Circus Clown

Hello OBRA land,



I have returned from my Italian adventure, and what an adventure it was! I

arrived in Italy on Jan. 23rd in the evening. The entire US national team

was staying a the Gemini 2 hotel in Monopili Italy. It was a vrey nice hotel

and we had it entirly to our selves.

The following weekend there were 2 local cross races we competed in. On

saturday only five of us went. The coures was right in the middle of a small

town and extremly muddy. It was unlike any mud I have ever ridin in. The

ground was very firm clay with about an inch layer on top that was like ice.

My bike got clogged up on the first lap but luckily our mechanics were

prepared and gave us bike exchanges every lap. I had an OK ride going but

began having trouble contolling my bike and ended up getting off my line a

flatting 3 times. This ended my race because I did not have any spare

wheels, but it was a good experiance to ride in the european mud. The

following day the entire team went to another local race. This race was just

as muddy and had a 400 meter flat running section through wet, concrete like

mud. The US team fared well and occupied most positions on the podium for

all catagories. I finished 9th over all anf 3rd in the U-23 catagorie behind

the now current world champion Enrico Franzoie and another american Ryan

Trebon. The racing in europe is amazing. The crownds at the local races

rival what we had at UCI races this year, and not only do you get paid to

finish, you get paid to start! This was a new concept for most of us used to

paying an entry fee. In europe they really support the racers well.



The following week was spent in preperation for the world championships. We

did a lot of high intensity, low volume training and got our gear diled in

for the conditions. Riding in Italy was excellent. We were 10km for the

Adriatic sea and there were litterly hundreds of small farm roads that

snaked all through the country side. The traffic was very aware of cyclists

and never once did we have an angry motorist yell at us, even when we rode 4

a breast on the free way. It was amazing. On wednseday we moved to a new

hotel that was 700meters form the worlds course.



The worlds course was very different form any US race I have ever done. It

was very bumpy at first untill it got warn in, at which point it had many

ruts thruogh the turns and was exceptionally slick. The mud never got very

deep, just more and more slippery the more it rained. Extremely low tire

pressure was required in order to stay upright. All of the european racers

were riding about 20 psi in their tubulers! It was so low you could almost

bottom them out riding on the pavement.



The day of the race, we got up early and went for a small ride to help get

our systems warmed up and going. Then we ate a lite breakfast and went back

to our rooms to get ready. We tried to watch the junior race on TV but it

was on taped delay so we were unable to check out the conditions. At about

12:30 we went down to the course to do a few practice laps and get warmed

up. We had a tent to warm up in and our mechanics were on hand to clean up

the mess we made of our bikes during the practice laps. The cousre was

beginning to dry out but was still a bit muddy.



At presisly 2 pm the gun went off. The start was a long gradual uphill

straight followed by a 180 degree lest turn. I was called up near the bakc

and by the first turn I was dead last! I decided to do somthing about that

so I got on the gas and started passing people. The course was very wide

open so there was alot of room for passing. I thnk the best way to describe

my race was moments of brillance sandwiched between minutes of incompetence.

It started raining with about 3 laps to go and got very slippery. I switched

to my bike with mud tires and passed a few more people before the finish but

crashed alot trying to go to fast through the turns. I am satisfied with my

result but know that next year I will have to go to europe a bit earlier to

be able to compete with the level of talent that is persent there. By the

end I was able to move up through about half of the feild and place 30th.

Adam Craig, the U-23 national champion, broke his chain at the start and had

an amazing ride to come bak form nearly 3 minutes down to finish 37th. His

lap times were only 5-10 seconds of the leader and nearly on pace with the

second place rider.



Overall, thw world championships was an amazing experiance. I feel like I

have larned alot in terms of race stratagy and technique and also am amazed

by the european racing scene. The level of competiton is so much higher!

Now I know what I need to do to compete with the best!

I would like to thank all of the people who supported me on this trip and

would be more than happy to come tell my tales to any one who is interested.

Once again, thank you all very much.



Barry Wicks



ps: cyclocrossworld.com has a lot of good coverage of the trip so check them

out if you want some more juicy details.

Thanks.



Barry Wicks

541-738-6194

barry-@hotmail.com

"I thought of that while riding my bike." Albert Einstein









_________________________________________________________________

The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*

http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail