Dan Brickells Diary ....... George I’m just popping out for a minute....

Dan one of Endeavour Cycles Ace Mechanics and member of the NSW TTT Champion Team is enjoying a trip overseas to see how well his bike holds together over the cobbles in Belgium

May 29th 2004
Made it! off one plane straight onto another, no time to check the place out except the seat infront of me. thanks to some handy contacts skipped the check in line and had seats upgraded to some handy leg room style! thanks
guys you rock!! Travelling all went smooth, was picked up at train station in Ghent (Belgium)  by a pom and an auzzie and went straight to team managers house. I was introduced then given team kit just like that(yeah more clothes)! taken to accomodation which was a short drive away, glad i didn't have to find my own way there, no chance!
Now the "farm" as it is refered to well lets just say i'm here for the racing.... sharing the "attic" with Phil Neves.... go team Sutho!!!
I’ve been for a few rides, nearly die every time i turn a corner and end up on the wrong side of the road! lets just say cobbles are fun! makes me appreciate the National Park a fair bit more. Houses and buildings are amazing, the
history. This day light till 10.30 pm is messing with my head and the chooks in the yard at sunrise which is 4.30 am. CRAZY!

My first race is on sunday, an interclub 180k see how we go. with two h'caps in the legs of no more than 120k combined i'm a bit concerned.

I will give some more updates on how it goes, later.

WEEK ONE (1ST JUNE 2004)
My first o.s. trip, the plane trip was good, made easier by some mates with check in and an upgrade of seats.
A straight through trip even onto the train so that kept travel time down to 26hrs!
The first few days we had great weather, early 20's and about 18hrs of daylight! By day 5 things had changed and of course this coincided with my first race..... a 180k interclub against some pretty organised teams with big budgets, lots of cobbles, rain and 216 riders. Guess who crashes in their first race in belgium!!!! along with the other half of the field at 50kph. with about only 70 riders finishing that was some consolation for me. never mind.... oh yeah broke my bars too!! then had
to ride home in the rain.
I woke up the next day feeling not too bad considering the previous day, off to a local village for a crit with worse corners than Hefron!! a better day dan picks up 14th . in the money!! this is how it works 8 Euro to enter 5 Euro back on return of number then 15 Euro cash prize. they paid to 20th.
One on the board for Sutho! I’m feeling a bit better now.
Some other results for sutho from Phil Neves racing a different race on the same day as the interclub he picked up 15th and some cash in another village crit. GO PTP!!!
I’m racing again on wed in a kermesse in a village not too far, see how we go.
Stay tuned for some pics too...+. check out the team kit and team cars.

Week Two (8th June)

Well week two started a little different. woke up wednesday not feeling too crash hot. I think jetlag has caught up with me. decided not to race today. go belgium tv. thursday just went for a roll around the canals, easy one. friday feeling better had a bit of a hit out did 125k found where I crashed last week. a bit different in the dry.

Saturday is race day. off to a local village to do a kermesse, 120k. for those racing sunday (another big interclub) we were only asked to do an hour unless in the break. 1 hour into it I was in the middle group (of three), team manager on the next laps told me to save it for tomorrow. great I thought, I was being stretched a bit more than I wanted to be. won't tell him that. ha. after returning to team car found out I was the fourth last to stay in (team of 15). getting better.

Sunday the interclub 1.5 cat race, turned up a bit earlier than the other teams such as rabobank and dechuts. but when they did it was a show. team trucks bikes mechanics support cars the whole lot. a bit overwhelming actually. 196 riders winding through the small villages was fun. people told me Belgium was flat... wrong! We managed to find seven bergs to climb, one 1.5k into the race, 3 climbs were small ring jobs out of the saddle, somewhere between Audley and Artillery, fun! that was the first 55k. this also had a section of cobbles we hit at 65kph for about 1.5k. the hands were feeling it then. 115k to go of flatness at 50-55kph. ever seen how long 200 riders are when single file! at 100k mark we hit the final section of the race which was six laps of 10k course. I managed 2 laps before I came undone. about 80 riders left at that stage. so happy with that one too.( I beat some pro's)

Monday felt like I had rocks in my legs 1.5hours was all I was keen for. sorry.

Tuesday went for a roll in the morning for an hour feeling a bit better. that evening if you could call it was another race 110k kermesse started at 6pm felt like the middle of the day. started the race in about 35degrees. STINKER!! first two laps I thought this was the end of me, three laps in found myself with two other riders chasing the break of five for 35k...... didn't make it. swallowed up by the ten chasing us. we had two in the lead five anyway. now we had three in our thirteen man group. by the time we reached the final lap (not soon enough) we were down to ten riders with 3 of us still there. so we would all take turns in trying to break it up... that hurt a lot! I wasn't worth a cracker for a sprint so my final last ditch effort to disrupt the bunch with 1500 to go was the end of me. but overall we scored good. places were 1,4,9,10,15(me),20,21,24,29, Phil was in there too and then some more. yeah two on the board for Dan and three for Sutho’.

