Phil Zajicek of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis knows that come the 6th stage of the Tour de Georgia, he’ll be fighting an uphill battle to the top of Brasstown Bald. But the fact that he will even be there at all is a sign that he’s finally winning another uphill battle he’s been fighting to some degree his entire career, and even more intensely since last summer.

After experiencing often severe problems with his gastrointestinal (GI) tract last summer and into the first part of this season, Zajicek was finally diagnosed – ironically, on his 29th birthday on March 20th – with what team physician Michael Roshon calls a moderate case of Crohn’s Disease, a chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Calling it moderate needs to be put into context, however. Severe cases of Crohn’s sometimes require surgery to remove parts of the GI tract as treatment.

“Crohn’s is an auto-immune disease characterized by areas of inflammation throughout the GI tract,” Roshon says. At present, he notes, there is no actual cure for the disease, but the goal of treatment is to control the symptoms and achieve long-term remission.

In Zajicek’s case, his main complication was a stricture of the ileum, the section of the small intestine that connects to the colon, or large intestine. When inflamed, the ileum constricts and won’t allow food to properly pass. His condition was exacerbated by stress. And considering the amount of stress the average professional cyclist inflicts on his body during racing and training, severe flair-ups were common. “The harder I raced or trained, the worse it got,” Zajicek noted.

While his condition can be treated through a combination of medications and alterations to his diet, the symptoms he has shown in the past six months were often debilitating.

“I would get bloated and it would be very painful,” Zajicek said. “At times I couldn’t keep food down and since I wasn’t properly digesting my food, I’d get really fatigued.

“I’ve been feeling crummy for a while and just been dealing with,” he added. “But it got really severe last summer.” Which makes his overall victory at the Cascade Classic last July that much more impressive and surprising.

Zajicek also noted that his off-season training routine involved a lot of shorter, two-a-day riding sessions out of necessity. “I’d be fine for a couple hours, then just fall apart.”

He carried this condition into the team training camp in Solvang in February. “When I talked to him at camp, he was whipped then,” Roshon said. “We needed to get him set up with a full round of tests. Unfortunately, with the short time period between the end of camp and the start of the Amgen Tour of California, the tests had to wait until after that race.”

The effects of the disease on Zajicek became clear during the decisive Stage 5 time trial, a discipline in which the 29-year-old stage racer has excelled the past couple years. Originally thought to be suffering from the same stomach bug that was ravaging the peloton during the Tour, Zajicek was unable to muster the power to get through the time trial within time cut and was eliminated from the race.

It was only after returning to Boulder and going through the full round of testing that doctors were able to accurately diagnose the Crohn’s disease. Despite the fact that he will have to deal with the disease for the rest of his life, Zajicek said that once he was properly diagnosed, it was a relief. “I was just happy to know what was going on and that it was treatable,” he said.

After he got the diagnosis, he began a round of treatment immediately.

“The first week was rough,” he said. He noted that the first round of medications were particularly harsh, but more recently, he’s been switched to another medication that specifically targets the area of his GI tract that is most affected by the Crohn’s. “The treatments are just starting to take full effect,” he said.

He added that already he’s feeling significantly better than he was a month ago. “The side effects are pretty manageable. The last few weeks of training have gone well,” he said. “I’ve been putting out some pretty solid power numbers. I went out Wednesday and did six hard hours and felt good when I got off the bike.”

Team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo is particularly interested to see how his star stage racer will do in Georgia. He also understands personally what Zajicek is going through. Tamayo has suffered from ulcerative colitis – a sister disease to Crohn’s that affects only the colon – for 13 years now. Like Zajicek, he manages the symptoms through a very similar regimen of medications and diet.

“It’s a manageable disease,” Tamayo says. “You just have to learn how to live with it. I think Phil is in that transition period of learning how to manage it, but I think he’ll be fine.”
 
Zajicek notes that is has been helpful having a team director who, unfortunately, understands from personal experience what he’s going through. “It’s good to be able to talk to Mike about it,” he says. “He understands what I’m going through.”

The Boulder resident is also quick to thank the rest of the team, his family and friends for all their support this year. “My wife, Elizabeth, has been super supportive,” he said. “I’ve gotten great support from everyone in the organization through all this. I’m also very fortunate to ride for a team sponsored by a health insurance company. My Health Net coverage has allowed me to see doctors more frequently than before. Plus my coach, Jim Lehman, has been helpful, especially with nutrition.”

With proper diet being critical to managing the symptoms of the disease, this help has been particularly important. “There are some things I just can’t eat any more, like dairy products and raw vegetables, and no alcohol either,” Zajicek said. “I can eat just about everything else, but I have to eat smaller meals more often so I don’t overwhelm my digestive tract.”

He also noted that it’s easier for him to absorb calories in liquid form rather than solid. “I’ve been drinking a lot of Cytomax Muscle Milk® and Pre-Formance, and using the Cytomax Gels to take in more calories on rides,” he said.

While the disease is now under control, his condition is improving and his weight is steady at a healthy 138 pounds, he’s realistic about his goals for the Tour de Georgia, which starts Monday, April 21, in Tybee Island and finishes 600 miles later in Atlanta on Sunday, April 27.

“I’m feeling good about Georgia,” he said. “I want to use it to get some good racing in my legs, and as a stepping stone to building my form for the summer.”

Tamayo is also expecting similar things from Zajicek in Georgia. “We think this race will get him going for the rest of the season,” Tamayo said. “I’m still confident he can be successful this year.”

But for next week, Zajicek says, “I don’t have any aspirations of my own. My main goal is to help my teammates win stages. Beyond that, I’m just going to take it day by day and see how I feel.”

This approach is likely one that he will keep for the rest of his life as he manages the Crohn’s Disease.

Health Net Presented by Maxxis Roster for Tour de Georgia 2008: Phil Zajicek, Corey Collier, Matt Cooke, Matt Crane, Tim Johnson, Karl Menzies, Frank Pipp, Rory Sutherland.

The US Pro-Continental Team also announced its roster for the US one-day race Sea Otter.

Health Net Presented by Maxxis for the Sea Otter Classic, April 19, 2008: Kyle Gritters, Roman Kilun, John Murphy, Kirk O’Bee, Rory Sutherland.