Jon Myers

?G.P. de Ster? C2 at Sint Niklaas, Belgium (Jan. 2, 2007)

I know there is a god. I know this because he appeared to me at the very crowded Newark International ?C? concourse food court in the form of a catholic priest from Copenhagen. I was eating my mustard chicken, mostly minding my own business, and he asked if he could take the open seat at my table. I?d asked the same of a poor girl not 10 minutes earlier, so I responded in kind and said no problem. Then, he gave me his Dunkin? Donuts gift card with a balance of $6.78 left on it! I couldn?t believe my fortune?I took it as a sign that I had, in fact, made the right decision to suffer thru another Euro ?Cross Camp.

We spoke of Freetown and Christiania in Copenhagen. I said I?d ridden a Pederson bicycle before. He was familiar with cyclocross. He explained that back home, sometimes the gov?t issues a bad weather warning to keep people off their bikes for a day, to save the hard-core riders from themselves. What a country, I proclaimed. I asked him what?s it like to be a priest in a predominantly protestant country, and he admitted that he often removes his collar when downtown. Actually, he corrected me, instructing that Denmark had many professed athiests, as defining oneself thusly saves on taxes! But hey, this is a race report, not a Marxist reading of Danish socio-economics!

Well, for me there was an earlier example of bounty from above. At yesterday?s G.P. de Ster, I actually put in a good race and earned a good result, finishing 15th. Still sick and coughing up my lymph nodes, I wasn?t sure how it?d go. The weather was tricky: while the temperature implied relative warmth, the wind and sleetl told a different tale. I?ve raced here three times before, but I never thought it could be such a mess. In Belgium, the courses are just unnecessarily harsh on equipment. Today, two awful, barely negotiable mud bogs were followed immediately by long sand slogs. Fortunately, the first and longest sand section was adjacent to the lake, so each lap I?d ride deep into the water to wash off the bike. By the time I?d made it to the lake, my bike barely worked, so bathing it was essential.

I only trusted my ?A? bike and its Rhino tires, so I was very reluctant to pit, even though doing so every lap would?ve been justified. I finally did risk a pit just before 3 to go. I had no idea where I was in the field at the time, but I felt like I was up there. I could see Powers maybe 500 meters ahead on the course, and I knew I?d passed a lot of guys. That said I knew Rondelez wasn?t far behind. Sure enough, my ?B? bike was a hindrance, and Rondelez and then Gil and finally another came up. Rondelez said, thru thick Flemish, ?C?mon Erik? as he went by, a rare bit of encouragement form a fellow racer over here and probably a kind nod to how I?ve treated him. I passed back the one dude, but I couldn?t make it to Gil and Rondelez. If I do the math, then I?d been in 13th before the bike change. I never get Rondelez, dammit.

After running away from the water and by the pit, I?d hop on to ride thru a couple of slippery, muddy-grass turns toward the next impassable mud bog. I would run that and then continue to run thru the sand box that followed. I found I could ride this section during warm-up, but it was just as fast to run and much better for the bike. We?d remount right at the head of the long, paved start-finish straight and pedal dead into a headwind. It?s just always hard followed by harder?.

The start was wild. The field was big as Elites and U-23?s rode together. Hell, 12 U.S. riders started plus some Canucks, including the champ, Greg Reain, a great racer and even better guy, by the way. Speaking of great guys, Tom Steels also showed up with his charity-driven road team. Total, just shy of 70 toed the line. I had a third row start, but I made a mistake by lining up way to the right. The chute tapered down quickly after the line, so I got pinched off by the footed barricades. I nearly had to stop to avoid disaster, so two rows of guys blew by me. Still, I was near the top-30 by the first few turns, so it could have been worse. I moved up quickly given the conditions and field.

I was not surprised to see my ?fan club? at their usual spot, the chicane just after the barriers by the beer tent. (I don?t think it?s a coincidence that their spot is so close to the beer tent) I was surprised to see that there were more of them this year than ever before, and when they unfurled the homemade banner mid-way thru the race, I?well, I was touched, for sure. All I could do was shake my head and smile and laugh. I think I chose a good day to have a good race.

