Brad Huff Cycling

nothing in the tank, legs not opened up enough, and was totally in the wrong position on every cross wind section.  Oh that really sucked.  I will say that today was the nicest weather I have experienced in all of my French racing.  Shorts and a Jersey today!  Although the the wind was insane, INSANE crosswind all over the course. 
I will say that I was not the first on of our guys dropped today, Chad was first and I was second.  Oh ya, kicked his ass!  But then the other 80ish guys that were actually in the race shut me up quick.
Maybe Sundays race will be better for me? 

So I was really pissed of at what the Rabbobank soigneur has stated about me to our soigneur……blah blah blah you big sprinter is having a tough time on the climbs…blah blah blah….oh he has trouble staying on his bike…blah blah….you get the picture.  So on stage 7, I was sick of it (considering I had just been taken out in yesterdays sprint by some Japanese guy).  So 170ish km stage, French weather….Rain and Cold and nasty roads, and Rabbobank was controlling the front for their race leader.  So I attacked once to just see what would happen, they chased me down, then I looked around and thought……you know F these guys….so I attacked again and really hit the next hill hard, looked back and 3 guys were attempting to bridge to me.  This is pretty much were everything started, I felt ok, but then quick I noticed that I was totally blown and if I was going to stay in this break it was going to hurt.  Mind you we had barely raced 40 km by this point.  More rain came, the temp dropped, and I was near frozen plus my legs were fried.  Our break broke appart on the 1.5km step hill and we all ended up doing a solo TT to the finish (60km away).  I keep on asking Jonny what the Gap was and he would say…oh you are 2 min down on the leader…..No, no Jonny not the leader, what is my Gap on the pack…..oh aaaaa 4 minutes.  Oh this is going to hurt, as I attempted to chase the other guy in front of me, the gap just keep on increasing to him and decreasing to the pack behind.  Near the end we had to do 2 laps of 3km each, on the last lap I only had a 1 min lead, by 2km only 30 seconds, by 1km I could see the packs faces as they chased me down, by the finish I was about 1 bike length infront of the group.  oh that was the most painful 130ish kim break away I have ever done.  I was fighting my bike sooo much and looking like a boxer going down in a blaze of glory the whole time.  This marks a HUGE confidience boost for me.

This week has really taken its toll on my legs, well might I say that last week’s efforts are starting to take hold of my legs.  Just today I was feeling like I could spin the pedals again.  Man the racing over here is insane.  This week I do not think that I have even attempted to get out of my 25 on my cassette…..well Cale Mac’s cassette that is.  I really look forward to the coming weekend where we are racing in two single day UCI 1.1 races!!  Who knows, may be last weeks races were just a little start of something even bigger!  that is right!
Track Worlds is just around the corner and I feel really confidient and motivated after last weeks success! 

This past 1.5 weeks of racing has just been insane.  I thought that last year was pretty tough, but that was only a little prep for what I would be experiancing this year.
So just a few days after we arrived in Europe we set out to kill ourselves nice and quick like.  9 days of racing in 10 days or 11 races in 10 days depending on how one might want to look at it.  I will write more on the experiance soon, but as of now my body is mush and so am I.  I feel very blessed to have made it through my first real European racing week!  Thank God it is over, so that we can start another one!  Track Worlds is in just over 2 weeks! 

I am currently working on the design of Brad’s site.  If you notice anything that doesn’t seem right, please leave a comment on this post.

Thanks,

 Alex

So another phone call from Brad, but I’m not going to try and sound like his words this time…
More tough stages (5 & 6) in one day, a brutal stage 7, and a total count of 3 crashes (2 in a sprint finish) with 6 body parts mangled and 2 demolished helmets for the Tour of Normandie Wonderboy! 
Stage 5 finished with Pate taking an 8th place finish and Brad crashing in the pack? “…into a French ditch!”  Apparently that means nasty and filled with mud since it has rained the last three days and Brad chased back on with one side of him caked in crud!  Stage 6 ended in the next crash as Brad was taken out by another rider while going for a stage win, WHICH of course he would of won!  Clay says: “hmmm, he’s got to learn to fix that…”  So, he now has very scabby elbows,  knees, and shoulders, and 2 smashed helmets.  And then the lovely stage 7–Brad attacks and gets off the front in a 4-man breakaway for about 130 km.  The group gets a lead of about 6 minutes when an attack splinters the 4-man group with about 60 km to go, leaving each man to his own TT until the end.  The course finished on 3 laps of a 6ish mile loop through the town of Bagnoles de l’Orne.  With 2 laps to go, Brad has a minute and a half up on the peloton.  Halfway through the last lap, he’s down to 30 seconds.  “I looked back and could see the racers faces…” FREAK OUT!  Brad finishes in fourth just as the pack catches him!  “You don’t understand how hard it was to stay in the break,” was repeated at least 3 times.  He is currently in 2nd place for the sprinter jersey, behind the race leader, Reus.
Three days in the yellow and green jerseys, two sprint finishes crashed, and STILL a great tour!  One more day, one more day…Best of luck, Bradley!  We in Springtown love you!     

Team named for Track World Championships - USA Cycling

…The men’s side includes nine riders making their Track Cycling World Championships debut, including L.A. World Cup bronze medalist Michael Blatchford (SPiKE / Cypress, Calif.) and recent Tour de Normandie stage winner Brad Huff (TIAA-CREF / Fair Grove, Mo.)….

From Mel via phone call to JV:

A nice HILLY stage today, lost Mike Creed (sick), Taylor Tolleson (big crash), and the yellow jersey, but still big things have happened.  Brad is now 10+ minutes down with no hopes of regaining the jersey, but will finish out the race and bank on the success of the last few days! 

Check out www.slipstreamsports.com for JV’s update.  www.cyclingnews.com has full results.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2006/tiaa_cref_mar06

From Brad via phone call to Melissa:

Today’s double stage was brutal!  The morning stage had a lot of attacks right off the bat.  The team covered everything nice and made sure we were in breaks.  I took second in the intermediate sprint and got a time bonus, but in the finish I pulled a Brice Jones and took second by 1 centimeter!  The afternoon race had nasty, wet conditions and Cref got on the front and controlled the race and prevented anything from getting off.  In the final kilo, things got hairy and in the final wind up for the sprint, guys in front of me seemed to stop pedaling for a moment while I continued to accelerate into them.  Tried to swerve right and overlapped wheels.  Bam!  Went down with about 200 meters to go?  Finished with the group time, though, so still in the Yellow jersey and in the Points? jersey.  

From Mel:  Not so bad, ehh?  But we know Brad…  Check out Ned on KY3 for some possible press?  Hopefully tonight! 

Check out www.slipstreamsports.com for JV updates as well as the www.cyclingnews.com coverage for stage 2/3 pics! 

Thanks to Webmaster dot.com for the previous update!