Style is the name of the game when it comes to the upgraded BMC Pro Cycling Team. I attended this years camp, which is being held in Santa Rosa, wearing two hats: that of Speedplay Team tech and assistant team director. I started the weekend as the official Speedplay tech rep for the pro teams. We had a nice meeting explaining the pedal system, and I addressed some issues some of the new riders had.

The next two days I took my place as assistant director. I spent most of the day working with the crew of riders headed to the Tour of Qatar. I rode the Tour last year, and so I have a pretty good idea of what is needed for prep. We worked on some leadouts and sprints. The guys really busted their humps for me and showed the professionalism that BMC requires in its riders.

Let me say how impressed I was with the whole BMC set up. Most of my old teammates have gotten even stronger than they were last season, and you can really see how much experience the guys gained from all the Euro racing they have done over the last two seasons.

So my second camp for Speedplay was great and it was great to be back in the BMC family. Look for big things from these guys this year. And look to see what kind of pedals they are on.

Mike

So, I worked my first camp for Speedplay this past weekend. I was lucky enough to be invited to the Livestrong U23 camp held in Austin, TX. First let me say that Austin is a great town. So great it has moved to the top of my list of places I want to live in. It also has the coolest, biggest and most amazing Whole Foods I have ever seen.
Most of the camp was held at Mellow Jonny’s bike shop. The riders where there to do their physiological testing, get their new Trek Livestrong bikes, get their new Speedplays installed and get some quality time together. I will say that Mellow Jonny’s is by far the coolest bike shop I have ever seen, and the staff, both team and shop, were really kind to us.
Richard, the owner of Speedplay, and I spent two days fitting the boys with their new Zeros and filling them in on care and maintenance. I also got to watch other riders suffer at the hands of the computrainer. Thanks God I dont have to do that any longer.
The Livestrong director, Axel Merckx, was a guy I raced against over the years. He is a great guy, was a great bike racer and will make a great director. It was great to catch up with him, and the riders where really great to work with.
I will say that to me it looks like the future of American bike racing is really looking good.
Next up…BMC where I will do double duty as Speedplay tech and fill in BMC staffer.

So, I was asked to return to the blog every so often to pass on what happens to a Pro after the racing is done…so here we go.

For the most part the transition to civilian life has been pretty good. I miss being an athlete everyday, but I have tried to fill my life with….life and family. I have to say having the weekends with the wife and kid is cool.

After a pretty long search, thanks crappy economy, I found a new home in the cycling industry. I started my career this last week with Speedplay pedals as an outreach tech guy for the company.

My background with Speedplay has been long and fruitful. In 16 years I have not ridden the pedals one year. The company has supported and sponsored me in good years and bad and they are really an intricate part of my cycling experience. I was one of the first guys to race in Europe on them, and I have seen a ton of R&D done to make the best pedal out there.

I am really proud to work for a company that started from an idea on paper, is assembled here in the US of A from start to finish and gives so much to cycling. When I say give I mean give. This year we have 2 official pro tour teams, Liquid Gas and Milram and one team using the product in Saxo Bank. We have 2 Pro Continental teams in BMC (yea for the homeboys) and Cervelo Test Team and countless D3 teams including the U23 Livestrong boys. Men like Sean Kelly ride the pedals so enough said I guess. Lance?????

I just started so it is hard to say how it will go, but my first week included 12 hr days in the office and a lifetime worth of learning. So far it is great and the whole company made me feel right at home.

So to say I feel lucky does not do it justice. In addition to SP, I got my butt kicked in the weekly Norcal cross series. I will say I had more fun getting dropped than I could ever have imagined. I think I might be going to the dirt side of the tracks a lot more in the future.

So that is about it. Christmas is in a few days and then my son’s 2nd birthday and then my birthday and in all that all the Speedplay team camps start so the next 2 months will be really busy. I hope to get you some insight into the team camps from a sponsors point of view in the coming weeks.

With that, buy more Speedplays, and see you on the road.

Havoc

So, it is over. Mostly over at least. I may race a local event in the next few days and Vegas still may happen but essentially, my career is over. Tour of Missouri was a very good, but painful ending to the long run. My last day at Missouri was the best day of my life next to the birth of my son and my wedding day. It is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. A day filled with a lot of raw, exposed emotion and spent with good, long time friends and teammates. It was more than fitting that Big Dave Towle essentially narrated the whole thing. I mean that guy pretty much gives me play by play in my dreams. It was also pretty nice to have my wife around for the last few days of the race to share in the memories and experience.

There were a few key teammates missing from the day, but they made their presence felt in their own ways that really touched my heart. The after party was awesome and I got to say some good by’s to guys I pretty much grew up with, and the guys on BMC had a very nice and fitting Italian dinner waiting for me at restaurant owned by a friend of Dan Schmatz.

I was truly honored to go up on the final podium at Missouri to say a very emotional good by to a lot of friends and fans, but I was so caught up in things there were a few things I could not get out.  So I thought I would add those thoughts here. First, I want to thank all the cycling fans out there for their thank you’s to me and for supporting cycling, which at times, is a hard sport to support. I hesitate to compare myself with the great Lou Gehrig, but I truly was the luckiest guy in the world last Sunday. I really felt that way and that feeling will stay with me the rest of my life. Cycling is a small community and I really felt the love. I wanted to thank Medalist Sports for putting on their cycling events and allowing me to be part of and compete in those great events. And then there is Towle….what can I say…an awesome individual and friend. My career would not have been the same without him or Gord who was there, too.

As I watch my son, I can only hold my breath that he may be able to follow his dad into cycling. I just hope he can race better than I did and be a star not a blue collar, lunch pail rider. As for the guys I raced with and against over the years, let me say this: without everyone of those guys I would not be the man I am today. Whether I got along with guy x or not, at the end of the day, they made me a better bike racer and more importantly a better man. And then there are my BMC teammates. I can only say thanks to a great group of guys who made my last two years the best of my career. I really fell for those guys and how hard they worked every single day. I am going to really miss them and being a part of what they have.  And Gavin Chilcott could not have been a better manager for me. He challenged me to take myself to another level, and I felt like I had to comply. I also need to mention Charley Livermore who helped recruit me for BMC and gave me a sense of home. And finally, the wizard of a director John Lelangue. Man, what a fantastic director who was always so supportive even in the hardest races.

There are also a lot of sponsors out there who really took care of me over the years. There are way to many to mention, but they know who they are and from the bottom of my heart I say thanks. I would not have the life I have without them.  And a really special thanks to the saint that is Andy Rhis and my coach Todd Herriott of Herriott Sports Performance.

So it is time for me to go. Another year or two would not make my career any better, and so many things are pointing to me going out on top. I have a great team and I had a pretty good season. For those who mentioned coming back someday I can only hope I remember that last day in St. Louis and not want to disrespect that day by reaching for a lost cause. I know there will be a day that I try and convince myself and anyone who will listen that coming back is a good idea, and I just want to think back to Sunday and how great the send off was. I won’t return to the pro ranks I am pretty sure of that.  I leave cycling to those with young legs and boundless energy.  Frankly, I just can’t keep up anymore.

I am not sure where I will go from here. I am currently looking for a job, but I am sure something will work itself out. So if your company is hiring let me know.

Ok, that is it. I may or may not do another blog entry; only time will tell. Thanks for the memories.

Havoc (retired)

This post brought to you by the guy who won the Mega Millions lottery, the guy who chips it in from 30 feet from the bunker to win the green jacket, the guy who crushes the 480 foot upper deck bomb in the bottom of the 9th at 3-2 to clinch the walk-off series win and the guy who hears his kid tell him he loves him for the first time….this weeks post brought to you by….ME.

