After a week of racing at the Tour of California, this young cyclist reflects on his first major outing as a professional.

By Phil Gaimon

Getting out of bed this morning was not easy, but with the race start only 50 feet from the hotel, I had to check it out. I had breakfast in the VIP tent (I snuck in-I’m no VIP), and then went back to the hotel parking lot where the team trailer was parked. Since this was the first day of the race without a transfer, the team mechanics and staff were catching up and making preparations for the trip home.

I wasn’t about to let the overworked mechanic sweat while I sat on my butt in the hotel room, so I helped wash the cars and the RV, and then packed my training bike into a box for the flight tomorrow.

There was plenty of time for a nap, though, and then more reflection on the race as I watched the last stage unfold on the internet. It was such a blur of rain, cold, wind and suffering, I realized I left out a few blog-worthy observations about international racing. Here they are:

-Saving energy in windy conditions is a crucial skill and a personal weakness. The Europeans have a lot of experience riding through crappy conditions, and know how to save energy. One thing I’ve been working on-and which I tell my coaching clients-is avoiding braking whenever possible. Braking through turns or in the pack takes away momentum that you earned, and forces you to reaccelerate, costing a ton of energy over the course of the race. At the proper time, if you open gaps to the rider in front of you, you’ll do less braking, and less pedaling. The Euros are experts at this. Riding in the pack, Tom Boonen was so confident that he wouldn’t need to brake, that he rode with his hands on the top of the bars for minutes at a time. The energy he saved that way was probably worth a couple bikes lengths in the sprint.

-Those sprinters can still climb. The American racing calendar is full of criteriums, so sprinters here focus on those short distances, and are often unable to make it over climb with the rest of us. ProTour riders, however, don’t make their money in 100k races, so they learn to get over the climbs. On several KOMs last week, I dragged myself over the top select lead groups, but Oscar Friere was still there, and it didn’t take long for Cavendish and Boonen to make it back in.

-They’re no better at bike-riding than we are. Everyone in the race was quite comfortable with descents, corners, bumping, etc., but there were still plenty of stupid crashes. Cornering at 30 to 35 mph, you do need to take risks. In these situations, I always remind myself that I have medical insurance, and you don’t usually lose more than skin crashing at that speed. When you get closer to 50 mph, though, insurance might not help that much if you crash. I will forever have an image burned in my head from yesterday: Francisco Mancebo, one of the best bike riders in the world, being peeled off the pavement and strapped into a stretcher on a descent.

Only 84 out of 130-something finished the whole race: quite a turnover. I have a sore throat, a headache and very achy legs. I feel 10 years older, and maybe two years wiser, but I can’t wait for the next race.

I’ll be skipping out early on the afterparty, since my flight leaves at 6 AM, and an all-nighter at this point would push my sniffles over the edge, but I expect good stories from my teammates. Until next time…