Ster-Electro Tour

With the race in Spain out the way, I had a quick trip up to Holland to start with the men in the Ster-Electro Tour. After the race it was a bit of push to get the girls out of the chairs, into the showers and off to the airport. But I managed to not waste much time, and before they knew it, the girls were checking in at the airport, and I was on the road again. My mission for the afternoon was the north side of Paris, being Sunday night, it was relatively easy to pass through the city. But wait until Monday morning, and you can bet you have a few hours sitting in traffic trying to navigate past this monster of a city. The team had a policy of no driving past midnight, and things were going to be tight, but I managed to take it easy and pass through no worries. The trucks near the French border were gone, the strike must have lasted only a few days, so the roads were clear, the border open, but I was in the Van, so they couldn’t touch me know, even if they wanted to. But how wrong was I, by the time I was leaving the outskirts of Paris, the French truckies had a little surprise planned for the highways. Seems they didn’t want to be out done by their Spanish buddies, and had a nice little protest to slow me down.

Just when the going got good, 420km to my destination, the traffic seemed to be stopping. And when you have three or four lanes of traffic stopping for miles, you know it’s going to be a long wait. I reached the crest of the hill, and as far as I could see in front of me was stopped, the crazy thing is that there didn’t seem to be any traffic on the other side of the highway either. I was thinking it must be a huge accident, closing both sides of the highway. After half an hour of siting still and moving very slowly, coming up the other side of the medium strip, was a whole pile of trucks, in perfect formation taking up the whole road. Big signs on the front of them, protesting the same shit, price of fuel, long hours etc. There was about 50 in a nice little peloton, moving about 15km/hr, blocking everything from coming past. I would probably surmise that whatever was blocking my side was the same protest. And an hour or so later, we started moving, the other side of the highway started as well, there was some pretty angry looking people as well. But it was not the end of it, another 300km later, I was just about to enter Belgium, and what do I see on the other side of the highway, but the same sort of protest. Yep, the traffic was slowing down, and then it stopped, the bastards got me again. They must have thought about it for a while, cause there was no other options for leaving the highway, I was stuck again for at least another hour. Oh well, give them their day, I kind of felt like I was one of them most of the time, as I drive the big trucks a lot of the time, so I had some small bit of support for them. The race did not start until tomorrow, so I had time.


Tony in happier times with the yellow jersey.

Arriving in Eindhoven was almost like going home, I had lived about 20km from here the last few years with Flexpoint, my old team. The teams base and house was close, so I knew the area well. We had 5 stages, including a TT prologue to start with. The race was right on the border with Holland and Belgium, so they would be using all the usual climbs for the races. We had a good little team for the week, Mark Cavendish, Andreas Klier, Bernhard Eisel, Roger Hammond, Gregory Henderson, Servais Knaven, Tony Martin, and last but not least Frantisek Rabon. First up was a small prologue of about 6.2 km, around a pretty small, tight circuit. A few big roads, a lot of small roads, and plenty of right angle corners, not the sort of fast course I like. The boys checked out the circuit while we organised the bikes and trainers for the warming up. It might only be a small lap, but still the same amount of work goes into it from my point, no matter how long the race is. So off first was Tony Martin, the strong German just seemed to put it into the biggest gear (55-11) he had, and it looked like he just cruised around the course. He took the corners at full speed, giving me a few nervous moments. I found out later he had been around the course six times already, checking out just how fast he could take every corner. And it seemed to work, fastest time of the day, but there was still a 100 or so to come behind him. Things got pretty tight towards the end, Tony keeping the lead by the slim margin of 18 seconds, but it was enough to put him into the yellow jersey, and kept the team in the front of the race.

