June 15, 2004 — Well, here we are again in St. Georges for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce. Today I felt good for the most part – made most of the splits up the climb each lap, but the course just wore on me. I just didn’t have the legs the last time up the hill and finished with Gord Fraser (Health Net) and Vassily Davidenko (Navigators). I’m still a bit under the weather but should be better as the week goes on. I know this race well now, and am ready for the hard days. Tomorrow, for example, we finish on these circuits in St. Josephs and I think it’s going to be freakin’ hard.

As far as our team, Symmetrics Cycling had Will Routley, Cam Evans and Svein Tuft finishing in the front group, with Marsh Cooper and Dylan Siebel coming off in the last few laps. It was a strange race as it was hard, then easy, hard, then easy again due to the nature of the course. Toward the hill there was a long tailwind and after it a sharp headwind. Jet Fuel’s Buck Miller did a good ride, getting away with Piotr Wadecki (ATI) but I am not sure why he helped the Polish rider in the break. Eventually Wadecki attacked and dropped him. Wadecki almost stayed away – thanks to a Polish combine – which I’ll get to shortly.

There were no real teams working, really. Colavita did for a bit, then Navigators pulled at the end – but certainly no one was deciding the race. I think everyone can see there is a fourteen man Polish team here. We call it “Polsat presented by ATI”. Everyone can see the two Polish teams are working together; truthfully Polsat should have chased down Wadecki, but alas, didn’t. When you see stuff like that, there’s a big collective “hmmmm…” in the pack. The race is a wide open – the national team doesn’t seem to be riding together, and I don’t think Dionne is riding for the team at all. Perhaps because of the Olympic selection, I guess…

On the lighter side, my old team Italpasta came prepared to race, except they seemed to have forgotten one crucial component of the race team: their mechanic. He was left behind in Quebec City, but I think someone went back for him.

Until tomorrow,

Pinner

For more about Pinfold and his antics visit http://www.symmetricscycling.com/