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September
4th, 2003 – Thursday
I am now in the land of Swiss cheese, the Mafioso, and tight pants. It’s
kind of weird being in Switzerland but everybody seems to speak Italian. I
guess we are only like 20 km from the Italian border, which is why Gino “The
Rat” does a little money laundering here in the Casinos.
So far things are O.K except for my teammate Adam Craig not being able to race!
Between USA Cycling and the UCI they don’t know their ass from their
elbow. They’ve got some crazy rule about submitting two drug tests to
the federation, but only give you the dates the tests are due if you are a
registered trade team. Well, Team Giant as well as a number of other big teams
are not. So in turn Adam has no information and they waited until Worlds to
let him know his second sample has been submitted too late. What a crock o’ S#^!
He is the best chance the US had at getting a medal in the Espoirs category
and they pull this crap. I feel really bad for him. It’s O.K though.
I think he might just go hang out in Amsterdam for a few days and make himself
feel better. Kidding!
So, the past couple days I’ve done this cool ride around the lake here
in Lugano and have been taking in the unbelievable scenery. The people that
live here are pretty pimped out. I must have forgotten that Switzerland is
like the Beverly Hills of Europe. Between the Aston Martins, Porsches, and
Emerald Ferrangamo (I think that’s how you say it) stores I’m just
waiting for Jennifer and Brad to come strolling out. The weather is pretty
overcast in the mornings, but warms up by around noon.
I finally checked the schedule and we start 4x practice today and also have
qualifying. I assumed we had our finals on either Saturday or Sunday, but I
was wrong. Our finals are tomorrow! Whew…I better get out of my travel
coma and get everything sorted. I walked the course both Tuesday and yesterday
and it looks good. Phil, the course designer from Scotland was put in charge
and he’s done a good job. The course was built in the shooting range
on an army base and should be great for spectators. It looks to have some rhythm
and a starting gate that resembles that of the movie RAD. And if you haven’t
seen the movie I suggest you run out to Blockbuster this instant. It’s
a classic. Anyway, since today is the first day of practice I’ll write
more later and let you know how it goes.
In the meantime I’ve been doing my best at getting both my English and
Spanish homework done in between riding. I knew when Katrina asked, “ what
are you doing after World Cup finals next week,” I was going to start
thinking of a good reason why I could just miss school and sign up again next
fall, but once again the right half of my brain prevailed. After she told me
a bunch of them were going to Hamburg for a few days, I expressed to her my
deep desire for wanting to accompany the group on their journey through the
infinite cities, dance clubs, and vast country side of Germany, but that the
opportunity just didn’t present itself available. By the way the English
class is going so-so. On that note…I’ll be back after qualifying.
September 6, 2003 – Saturday
Here is a re-cap of what’s been going on the past couple days.
-Women’s
qualifying went like so. Anne-Caro (41.00), Katrina (41.39), Jill (41.69),
Me (42.00).
-Michael Prokop qualified first and I’m pretty sure Eric Carter third,
but I don’t know who was in second or fourth.
-Mike King had a good crash in quali’s as well as David K. David K.,
jumped the gate a bit too soon and slid all the way down the 30-foot long start
ramp apparently.
-Anne ended up winning. Both Katrina and I ended up crashing in our semi-finals,
and Michael Prokop won.
-I ended up with a sore shoulder and Katrina ended up with stitches in her
finger and a sore back.
-In the Men’s final there were three Americans. E.C, Brian Schmith, and
Lopes.
-In one of the first rounds of the men with both Rennie and Minnar in the heat.
The gate dropped prematurely, but they ran the race anyway and didn’t
let them have a re-run. The UCI said it was because it didn’t drop prematurely,
but we all knew it was because the race was being broadcasted LIVE and they
couldn’t mess up the schedule.
-Greg Minnar won the men’s DH final and Anne won the women’s final…Again.
Minnar had a stellar run and the coolest looking uniform at Worlds. Everybody
was stoked that Greg won and both Peaty and Kovarik walked over and said congrats.
-All day in the pits they had some crazy man driven fire-breathing cow cruising
around the pits spraying water out of it’s utters at people walking by
and was accompanied by some other funny looking farm animals on stilts. Boy
these Swiss sure know how to party.