The beautiful countryside during the 3rd stage

Stage 2 was pretty hard for the boys, a few nasty climbs at speed, but they defended brilliantly the jersey, but things were getting closer. Only 8 seconds was the time gap, with four riders at the same time, now the race was really starting to open up. We had a surprise visitor that night, with the teams owner and manager Bob Stapleton coming to pay us a visit. Was nice to meet him for the first time, a bit jet lagged from his trip over, but all the same nice to put a face to the name. Bob decided to come for a ride on the race car for the third stage, giving both myself and the director Tristan a bit of added stress for the day. not that we had anything to worry about, but you know what it’s like with the big boss checking you out for the day. The riders certainly knew it as well, they seemed to be pretty active on the race radio today. More information and tactics getting discussed than ever before, oh well maybe they put on a good show for Bob today, with another win. For some reason, I had a feeling it was not going to be an easy day, and before you knew it the first puncture was happening. I fixed that, then not half an hour later, Tony wearing the yellow jersey had a problem with his headset, I had to sort it out quick smart. The headsets have been problematic since day one, for no reason tightening up, all by themselves, even just resting them over night in the truck was sometimes enough for it to change (something creepy going on if you ask me). So again we stopped and I leapt out and sorted out Tony, he seemed pretty relaxed, it was an easy finish, so the pressure was off him a bit today. Wham, then another puncture, not my day today, third time out of the car, not some very good odds. No sooner did we relax, have a little bit of lunch, talk some history, solve the worlds crisies, then we hear Roger Hammond on the radio with a front shifter problem, one bike swap later and we were on the road again.

The bike in the back, such a shame.

Things were starting to heat up a bit at the front, we were chasing the small breakaway group off the front of the peloton, there was about 5km to go, things were looking good for the team and Tony was looking safe, oh did I say it was raining and the roads were wet, well they were. We passed the 5km to go mark and then crash on the front, shit, I looked up as we sped to the scene, and I see the yellow jersey down, his bike on the ground with the seat broken off, shit. Out of the car for the fifth time, his spare bike straight of the roof, and I ran to find Tony, he was bleeding pretty bad. I had a quick look and there was blood everywhere on his hand and arm, the rest of the body looked a bit open and a bit of road rash, but nothing too serious. He took off slowly, looking a bit at his hand as he left, I then ran back to the car to pick up the bike and get underway. But the car decided to meet me half way, but there was Tony’s bike between us on the ground, the car accelerated towards me, and then I heard that loud crunching, scraping, splintering, snapping sound you never want to hear. Yep the bike was under the car, and it was looking a bit worse for wear. I got Tristan to reverse back a bit so I could get what was left of the bike out, I had to stand on the bits poking out, to stop the bike scraping even more down the road. It was not a good sound, almost like when someone scrapes their fingernails down a blackboard, but worse cause you know just how much the bike costs. After a bit I got the bike out, and the front wheel, which was not wanting to leave the underneath of the car in a hurry. It was one of those times you could use the line ‘this would make a nice wind chime’. I picked up what I could and put it in the back of the car, folding it in about three places. And then jumped back into the car, the car was silent, there was no need to say anything, a moments silence for the dead bike, then we went to have a look at Tony’s injuries.

The view from the back of the convoy, car #19, last car for the day.

He had to stop, the blood was pissing out of his hand pretty bad so we had to have a look. Well it was not so bad, a few holes in his knuckles where he slid down the road on his hand, and a couple of scrapes on the forearm, pretty lucky. We did a bush repair, as the race doctor was busy at the crash site, and our one was in the second car, stuck way back in the race. Tony managed to get to the finish line, but of course lost the yellow jersey. We had now started to laugh a bit in the car, even Tristan was starting to warm up a bit by now. But it was one of those days you never really have, shame was that the big boss Bob was there to share it with us. Hey got to have the lows sometimes, so you can enjoy the highs more. The next day Tony started, but we now had nothing to race for, our best GC rider was in about 67th place, and the car was relegated to last place in the convoy, so we saw nothing anyway. Naughty boy Tom Boonan won the sprint, he had to do something to try and salvage his month. But with the last stage, we did make a bit of a comeback with Mark Cavendish taking out the sprint for the win. So we said goodbye to Bob (he then went to see the boys in the Tour de Swiss, and they lost the yellow jersey with Bob in the car as well, so we didn’t feel too bad after all). A nice short drive back to base, and a few days off, nice.