Each lap, I was able to make up ground on a terrible off-camber section, riding it clean maybe 6 of 9 times. Thankfully, the course technician reworked the approach just before the start in an effort to make it less treacherous. Usually this off-camber is followed by another, but the officials actually removed it! This is rare and significant, the first time I?ve seen a course change over here due to ?too-toughness?. (This second off-camber is way tricky in dry conditions?the tail of it, by the way, can be seen on ?Transitions 2?.) Anyway, I was able to ride it?take that, Troy Wells!

Speaking of the other guys, our whole elite team (sans Trebon) rode well. Like Middlekerke, today was a good day to get a result. Nijs and Groenendal were there, but the Fidea team was absent as were many of the Palmans boys. Wicks always starts well here, and this year was no exception as he rode up to Nys? wheel on the off-camber. Barry said Nys was in no hurry, letting Lefevre and Page go-off early, and so Barry was able to keep the pace. However, once the man started to go, there was nothing to be done except watch from a front row seat: Nys didn?t look fast so much as sure-footed, just slowly, calmly, and methodically putting down the power and riding away. In so many words, Wicks said, ?It seemed like I should?ve been able to go with him, but I couldn?t. It looked it easy, but it wasn?t!?

Wicks went on to finish 11th, a sweet result, I think, and long overdue for my favorite. He was sick when I arrived at camp, and he hadn?t, in his own mind, been riding anywhere near his best. He was down and struggling with motivation. The night before the race, Powers took it upon himself to light Wicks? wick (and that sounds bad?maybe I should say ?stoke his flame?, instead) by baking him some peanut butter cookies. Yep, it was a page straight out of my playbook. We decided that it was such a serious situation that we?d ignore the whole gluten-free thing and use real wheat flour??there?s no time, man!? I said. Yep, Jeremy?s a Carmichael-style believer in the athlete?s need for a healthy central nervous system, or ?CNS?, as he always says. (Whenever I hear that, I can?t help but think of Crosby Stills and Nash, or CSN, and their first album, which I?ve been listening to a lot lately: ?Wooden Ships on the water, very free?and easy; easy, you know the way it?s supposed
to be?. Whatever works, I guess!) Barry and I were riding relatively high from our work the morning of race, too. We had to make an appearance at a Kona dealer in Sint Niklaas. We met the owner and some of his employees and spoke to the local newspaper, etc. It was fun and quite painless, and then we went to find some coffee and rice-tarts downtown. We found them.

Anyway, Powers continued his momentum from Diegem, having another sweet race, finishing 12th. His girlfriend Emily arrived the morning of the race, so he was more psyched than ever, his CNS as healthy as ever. (Our Belgian crew was excited for her company, too. Noel rushed up to give her ?les bises?, quite a sight for sure. It was also evidence of how much they all like Jeremy, a truly sweet guy.) He?s been going so good! I told him I was glad to see him finally kicking my ass with some consistency over here. At the first ?cross camp three years ago, Sint Niklaas was where he told me that his new goal for the camp was to beat me, just once. I said that I wanted him to do just that. He almost got me that day, and then he very narrowly did the next day in Holland. I don?t think he should worry about it anymore.

Wells placed top-20, too, even though he nearly thrashed himself out of the race by not quite bunny-hopping the barriers once. Bjorn Selander finished 23rd, the last guy not to get lapped. This kid?s only a first year espoir, so I think that?s incredible. At camp, he?s shown wisdom and professionalism beyond his years, all the while leaving no doubt that he?s still 18. He is something else. He was in front of me early in the race. Soon, he?ll be in front of me the whole race. Oh well, I?m used to it by now. I have Wicks in particular to thank!

After the race, I followed the course to get back to our tent. Since it was my last race at the camp, I stopped at the beer tent and accepted a hand-up from a toothy guy. Just around the corner was the club, and they were beside themselves. There, I had another beer?a Jupiler, if I remember correctly, Belgium?s version of Grain Belt or Milwaukie?s Best, which would be ?imports? to them, I explained. They didn?t get it. Anyway we took a lot of photes, including some incriminating ones with all the girls. Then, they came to the team?s set-up. They wanted me to sign their banner and some 8x12??s of me they bought from the stand, but they didn?t have a good marker. One of ?em insisted Nijs would have a marker, so they went over to Sven?s trailer and borrowed his marker! These guys are too much. Then, they organized themselves and sang their new fan club song. Powers said, ?That hurts my pride, Tonkin. It really does.? Now that?s a compliment.