-Sam Hill won the junior men’s DH and could have place fourth I believe
in the Elite men’s race. Oh yeah and he crashed too. Crazy-ness!
-The U.S. Junior men did well with Kyle Straight finishing in fourth and Duncan
Riffle in fifth.
-In the Women’s race it was Pruitt that placed highest for the U.S. team
in sixth with Marla “ I know every drinking game on the planet” Streb
in eighth. Oh and by the way Marla decided on not wearing ANY freaking pads
for the final. She figured it would eliminate the arm pump situation.
-Our own Shaums March was in the DH “HOT” seat it seemed like forever
with a fast time of 4:51 until the U.K.’s Steve Peat came down with 4:40
I believe. Not long after France’s Fabien Barel came down beating out
Peaty with a 4:39, which was totally impressive after his gnarly header in
Sainte-Anne. This was his first race back I think.
-My teammate J-rad Rando had a time of 4:56 with his spoke flapping around
in his wheel and wearing a very cute skin suit.
-And finally I just need to make a comment about the atmosphere at the DH finals
today and the fact that I could have caught some ZZZZZ’s. With ten riders
to go they had no music, no announcing, and just some men in lederhosen blowing
in these big horns that made you feel like taking a nap. I mean for crying
out loud I thought Peter Graves actually fell asleep. Horrible! I love ya Peter,
but WAKE UP!! Who knows maybe tomorrow at the XC finals it might get better,
but I doubt it. On a lighter note the crowd at the 4x was awesome!! It’s
kind of funny how the UCI could get rid of the 4x and not think twice about
it and yet it seems to draw an amazing crowd. It helps when they someone that
knows what they are doing designing the courses.
September 7, 2003 – Sunday
-I must
start the days summary with Americas own J-Ho (Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski)
crashing in the men’s XC final and ripping his chamoix to shreds
and his entire package of kibbles and bits hanging out for the world
to see. The poor guy rode like that for at least a lap and then tried
to use his number pins to hold it together. Needless to say the crowd
was having a field day. With that kind of distraction he ended up getting
pulled with one lap to go looking dazed and confused standing there
with his nuts hanging out.
-Sabine Spitz from Germany and my old teammate from the Special-guys days,
Filip Meirhage of the Netherlands took the XC World Championships titles today.
-In the women’s race Alison Sydor was off the front for about the first
four laps and on the fifth Sabine reeled her in so that there was only a 25
second gap. Unfortunately on that same lap Sabine caught and passed Alison
and was able to fend her off for the win. Alison ended up coming in second
about 15 seconds behind. The same thing happened to Ryder Hesjdel. He was out
front from lap two all the way till’ about lap six and then Filip reeled
him in.
-Some crazy Swiss guy named Ralf took off in the first lap and then you could
start to see the stars in his eyes on lap two. He hung in there though and
I think finished in fifth. He made a now or never move and stuck it. Sweet.
-Kerry Barnhold was a last minute XC addition when Allison Dunlap decided not
to race and ended about thirteenth. Susan Haywood was the top American for
the day in seventh.
-Shonny Vanlandinghammer started back o’ the pack and managed to move
up to about nineteenth.
-John Kemp (Devo) TM had a bet on who would win the men’s XC finals before
the race. I said Meirhage and he said Ryder. Too bad I didn’t put any
money on it.
-I think there should be a stock and modified class in XC. You know….
so the US guys could make the podium.
-Jeremiah Bishop was the top placing American, in 22nd.
-The course had rave reviews. They were only about twenty minute laps, but
it made so many loops up and around the venue that you could hop on your bike
and yell in about five different places in one lap. It was very technical with
not a lot of climbing and a bit dusty.
-Note to race organizers…have more than TWO toilets to accommodate the
20,000 people that show up for the damn race!!!! I’m sure the UCI had
their own private toilets though.
-The Red Bull party from the night before had mixed reviews. It didn’t
start till’ midnight and I had full intentions of going. But once I laid
down to just “rest my eyes”, I never managed to get back up. I
heard there were a bunch of fights and the beers cost about $8.00 US. No thanks.
-My teammate Carl “The Deckarator” Decker was riding strong in
about 63rd until getting pulled with two laps to go.
So, the
Worlds are over and I feel like we just got here. Now it’s on
to Kaprun, Austria and The Baum Bar. Good times.
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