And of course there are a few more photos here and over here.

More Time Wasters.

I have been cleaning up a bit of old video, so here are a couple or four bits for ya. My small camera has been out of action for a while, so I have been suffering with the loss of it. I am trying to save the money for a nice new HD quality Sony camera just been released. So in the meantime, have a look at some this older stuff, it can only get better from here.


No it's not a jet engine warming up, but George Hincapie warming up before the TT in Terrino-Adriatica back in March. He did pretty well from memory.


One of the many stops while servicing the Flanders race this year. Here was stop 3 of about 10 for the day. There was a bunch away, here is the chasing group. See if you can spot any of the team.


Another stop on the Flanders tour here a small group is away. With George Hincapie and roger Hammond from us, things were looking good. But there was still about 60km to go.

Columbia here we come.

With the change of name there are quite a few changes to everything in the team, but unfortunately you will have to wait for a week or so for the official release. In the mean time a couple of adverts I had heard of from Columbia that I found on Youtube.
For those of lucky enough to have seen them for the last few years, I only managed to find two of them. Enjoy, and it might take you mind off the fact that I am slacking a bit on the old writing.

Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira

With the Giro out of the way, I have a couple of the more relaxing races to keep me busy over the next few weeks. So the few days at home base, were spent with a bit of sleeping and trying to do a bit of riding. And the sleep was good as well, long and very quiet, the riding was no so forthcoming. But the few days were not barely long enough, and soon I was back into preparing for some racing with the girls. I had a bike or two to build, the truck to pack with whatever wheels and equipment I could find for my races. We had half the girls away in Montreal for the World cup, which Judith won easily and retained her Leader Jersey (she even had a special bike and helmet to match the jersey, sure you can find a pic). And they were staying for the Philly race as well, so there was quite a bit of stuff missing. But the cool thing working for such a big team is the fact there is always some more wheels etc, kicking around from the men’s team. So build a couple of bikes, packed, then hit the road for sunny Spain.

A quick 1000km drive to Bordeaux in the south of France, and driving the final 450km the day after. heading into the Basque region of Bilbao for the Tour of Bira with the girls. But by the looks of things on the road, we might have trouble getting into Spain. The highway was starting to look crazy about 100km from the border, trucks everywhere you could think of. Spilling out of gas stations, spilling out of every rest stop, and the closer I got to the border, they just then took over one whole lane of the highway. I was starting to get worried, it looked they were there for a while, small groups of truckies camped out on the right lane of the highway like gypsies, they looked like they were going to be there for a while as well. The closer I got to the border, the more worried about getting through, was there a problem with the road, some sort of police problem, who knows. 50km form the border, things were really getting blocked, I was now worried I would get stuck on the side of the road with the truck for a few days with the rest of them. But my truck was a small one, you could probably drive it inside most of them that were stopped. I f the road was washed out or something, I am sure I could find a way though, the race most go on.

Luise out on the TT course.

Close to the border there seemed to be a whole lot more police kicking around, the traffic seemed to be moving but very slowly. Truckies were waving at me to stop driving. There was some hope anyway, and a delay of a day was fine, as I had one up my sleeve to spare. Getting right close to the border, things were looking grim, as if the world had run out of diesel or something. The Highway was down to one lane, and was crawling slowly, police were everywhere, but they just seemed to be standing around as every car was stopped by a bunch of men. There was a whole load of truckies waving me down, telling me not to go ahead, but I kept going. Right on the border I was stopped, there were a few onlookers giving me the dirty stare as my man started talking. First in German, cause of the plates, then I asked for the English translation, first he asked what I was carrying, Bikes I answered, race bikes. We got a race in a day and the Girls need the bikes, I explained, with the most innocent look on my face. He then explained they were striking, stopping any trucks crossing the border, as long as I was not carrying any goods I was free to go. He gave me a paper with the full story. Today was the first day, and it was already looking serious, can’t imagine what it’s going to look like in a few days. The roads in Spain looked just as bad, with trucks stopped, waiting to get into France for another 100km south, I was smiling to myself. It was a relief to get through, but I pity those poor bastards who don’t want to strike, and have a load of stuff they have to deliver to survive.

Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira, was a five stage, four day stage race for the Women, and I was looking forward to a few days in the sunshine, and some racing of course. Bira is a nice little race, small stages, some nice scenery, and a few climbs, and a little TT with a double stage thrown in, just to make it feel like work. We had a crack team for the week, Luise, Linda, Anke, Alex, Emilia and Madeleine, ready for some action for the week. The first stage was only 77km, a bit of a change from some of the stages of over 200km in the Giro, but it was nice not to be in the car that long anyway. And probably nowhere near as much stress during the race as well, nice. There were a few good teams here for the race, with plenty of good competition to keep the girls hot on their pedals. And the first stage started pretty fast, with such a short race, it was almost a sprint after the first half an hour warm up. Marianne Vos was pretty hungry in last years race, with a couple of stage wins, but she couldn’t beat Susanne last year, so was motivated to win it this year. And she didn’t disappoint either, and was attacking like hell the whole race. With about 20km to go, she left the bunch with Luise in tow, and they managed to stay away till the finish, Luise just losing contact on the last climb. Vos was in the lead, with Luise on 18 secs behind her, with the rest of the bunch coming in about a minute behind. Not a bad start to the tour, but we have a few days to go yet.

Emilia taking it a bit hard on one of the climbs.

With Marianne Vos being the talent she is, it’s pretty daunting for most of the girls to get inspired to attack her during the race. Her DSB team were keeping good control of things on the front, and she was patrolling the peloton as well. 84km is not long enough to hurt those who have not had enough training, but the speed was on right from the start. And as usual, a small bunch was away near the end. Unfortunately they stayed away and took a bit more of Luise’s second place, the time gap was decreasing, now down to about 10 secs, with Vos increasing her lead a little to almost a minute. But with a double stage in the morning, with a TT to start with, that should change things a lot. But with the late starts, that always means late finishes, and just when you are getting real tired, they throw the double stage at ya. A 10 am start for the individual Timetrail, which should last for about three hours, a few hours wait between stages, and then another late stage to top the day off. Ohh and don’t forget the early start for the last stage the next day. Race organisers sometimes should have a thought for the staff and riders sometimes, what makes a good race sometimes is not the best for the teams, especially for the staff, having to work late into the night.

The TT was a small, but very nasty little course, twisting through the countryside. The Girls were ready, the bikes were ready and I was early and organised as usual. The sun was shining for the first time all week, in fact it was the first day that it didn’t rain for the whole trip into Spain. The girls were having a good time out on the course, with some wicked times by Alex early in race, then by Linda, a little later on, things were looking good. World TT champ Hunka came in with the best time of the day, but there were still a few more good riders to come. I had managed to set off all the girls without any problems, all the bikes were sweet, no crashes or punctures, and now only one rider to go, Luise. She was looking a bit worried, TT not being her thing, so she could loose the 2nd place this morning, but she was feeling positive. I did a quick calculation and the strongest TT riders were not looking too close, unless she really blew it, she would remain in second, but she had to give it all on the road. And everything she did, it was looking pretty slow out on the small and dead roads, but her time was good. Only one rider left, Vos herself, and she was going to give it everything. Miriam Melcher’s-Van Popple was in second place, and Hunka was sitting in 1st, but she gave it everything she had, I was half expecting to see her on the road when I was following Luise. But not, she won, took more time out of Luise, 1.38 and now Luise had kept her 2nd place in the GC, and even gained more time from Guderzo, sitting in 3rd place. Now two stages left, hope someone can give Vos a bit of a run for her money, as most of the team seemed to be sitting happy with second place, fight I say, till the very end.



