Dam Bike

I am ready for the season to be over and to be back in the US. The weather here has been acting strange. It was 25 C yesterday and now it is windy and cooler. I am really burnt of racing and just want to relax and sight see the rest of the trip. I have decided I hate my team bike and can’t wait to give it back. Tomorrow I am going to Antwerp with Brian and Miska. My friend Marc is coming up from France to spend the night and also head to Antwerp. It should be a fun and relaxing trip. I race with the team in a PRO Kermess on Thursday and will hopefully find a good time to return my bike. Friday I will travel to Paris and hang with Marc and hopefully do so good sight seeing. It should be a buisy last couple of weeks.

Team Snow Valley enjoys Belgium racing

My guests have gone back to the United States. I believe they enjoyed their trip and accomplished most of there goals. I had an enjoyable time showing them around and helping them out. This past month has been moving incredibly fast, I only have two weeks left before I am home. I am looking forward to arriving home and seeing everyone but I know I will miss Europe. Someday I will find my way back to but at this point I am not sure when.
While my guests were here we mostly did kermesse racing. My team from Antwerp was hoping to be racing in France but they are also having a disappointing year of bad results and may not have gotten the invites.
The last kermesse I did with Scott was in Merelbeke. The race started aggressively with everyone marking Scott, after two weeks they had found out how strong he is. Unfortunately 1/3 of the way into the race Scott’s frame cracked on the down tube at the cable bosses, causing him to abandon the race. Also during this race I felt a small hint of my old form and raced aggressively but since I seem to be missing acceleration I was not able to drop the people marking me. At the finish of the race I was pleased with my performance but the back of my right arm felt like it was being stung by bees, I think it was a nerves and muscles that are rebuilding because of my broken collarbone. I still do not trust my right arm to do what I want because of the sharp pains that come out of nowhere.
The other races that my guests and I did were not so exciting for me. I would try to play an aggressive role early and when I would see the strong break go up the road I would tell Scott and he would attack with me on his wheel and I would let a gap so he was able to cross alone and then ride away with the stronger riders. Since I have been here all season riders tend to mark me because they know sometimes I ride strong. Since they didn’t know Scott yet they wouldn’t follow him so closely. Scott rode well while he was here with his worse place being an 12th and best being a 4th. I think the best and most successful way to come to race in Europe is a quick planned trip where you are in shape and focused.
Finding junior races for Adam was interesting. At first I was not sure what he would be able to do but I talked to my Antwerp teammates and found out that he could only race junior races. Luckily the first junior race I found was near Gent. At race sign in we quickly found out that there was more to a junior racing than elite. In Belgium juniors are only aloud to race twice a week; to enter you must have a calendar card that gets stamped at each race. Luckily the officials knew me from the elite races and they found away for Adam to enter since he was only staying of 10 days. Please check out my friend’s journal entries to see what Adam thought of European racing

Healthy Lungs

I have just had visitors for two weeks. It was a good time. I finally felt healthy in the sinus and lungs around the time the arrived. The racing went well while they were here with some constant results and a hint of my old strengths. It is really a shame that my form is coming around now. The season is over I am not sure if my team will be doing any more races. I guess I will do kermesses but I can’t seem to take too many of them seriously. I am just making the most of the trip. It is really a shame that my racing didn’t work out and the trip was difficult. I learned a lot from all the difficulties. I feel I see the world from a different view and hopefully it will help me make better decisions in my life. I really enjoyed my time here and I hope I can come back some day.

Scott Zwizanski learns some Flemish

Belgium Diary, one entry for the whole thing.

Let me just start by saying John Delong is a super nice guy. He showed me the ropes, what to do, who to follow and all things that were needed to race successfully. I was here for just two weeks, not a super long time but I learned a lot and hope to maybe race in Belgium for a longer period of time in the future. The racing went very well, until my last planned race when my frame couldn’t hang with the rough concrete roads over here and cracked on the down tube. Luckily I stopped racing before the frame failed and I was able to ride home on it from the race. John is so well prepared for guests that he even has spare bikes for us to use when ours break. What a guy. I got to ride a Team Issue Cannondale CAAD 5 for my final three days in Belgium. Well I am not going to give you play by play of my races, I did well and finished in the top 12 in four out of five of the races I did. Most of the time I spent here I was being a typical bike racer, training, sleeping, eating and doing some good resting. To finish this up I think that I might just list out some Belgian food that I had here during my brief stay.

