Europe Trip-Week 1

0 Submitted by on Sun, 04 May 2014, 11:44
Europe Trip-Week 1
In the Beginning
Instead of heading back to Toronto like the rest of the JetFuel/ Norco Team, I decided to hop the pond and head over to Europe. Now to sit down and write a blog about when you feel on top of the world and when everything is going smoothly and well is pretty easy! With this in mind I was definitely not prepared for what was about to happen in Belgium, in fact I was not prepared at all. This trip began with my flight from Arkansas to Chicago which was a short and sweet flight of one hour. In between flights I had a three hour layover and with only 20 minutes of free internet I really had nothing to do in this time span but to look back on the past week at Joe Martin. Thinking to myself if had put in a better Time Trial could I have had a better shot at winning the white jersey or at least I could have been closer!! After my bad TT I didn’t even ever consider that a podium in the U23 GC was going to be possible. Finishing 4th left a very bitter sweet taste in my mouth about it. On the other hand I’m really glad I was able to help Ryan 2nd place on GC. This proved to myself that I could race with the big guns and work on the front of the field when needed. All-in-all I would say it was a successful week.
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My flight from Chicago to Brussels Intl. airport was long one but I got really lucky. I was probably the last one on the plane and with over half the plane empty I sat myself in the business class section. But It got even better the row I sat down in was still empty when the plane was about to take off. So I took advantage of this opportunity and stretched out and made a bed out of the seats, and the next twelve hours were full of some zzzz!!
This is where the trip was about to make a complete U-turn for the worse. When I landed in Brussels on Tuesday morning, Marico, the manger of the Pro team I was staying with, picked me up from the airport. Now when one of the first things he says to me is “Your the first American person to come stay here with us” my alarm bells should have been going off, but I was so pumped to be in Europe!! The place I was about to stay in for the next five weeks, was maybe .5 star quality on the rating scale. There was no T.V. and the internet was bad at the best of times. The address I was originally given for the house was not right and I was about an hour and half away from where I thought I was going to be. I had no idea where I was or how to get around, I felt completely  LOST!!!!. Oh and the big bonus to house was the toilet didn’t flush and no shower just a tub with a bucket. My so called bed had no pillow or blankets, was broken and the mattress was leaning to one side. My roommate, is a Columbian rider who along with the rest of the riders in the house don’t speak very much English.  Mentally my mind was going CRAZY….. I started questioning myself about this whole trip already on day one and what the Hell I was doing here. I was so exhausted from all the previous racing, jet lagged from the long flight here and on top of everything I could feel myself getting sick so that the afternoon I had a nap and pretty much cried myself to sleep. Within those moments I almost bought a ticket for the next flight back to Toronto.  After complaining to a friend I was told to “HTFU” LOL.
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I’ll get a chance to do a couple more days of exploring and easy spins then start my first Kermesse race. I’m hoping the racing is better than my training rides have been so far! Cause it’s been a lot of riding and looking at the map at the same time to make sure I’m going the right direction.
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Before coming to Belgium I talked to many former and current pros about tips on racing over here which all came in handy for my first race. After some miscommunication with the manager I ended up finding myself in my first Kermesse race sooner than expected. The course was a flat 7.7 km loop done 15 times. It sounded pretty easy until someone throws in a 300 meter section of cobblestones, CRAZY wind and the DOWN POUR of rain in the last half of the race!! Out of the 144 riders that started I over heard only about 50 riders finished. After missing the winning move of nine guys I found myself sprinting to a low thirty’s overall. For my next race on Monday, I’ve been told to be prepared for the “Pave” cause there’s lots of it (a.k.a. cobblestones galore.) What kind of war zone am I heading into next!!
Could I become king of the "Pave" or just another fallen victim of the stones!
Could I become king of the “Pave” or just another fallen victim of the stones!
On a positive note I’m thinking my legs are starting to come around now. I know soon enough I’ll be showing these euros how this Canadian kid can race!!
Ghent! But will keep that story for next week's blog.
Ghent! But will keep that story for next week’s blog.
Until Next Week!!!
Travis Samuel

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