CyclingNews.com featured Michael “Meatball” Friedman and his Het Volk ride, complete with very special bike plate. Cozza turned a few heads at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne with his moustache and breakaway attempts.

On this second day of the first weekend of hard Belgian classics racing, Slipstream/Chipotle kept the blue and orange flying at the front.

Said DS Johnny Weltz: “Steven Cozza was up there in the right split from the start. But when the group split again, he got caught in second group. Martijn Maaskant came from behind and joined Cozza. Try as they might - and they did - they never got back to the front group again.”

“In all, we had an excellent classics debut. The riders were not just out there hanging on for dear life, but played key roles in forming the races.”

Slipstream’s Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne results
1. Steven De Jongh (QST) 4.27:03 +

24. Steven Cozza 4:49
28. Martijn Maaskant 4:57
55. Michael Friedman 7:38
58. Jason Donald 7:38
76. Christophe Laurent 7:38
77. Tyler Farrar 7:38
113. Huub Duyn 7:38

Today Mike “Meatball” Friedman got to show the burly Belgians how a Pittsburgh boy takes the cobbles. In his Flandrien debut, Meatball pounded the pavé of the Belgian season opener Het Volk for 190 km, hanging with the break and finishing 12th in the final hill sprint.

Said Director Sportif Johnny Weltz: “Meatball took over Belgium today! He was in the break from kilometer 9 to the end. His hard training in Girona with Maggy paid off.”

Magnus “Maggy” Backstedt sent congrats to his Girona training partner: “It was so nice to get back from training today and see my loyal training partner in the break. In Girona he was a great help to me, always staying with me on the training rides.”

“Today he confirmed that he has the engine and class to be one of the sport’s best classics riders,” said a proud Backstedt.

Will Frischkorn dropped out of the race early and Martijn Maaskant got tangled up in a crash and also didn’t finish. Though Tyler Farrar also was involved in a crash, he still managed to finish the day.

Look for the Argyle Armada to hit it hard again tomorrow at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.

Slipstream’s Het Volk results
1. Philippe Gilbert (FDJ) 4.55:25 +

12. Michael Friedman 1:58
30. Huub Duyn 4:49
32. Christophe Laurent 4:49
56. Jason Donald 6:32
93. Steven Cozza 6:54
127. Tyler Farrar 18:19

The relatively uneventful and sunny stage 5 of the 2008 Volta a Valencia resulted in no significant changes to the overall results. Slipstream/Chipotle worked as a team to protect Trent Lowe’s position overall and succeeded. Timmy Duggan maintained his second place in the overall mountains classification.

Slipstream stage 5 results
1. Alessandro Petacchi 3:12:54 +

14. Julian Dean mt.
22. Chris Sutton mt.
29. Trent Lowe mt.
56. Lucas Euser mt.
63. J. Pat McCarty mt.
73. Ryder Hesjedal mt.
81. Timmy Duggan mt.
106. Dan Martin mt.

Slipstream GC after stage 5
1. Ruben Plaza 19.54:49 +

11. Trent Lowe :35
22. Ryder Hesjedal 1:01
40. Lucas Euser 7:14
43. J. Pat McCarty 11:46
55. Dan Martin 18:36
90. Timmy Duggan 33:44
102. Chris Sutton 40:20
107. Julian Dean 41:03

“As this tour went on, I definitely started to show my age. That year on year strength makes a huge difference. That’s the first time I have ridden these sort of distances over five days without taking into consideration the speeds. But I can only get stronger. ”

“As a team, we are quite proud of the show we put on. I think we impressed a lot of people this past week. We’re all still learning, and after all, it’s a very young team. But we’re going in to the season at a very high level.”

“All that’s left now is the long drive home and for me, some much needed R and R.”

-Dan

Racing to the Sun
March 1, 2008:

I’ve once again chosen a random place to write stuff down. I’m now sitting on the Catalunya Express on my way to Barcelona for a bit of quality time with my girlfriend Nicole. I’ve been fairly Slipstream orientated for months now, so getting out of Girona for a night seemed like a good idea. There are worse places to empty ones head than Barcelona.