More racing this week, thursday, friday, sunday, then tuesday then we get a few days off. easy rides for me for a couple of days.

Stay tuned for more up dates from the world of Belgium and big gears

Dan
xxx

WEEK THREE

I’m feeling a bit off this week, struggling with all the pollen in the air. done a few races had some luck and some I would rather forget.

I had a few days off to let the head clear and I think I am coming good now. Did a few social tourist things this week too, some big cathederal and a really cool castle dating back to 1180ad right in the middle of town.

Sunday was the first race due to a brief lay off, didn't turn out too good. I fell in heap early on, got dropped, struggled, miss timed my sprint (one lap early) and felt like crap. Still 25th and 10euro richer. The lungs and legs are still letting me down i think last week knocked me around a bit more than i thought.

Monday, feeling better thought i better make the most of it, the key is not to miss the break, so i tried to go with nearly every thing that went with a credible rider, until i was almost about to keel over. As usual the one i miss is the one that gets away. The following surges is where i lost it, a few other riders were feeling the pinch too, gaps were left and riders were dropped. This is were i did my tt training. 22nd today and 10 more euro.

Tuesday was a big kermesse with lots of money up 116k with 20euro primes every lap. I wish i had an 11 tooth on. I did a bit of work trying to get to the break with some other riders but couldn't pull it back. after 65k i ran out of legs not, used to sitting on 55kph for that far. no money today.

Wednesday recovery day. well needed. a nice roll through the country side taking all the back roads possible, much more pleasant than the Waterfall lap.

Thursday was good, feeling quite strong. decided to make the most of it and spent most of the day in 53-12 go SE for 175k. found some nice hills 'THE MUUR' 18% gradient and cobbles ( didn't do this in the big ring), i think they use this climb in the tour of Flanders, I got some photos!! also found out that we are racing over this climb on Wednesday in an interclub with UCI points up for grabs. People told me belgium was flat! there were a few others that we did too can't remember what they were called. but they were fun (i think).

OK off to go for a pedal now, give you some more updates soon.

P.S. you should see my tan lines, it's summer here!!!

Week- not too sure any more.....

well, getting stuck into things a whole lot more now! things are on the up for me now. a few more races under the belt this last couple of weeks- 8 in the last 17 days- PHEW!! I’m going to the tour prologue on saturday for some needed r&r and a whole lot of photos to!!

I’m getting some good consistant results lately, a bit proud of myself.

We (team) did a kermesse, surprise surprise, on saturday just the other side of ghent. it's great, so much racing and you don't have to drive 5 hours to get to it! 19 laps of 6.4k and a cobbled chicane section- fun! ten riders got away after four laps with one of our riders in the break so we worked on slowing the bunch down to help them stay away, which lasted 3 laps. one lap after the break returned another went this one a whole lot more successful, and no one from the team in it. so two laps later we got one rider across. this made the break now eleven strong. as there were still a few of the team still in the race we started talking and organising to get a few more across.
two laps later another rider attacks so i go with him, noticing how strong he has been during the earlier parts of the race. i thought this could work. the first lap was strong swapping turns well. second lap noticed he was not pulling as good turns, thought to myself he could be setting me up here. so after two more laps and screaming at him to come through more and do his fair share, worked out he was just suffering too much. so on one of the over passes i surged over and pulled away. ok here i am solo with five laps to go and the bunch 45 secs behind. i thought to myself TT training and knocked it up a gear and put my head down.
Five laps later dan crosses the line 12th and 1.15 up on the bunch and unfortunately didn't get across to the break. but very happy with the solo effort. all that for 17euro!

The next day another kermesse just near the border (of Holland) 12 laps of 9.2k. as we road out and my legs felt like wood thought to myself today will be fun, not!

As we started i resigned myself to just sit in for a while and try to get the legs going. as the break went on the first lap with a team member in it i thought cool no chasing. then  two more of our guys got away, nice, sit back and watch the games begin. with 12 riders down the road 3 ours we should be happy. but this is Belgium and some people don't know when to say die. as a chase group of 12 guys road off the front of the bunch and hovered 30 secs up the road. the call was made to go across, which got three riders myself another team mate(Aaron)and some other guy to the chase group. in the process sacrificing one of our own.

This then put the bunch into disarray, and they quickly shut it down. Having raced hard the day before i was feeling a bit knackered and was being stretched towards the end of the race. a quick word to my fellow team mate on the situation, advising him that it will be up to him was agreed. but to our demise the pack would not let him go, even with me persistently getting in the way and dropping wheels.