Hey that's Linda poking out from the back of the group, Cantelle right, Brandli left, and Miriam at the back.

I had a little time to spare in between stages for a bit of a wander (after we dropped the truck back at the hotel), the town had held the TT for the last few years, so I knew my way around. I took a bike and the camera to see what I could find, and it’s pretty small, so to find anything new was a surprise. But I found a nice old church, with some pretty impressive doors, one with a nice skull and a bit of a warning over the top of it, but it made for a good pic all the same. The afternoon stage was pretty hard, with some of the best climbs of the race. The bunch split up pretty quick, but they all managed to get back together again. I watched as one of the teams changed a wheel on Elodie Touffet’s bike, struggling to get the wheel in, the mechanic was really panicking, then they tried to tow her up to the bunch by using the ol ‘brakes are stuck on’ trick, so I had to reach out and look a them (while the car is accelerating). She almost crashed as they sped up, and to top it off, when she left the car, she was moving a bit too fast for the corner coming up. And off she went, tipped on her front wheel as she applied full brakes, she disappeared of the road, and the bushes just closed behind her. I was too stunned to grab my camera (would have been a great shot), as I watched in disbelief, luckily her team car was behind her, as I am sure no one else saw her disappear but me. Luise finished in the front bunch, in last place, and the GC stayed the same.

the chasing bunch on the last day, Linda and can you spot Luise?


The last stage was the longest, with a couple of nice nasty little climbs in. the action was on right from the start. The first attacks came on real early. By the time we hit the second climb with about 30km to go, there was a small group of about 12 girls up the road, and it was all the big hitters in the race. They stayed away for a while, and then the action came on again, with many more attacks coming out of the small group. We had Two of the team in there, with Linda and Luise fighting hard to hang on. Then it split, with four attacking near the top of the hill. Vos was there, so the race was done. Luise and Linda chased like hell in a small group with Brandli and Cantele from Bigla. But it was not enough, they stayed away, Guderzo was in there as well, so we were fighting for 2nd place now. We didn’t catch them, Vos wins the race, Guderzo in 2nd, and Luise in 3rd by 8 secs, close, but a good result in the end for the team. A quick pack, and a change of vehicle, a drive of 1680 km to my next race starting in Holland in two days with the boys. I just hope the border is open, as most of the shops in Spain were getting a bit empty of fresh food, please let it be open.

Here are a few pics of the trip.

A New Sponsor

Here is the latest news, hot off the press for ya. A change of name, a change of jersey, and a change of bike colour probably. And thats about all I know at this stage. Read for yourself and then you know as much as I do.

Columbia Sportswear Company and High Road Sports Announce New “Team Columbia” to Debut at 2008 Tour de France

Team High Road Will Ride in the 2008 Tour de France as “Team Columbia” Under New Sponsorship Agreement Supporting Columbia Sportswear Company’s Outdoor Brand Leadership

GENEVA, Switzerland and SAN LUIS OBISPO, California – June 16, 2008 – Columbia Sportswear Company (Nasdaq: COLM), a global leader in the active outdoor apparel and footwear industries, and California-based High Road Sports, Inc., the owner of Team High Road, today announced a new team sponsorship agreement that prominently places the Columbia brand at the starting line of the 2008 Tour de France on July 5.

Team High Road, one of professional cycling’s most successful young teams with star riders such as George Hincapie, Kim Kirchen and Mark Cavendish, will compete as “Team Columbia” for the remainder of the 2008 season and will unveil its new uniforms in Brest, France on July 3, two days before the start of Europe’s largest sporting event, the 95th Tour de France. In Europe and around the world, the Tour de France international cycling event is considered comparable to the United States’ Super Bowl in terms of popularity among fans and media exposure.

