Last Days in Belgium

Well, I leave Belgium tomorrow to go back home. These last couple days have been pretty calm and relaxling. The only thing that I have to complain about was the heat these last two days. It got in the upper 90's which is very hot for Belgium. There is also no air conditioning here which lead to all my chocolate melting :(  I probably should have put it in the fridge though. Today I went for a ride to Gent (a fairly big city about 20 miles away) where I got completely lost once I reached the city. I did end up finding my way back though. I packed my bike up a little while ago and I am praying that TSA doesn't decide to take a chainsaw to it.

I am super glad that I was able to come back here for a second time this year for more racing and learning. The racing did not go as well as I wanted it to, but I still got more experience racing at an international level which is important. I want to thank Holly and Greg Germer for providing me a great house to stay in, Tim Redus for providing a great racing trip for me and great dinners, John Kelly for helping Tim run the trip and taking me to a couple of my races, Daniel Sterling for lending me his bike box and supporting me in making my racing dreams come true, and I would like to thank my awesome Mom and Dad for being my biggest supporters and cheerleaders. I also would like to thank all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and my friends for being such great people in my life.

This trip has been another chapter in the Journey of Rainman. The journey to the top is not easy, but I am never going to give up. I can't say enough how glad I am to have such a great group of supporters surrounding me. I have one more race this season over Labor Day weekend and I am going to give my all. Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed!

Here is a short video on why racing in Europe is so important and what I am trying to accomplish in cycling: http://vimeo.com/47605727

town square market

Every thursday during the summer  there is a market that happens in the town square of Oudenaarde, the town that I'm staying in. I didn't have plans in the morning, so I decided to go check it out. It was such a cool scene. Over a hundred vendors were set up with their tents and everything else that they needed. There was everything from food vendors selling fresh meat and cheeses to vendors selling clothing and jewelry. The whole town square was packed with action and I thought that it was so cool. After looking around and buying a pastry I decided to go eat at a cafe with Thompson, a racer from Wisconsin on the trip. We each bought a coffee and a pastry. After eating, we went to another cafe where some other friends were at and we had more food there. I loved visiting the town market and I enjoyed taking all of it in.

Later that day I went on a good hour and a half ride with 3 others to burn off all of the goodies that I had ate earlier. It was a really nice day for a ride and I had a lot of fun riding through the countryside. I am meeting so many great people on this trip and experiencing a complete other culture first hand! thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day too.

Update from Beglium/race weekend 2

I have been taking in everything that Belgium has to offer in these past couple weeks. Over this past weekend I did two more races. The race on Saturday was 10 laps of 6.3 km. It went through small narrow farm roads, had two hills to climb up and two downhills that were very fast. There was also "road furniture" like concrete curbs in the middle of the road. There were 90 starters and about 16 of those were other Americans from the USA national team, slipstream/garmin junior devo team, and others from the trip I'm on. It was sure to be a fast race. For the first 6 laps I sat comfortably in the middle of the pack making sure to conserve my energy. On the 8th lap I followed an attack up a hill on the backside of the course and the two of us quickly built up a gap. Later on in the lap I messed up on a turn and the other guy gapped me and I was stuck by myself. I gave it my all to stay away, but I was caught early on during the last lap. I finished up a minute behind the field. I am proud of my effort in this race because I gave myself a chance to win. It didn't work this race, but it may work in my next race.

My other race was the next day on Sunday. I woke up with a sore throat, headache, and a stuffy nose. It was one of those days where I had to man up and just do the best that I could in the race. This course involved 12 x5 km laps. Each lap involed a little over a km of a very hard cobble section on the finishing straight. There were 105 starters in this race and it started off fast. The first 4 laps I was dying and trying to hang on to the back. I was getting whipped around every corner and I thought about dropping out. On the 6 lap I started feeling a lot better though and I made my way to the front. I made some attacks during the last 3 laps, but it was clear that it was going to come down to a field sprint (while I was on the back 8 riders got away). I positioned myself at the front and stuck my elbows out. I gave it my all and I finished 41st.

I am disappointed with how this weekend went, but I have another race on Tuesday. Hopefully I will feel better by then. I am truly becoming a better racer over here and I am seeing a lot of improvement in myself. Thank you everyone for reading my blog and supporting me. I have the best friends and family in the world!

second race of the trip

Today we had a race in Zingem, a town about 7 miles away. I got an awesome massage from Holly Germer yesterday, co-owner of the Chainstay, so my legs were feeling ready to go. The course was short and we had to do 13 laps. The race started off fast and I was feeling good. I was very aggressive and was almost always at the front staying out of trouble. With two laps to go another racer named Phil O'Donnel took off and soloed to the finish. A group of 3 others took off and also stayed away. I missed out on those opportunities and I had to fight my way to the front to get in position for the sprint. We were flying on the last lap and moving up was hard. On the last corner I got bumped to the side of the road and came out of the corner slow. I was passed up by 10 others and I finished 25th in the race.

The lesson learned is that even if your feeling good things don't alway go your way. I need to be more prepared for sprints at the end of races and I need to keep my elbows out.  It is a decent result and there is always another race to do better in. Congrats to Phil O'Donnel for winning and Grayson Brookshire for getting second. I am having a lot of fun!
Thanks for reading,
Richard

First couple days

I have now been here at the house in Belgium for a couple days now and I am adjusted to the time difference (Belgium is six hours ahead of Michigan). I had my first race the day after I arrived and I was still tired then. The race was 63 km long and was on a 7.5 km long circuit that winded and twisted through the country side while leading us back through town each lap. The race started off fast and stayed that way. I was doing a good job of positioning myself at the front and staying out of trouble. I even found the strength in me to put in some good attacks. Halfway through the race it started to rain and the corners got slippery. I took a sharp turn at a wrong angle and my wheels slid out from underneath me and my body slided up against the pavement for a couple feet. By the time that I got up and checked my bike the field was gone. It was a really windy day and that made catching the field by myself impossible. I got pulled from the race and got 30th place out of 70 some racers. I am disapointed about how the race went, but thats how it goes sometimes.

The last days I have been chilling around the town square and riding around the country side with some of my friends. My next race is on Sunday and I am very excited for it. Thank you all for reading!!!!!!