Two other riders managed to profit on our tactics and they were off down the road. with 1.5k to go Aaron attacked once again and still no luck. this time i had left a little bit too much of a gap and had to haul arse to get back on. so with the rest of the pack attaching themselves to every move that Aaron made, they would then sit up as soon as they reached him. now as i am getting back in touch with the pack just the same time every one is on the anchors i see a gap down the inside. bang off i go with my speed already up i get a quick gap with one rider on my wheel. we are away! frantically punching my way through the corners, focused on keeping this gap alive the other rider gets on my wheel. as we charge down the final straight i swing off hoping to see this rider come through- he does! thank you i scream to myself. i do one turn he did one more turn, not too sure how this guy goes i surge through on the left and i pull away and get a gap on him! with the line in reach i go for it and come off with 15th place and cheer for myself as i cross the line.

pretty good weekend i thought. now i just have to ride home. yey!

I won't go into much detail this time but another interclub on wednesday. 166k covering a lot of the route of the tour of Flanders. any one seen this on telly? heard of the 'BOSBERG' or the 'MUUR' well, been there done that! ha! pretty crazy stuff. 1.6 k long 16% gradient (same as steepest part of Bulli) oh and did i mention cobbles? as well as 180 other riders trying to fit up there all at the same time! we also had big crowds, people lined up all the way to the top- the atmosphere was awesome- for those brief moments i was a pro!

well in a few days the tour starts, i should get a couple of hours each day on the telly, and even some precious time down in the Alpes! so lets have a game of 'eye spy' and look for the sutho rider on the side of the mountain!!

any one jealous- sorry hehe.

Week ?
Sorry it's been a while,
I’ve still been doing a lot of racing, getting quite confident now on my strengths. slowly getting my head around the Belgium way. Being pretty consistent now in results- still can't crack the top ten!!! best so far is 12th but i have a good collection of 14,15,16,17's and getting money from it too! fancy that! don't see that in oz.

did a race the other day called a classement race, two races on separate days, and you receive points to an overall winner with double the prize money. placed 17 on one day but unfortunately i didn't race both, stupid!! could of picked up a good 50-60 euro! spewin!!

last race today before heading down to france to the alpes. going to ride a few of the mountains while i am there. just a guess but i think it will put jindabine to shame!! my choices are alpe d'huez, the glandon, the madaline and one not in this years tour the galibier, or i could just do them all!! well i'll try anyway. wish me luck- if you listen carefully you will be able to hear the screams while you are sleeping as i climb the mountains.

managed to get some accom for a couple of nights, in a town called manigod, 182k into thursdays stage. so spot the sutho jersy. also bonus points for the endeavour kit and even the flight centre colour somewhere too!

i feel a bit dissapointed that i didn't get a start in the tour comp this year, yet again. but hey i'll be at the tour instead showing the boys how to climb those speed bumps!

ok got to go, get ready for my race. and today we finally hit a summers day after all the rain should get to about 30 degrees, hhmmmmmm lovely, bring on summer!

see you out there, dan

hey guys made it back to belgium!

just spent a few days in france following the tour through the alpes. pretty amazing scenery, had some good rides and some long rides that didn't go very far, except up!!

day one gave alpe d'huez a go, not as bad as i thought it would be, climbed up it in the 21. was down there with a mate from holland who has not been riding much. so i rode with him for the first k then realised i would fall over if i rode any slower. so with his permission i left him behind, sorry. on my first attempt i set a steady tempo not knowing what to expect. ended up passing every rider i saw and some even tried to have a go with me. i was catching this one guy who was doing it fine, and looking at his kit and saw that it was a special TDF kit. thought to myself could i wear that? i passed him and thought nothing of it. then 15 secs later he caught back up and we had a bit of a chat. found out he was working for gerolstiener and german t.v. should of worked that one out due to the team bike he was riding and the motorbike with the camera man on the back following him! so if any body has been to germany lately you may see me on telly. he was riding the alpe and describing it for the viewers in germany. i think when i passed him i embaressed him so he had to catch up to save face. found out later that he was a pro for gerolstiener last year just recently retired! well with stopping to take a photo or two and stuck in traffic on the way up, i managed a respectable 1hr. could see a sub 55 min on the cards, but that is fresh. not after 200k!!

managed to get over a few other climbs while i was there. the laurteret, galibier, glandon, croix de la fer, madeline. lots of climbing they just kept going. got to give the pro's some credit, they do do it tough.

i've got plenty of photos to check out so what i'll try to do is set up a link and have a gallery for every one to check them out, so you can see what the spectacle is like.

on other news, raced yesterday in an international kermesse. 133k in 3hrs 8mins- ouch! now i have to race today aswell. scored a 14th place which i am really happy with considering the calibur of riders that were there. also raced yesterday, got smashed in a pro crit in holland, racing on thursday then another local kermesse on sat then an interclub on sunday in france!!

then pack up my kit and come home on tuesday. i think i will sleep the whole way home.

ok wish me luck, and see you all soon. i'll try for one more page before i go for a final farewell.