So it is a Monday on a Tuesday, and here I am at my favorite Peet’s doing a blog update. It was a big weekend this week with the USPro road Championships taking place in Greenville, SC. Tyler Hamilton road away with the honors while America’s Team blew it. Our main man Louder had a great ride in an impossible situation to rock up for 5th and Brent and Garcia were the next guys back for us. Overall, BMC had a great day with everyone chipping in for a good days work. As for me, I had the best legs I have ever had in Greenville which is a course I am not super pumped on. Jackson and I covered about a million attacks on the opening circuits with Jackson eventually making one of his stick with Garcia in tow.  You could not have written a better start for BMC. Unfortunately for me, Louder flatted at the exact bottom of the Paris Mountain climb so with a quick rear wheel change and push from me, he was off and chasing.  As for me, I got to start the climb about a minuet down. Not the way I wanted to start, so I got to ride 100% full gas to try and get back. It has been a long time since I have blown by guys on a climb but I pulled one out of my butt while burning a whole lota matches. I made it. Deep in the recesses of my mind I knew that I had to use that effort on the last climb of the day not the first so I knew my fate was sealed.   Unless the group went easy the last time up Paris Mountain I would not be wearing Stars and Stripes come day’s end. But, I knew Louder or Brent or Tony could, so I did what I could for them the rest of the day. In the end….we had a good day.

So for personal reasons, I flew out of SFO this week, which meant there was a small chance I could get back to Cali in time to race the Giro de SF on Monday afternoon. It is the traditional close of the Norcal racing season and a really tough crit. So with all my flights arriving on time, I grabbed the car and headed for Levi’s Plaza. My plan was just to hang in and maybe sprint, and generally  take it easy, and of course, I did none of that. I ended up spending most of the race off the front going through several groups of guys. In the end, Wholberg slipped away with Andy J-M and I blew sky high.  I spent the next 11 laps trying to hold on for 3rd and ended up getting caught with 1 lap to go. Man the wheels just came off!!   I guess 6 hours on a plane are not the best prep for racing. It was fun though and I did not regret going.

One crazy thing I saw  during the women’s race was this guy in a Cal Berkley jersey riding his bike down a crowded sidewalk with his cell phone glued to his ear. This guy did not miss a beat and rode right into the middle of the women’s field as they went around the corner. I guess they need to extend the hands free cell phone law to bikes the way this guy was rolling. Idiot!

So, this is it.  Tour of Missouri, which starts next Monday, is my last big race.  The end has finally come.  Now I may rock up for a few local races and there are plans for some cross, but Missouri is the last really big race I will do as a pro.  At this point, I am just trying to keep it together and I am practicing my armadillo avoidance techniques.

I would like to extend a special congrats to Danny Pate who once again rode to a podium at championships.  He is a good rider and his record proves it.

Havoc

Today’s post is sponsored by our Berkley buddy and his sweet cell phone/riding technique.  Man, that was the sweetest move I have ever seen and one way to get chicks…I guess.

It has been a while, but there was not much to write about over the last several weeks. But today, I just felt like writing so here we are.

It is contract time around the world of cycling and that leads to nervous soles. I will say that this is one area that I am not going to miss. It is always hard when you are searching out that next contract. You make a million calls, send a million emails and wait, and wait and wait. It is all a domino set up. You can’t get a deal until the 18 other scenarios take place. You also spend endless hours talking to all kinds of guys from all kinds of teams to see what team is doing what and who needs what. It makes for a lot of energy use, and it makes for desperate riders which may make some of the races either more dangerous or faster and harder or both. Like I said, I will not miss this time of the season after I am gone.

So, all of you know, it is Olympics time. Now that is a good time to be a sports fan which my wife and I are. We love the Olympics, and I stay up way to late watching the games go on and it goes by way to fast. My wife is a huge fan of swimming, and I have really enjoyed watching Phelps become the most dominate athlete in history. I mean this guy has more than shown up and has more than performed under the highest level of pressure. I have to say he may be the most clutch athlete of all time. I say that even up against guys like Jordan and Farve. This guy only races a couple of time a year and he spends so much time preparing to race. I can’t imagine all that training and it coming down to just a few goes, but that is why he is a 12 time gold medalist, at this moment, and I am an average pro bike rider with no national or international titles. He is good. Very, very good.

The Chinese have very strange tastes in food.

France…..stop talking.  No, just stop and stick to quiting which you are gold medalists in.  Tell me how Phelps *** tastes.

Someone may want to tell Canada the Olympics started. Canada, as of today, you have no medals of any color, and we have a guy who has 5, at this moment, all accompanied by world records. Canada, you do know that that huge party you participated in last Friday was the opening ceremonies and not the closing ceremonies. Hello….time to stop hitting the snooze button and get a medal. I hear the IOC might instigate a 4th place medal of wood so Canada has something to go home with. I mean it is winter in Canada for like 10 months a year and that wood could come in handy. Come on Canada. I love you guys. I thought you guys had the best looking kits in the road races. You hate us so show up and try to dominate us.

I have to pat myself on the back for 2 of my pre-Olympic picks. I did pick a Spanish guy to win the road race. Now I did pick Valverde, but I picked him mainly because he is Spanish and those guys can’t lose right now. I also picked Svein Tuft to go top 5 in the TT. Every time I said it, most people thought that was a little ambitious, but I believed and 7th is damn close so I give myself the win on that one too. So, essentially, I know what I am talking about when it comes to cycling.

China brought in 100,000 condoms for the Olympic village…..aaaaaaa…….that is sweet. I hope there are some videos from there.

So the end is near for me. I am almost down to single digit races left in the season and the career. I have had a ton of mixed feelings, but that is for later. Next on the countdown is Downers Grove.

Talk to you soon,

Havoc

This weeks post brought to you by people with disabled license plates that continue to buzz me on the road. Hello???!!!!!!! Don’t bring us all down.

So here in BC where it is a sunny 80 degrees 365!  Well according to me at least, but I am told it rains here sometimes.  After a nice off day of hanging in Yaletown in downtown BC and then hitting the beach, I was back on it today for a solid 5′er.  I rode out to Ave 0 which is pretty much the boarder between the USA and British Colexico.  On one side of the ditch is Ave 0 and on the other is Washington State Hwy 596.  It is funny to see a guy riding the other way on your right in another country, but the road is beautiful and had some amazing scenery of MT Baker.  And the weather…in a word…PERFECT.

So tomorrow is the famous Gastown crit.  Big crowds.  Big money.  Usually, we go out a bit after, but this year we race again on Thursday so I think no party part for me.  Need those multi colored Canadian backs in the wallet.

Ok now the business, I know Mike “I am not a Pro any more” Jones told everyone I was putting a team together, but he was kidding.  I am not putting a team together.  I would like to direct a team next year, but I am not making any kind of personnel decisions for any team.

Havoc

This week post brought to you by race officials who get the results wrong and won’t let guys race if their fines have not been paid.

So, I have made a trek north, first starting with a visit to the Herriott Sports Performance center in Seattle and then on to BC, Canada for BC Superweek.  My wife accompanied me to Seattle to check out Todd Herriott’s place 2.0.  Todd is my coach and his facility is pretty cool.  Seattle was about as beautiful as possible which was in sharp contrast to home where is was 110 degrees and so smokey that the state declared the city unhealthy to all groups.  While in Seattle, Todd was kind enough to include me in a fun filled evening at the Foo Fighters concert.  To sum it up, they kicked ass and they did it for a good 3 hrs.  Yea, 3 hours of rocking out.  Their drummer is sick and ridiculous.  We also went to dinner at about the best Italian place I have ever been to in West Seattle.  I had a seafood and black pasta dish that was the best I have ever tasted.  After two days sans Brody, which was a first where both me and the wife were not with him, I headed out to BC; the town of Delta to be exact.