It’s only been five full days since California finished, and they’ve been mainly recovery orientated. To give you an idea: Monday–ZERO training, Tuesday–ZERO training, Wednesday–1hr and gym, Thursday– 2hrs, Friday 1.5hrs and gym, today– 3.5hrs with horrible intervals. My legs are shredded from the gym; you’d think the recovery time after California would be easy, but it hasn’t been. The last two days have been hard and today’s training was a case of mind over matter.

I’m starting to learn that many of the signals my body sends my brain are not to be believed. I’m at a point in my athletic career when my mind vetoes most of these signals and does what it wants. JV has spent some time educating me in this matter, and it’s starting to sink in. I’m beginning to accept that all those people who told me ‘it’s in your head’ maybe had a valid point. It doesn’t change the fact they were wankers for saying it though.

The next rendez-vous on the calendar for me is Paris-Nice and this is my principal objective for the first part of the season. Although they have halved the distance of the prologue (because of municipal elections they say, although I don’t know why that would effect a bike race), I think I have a good chance of being in the race for the GC. The team is strong and tactically astute, something that is imperative for success at Paris-Nice.

Paris-Nice, “the race to the sun,” is an unpredictable race and requires concentration and a strong desire to be in the heart of the action. There is no waiting and controlling the race to the foot of the summit finish and then just riding at the front to the finish of the last stage. There can be crosswinds on the first day, snow and road closures on another. There can be new talent going strong and predictable old talent going backwards. It’s that time of year. Sean “King” Kelly won it eight times.

The boys are racing in Het Volk as I type and last I heard Meatball was in the break six minutes up the road. Johnny Weltz was sending me race reports while I was out training in an attempt to inspire me and get me through it–which it did. I’m pleased for Meatball who has been skulling* it in Girona with Maggy for the past two weeks. In his own words, he has “never trained like that” before, so I’m glad he’s able to translate that into race form. It’s no gift getting into a break in a Northern Classic and I hope this is the beginning of a strong spring campaign for him and the rest of the boys. Rather them than me…

Well the train is approaching Barcelona now, and it’s time for me to attempt to disengage my brain from Slipstream for a few hours. Wish me luck in this crazy venture of mine…

*Skulling is a Northern England term for smashing oneself that I got off Nick Craig while living in the Peak District. One can also be a “skuller.”

Kris Withington, one of the mechanics for Het Volk, with an update on final Het Volk prep and a dry forecast for the day!

“After listening to a hurricane overnight and fearing the worst weather for the boys, we woke up this morning to a perfectly fine day. Well, except for the howling, freezing wind blowing across the Flandrian countryside!”

“We mechanics and soigneurs are just waiting to depart for the course now, all the cars freshly washed and loaded with bikes and what seems like a hundred wheels. Most of the boys have opted to use our brand new Zipp 202 wheel sets. Their low profile will help the riders counter the pumping crosswinds that will hit the bunch today.”

“We have about 7.5 bar (about 115 psi) in the Vittoria pave’ tubulars and we have added an extra coating of the Pedros chain lube that will hopefully last through 200 km of muddy Flemish roads.”

“And did I mention it’s not raining!!!”

Today’s sharply undulating circuit proved to be the ideal proving ground for Lucas Euser (pictured right). He joined the day’s break early in the race and at one point was the virtual leader on the road with more than six minutes on the peloton. However, the Euser group was caught with 10 km to go. Trent Lowe managed to finish with the front group again and moved up from 16th to 11th in the overall standings.

Slipstream stage 4 results
1. Mirco Lorenzetto 4:15:00 +

17. Trent Lowe mt.
52. Ryder Hesjedal :26
62. Timmy Duggan :38
91. J. Pat McCarty 1:24
96. Chris Sutton 1:24
100. Dan Martin 1:47
108. Julian Dean 2:07
117. Lucas Euser 2:56

Slipstream GC after stage 4
1. Ruben Plaza 16:41:55 +

11. Trent Lowe :35
22. Ryder Hesjedal 1:01
40. Lucas Euser 7:14
43. Pat McCarty 11:46
55. Dan Martin 18:36
90. Timmy Duggan 33:44
105. Chris Sutton 40:20
109. Julian Dean 41:03