Dave Jordan went to Belgium to take a shot at the big time back before it was fashionable, this week we delve further into his experience.

schmalz

What year did you go to Belgium, and what made you pick Belgium? It wasn’t really a popular destination back then for cyclists from America, was it?

DJ

1989: Spring, made my way over from London. I thought it would be cool to live in Brussels as I had visited with a student group during the fall. I was a cat. 3 in the sense I could place top 3 in the cat. 4 Bear Mountain Race and win several local crits NYC.

I didn’t really train as the weather was bad, but I did get to go out with a club sponsored by LADA cars, they had it all. The kit, the follow vehicle, hot tea whenever they wanted during the ride, and just beacoup de kilometrage!

We started out one ride in the smallest gears just to warm up – I thought, but then very methodically progressed through each gear for at least 15 minutes until finally reaching the big ring and then the even bigger gears. I was dropped after 80 or so Ks but they did a further 120! I broke an axle back in the freewheel days, and hitched a ride back home, not a problem at all. I thought that was pretty cool. Belgium likes bikes!

I raced when the calendar was UCI International Amateur and Professional. The Pros did their thing and the amateurs did theirs. One race I met Marion De Clerc as well as the entire East German TTT! Olaf Ludwig, Mario Kummer, Uwe Raab and Uwe Ampler, giants of the sport then and now, no matter what you read in the media lately. They proceeded to destroy the field save one Dutch rider-and finish 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th-all on steel blue Colnagos and matching Adidas kit. Very impressive!

I raced a few more races, 12-15 that spring, didn’t finish one of them but got to the finishing circuits just once-ouch!

There were one or two Americans here and there, a few more Brits and Aussies in Ghent, but I was so involved in studies that I really didn’t pay much attention to what I was doing-racing-just having some “college year in Europe” fun.

I was “studying” on a fellowship through the City College of New York (CCNY) and Friends World College, located in Huntington, Long Island. The first part was in London for the fall of 1988, and then I got to choose a “field study” project. I was a Political Science major, so I wanted to do a paper on the EU which at the time was still a distant fantasy compared to what it is today.

I ended up living in converted dorm like monastery for the Institute for Cultural Affairs (ICA Institute des Affaires Culturelles) in Brussels. We worked on “appropriate technology” for local communities all over the world, doing research, writing policy papers to government bodies, etc… the NGO en Bruxelles I would call it generically.

But that got me close enough to see real professional cycling. My first race was in March, the Fayt-le-Franc semi classic on the France-Belgium border. It was raining to start, I used my first reusable vinyl numbers, I didn’t have my own pins (you need to be bringing your own pins, son!) and the race started in front of a church with cobbles. Slow rollout for this 100 miles, right? NOT! 53×12, amazingly, was the “gear restriction”. Immediate gaps and I’m going backwards on any incline, rolling farm road valleys, up and down and across windswept ridgelines.

I found myself in an Eddie B. illustrated echelon, eventually moving myself into the 3rd wave and could see the 1st and 2nd waves in the few 100 meters of straight road once in a while but nobody but myself really wanted to get up there. But a PBnJ, some ham sandwiches and two bottles later I was finding a seat on the back of the sag wagon bus, worthy of Greyhound, and pissed that the sad souls already on board were not at all concerned about not finishing this race. RUDE AWAKENING!

Hendrik Redant ended up winning that day, but it might as well have been Eddy himself. The bus couldn’t even follow the course at times as the roads got too steep and narrow. Finally go to the finish and my ride, a club from Brussels sponsored by LADA (the world’s finest pre-owned crap), waited but weren’t at all happy about it. That was my intro to Racing Belgium 101.

When I got back, that is when I wanted to see what cat. level I could get to and maybe go back just for the racing. That ended up being France 1991.

schmalz

So, give it to us straight. When you were overseas, did you see any shenanigans? Pay offs? Bribes? Drugs? Anyone wearing white after Labor Day?

DJ

I never saw any drug use at all in Belgium when I was there in 1989, but I was also a bit removed and far back in the paceline to notice anything anyway.

