Monday, April 10, 2006
Week 2: Eurocycler
Click here for Pictures and Video of Week 2 in Costa Brava with Eurocycler.
Jaume’s brother was kind enough on Sunday morning to load my bike and my very massive bags into his car and drive me the 25 miles to the Swiss resort on the Mediterranean coast that would host me for the following week. The summertime Swiss beach resort is turned into a massive cycling training camp during the spring. Other than the few Americans that the Eurocycler arm brings in, everyone is Swiss or German, and most everyone is a very serious competitive athlete or a member of the Swiss national or junior developmental teams. Natascha Badmann, Fabian Cancellara, Olaf Sabatschus, Bridgette McMahaon have all spent winter and spring weeks training at this camp in recent years. I spent a week at this camp two years ago, but I don’t think I fully realized the extent to which this camp is run like a USOC type serious training camp the last time I was here as there were probably 25-30 Americans in the Eurocycler crowd, so we had our own little camp within a camp. Not this time around. There were only 5 Americans, and none of them rode in my group, so every day I would ride in silence without a word of English spoken. And for the most part there wasn’t much Swiss or German being spoken either. These rides were all business. The riding, of course, was phenomenal, just like the previous week out of Girona, but nothing else was nearly as much fun. Of course, my liver enjoyed the break and I caught up on my desperately lacking sleep, but I definitely missed the people of last week and being in the heart of Girona.
Most definitely the highlight of the Eurocycler week was the riding. There’s a reason pros flock to this region to train. The Swiss have organized the camp amazingly and they run it like a finely tuned Swiss watch. There are about 8 or so riding groups each with a ride leader and a predetermined speed. The rides are all business – no passing the ride leader and the ride leader is remarkable at sticking right on the advertised pace. If a ride is advertised at 18mph you will probably never see 18mph on your bike computer as there is so much climbing and descending, but when you roll back into camp, sure enough, what will you find as the average speed on your computer but 18.0mph? Amazing. I fit in well with the 2nd fastest group which essentially merged with the fastest group by the end of the week. Our ride leader was Stephan Wenk who is the 20-24 duathlon world champion. We rode many of the same roads that I had been on the previous week, but these rides were much more steady with very little stopping. The final ride of the week was the “Queen” stage, a 112 mile ride which included a 25 mile climb up the Le Turo d’leHomme. I had actually climbed the same mountain the previous week with the Breakaway Bikes group, but in reverse direction, so I more or less knew what I was in for. The first 15 miles were mostly gradual, varying from false flats to 3-4% grade. After riding with, and more or less climbing with, the fast guys for the entire week I had deluded myself into believing that I had become transformed into a climber and could hang with the big dogs on the big climb on the final big ride of the week. I would pay the price for this delusionary dreaming. We settled into a steady but fast tempo for the first 15 miles of the climb, and I held tight although I was at my limit a few points when it got steeper. After 15 miles there was about a 1 mile descent and then the real climb begins as you ascend around 850 meters over 8 miles. I hung strong for about a mile or two and then the road took a left turn and kicked up above 10% and the attacks began. Stephan lifted the rule of not passing the ride leader and said everyone was on their own to the top and challenged anyone to beat him. I blew up big time and whimpered meekly as I watched everyone disappear off into the distance. Unfortunately I’ve got all this on video so I can relive it next winter on the trainer. The remainder of the climb was pure misery. 6 miles of 8% climbing is not fun when your legs are totally shot. I resorted often to my bailout 39-27 gear, but all that caused was for me to go even slower; it didn’t seem to make getting up the hill any easier. Eventually I was above the snow line and heading into the clouds and fog which was exhilarating even in my oxygen starved state. Eventually I limped over the top with the majority of the fast group waiting at the top already bundled up for the amazing 15 mile descent down the other side. I recovered a bit for the remaining 50 miles of the day, though wasn’t too thrilled that many folks seemed to think the final ride of the week should be a race so the pace was quite fast the rest of the day. Apparently they weren’t headed to Majorca the next morning for another week of heavy mileage in the mountains.
