chrisroph
01-06-2007, 04:27 PM
“G.P. de Ster” C2 at Sint Niklaas, Belgium (Jan. 2, 2007)
part 2
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 *** 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.
part 2
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 *** 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.