Pita’s, just kidding, but I did eat some.
Frits with mayo, sounds gross, but you should try it.
Warm waffle, mmm mmm good. They serve it like a soft pretzel.
Frits with curry ketchup.
Beer, that’s right beer. Did you know that Belgium has great beer? Well they do. Nuff said.
Frits with mayo.

Not a real good variety there but I hit all the important ones. Later, eh.

Adam Steelman Junior eye Opener

Hi, my name is Adam Steelman and I have been staying with John for the last two weeks. The training here has not been so hard but I have been putting a lot of miles in. The amount of what I have learned in these two weeks is amazing even with me having only raced twice. Belgium is full of roads to train on and races to kill your self in. The races are fast and on some really fun and exciting roads. Back home Junior races may only have about 12 on a local level and maybe 60 on a national level, however here just a small Junior race will have at least 70 to 90 starters. The races are always fast and “sitting in” is never easy to do. My first race I learned a lot about being smart about how much energy I put out in the early part of the race, I went in a early move and pushed the breaks speed and when we got swept up I had nothing left and was dropped. The next day I was not so happy about racing again and was ready to pack it in but John’s friend Brian gave me a ride to a junior race and I did much better. I stayed at the front and attacked twice but only at 80% and it never got me away so I sat at the front and waited. On the last lap of my race I took the inside of the course and went much faster in the corners then the racers here do and that gave me a nice spot in the top ten at the last corner, I got 12th in the sprint. I can’t thank John enough for giving me this chance to find a path for what I want to do with cycling. I’m not sure still what I am going to try and do with the sport but this trip has really opened my eyes.

Pickle Thanks Kings North

Hi Everyone, It is Dan "PICKLE" Bonora again writing a follow up entry on John's journal now that I have been back in the states for about a month. I feel the gains I have made as a racer from my three-week trip in Belgium are primarily mental. I have a much greater understanding of a race and the way it evolves as well as how to read it. I feel the physical gains one can hope for are minimal. Granted I learned how to suffer for a little longer and harder which is still primarily mental. To obtain significantly greater speed or physical strength in only three weeks is difficult and almost any coach will tell you that. Yes I have gained some of both speed and strength. I feel this is because I learned more about how to train and opened my eyes to other techniques which has allowed me to assist my coach more in identifying my own personal strengths and weakness and coming up with programs to suit me. So again we are back to the mental gain of my trip rather than a physical. The only thing I feel I may have lost is some ability to climb. Belgium is very flat and there for it is difficult to improve or maintain one's abilty to climb. All though you can try just sucking it up and suffering a little longer and harder until the climb is over. I would like to thank John for helping my trip to be a success as well as everyone else especially the sponsors of Kings North (Belgium Team) and World Cup Ski and Cycle (US team). Dan " PICKLE" Bonora

Team Snow Valley Visits Belgium

I have two friends visiting from the States for the next week. They are both members of the Snow Valley armature team based out of Maryland. The first to arrive here in Belgium was Adam Steelman, he is 18 and resides in Manassas Virginia. His training area in Northern Virginia is where I first found my love of road biking. Finding junior races here for him has been a little challenging but hopefully he will benefit from the experience. My second guest Is Scott Zwizanski, hi is 26 and resides in West Chester Pennsylvania. I know Scott from my college racing days. He attended West Virginia University. I am enjoying exposing them to Belgian culture and racing.
My last race was a stage race in South East Flanders. The race was very challenging. The first day I felt strong and finished in the main pack in the morning road race that went over 6 major burgs. The afternoon time trial went well also. This time I chose not to use a one of my team’s time trial bikes. No need for a mechanical with a bike I am not used to. I felt strong on my road bike and was pleased because I caught the rider that started one minute in front of me. The second day of racing did not go so well. It was an intense race that went up a burg almost every 6 km. With the rainy weather my nerves were not daring enough to risk another crash and I soon found myself at the back because I was using my brakes too much.