but the basic idea is that you pee into a previously sealed bottle and then you pour your pee into two other identically numbered bottled that are analyzed for illegal stuff. The entire process can take an hour or even two, depending on the number of riders, hydration status, etc. Taylor was not only the fastest on the track last night, but he was also the fastest through the doping control process...the officials congratulated him on that!


We celebrated back at the hotel a little bit, and then got a good night of sleep. Today was a day to relax and enjoy the nicer weather. It got all the way up to about 65 degrees...the warmest day yet. They say that tomorrow could reach 70 - I'll believe it when I feel it! Taylor did have some media requests today, and was interviewed by South African channel SuperSport. The guys interviewing him is a former professional cyclist himself and a nice guy. Taylor and I rode with him after lunch for about 90-minutes. We rode much of the same route that we did on Thursday, but omitted the opening climb and instead rode around the waterfront which was good.


This evening, Taylor stayed in the hotel and relaxed while I went with the rest of the US riders to watch the races - no US racers had events tonight. While at the track we got the schedule for Monday which includes Taylor's points race. He'll be doing a qualifying round in the late afternoon...and then if all goes well the final round will be in the evening. Taylor has done some points races, but not on an international scale. We'll be hoping for a fast race to keep the pure sprinters at bay. Here's hoping for more good racing tomorrow! Stay tuned...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Happy Birthday Abby!

Happy Birthday Abby!




Today is my daughter Abby's 2nd birthday! It's very hard to be away, but we did get to celebrate her birthday on July 4th and also again on the 6th before I left. As I mentioned in an earlier post I got Abby a sweet new Specialized Hotwalk for her birthday.

A really lucky thing also happened on Friday July 4th. We took Abby to a fun kid's bike parade in downtown Boulder to celebrate the 4th and Abby's birthday. Jane's brother Michael came down from Evergreen to hang out with us, and without either Jane or I knowing about it he signed Abby up for a raffle to win a new bike. When the announcer called out the name "Abby", I thought...wow, some other lucky Abby just won a new bike. Instead, Michael ran up to the folks running the raffle and surprised us by asking us to go get Abby. Here are some shots with Abby and her other new bike - it probably will be a year until she's big enough for it, but thanks again to University Bikes! Abby's already got a nice fleet of bikes: Radio Flyer scooter, Specialized Hot Walk and Hot Rock, and a Giant Trike...almost as many bikes as dad's got.


Across the World



Greetings from South Africa! Today is Wednesday July 9, 2008 - 2:15 pm local time in Cape Town. I left Boulder on Monday afternoon, departing from DIA (special thanks to Marcus) a little late, then switching planes in Dulles, then onto Frankfurt where I met up with Taylor, and then finally on for the final 12-hour flight from Frankfurt to Cape Town. We're now in our hotel and are just killing some time and trying to stay awake to keep our body clocks on track.
This first picture above is from the airline lounge in Frankfurt...Taylor is trying to catch up a little bit on the internet. We saw the start of the Tour TT stage...but didn't find out the results until this morning at breakfast.



Unfortunately, my flight out of DIA was delayed nearly two hours and that made the connection in Dulles tight. So tight, in fact, that I literally ran from my arrival gate to the departure gate for the Frankfurt leg. We arrived at 9:50pm and my flight was supposed to depart at 9:54...fortunately the plane hadn't left and I got on board without issue. Unfortunately, though, my luggage didn't make it on board. We actually sat at the gate in Dulles for another 30-minutes before we left, so I thought that would have given them enough time to transfer the luggage - but I guess it didn't happen like that.









I arrived in Frankfurt about the same time as Taylor did, who was coming in from Venice. We had enough time to eat some german fare and then shower/change before the 12-hour flight from Frankfurt to Cape Town. We were styled out in an Airbus 340-600 which is a huge plane. The second picture above is me in the bed position of my seat - I got almost 6 hours of sleep on the way...pretty sweet!









We arrived into Cape Town at 5am and waited for our luggage. Taylor's stuff had made it (his road bike, a case with rollers, and his normal bag) but none of mine made it...which includes Taylor's TT and pursuit bikes, my bike, and my bag with clothes. Yeah - I get another day in the same clothes! Luckily I did have 3 outfits in my carry-on when I left on Monday.

It's cold and raining here in Cape Town. They've been having a lot of rain for several days, but they say it's going to break by the weekend...maybe even tomorrow. We stopped by the track to check things out...it's cold concrete, and many have said bumpy. Originally we were going to build up Taylor's track bike and let him ride a little just to get a feel for it, but instead we just looked around. Colleen Hayduk from PA who is on the US team was there with her dad, and the New Zealand team were the only folks at the track at 7:30am. After our the track scouting mission we went to breakfast and then stopped in a bike shop by the track.

The bike shop is owned by the Willamse family, who happens to be good friends of Allan Wolhuter a native South Africaner who is friends with the Phinney's and who works at Wheatridge Cyclery. It was cool to have a little connection here so far from home. Even more ironic was the fact that the Willamse family is heading to Las Vegas this afternoon for a vacation!

After Taylor had a picture taken with the bike staff (he definitely gets the start treatment in bike shops), we drove to our hotel - The Cape Milner Hotel. On the way, we saw some rainbows - I took them as a good premonition for the trip (pics below). With that...I'll sign off for the today. You can drop me a line with any questions at apexcoaching@comcast.net I'll try to answer as I get time.





Thursday, July 3, 2008

Bon Voyage!

Three days until I ship out - and Taylor is currently in Italy with his family. Kelsey was already in Italy after a biathlon (XC skiing and shooting) camp in Lake Placid, NY and then on to sailing camp in England before flying into Italy. Connie, Taylor, and Davis departed Boulder yesterday afternoon for Italy and arrived today. They'll be spending a few days in Marostica, the town that they lived in for 3 years. They're attending a family friend's graduation party from university -the first member of his family to do so. It'll serve as a good time for Taylor to recover from a good block of training and to get used to the 8 hour time difference.


I leave on Monday morning, and am lucky to be able to spend a few extra days with my wife, and girls Abby and Renee. We will be celebrating Abby's 2nd birthday tomorrow morning...a few days early, since I'll be gone on her official birthday. Last year, Abby got her first bike on her first birthday...more of a scooter - a pretty sweet Radio Flyer four-wheeler, which she loves zooming around on inside the house. For this year, she's getting her first 2-wheeler...an awesome Specialized Hotwalk - check out the photo below. It's an awesome idea similar to the Like-a-bike where kids get to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels - there's no cranks or pedals, just leg power and balance. I hope Abby gets the hang of it before I leave...it not, she'll have some time to practice before Dad gets home in August.
Sweet Specialized Hot Walk - thanks University Bikes!