“Columbia Sportswear Company’s sponsorship of Team Columbia provides an ideal opportunity to elevate the positioning of Columbia in multiple European markets by communicating our authentic, outdoor, active, American brand to our target demographic,” said Tim Boyle, president and chief executive officer of Columbia Sportswear Company. “By sponsoring one of the top men’s and women’s cycling teams in the world, we leverage the international popularity and broad media reach of the cycling sport among enthusiast and recreational audiences, promote Columbia’s outdoor brand leadership in Europe and the U.S., and support our seasonal product initiatives, such as Omni-Shade™ apparel and accessories for sun protection.”

The three-year sponsorship agreement runs through 2010 and includes both the men’s and women’s professional cycling teams, which are top ranked worldwide and have won over 70 races combined in 2008 – the most wins of any competing team. In addition, at least 15 riders from Team Columbia are expected to represent their countries in the upcoming Olympics.

“This is a partnership with great potential,” says High Road Owner Bob Stapleton. “Columbia is a market leader with innovative products, progressive management, and ambitious marketing objectives. We welcome Columbia Sportswear as a key partner for the next several years,” Stapleton added.

About Columbia Sportswear Company:
Founded in 1938 in Portland, Oregon, Columbia Sportswear Company is a global leader in the design, sourcing, marketing and distribution of active outdoor apparel and footwear. As one of the largest outerwear manufacturers in the world and a leading seller of skiwear in the United States, the company has developed an international reputation for quality, performance, functionality and value. The company manages a portfolio of outdoor brands including Columbia Sportswear, Montrail, Mountain Hardwear, Pacific Trail, and Sorel. To learn more about Columbia, please visit the company's website.

About High Road Sports:
High Road Sports, Inc., based in San Luis Obispo, California, operates the only USA owned and registered ProTour Elite-level professional men’s cycling team and the world’s number one ranked women’s cycling team. High Road’s athletes include 42 men and women from 17 different nations making it the most international team in the sport. High Road was founded on the principles of clean and fair sport, and is the winningest team in pro cycling during the 2008 season. High Road focuses on developing young talent in the sport under excellent veteran leadership and an experienced management team deeply committed to the sport of professional cycling. To learn more about Team Columbia please visit the team’s web site.

Finally it's over

The Giro is over, exactly one month after we hit the road to the start. But for me it was even longer, as I had been racing with the Women’s team for three weeks before meeting up with the Men. So the last few days I have been catching up on a bit of sleep, a lot of sleep really. It’s always nice when you have no reason to get up in the morning, except for the days ride, or breakfast. I have already built a couple of bikes for the Girls, as I hit the road to Spain on Monday for a weeks racing. In the meantime I will have time for a couple for a couple of stories. I have already updated the last couple of stages in the photo album. So go and have a look, they are pretty amazing.


The long climb up the side of the Gavia, now around the corner will start the snow, sweet.

Stage 20 - Saturday, May 31: Rovetta - Tirano, 232km
A very nasty stage, with a couple of very big climbs for the day. A very wet and cold Passo di Gavia, with temperatures in the low 6'c, and very wet rain to top it off. Then just when they thought they were over the worst, the just as bad, if not steeper, Passo di Mortirolo. A Pantani favourite, with some heart stopping corners, and some hell descents. All the boys made it over, bar one, but that's another story.

The GPM on top of the Gavia, looks nice doesn't it?

And last but not least, the final stage, individual Timetrail in Milan. Just when we thought that three stage won was enough. We almost succeeded with a full podium for the day. Marco Pinotti, the current Italian TT champ took an amazing stage win. But he knocked off Tony Martin for first, giving us a 1-2 victory for the day. Most impressive was Bradley Wiggins in 4th, only 13 seconds away from 3rd place. That would have been a blast for the team, if it wasn’t enough already.

The beautiful old grandstand at the starting ramp of the Timetrail.

4 stage wins in a Grand Tour, that’s a record for the team as far as anyone can remember, and pretty impressive from the young gang that was riding this Giro. The riders were happy, all the staff were happy, the management was very happy. The mechanics of course, were very happy, cause it meant we could finally go home, and have a day or so off. Nah of course we were just happy to be part, if not the most important part of the whole show.

It's Tony Martin, on his way to second place in the TT