So here I am staying with a friend that Gord introduced me to my first time up here.  His name is Jamie and he has a wonderful family and always makes me feel right at home.  I am using this trip as a racing/training trip.  After my week off I need to log some good mileage to prep for the end of the season, so I have been riding about 4 hrs in the am and racing in the pm.  The first race was the Tour of Delta and this year they changed things up a bit with a 3 km prologue.  I did not bring any aerodynamic equipment so I went Merckx style.  I needed aerodynamic equipment.  Next was the crit which was dominated by the only fully equipped team here: Symetrics.  I tried to save it for the sprint, but I kept having to crush across to breaks to keep myself in the hunt.  In the end 3 guys got away, 2 Symetrics and 1 of the Jittery guys, and I ended up 3rd in the bunch kick.  Not great, but I am alone and that is how it goes sometimes.  Finally was the road race which is on a pretty tough course with a finishing circuit that has a nice 5oo meter wall in it.  I again planned on saving it all for the finish and I did a pretty good job too…until mr. cat 2 blue guy came full tilt into the last corner.  I was perfectly placed on the Symetrics train, and I am not sure I would have won, but top 3 was well in hand.  Then mr. blue cat 3 guy came into the downhill, tight final corner way, way, way, way, way to fast for his or my good.  He was late getting there too, so as he was even with me he was already hitting eject.  I mean this guy did not have a prayer of making that turn.  No hope, but he decided to go for it anyway and I had to yank my front wheel back under me and hit the breaks just to ole him right on by.  Unfortunately, whoever was behind me ran into the back of my wheel and cleared out about 5 spokes so I was officially done.  No result.  No money.  Nothing.  Thanks mr. blue cat 4 guy.  You are a loser.  The funny part was hearing him say “Oh F***” as he went by me and then just getting my front wheel off his rear and surfing my top tube with both feet out.  I was lucky to get out of there with no broken collar bone mr. blue cat 5 guy.  You are a loser.  I am not sure the local Canadian guys understand respect, but whatever I guess.  One guy went to the front and just started drilling it to bring a break back with no Symetrics in it.  When I asked him why he did that he said that he was bored and that he was just having fun.  Go have fun in the cat 3’s and bored in not a reason in a bike race.  You are also a loser. 

So day off tomorrow.  I plan on taking my rented PT Cruiser and cruising Vancouver tomorrow.  Please, if anyone can send me some luck, do.  I really need it.  I will pay you for it when I see you.

Havoc

This week’s post brought to by pro teams that run out of money and stop paying their riders, pro teams that run out of money and stop going to races and mr. blue cat 5 woman guy.

I thought I would add some photos to the old blog:

Havoc jr’s new commuter rig.

Ok, the sign that you are getting old, is when you are surfing some results on cyclingnews and you see a bunch of guys you used to race with dominating the masters results.  I am not really sure how to feel about that whole situation.  A lot of my friends in these parts keep talking about me racing masters after retirement, but I am not sure I want or can do it.  But, nonetheless, it is crazy to see a bunch of guys who used to race the pro circuit racing the masters categories.  Those guys just better hope Gord or Scott don’t lose their minds and decided to race masters (and yes Gord is Canadian, but he has a green card so I think he is now eligible).  Things that make you go hmmmmmm. 

The US Swimming Olympic Trials have been on in a big way in my house.  My wife was a very dominate high school swimming coach in Tucson.   Her teams won states titles in both men’s and women’s for 6 straight years….pretty good.  She also ran the aquatics facility at the University of AZ so she knows a lot of the swimmers at the trials.  Some of them she had on her high school team so she has been as pumped as those of you who are tivo’ing the Tour.  I have to say that Phelps is a man-child, freak of a human and most likely the baddest dude on the planet.  And how about those track and field trials?  It is cool to see a human run faster than I can go on my bike…if only for a short time.  Still very impressive!

I bought a bike rack for the SUV.  Now I have not had a rack for a car for like 10 years, but with retirement looming and with expectations of family outings, I felt it was time.  I bought a Thelma from Saris and today I used it for the first time.  It only took me about 15 min to assemble the thing and about 30 sec to put the bike on.  Let me tell you, if you are going to buy a hitch rack, this is the one to get.  Very cool, very easy and a really nice design.

For those of you who know the name Victor Rapinski, he is back.  After a melt down of a season with Colavita, and a complete no show with Phonak, he is back racing here in Norcal.  He is still a big unit and he is still a pretty damn fast rider, but how the mighty have fallen.  To think this guy was on Phonak 2 years ago and now he is riding for a local team.  I am not sure how he is making ends meet, but he is Belorussian so I guess he is putting together.  By the way, he smoked me in the 4th of July Crit today.  My director John Legangue told me some stories about Victor when he was on Phonak, and how the guy knows how to tie his shoes is beyond me, but he is back.

That is about it.  Heading for BC in a week or so.

Havoc

This weeks post presented by the side effects shortness of breath, irregular intestinal movements, oily discharge, headaches, dizziness, four hour erections, a decrease in semen, scaly skin, liver damage, acne, decrease in sexual drive, increase in sexual drive, growth of wings, inability to control verbal outbursts, yellowing of skin, skin splotches, bleeding gums, loss of teeth, growth of teeth, growth of antlers, hair loss, excess ear hair growth and growth of extra digits.

A better title for this post might be: “How to go from Pro to Amateur in 75 minuets” or “How to go from Pro to Amateur in 1 Criterium” or “Cycling for Dummies: Your guide on How to Screw Your Teammates who are High on GC”….there are a million good titles for this one.

So here is my usual disclaimer. I was taught how to race my bike via the “old School”. Now some might look at this and say old school is for losers or old school is for old guys, and you might be correct in that analysis. I like old school and it has always served me and my teams well. So to be more exacting, I was “raised” on Mercury old school and since that team won like 110 races in one season to me that means I can preach old school ways.

To bottom line it, part of that philosophy holds that if you have a guy or some guys riding high, like for argument sake 2nd and 3rd, on GC, then you need to a) protect those guys and b) set those guys up in a fashion that would allow them to win the race…on GC. That is the point. To win the race. Now if you are not one of those GC guys andyou get the lucky break of slipping into a break then you, by rule, get a free ride around which you hope turns into a stage win…if that happens you are pumped and so are your GC guys. Now let say the non-GC guy slips into that break but there is a guy who is a major GC threat in that break also. That is not good for your GC guys and the non-GC guy should do NOTHING to help that other team improve their GC spot most definitely if that means the other team will jump over your GC guys. Now that would be just plain stupid to help the other team. I am guessing they don’t pay your salary. Now as a career non-GC guy I know it is hard to resist the “free” stage win, but in the old days I was more afraid of my GC guys and what they would do to me if I was to help another team gain time. Because at the end of the day, cycling is about team not individuals and about GC not stage wins. Any first year pro should know that, but I know that some pros, and I use that term lightly, don’t because I have seen the GC flick job with my own eyes. These guys should get an express ticket to the amateur ranks.

This is what I know…in the old days, if I had ridden in any break that had a rival GC guy in it, that would be the last race I would see for a long while and I am sure it would be my last season with that team. Plus, if the GC guys go to another team, sometimes they like to bring good teammates with them or sometimes they tell their new team what a DUMBSHIT Mr. non GC guy is and he has no job the next year. Cycling is a small world. A pro is paid to ride his bike for the team and the sponsor that pays his salary not fend for his own results at their expense. Even if you are not the biggest fan of your teammates, who looks like the bigger jerk-off?

Now I know some guys will just say those days are over and winning is about winning, but that was what cycling used to be about and it got the sport in trouble. Good teammates are hard to find, andguys who don’t think they know everything are even harder to find. I spent a lot of years with my mouth shut and listening to guys who are better than me because they generally were better for a reason.

Havoc

This weeks post brought to you by salesmen who come to your door at 8:45 pm and ring the bell, causing the dog to go crazy, wake your kids out of blissfull sleep and spend a half hour hearing about it in the middle of the street while you wait for the sheriff dept to show