Week’s Tally: 6 rides, 430 miles
Trip Tally: 13 rides, 927 miles
Next: Week 3 - Majorca, Spain
Jaume’s brother was kind enough on Sunday morning to load my bike and my very massive bags into his car and drive me the 25 miles to the Swiss resort on the Mediterranean coast that would host me for the following week. The summertime Swiss beach resort is turned into a massive cycling training camp during the spring. Other than the few Americans that the Eurocycler arm brings in, everyone is Swiss or German, and most everyone is a very serious competitive athlete or a member of the Swiss national or junior developmental teams. Natascha Badmann, Fabian Cancellara, Olaf Sabatschus, Bridgette McMahaon have all spent winter and spring weeks training at this camp in recent years. I spent a week at this camp two years ago, but I don’t think I fully realized the extent to which this camp is run like a USOC type serious training camp the last time I was here as there were probably 25-30 Americans in the Eurocycler crowd, so we had our own little camp within a camp. Not this time around. There were only 5 Americans, and none of them rode in my group, so every day I would ride in silence without a word of English spoken. And for the most part there wasn’t much Swiss or German being spoken either. These rides were all business. The riding, of course, was phenomenal, just like the previous week out of Girona, but nothing else was nearly as much fun. Of course, my liver enjoyed the break and I caught up on my desperately lacking sleep, but I definitely missed the people of last week and being in the heart of Girona.
Most definitely the highlight of the Eurocycler week was the riding. There’s a reason pros flock to this region to train. The Swiss have organized the camp amazingly and they run it like a finely tuned Swiss watch. There are about 8 or so riding groups each with a ride leader and a predetermined speed. The rides are all business – no passing the ride leader and the ride leader is remarkable at sticking right on the advertised pace. If a ride is advertised at 18mph you will probably never see 18mph on your bike computer as there is so much climbing and descending, but when you roll back into camp, sure enough, what will you find as the average speed on your computer but 18.0mph? Amazing. I fit in well with the 2nd fastest group which essentially merged with the fastest group by the end of the week. Our ride leader was Stephan Wenk who is the 20-24 duathlon world champion. We rode many of the same roads that I had been on the previous week, but these rides were much more steady with very little stopping. The final ride of the week was the “Queen” stage, a 112 mile ride which included a 25 mile climb up the Le Turo d’leHomme. I had actually climbed the same mountain the previous week with the Breakaway Bikes group, but in reverse direction, so I more or less knew what I was in for. The first 15 miles were mostly gradual, varying from false flats to 3-4% grade. After riding with, and more or less climbing with, the fast guys for the entire week I had deluded myself into believing that I had become transformed into a climber and could hang with the big dogs on the big climb on the final big ride of the week. I would pay the price for this delusionary dreaming. We settled into a steady but fast tempo for the first 15 miles of the climb, and I held tight although I was at my limit a few points when it got steeper. After 15 miles there was about a 1 mile descent and then the real climb begins as you ascend around 850 meters over 8 miles. I hung strong for about a mile or two and then the road took a left turn and kicked up above 10% and the attacks began. Stephan lifted the rule of not passing the ride leader and said everyone was on their own to the top and challenged anyone to beat him. I blew up big time and whimpered meekly as I watched everyone disappear off into the distance. Unfortunately I’ve got all this on video so I can relive it next winter on the trainer. The remainder of the climb was pure misery. 6 miles of 8% climbing is not fun when your legs are totally shot. I resorted often to my bailout 39-27 gear, but all that caused was for me to go even slower; it didn’t seem to make getting up the hill any easier. Eventually I was above the snow line and heading into the clouds and fog which was exhilarating even in my oxygen starved state. Eventually I limped over the top with the majority of the fast group waiting at the top already bundled up for the amazing 15 mile descent down the other side. I recovered a bit for the remaining 50 miles of the day, though wasn’t too thrilled that many folks seemed to think the final ride of the week should be a race so the pace was quite fast the rest of the day. Apparently they weren’t headed to Majorca the next morning for another week of heavy mileage in the mountains.
Week’s Tally: 6 rides, 430 miles
Trip Tally: 13 rides, 927 miles
Next: Week 3 - Majorca, Spain
