I was watching the Giro on the internet yesterday and couldn’t believe that 3 or 4 teams put all their riders on the front with 20 km to go, riding in the wind in “team formation”. I suppose this was supposed to make it easier for their team GC leaders ride safely to the 3 km point, but in reality, the whole process just makes it more dangerous for the whole peloton. But, that isn’t the point here. I was mildly perplexed, to say the least, when David Harmon, I believe, the commentator along with Sean Kelly, said something like, “The way these guys recover nowadays, this is a walk in the park for them and they won’t even feel it tomorrow.” That wasn’t exactly it, but close.

I know these guys have to say something to keep the audience entertained, but this was a statement that might be accurate or not, I don’t know, but there is no reason that the current generation of cyclists should be able to recover any quicker than riders 10 or 20 years ago. If anything, they should be recovering worse since the implementation of the no needles policy, making IV’s illegal. It seemed weird having experienced bike race observers saying what seemed to be stupid statements, but statement made because of watching the sport the last 20 years.

Let me give you a history of comparing the racing in the US to Europe. Back in the 80’s, when I was getting me feet wet internationally, cycling was a very small sport in the United States. It was small, but growing in leaps and bounds. And it was a very immature sport too, with the sport being established and competed in Europe for the better part of the century. When I turned senior and rode on the National team, I was nothing special. I was a good bike racer, kind of skinny, but could climb and sprint okay. When I first went to Europe on the national team, I went to Southern France and Italy with what was considered the “B” team. The “A” guys went with Eddie B. to race in France mainly. Anyway, the first race I went to was the Tour of Vaucluse. It was in Southern France and one stage climbed Mt Ventoux.

Most of the riders on the team were my age, 20 or 21 and very green. Bernard Thévenet and Robert Millar were there on the Peugeot Professional Team. Bernard Thévenet had won two Tour de Frances. Laurent Fignon and many other Tour stage winners were riding on their respective National Teams. The field was good. But, we were good too. We didn’t win any races, but I finished in the top 10 a couple days.

We all did. The up and coming Americans could and did hold their own with the best European racers and the sport had just started. My team mate Andy Hampsten, won a stage in the Giro, the first time he rode in a Grand Tour. He finished 4th in the Tour de France, the first time he competed in it, with Greg Lemond winning. Americans on the National team through the 80’s won many prestigious amateur races. I was on the American team with Roy Knickman and Jeff Pierce who won the Tour of Berlin. I was on the US Team with Alexi Grewal, Andy, Chris Carmichael, when Matt Eaton won the British Milk Race, which was arguably the most prestigious amateur stage race in the world at the time. Later on when the best Europeans came to the US to race in the Coor’s Classic, the Americans had no problems winning stages and competing on the highest level. I finished 2nd overall in the Tour of the Americas, when many of the best European in the world came. We were a very small cycling country and were having stellar results.

And the sport was very small, barely crawling in infant terms. Then, all of a sudden, somewhere in the early to mid 90’s that all changed. All of a sudden the speeds in Europe got stupid fast. It was like I was a junior and racing completely over my head. Andy went from winning The Tour of Switzerland, Romandie, the Giro, to hardly being able to be pack filler anymore. I witnessed it first hand. It was a joke. So, I switched to MTB racing.

And the same thing happened in MTB racing, but it was delayed by a couple years. When the Americans first went to Europe, we ruled MTB racing. John Tomac and Ned would duke it out for 1st place and sometimes the majority of riders in the top 10 would be from the United States. Then it got stupid. Abunch of whole teams, like the Giant Team, Sun Chippie from France, and others, all of a sudden, every rider on these team could crush the best Americans. Plus, many Canadians were doing the same thing. Very quickly we became non-competitive internationally.

So, flash forward through the years. Obviously, after the admissions of doping of nearly ever American road rider that has had a result in the past 10 years, we as a country, haven’t been able to compete on any level on the road. And our sport is way more mature. There are 3 times as many licensed bicycle racers in the United States now than there were in the late 80’s. 5 times more than the early 80’s. We should have more riders that are good on the international scene than we did in the 80’s, because we have a much bigger pool of athletes to choose from, and, if anything, the sport is smaller in most of Europe.

But, no. The US is a farm team training facility for the “real” races over in Europe. There is no reason that we shouldn’t have the best criterium riders in the world. We race more criteriums than every other country on the planet combined. But, these guys show up from Australia, South American, just about anywhere and make us, once again, look like children.

Let me tell you, there is no reason that the races over here should be any different than the races in Europe. If anything, we should be faster. I’m sick of people saying that the reason the racing in Europe is so much more “advanced” than here is because they are all that much better. It wasn’t the case in the 80’s and early 90’s, but as our sport got more developed, we fell further and further behind. All of a sudden, we’re barely AAA compared to European bike racing.