Now in France in 1991, I was there for 10 weeks when a NYC team-mate (Simon Ginsberg) got sick over there and offered up his spot. I jumped at the chance to race in France instead of racing for TOGA with so many egos and psychotics-but I mean that in the nicest way possible.

In the Champagne (SHAM-pag-neh) region, there were plenty of Eastern bloc Peace Race hard asses, and retired French Crackhead pros to control all the racing and drug use mafia style (distribution, prices, quality, etc.), you were either in or out. I took the long road, no short cuts, and got down to 165 lbs, but was still considered 10 lbs. over weight! I never got the road map vascularity that so many of those guys had, plus with 2-3 of them on every team, they decided the going rate for a race results, usually your prize money plus 100% extra for good measure-not a great way to spend my summer. Chan McRae did shed some ray of hope when he took them on during one of his races and lost, and got into a real good fist fight. But he inspired me to keep fighting the good fight; and if you know me long enough, I like fighting the good fight!

I raced for health and fun after that, no more pro delusions, and there were a fair share of those stateside both east/west coast and Rocky Mountain. I continue to search for my balance and harmony with the sport 15 years after France.

First questions

Dave Jordan is a NYC cycling mainstay. He started racing BMX in 1979, and continued through until 1985. He spent time building tracks and jumps everyday with friends, and once rode from Riverdale to the Meadowlands for kicks and jumps along the way, and even did a ride to Jones Beach from Kew Gardens once. He will tell you this is the product of a messed up childhood.

But he did make his final events in more than one National racing against guys like Mike King, John Tomac, Billy Griggs and others that went onto greater glory.

Now he combines some of those skills and thrills on the road and cyclocross!

Dave works at Altheus as a coach. I will now pester him with questions.

schmalz What BMX skillz did you have? Could you do a table top?

DJ Yes, I could tabletop! 360, full crossup, and bunny hop a picnic table at full speed…all with platform pedals of course. Halfpipe or Vert as it is called now was being pioneered by none other than Bob HARO and David “Tinker” Juarez…

I could barely get out of the bowl lip at the top, now that would be a joke—they are doing nasty gnar gnar Dave Mirra/Matt Hoffman sick shit.

schmalz I know that track is probably the best place to develop sprinting skillz, but wouldn’t it be fun to do some BMX racing to get a sprint workout in also? Maybe build up the Kissena infield into a BMX track and combine the crowds, and have the kids graduate into track or do some track races, some BMX, and they could develop into little McEwens. That seems feasible, right?

DJ Insurance and facility management aside, sure, BMX is a great segway (segue, Baldwin) into other cycling events. John Tomac, McEwen, Tom Steels, Tinekr Juarez, Jamie Staff, and many others have made that transition…why not others? Build it and they will come! Trackstars of the future! Or now with the Olympics, they can just stay in there own sport too, and others can crossover to BMX.

schmalz Do you think a BMX race would be a good sprint workout?

DJ BMX is a great workout for your entire body, upper/core/lower and teaches you timing and acceleration like no other cycling discipline. The gears are tiny compared to road and track, so the first 3-5 pedalstrokes you are nearly up to speed, and then it is all about the jumps turns and track position. That’s my approach with Jill Kintner, 4X Mtn. Cross World Champion (ED. – Jill just won another World Championship in New Zealand) she never does sprints for more than 6 seconds. Usually timed efforts for less…SNAP!

But it you want to do more you can do a full lap at any BMX track and be completely torn up, it is 30-45 seconds usually of full throttle cycling adrenaline! Mountain Cross is the real deal, combining Downhill, XC and BMX skills and bike technology. Some ride hardtails—some like Jill and her GT—go for full suspension.

 

For a real sprint workout, I can design one that will get you going fast very quickly, in as little as one workout, and then get into program design for the winter…looking longer term…spring and summer of next year?

schmalz Give me some help here, how can I get some more sprint power out of my meager 1050 watts max, um, you know, quickly?

DJ Use smaller gears when you do a sprint workout for acceleration from a standing start; Use bigger gears for max.power.velocity from a rolling start.

 

Other than that there are REVS specific training I have my riders practice…hmmmm….