We have more bike races than ever before. And more professional teams traveling extensively. USAC has a much more developed program that sends our best riders over to Europe for extended periods. And we suck. Any explanations for this?

Doping in the sport is the only explanation. When the racing here is on par, once again, with the racing in Europe, then I’ll be satisfied that the problem has cleared, but until then, let’s not all be making all these excuses and reasons for the Americans not to be riding on par with their European counterparts. Nearly all of them are just not true.

Teams can ride at the front for day after day, for nearly three weeks, because they recover so quickly nowadays? Bullshit.

The is a ton of bike racing going on this weekend. Most everyone that I ride with in Topeka drove over to St. Louis for the Tour de Grove. It’s on the NCC calender. There is also a long gravel road ride from a small town out in the flinthills, Eskridge. It is a pre-ride for the Dirty Kansa 200. But, I’m just in Topeka, trying to catch up on everything I need to, miles included.

I was riding out east of town the last couple days and was thinking about a race I did when I was 16, a first year junior. I was riding the Cat.1,2,3 race. Marc Thompson, who was on the Olympic Team for Montreal, was there. He was from Kansas City. Anyway, it was going to be the longest race I’d ever done, 80 miles. I’d been training with my friend Ed Bauman, every night after working at the bike shop. Our training pretty much consisted of riding to Auburn, Kansas, from Topeka and back, which is 15 miles. We rode there and back, at night, sans lights, as hard as we could go.

So, the race started out and Marc instantly shelled everyone. I guess he pretty much rode a 80 mile individual time trial. Eventually, I was away with a super strong Cat. 3 rider. I have his name on the tip of my tongue, hopefully I’m remember it before I’m done with this. He was one of those guys that could rip your legs off, but was new to the sport, so didn’t really know how to allocate his energy, as if I did.

So, we were doing a two man time trial, minutes behind Marc. I was getting gassed trying to do even pulls with the guy, mainly because I wasn’t as good as him. I probably weighed 119 lbs. back then, nearly my same height as now, which is 6′ 1”. I was seriously lacking power. Anyway, I realized after just a few pulls that I needed to pull where I had the ability. I finally ended up starting to pull up most of the hills. Eventually, we set into the pulling rotation of, I’d pull up all the hills and he would pull downhill and on the short flats.

This was working great for me. I’d climb out of my seat up the hills and then coast downhill and rest of the flats. It worked out great, I ended up outsprinting the guy for 2nd.

I didn’t think about it consciously at the time, but it is really a good tactic. The benefits of drafting is much less climbing, since the speed is so much slower. The guy pulling up hill, is going to be on the front a longer time, but both riders are pretty much putting out the same amount of energy. Gravity is the mainly the resistance. Then, downhill and on the flats, the 2nd rider need to be pedaling, while I, the “climber”, can either not pedal at all, or on the flats, use much less energy because of the effects of drafting.

I’ve done this every time I get into a break. But, now it is not only for saving energy. Many times when I’m in a break, it seems like we’re climbing too slow. I think for a break to be successful, each rider needs to be adding energy where the can contribute the most. I tend to climb better and sort of suck going downhill. I’m not sure why that is, but it is a fact.

I got into a break in Superweek 6 or 7 years ago. I was with Brian Jensen, my longtime team mate, but he was riding for Jelly Belly back then. Also, Brad Huff, who is now riding for Jelly Belly, but was riding for TIAA-CREF, which turned into Slipstream, which is the Garmin Pro Team now. A young Pro from Toshiba was sitting on and had taken himself out of the mix. This race was at Whitnall Park, which is a 2 mile-ish circuit race, with two climbs. Eventually we got into a rotation of where I would pull the two climbs, Brian would pull the descents and Brad would pull on the flats. Brian was winning Superweek overall and was ripping our legs off.

This wasn’t a good course for Brad and he pretty much conceded with an hour to go, but he kept pulling hard. Brad came up to me after about 15 minutes and told me to tell Brian to take it easy on the descents. He was coming by Brad so fast that he was having a hard time getting back on. I went up to Brian and told him to pull slower and longer. There are not many situations where I want a guy in a break to pull slower downhill, but this was one. I agreed with Brad completely. The few times I tried to pull the downhills, I was going 2 or 3 mph slower than Brian, and the climbs were slower too. The three of us had figured out the right rotation to go the fastest.

That is what is special about bike racing. I ended up winning the race, Brian 2nd and Brad 3rd. Brad went on to win the next day at Brewer’s Hill, Brian had won in Alpine Valley the day before and won overall I believe. Here is a link to the post I did after the race. (I can’t believe I’ve been doing this that long.)

So, I just the moral of the story is it is important to try to maximize your abilities in a break. Each combination of riders can be rearranged different ways and the break will be more or less efficient because of the order. It is important to try to organize the break where it is going the fastest, but also benefits your abilities. It is sort of complicated, but when it works, it is beautiful.

Whitnall Park back in 2006.